Germany Day 1 - Munich

Day 1, Dec 5


Since Yuka and I had stuck to mainland Britain, we wanted to get out and explore Europe.  After several discussions and a little research, we decided to experience first-hand the world-famous German Christmas Markets, (known in German as Christkindlmarkt or Weihnachtsmarkt). With us being such devout Christians we just couldn't pass up the change to celebrate a bit of the birth of our man JC (just kidding). After a decent amount of research from Yuka and a bit of consultation with my brother Jack (who had lived in Stuttgart and travelled Germany for a few months while in college) we locked down a solid plan of attack.


We decided to fly into Munich from East Midlands airport (very short flight) get a rental car and circumnavigate Bavaria starting and ending in Munich. The list of cities that made the cut (in order of planned visit) was Munich --> Nurnberg (Nuremberg) --> Heidelberg --> Stuttgart --> Ulm --> and finally Fussen.  Each city offered something different in terms of sights (though also a lot of the same) and each had a Christmas Market where Yuka could pursue her goal of purchasing a Gluwein mug(I'll get to that later) from each city.


Map of our planned destinations and directions:


I have to admit the trip didn't start off well.  We had an early flight out of East Midlands and I added the extra challenge (I didn't think it was that big of a deal at the time) of attempting to drop the rental car off at the Avis location at the airport.  Long story short, we had problems finding how to drop an Avis car off since they were the only company that didn't have a rental car return lot.  Rather, they had a lock box where we had to drop our keys.  It took a while and some pain to figure that out, I'll skip the details.  

At the Dollar Rental kiosk being annoyed

The flight was great (got to see England, the Channel, and France at the same time) that was pretty cool and made me think about World War II and the endless bombing raids that were send over occupied Europe.  Upon arrival at Munich Airport I experienced perhaps 3 of the bitchiest women I have ever met. Lucky me, they all worked for Dollar rental car  (BTW, don't rent from Dollar at the Munich airport, trust me).  Not only did they have no cars, they didn't seem to think that was a problem for the 10 or so people who were waiting, and had been waiting for some time.  We proceeded to wait about an hour for a car they knew we needed for almost 2 weeks.  What made it worse was they were laughing about some of the customers who were getting frustrated.  I suppressed the urge to call them undesireable names, though did proceed to tell the one who was pretending to help me that she didn't need to have an attitude (after I had gotten the keys, of course). She didn't really like that.


Once that was over, the rest of the trip was awesome.  I was a bit intimidated about driving in Germany, but those fears quickly disappeared.  To be honest, driving in Germany was like driving in a wonderland.  Living in the UK these last few months has made me appreciate that pretty much an entire society (if it has the will and is required) can actually know how to drive.  Imagine an entire country of people who understand the difference between a fast lane and slow lane, don't talk/text on cell phones while driving, oh and, don't forget my favorite, drive like Bushwackers (that's Missourians for those of you who don't know --> if you're curious, Missouri is famous for people who don't understand what cruise control is or does). I didn't encounter a single Bushwacker the entire time I was in Germany.

View of Altes Rathaus (Old City Hall bldg) from Marienplatz

Anyways, the Autobahn was really nice.  Many places there is no speed limit, but it wasn't a problem.  It seemed like most people drove around 75-80 mph in the unlimited zones. The fastest I dared was 100 mph, but that wasn't for long.  We wanted to see the sights!


We arrived at our hotel on the south side of Munich in the early afternoon on Monday, hopped on the U-bahn (underground/subway) and headed to the Marienplatz, or city center.  The subway stations we stopped at were all very well maintained and quite clean, which was nice.  The subway station was right below the Marienplatz square and the first sight we saw of Munich city center was the Altes Rathaus (seen on the left). This was a sign of things to come for the remainder of our trip since so many of the buildings here were in the Gothic style. Quite impressive. 


Immediately after arriving we headed to the Residenz. Since most things close relatively early, we only had about an hour before it closed so unfortunately I can't tell you much of the history. Construction began in 1385 and like most major German buildings, has been a work in progress ever since.  It served as the residence for many of the Bavarian kings since then.  The areas open to the public only showed a small portion of the entire facility. The complex is simply massive (130 rooms open to the public). I consider myself pretty good when it comes to directions, but I found myself getting mixed up because there were so many rooms and the layout was quite odd.  Again, like most major German buildings (especially buildings inside major cities) it was heavily damaged during WWII and isn't now representative of how detailed it was back in the day.  If you're interested, I've included a Wikipedia link for more information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Residenz

The Renaissance Antiquarium (we thought this was the
most impressive room we saw in the Residenz). 

After being ushered out with a full 30 minutes before closing (apparently the Germans are a lot like the British and like closing shop early), we headed back to the Marienplatz to experience the Christmas Market. I have to admit that at first I wasn't sure if Christmas markets would be all that exciting to me since essentially they combine two of the things I really don't like: large crowds and shopping... I decided early on to approach these as new experiences and to soak up the atmosphere and history.  I wasn't disappointed and had a really great time at all of the Christmas markets we visited.


For the most part, people were cheerful (no doubt soaking up the atmosphere), but also perhaps due to large quantities of Gluwein (spiced wine, usually red, served hot) being consumed.  According to my German coworker, one of the main attractions for Germans to the Christmas Markets is socializing with friends over a few glasses of Gluwein, hot Meade, and/or my favorite, Feuerzangenbowel {literal translation: fire tongs punch, which is essentially Gluwein with rum-soaked sugar melted into the drink} . I have to admit it was pretty tasty.    

In addition to the numerous stands selling German pastries, sausages and drinks there were many vendors selling traditional German crafts.  Some of the more common goods were  Christmas ornaments, toys, candles, and other trinkets. I felt like most things were ridiculously overpriced and as a result we did a lot of browsing and very little buying.

After seeing entire Christmas Market (~1.5 hours worth of browsing) we headed somewhere I really wanted to go, the legendary Hofbrauhaus.  The Hofbrauhaus is one of the most famous German brewery houses which is apparently also owned by the Bavarian state.  It was originally founded as the brewery to the Residenz (interesting). Another thing I like about German restaurants is that everywhere we went it was self seating so we could sit wherever we pleased. We had the fortune of sitting next to a nice couple from Stuttgart who were in Munich to see a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert.  We started talking and had a great time discussing Germany, the US, Oktoberfest, and German's affinity for beer. During our conversation the guy drank 2 liters of beer and didn't seem inebriated at all, pretty crazy.  After my 1 liter of Pilsner I was feeling pretty good. In all, I have to say that was probably one of my favorite things we did in Munich. 

Yuka drinking my Pils!

The food was great.

I bought one of the 1L glasses as a souvenir

After leaving the Hofbrauhaus we headed back to the hotel and that ended our first day in Germany.

Finally, here's a link to our full Picasa web album from Day 1 in Munich.
Munich Day 1 Picasa album