With our three day trips to the ice caves, Dachau concentration camp and Innsbruck, we only had two afternoons to enjoy in Munich.
We decided on staying in Munich at the last second. That’s the great thing about the Eurail pass! Although it took us a bit to figure out, now we know you really can just hop on and off whenever and wherever you want. You can be as last minute as you want.
We really wanted to stay in Innsbruck but doing it so last minute, it was going to be far too expensive.
So we settled on Munich where we could reach all of the side trips we wanted.
We stayed very close to the main train station there which was very convenient for our planned day trips. We stayed in a budget hotel which was surprisingly cheaper than a hostel! Hostels get quite expensive last minute and we’re finding that the ones with good ratings fill up incredibly fast.
After dropping our stuff at the hotel, we went out in search of Hofbrauhaus, the famous beer garden.
On our walk, we passed through a food and beer market with a live band and tons of tables. It looked kind of like what I imagine Spring Fest in Munich to look like. Just tons of people sharing tables and laughs over beer and schnitzel.
We decided to stop and try some schnitzel, pretzels and beers with the locals. It was the perfect afternoon pick me up!
After finishing our beers, we headed to Hofbrauhaus to have one of their famous 1 liter beers.
And we got a giant soft pretzel that was absolutely amazing. God I love food. Especially doughy, salty, soft pretzels!
We meandered the streets back to our hostel to do some research for our trip to the ice caves in Austria the next day.
We didn’t spend time in Munich again until two days later after the Dachau concentration camp tour. This was one of the most emotional and powerful things either of us have ever done so we wanted something calm, comfortable and relaxing to do after.
We settled on knockoff Chipotle for lunch. It was decent but of course, it was no Chipotle. The guacamole was mint colored. It was a lesson. Good Mexican is hard to find in Europe!
We walked over to the massive park along the Isar river because we heard there’s a spot where people come to surf so we thought we’d watch. We got totally lost in the park and two hours later we were just getting back to the beginning where we entered!
It was the perfect afternoon. There are beaches along the river where people were barbecuing and sunbathing. There were dogs off leashes running around and the sun was shining.
The one thing about Munich is that neither of us know any German. We couldn’t even figure out how to say “Thank You.” Everyone seemed to say it a little different. We just restored to smiling or mumbling something that sounded close.
We found that the customer service in Munich was awful. At first I chalked it up to the language barrier. They used some phrases in incorrect ways or missing words. But then dave & deans happened. We grabbed salads and waters at this little spot at the train station. The guy behind the counter asked me if I wanted still or sparkling and I replied still. I grabbed the water out of the bag, cracked it and took a sip. Sure enough it was sparkling. I told him I had just asked for still. He told me I could buy a still for 2 Euro. I’m sorry but I’m not paying you for fucking up my order. Instead I said an ugly American comment about how I hated his country and walked away. We all have weak moments, right? It was a really bad day!
But that same day we also did laundry at a laundromat in town and met the sweetest, most kind, helpful girl working there. She was very refreshing compared to the others we had encountered.
While we didn’t get to see much of Munich, we enjoyed the time we did have there. Obviously we would have liked to see and do more but hey, an excuse to come back for Oktoberfest, right?