München Mix: Castles, Dachau, Surfing and the World Cup

So after a long day of walking around, sleeping in parks and drinking at the Hofbräuhaus at night, Kristi and I crashed hard at the hostel. We were hoping that we would have our 3-bed room to ourselves, but when we got back a really nice Malaysian guy was in our room. We didn’t see him much, as we either left or returned immediately after one another, but the little conversation we could have in broken English, the kid was pretty nice and a good roommate (who knows what he thought sharing a room with a married couple).

This was my first hostel experience, and it wasn’t too bad at all – except one big lie:

Lies!

Now I don’t think I’m playing the old guy card, but when you have to keep your windows open because of the lack of air conditioning, it gets quite anoying when guys playing Third Eye Blind (horribly, I might add) and leadig sing alongs on their crappy guitars and drinkning out in the street until 4 am  every night. I can sleep through just about anything, but I apparently have found my kryptonite. But, nothing that 2 liters of beer each night can’t help me get through.

Hohenschwangau Castle

So, day two in Munich started with us heading to the station to catch a train to go see some castles. We grabbed what we assumed to be some normal breakfast burritos because Kristi was craving eggs, only to find that they both were covered in ketchup. The ketchup eggs were a bust, but we were heading to see some mother f’n castles, so we couldn’t be in too bad of a mood.

Neuschwanstein, aka "Cinderella", Castle

There are two main castles to visit here, and we got the skinny that one is great to tour and the other is great to look at. We first toured Hohenschangau Castle, which was at one point torn down by Napoleon and later was home to Mad King Ludwig. It was pretty neat, incluing secret passageways for the king to sneak into the queen’s room, holes covered in crystal in the ceiling in the king’s room so somebody above could light torches and it would look like stars when he was in bed, and a lot of Waggoner stuff. A LOT. Like the king had a room built just for him, and Waggoner was the only person able to stay inside the castle.  This lead us to assume that old Ludwig and Waggoner might have had a little more going on than just a friendship.

Neuschwanstein Castle

We then headed over to the grand daddy of castles – Neuschwastein, which was what Walt Disney modeled Cinderella’s Castle after at Disney World. After hiking one mile uphill, we arrived. This was Ludwig’s dream castle, but unfortunately he only finished about 4 rooms before mysteriously dying, so while the outside is amazing, apparently the tour isn’t much. So we stayed on the outside, hiking over to get an amazing view from Mary’s Bridge.

On the way back down the trail we stopped and picked these incredible fried cheese ball/poof thingies, which America should definitely adopt. That night, we ate at the Augustiner by the Glockenspiel, and then headed to the beer garden in the market to watch end of the Uruguay v Netherlands soccer game.

Delicious

Day three in Munich kicked off in stark contrast with the castles; we made our way to Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp and the one that all other’s were modeled after. Kristi had been there before and I’m positive wasn’t extremely excited about going back to (they aren’t the most uplifting places), but I really wanted to go so she let me drag her back. It was definitey an interesting, unforgetable experience and I’m glad we went.

Interesting note, apparently all German school children are required to visit one concentration camp, and, according to Rick Steves, almost no German’s know their national anthem and their flag is rarely seen outside of soccer matches. All efforts to minimize blind patriotism.

Getting back, we looked for something to get us back into vacation mode, so we headed over the park to try to find the German surfers. Yes. They exist. There is a little river running under a bridge that causes some tides that allow you to jump on a board and ride for a little while.

Memorial at Dachau

Think the boogie board ride at Schlitterbahn or Wet N Wild. No crazy tubes, but fun if you happen to live in Munich and for some reason own a surfboard.We then headed back to Kristi’s favorite spot, the Vikualienmarkt, for some soup at Die Munchner Suppenkuche, visited another Eatzi’s-esque upscale market called Alois Dallmayr’s, and then headed over to watch the world’s largest cuckoo clock, the Glockenspiel. Very disappointing, but something I guess you have to do if you are in Munich.

Surf's Up! Sort of.

Finally, what the entire city was waiting for the whole day – the World Cup semi-final game of Germany versus Spain. All day people were running around with flags, blowing vuvellas, painting their faces and, of course, drinking beer in preparation for the match. With liter beers and giant pretzels in hand, we headed back over to the beer garden in the market and staked out a spot in front of the tv Despite Spain basically owning Germany the whole time, with the score 0-0 most of the game, it was electric watching in the small crowd of people. There was still some hope after Spain scored, but wasn’t enough to pull it out. I was hoping for a giant celebration afterwards, and was not looking forward to what would happen if they lost. However, I have to hand it to the Germans, they went over and congratulated the Spaniards in the crowd and everyone took it in stride.

Deutschland v. Espania

Currently, Kristi and I are on a train headed to Berlin. We have been extremely impressed with Germany and the people here. Everyone is overly nice and helpful, and their by-the-book attitude (they all wait at crosswalks until the light changes, even when no cars are around) makes it a clean, welcoming place. (Not to mentioned the overdose of sausage, pretzels and beer!)