Our first stop was the Munich Residenz. This is the former royal palace, and the largest city palace in Germany. I had mapped out some parking lots, and we decided to park in the garage underneath the National Theater, which is RIGHT next to the Residenz.
Big mistake. It was well over €20 just for the day. Once again, Courtney made a small oops. Eh, at least I can warn y'all to do a little better job with parking plans.
Anyway, the Residenz was included on our discount card. Good thing this was the last place we visited that was included on the discount card, because SOMEBODY decided to lose the card shortly after. I won't name any names, but it rhymes with Posh Laycock (haha, "Laycock").
Also included with our ticket was one of those handheld audio devices that tells you about whatever exhibit you happen to be looking at. Normally, Josh is in charge of the camera, and I'm in charge of the handheld audio thingy. He counts on me to listen to the recordings, and just relay the most interesting tidbits of info to him. I know it sounds odd, but it works for us.
Quick note - I LOVE LOVE LOVE when tourist sites have a coat check (which the Residenz did). After walking around a city all day, it's so nice to be able to check your purse/backpack/coat so you don't have to lug it around a museum for a few hours. Even if the coat check charges, it's still well worth the money.
Now, the Residenz is an utterly massive complex. With 10 courtyards & 130 rooms, we knew we weren't going to be able to see everything. But, we gave it a shot.
Our first stop in the complex was the Treasury. This was an absolutely huge collection of all kinds of important pieces, spanning 1000 years.
There is no way we would have been able to listen to all of the information on the handheld audio things. There was just so much, it was overwhelming & it would have taken hours to listen to all of the info. And, we had so much more to see!
After the treasury, we went to the main part of the Residenz. Through the courtyard with the seashell grotto, to the Hall of Antiquities, through soooo many rooms throughout the palace, and even the Reliquary Room (which held body parts of Saints).
Seashell Grotto
Hall of Antiquities
In the Reliquary Room. Yes, that is a skull.
You could either do the “long visit” or “short visit” through the palace. That just means you pick which path you want to follow - the short visit just cuts off a few wings from your trip. We chose the long visit, and I doubt it was *that* much longer than the short visit. But, it did take us a few hours. Towards the end, we ended up rushing through a little bit. We were all hungry, and a little palace’d out by that point. Even so - do the long visit, if you can. You’re there, you might as well make the most of it. Although, there were a few spots we didn’t get to visit that I really wanted to (the Theater and the Court Garden in particular). Also, a few of the Palace wings were heavily damaged during World War II, so some of the rooms were just reconstructions. The furniture was real (well, real from that time period), just not necessarily accurate to the reconstructed rooms.
Since we were all palace’d out, we walked down to Marienplatz. The Marienplatz is the main square in Munich. It’s always pretty crowded, but it’s fun to people watch. Most of the time you’re trying to dodge other people’s cameras, though. I always wonder - how many photos do I end up in when I’m at a touristy place like that? I’ve started to do a little bit of photobombing here and there. If I KNOW I’m going to be in the background of a stranger’s photo, I can’t help myself. I have to make a funny face. Mature, right?
Anyway, Marienplatz is filled with tourists, and also with a few buskers. I love watching local bands/artists play on the streets for the crowds.
But, we were still all so hungry! And, where do you go when you’re hungry & in the center of Munich? The Hofbräuhaus!!!
Ok, really, I don’t know how good the food is. But, I don’t care. Because - beer!! Really, the Hofbräuhaus is just one of those places you *have* to go check out. It’s not the best beer, it’s not the most spectacular biergarten. But, it’s an institution, and not to be missed. It’s full of both locals (dressed to the nines in lederhosen & dirndls) and tourists. There are eleventy million waiters & waitresses running around like chickens with their heads cut off. The laughter is booming, and echos through the building, as does the polka music coming from one of the live bands that play off & on throughout the day. Despite being touristy & really kind of cheesy, it’s a lot of fun. We went last year, and I’m sure we’ll go next time we’re in Munich.
You just have to wander around until you find open seats. At first, we ended up in a back corner. We all ordered beer, and a few snacks to eat. NOT a whole lot of choices for vegetarians. I think even the sauerkraut had bacon in it. Learned that one the hard way. But, doesn't matter - they had beer & pretzels, so I was good. :)
After round one, we decided to move closer to the band (and closer to the action). Poor Curtis just wanted everyone to start singing songs, so we could all join in. That never quite happened, but it didn’t stop him from trying. ;)
And, we were all very proud of Karen - she doesn’t like beer, but she managed to finish a whole liter (while the rest of us had two).
Once we were full of beer, we walked on towards the Viktualienmarkt. This place was awesome, and I’m sorry we didn’t explore the area the last time Josh and I were in Munich. Now, the Viktualienmarkt is a huge open-air market, filled with biergartens, vendors, food stands, etc. But, before we all went exploring, Josh, Karen, & Curtis decided to climb up a lookout tower. Not this girl. I *think* they did St. Peter's Church (but don't hold me to that). For €1.50, you get to climb several hundred steps to look out over the city.
My ankle is not so good with steps, and I didn’t want to shred my ankle this early in the trip. So, I stayed down & people watched in the biergarten. I have absolutely NOTHING to complain about there. Once the rest of the gang got back, we all stayed at the biergarten for a little while to do some more people watching (and drink more beer). Another fun thing about biergartens (and even the Hofbräuhaus) is that you always end up striking up conversations with locals & other tourists. It’s so much fun - and the beer helps people loosen up a bit. I’m not saying you have to be drunk, by any means. But, we all know that a glass or two of alcohol can loosen tongues. They don’t call it ‘liquid courage’ for nothin'.
Just look at this photo & tell me you can’t find somebody in that crowd that you’d like to talk to. And, somebody in that crowd would want to talk to you as well.
Then, it was time to walk amongst the vendors. There was a little bit of everything at the market. Hell, there were fruits, vegetables, and flowers that I’d never even seen before. We all ended up buying something. I bought a giant hedgehog made out of wood shavings, Karen bought some ornaments. I even bought a mangosteen for everyone to share. Mangosteens used to be illegal in the US until the last few years or so, but even now they're really hard to come by (and expensive!). I spent €2.50 on one mangosteen, which is ridiculous, but I thought it was worth it (especially after all the beer I had).
The guys even bought Karen & I a rose from one of the florists. Of course, that's because Karen & I both stated *loudly*, "Oh, wouldn't it be NICE if the guys bought us a flower??" At least they can take a hint.
We had a great last day in Munich, but it was getting late, and we still had to make it to Austria. We found another apartment on Airbnb, in the town of Wals, Austria (right on the outskirts of Salzburg). The drive from Munich to Wals was only an hour and a half.
One thing to note about Austria - you have to have a vignette for your car. A 10 day vignette was only €8, though. Of course, we didn't actually BUY one when we arrived in Austria. We're badasses. We live on the edge.
We arrived at our apartment kind of late (it was after dark, maybe 8pm? 8:30pm?). The bad thing about Airbnb is that you don't *really* know what you're walking into. The apartment we reserved was very highly rated, but once we showed up, we realized the description of the place wasn't completely accurate.
Yes, we knew we had a shared bathroom. What the description LEFT OUT is that our apartment was in the attic - on the third floor. The shared bathroom was on the FIRST FLOOR. Of course, I'm the type that has to get up in the middle of the night to pee. I wasn't looking forward to having to fumble in the dark of an attic to try and go down three stories to get to the bathroom.
Also, the attic was just an open space. There were two big beds, but not even a curtain or room divider to change behind. There was a lot of, "Ok, everyone turn around while I change." But, we knew it was a studio when we reserved the room.
What we didn't expect was the construction. In the pictures on Airbnb, there was a hammock hanging in the attic. Josh was alllllll excited about that, and wanted to actually sleep in the hammock. Well, they had JUST finished putting in a balcony in the room THAT DAY, and they took out the hammock. Poor Josh. But, the bad part was that there was saw dust everywhere, and the smell of wood and paint was pretty bad. One thing I should mention is that I had been sick with a really bad cold for two weeks before this trip. I was still coughing, so I was a little worried about all the crap in the air.
But, whatevs. It was night, we were there, we were going to make the most of it. The couple was very nice about everything, and we were just going to deal with it.
First things first - dinner! The lady who owned our rental directed us to the Hotel Grünauerhof in Wals. We made it just in time for dinner (I think they stopped seating for dinner at 9pm or 930pm). We were starving, since we didn't really have much of a meal all day.
I have to say - I had the BEST vegetarian meal at this restaurant. Probably the best meal I've gotten since in Europe. I had a vegetable strüdel, and it was soooooo gooooood. Karen had the other vegetarian dish (I think it was some kind of faux meat patty) and she didn't really like hers that much. I felt bad, because my dish was AWESOME.
After dinner, we went back to the apartment & all started watching the Sound of Music in preparation for our SoM tour in Salzburg. Our tour wasn't until two days later, but man...Sound of Music is a loooooooooong movie.
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