We left
We booked a small hotel near the train station. We’ve found these are the same price as a night in a double room in the youth hostel and we get a full buffet breakfast and free internet! However they all seem to be in the red light district so you just have to be careful when you go out at night.
It had been raining but it had stopped – it was just cold. We found our hotel easily (Hotel Italia).
For all you history fans (from Mike’s tour guide)… “
TUESDAY A Rest Day
It rained all day today, and was a high of just 10 degrees, so we just took it easy, caught up on emails and prepared some blog pages. We looked through some tour brochures and decided to stay in
WEDNESDAY Walking around the City
We visited the hairdresser just down the road a bit in the morning and Rex had a haircut and Liane had some colour and a trim (rather brave of us but we were starting to look a bit dishevelled after 7 weeks from home). We were rather pleased with the results and gave a generous tip.
A German selling a fancy do everything knife.
We found the Viktuallen Market where there were hundreds of gourmet food stalls. YUMMY!!
Saw this funny newspaper headline "Five police chase plastic crocodile"
We climbed the 300 + stairs to the top of St. Peter’s church and admired the spectacular view over the city all the way to the
Liane found the Birkenstock sandal shop (they are made in
We found the world famous Hofbrauhaus – one of the last authentic beer halls in the world. We tried the Dark Brew (a local brew) which you can only order in .5L or 1.0L jugs! Liane has never drunk so much beer in her life as she has in
Trying the local dark brew. Wasn't too bad. Can only order 0.5L or 1.0L jugs!
At
We met our tour guide, Virginia (an Aussie whose Mum lives in
It was begun in 1869 but never finished only 18 out of 100 rooms were ever completed. It has links to some famous musos apparently Tchaikovsky was inspired here to write
We walked the steep 40min path to the castle, with some stops along the way to catch our breath and to hear the next instalment of the story.
Virginia, our Aussie tour guide, speaking passionately about King Ludwig
You can also take a horse drawn cart if you want.
You have to pay 9 Euro to actually go into the castle for about 20 mins tour. You only get to see the completed rooms – which were quite spectacular but our castle guide was dreadful. She was hard to understand and sounded very uninterested. Still a rather magnificent castle in a wondrous location built high on the rocks in the snow capped
A reminder of home, an Aussie tour bus!
FRIDAY The
Today we went to the Waschsalon (laundrette) where a very helpful English speaking owner helped us work out how to use all the machines. We’ve been lucky so far and been able to wash our clothes at friends and family’s homes so this was a new adventure.
"Believe, Live, Give" A good slogan by International Catholic Mission Work.
We wandered back through the train station which is like a mini city with many different kinds of shops and restaurants on many different levels. We worked out how to catch the train to Garmisch for tomorrow to go up to the
After getting some munchies at the supermarket (at the station!) we very cleverly worked out (all by ourselves and changing stations) how to catch the trains in the subway to The Englischer Garten. This is the largest metropolitan park in
It was wonderful to walk through.
We walked about 3km and found out that you could hire bikes. It would have been great to cycle around as many other people were doing. Another great day in
SATURDAY The
We caught the train to Garmisch (about 1 ½ hours) and then the Zugspitzbahn to a forest lake called the Eibsee. From here we caught the cable car and travelled up up 2000m (as they say in
We sort of had checked the weather and thought it might be ok as cloudy weather with a bit of sun was forecast. When we got to the top we couldn’t see a thing! It was 0 degrees and a visibility of 20 – 100m!! It is
You can also catch the cable car to Erwhald in
Oh well, we had a lovely lunch in the restaurant and took the next cable car to the skiing area. Here the weather was slightly warmer (9 degrees) and we trudged through the snow to check out the highest church in
We then travelled back down the mountain to the Eibsee through a 4km long tunnel and caught the regular train home. Even though we didn’t get to see the
Hint for travellers – check the website for weather conditions at the mountain top before heading off!
SUNDAY A Cultural Day
What to do on a sunny Sunday morning in
No photos were allowed in the gallery so we can only offer this sculpture on the lawn outside.
We saw many beautiful paintings glorifying God. Some of the artists whose works were on display were Leonardo Da Vinci, Rubens, Raphael, Rembrandt, Botticelli, and Lorrain.
This was a real little treasure. The one by Rubens was 8m by 3m depicting Father, Son and Holy Spirit and was one of our favourites as was Christ Crowned with Thorns by Da Vinci. A series of 6 paintings by Rembrandt showing the Passion cycle was also remarkable.
After a pleasant lunch in the gallery café we wandered back through the town
3D city map with Braille street names
and listened to the many buskers that were entertaining the tourists.
Click play button to listen to these young violinists.
Of course we finished the afternoon with Kaffee und kuchen und viel sahne (cream)
In the evening we went out for a final drink in
We enjoyed our time in
In our wanderings of
2 comments:
Rex I'm getting more and more jealous/envious after every installment of your blog! Looks like you are enjoying many delicious foods. The food looks awesome, makes my mouth salivate looking at the pictures! LOL! The scenery is magnificent, keep up the good work ;-)
Hi Liane & Rex, It has been wonderful to read about your travels, and to see our relatives. Showed Mum & Dad the photos last Sunday. Lovely haircut Liane. What is the hairdresses address?!!!
Karen and Rod
Post a Comment