Germany: Munich: Augustineer, Sausage and Castles

• **** Sorry guys we are sad to report that our back up hard drive crashed when we came back to Orlando in Sept/October and have lost a lot of photos from the rest of Germany, as well as Dubai and Nepal so we are posting any of the photos that we could recover from our iPhone and/or GoPro *****

The distance between Berlin and Munich can be covered in a short six hour roadtrip but the difference between the culture of the two cities is tremendous. Munich is the epicenter of Bavarian culture and we loved every second of it. . . the beer, the sausage, and the awesome outfits. We are just sad we didn’t stay for Oktoberfest which actually starts in September! Aaaaah there’s always next time

On the way down to Munich we made a quick stop in Nuremberg with it’s beautiful red-roofed buildings for some famous Nurnberger Bratwurste which tasted like Jimmy Dean grilled sausages LOL. I think next time we’d like to spend a little more time there exploring the castle and grounds.
Just like our time in Stuttgart and Hamburg, we would have some local friends helping us explore this area. King and his wife Meschtildt, (friends of our friend Doc from Kenya), greeted us at their house with German baked goods and tea mmmmm. We’d like to think that we’ll be like them when we grow up They are fellow adventurers who hitch-hiked from Kenya to Munich together in their younger years. King is Punjabi but born in Kenya and she is German - so much fun getting to know them.

King spoiled us with a personalized tour around the nearby German alpine lakes and small cities like Garmisch and Mittenwald . We also got to check out his super modern office (he owns a coal freight business). They also generously put us up at Hotel Seehof, a very nice place nearby since Meschtildt was feeling a bit under the weather and didn’t want to get us sick. Schupfnudeln (cooked mashed potatoes formed into finger-thick noodles that are then pan fried in butter until crispy and golden brown) were our favorite part of the meal at their favorite German restaurant. Mmmmmmm Ruby definitely preferred this to the Spätzle we had before.

Munich is beautiful and there’s no better way to explore it than on foot. We took a free walking tour and found the stories about Hitler and his history in Munich to be fascinating. We ended the tour in the main square watching the clock tower while drinking Augustineer (our fave German beer) and having some bratwurst

Just a short drive away from Munich is the famous Neuschwanstein Castle built by King Ludwig II and of course we had to stop there. This is also known as the “Disneyland Castle” as Walt Disney was inspired by this place. We had a great time exploring Neuschwanstein castle although we skipped the interior (having seen tons of castles already). It was a gorgeous sunny day so we hiked up to the Marienbruke bridge. There were tons of tourists since August is the peak of the summer season and we wondered if possibly busier than Disneyland?

We ended our time in Munich with a wonderful Italian dinner with King, Meschtildt and their daughter Rasna and a crazy humongous dessert!