Beergardens and Alps - Munich!

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I arrived at Munich station and met Urmila my host. She is Indian, has lived in Australia since she was 1, and now lives in Seattle with her boyfriend. She works for Microsoft as a software developer, and they transferred her to Munich for a year. So Urmila has a very interesting background and was fantastic to talk to about all the different places and cultures she knows. We went for a walk through Munich that evening, stopping at a square where Hitler staged a coup. There is a plaque on the floor commemorating the people who died fighting against him, and a church we went inside. An alley way behind the square was where people would walk who wanted to avoid the square, because every time they walked through they had to hail Hitler. We walked to Marienplatz where the huge town hall is. It is such impressive architecture; part of it is rebuilt after the war as well, so it looks a bit strange in places with bricks instead of stone. A little courtyard inside has a beer garden, which is sweet!
We headed for the most touristy beer garden in Munich, and it was packed full of people! We sat next to an American family on one of the long tables and drank one of the seasonal beers- it was so good! And we ate cheese and pretzels. There was a band playing Bavarian music and people dressed in traditional clothes, it was great! And the building itself was interesting, with low, painted ceilings. We decided to go to a different beer garden for food, I had duck, cabbage and potato dumplings, proper Bavarian food and very tasty! On the way back we went through the part of Munich with the Egyptian museum and things, impressive buildings, and we saw the Michael Jackson memorial, complete with lady in a Michael Jackson outfit lighting the candles!

In the morning Urmila had to work so I headed into Munich on my own, and the weather was fantastic! I walked all where we did the night before and took all my photos again (because things look so much better in the sunshine), and stood on Marienplatz to watch the clock at 12 o’clock. It has little ornamental people that dance around in a circle. I thought the other tier of the clock was supposed to do something too but it didn’t, so wasn’t that impressive! I went inside the Toy museum on the square while I was waiting for 12 o’clock, it was so cute! It had all the history of toys, from the first wooden ones, to soldiers, dolls, teddy bears, Christmas toys and best of all... Barbies!

I wandered around the market for a bit and I unfortunately found this amazing stall selling all kinds of dried fruit and chocolate covered dried fruit- I ended up spending 8 euros oops! Then I wanted to go up the tower that looks down on the Marienplatz, it was very hot and crowded, people coming up and down the narrow stairs at the same time, but worth it in the end to get to the top. The views were magnificent, you could see the Alps in the distance! And seeing the whole of the town hall was great too.
I went into the English Garden for lunch, wandering through the Residenz gardens and past the river where people were surfing the wave of the river. I watched for quite a while, they were brilliant! I found a patch of grass for a picnic and sunbathe in the park, and stayed a while to enjoy the sun! I met Urmila at a beer garden within the park (although it took us quite a while to meet as I told her the wrong place oops!) and we sat and had a litre of half-beer half-lemonade, and a bit of a chat. We went home and Urmila cooked Indian food, I am so lucky!!!

Urmila decided to rent a car the next day so we could go hiking in the Alps. When we got to the car rental place the car was this huge BMW X3, biggest car Urmila had ever driven! But she said it was great to drive, even if the gps was a bit weird! The drive to the Alps was stunning, we had to stop a few times to take photos, it was so beautiful. We got to our destination, lake Konigssee, right near the border of Austria (we were actually in Austria at one point during the drive), and it was so packed there were no parking spaces, so we had to park a while away and walk in. The area around the lake was quite touristy but the lake itself so clear and tranquil, surrounded by high mountains on all sides. Our hike was on the other side of the lake so we had to wait for a boat. We had a picnic while we were waiting and a paddle in the lake- it was glacial lake so absolutely freezing! My feet went numb after 2 minutes! But also quite refreshing!

The boat trip was so nice, full of people but it was an electric boat so really quiet and peaceful. There was a guide but it was all in German, Urmila translated some for me. At one point there was an impressive waterfall, and later on they stopped the boat and the driver got out his trumpet and went outside the boat and started to play- you could hear the echoes it was magical! We got to St. Bartholoma, an area with a cute little church and not much else, and headed towards where our hike began. We realised the last boat back was in about 2 hours so we had to hurry! We went up the mountain, Urmila much faster than me, over a stream with a little chapel, through lots of woods and to a river. On the other side of the river was where we were aiming- an ice cave. We had to jump across the river to get there, but when we did it was like entering a different world. The climate around the ice was completely different, the area was still and cold, whereas near the river it was hot and more wind.

Unfortunately as soon as we got there we had to head back for the boat, so we jumped across the river again and headed down. On the way back through the woods we saw 5 deer! Urmila got some amazing photos, I was not so quick! There was hardly anyone around because of the last boat, so they came out just for us! But they stayed around for ages, they didn’t run at all! I really enjoyed the hike through the mountain because it reminded me of Peru, I love hiking! On the way home we stopped at a lovely lake to take some more photos, and Urmila found it quite hard to drive at some points because the sun was really low and right in her eyes.

But we made it back to Munich in on piece and went out for a kebab! We walked along the street ‘’where all the beautiful people go to look and be looked at’’- direct quote from Urmila! At one point there is a massive statue of a walking man, just on the street near an obscure building, really weird! We went to Urmila’s favourite Turkish kebab house and had a great kebab, then headed home for some sleep!

In the morning Urmila had to take the car back and found that she had a parking ticket from where she parked oops! It was boiling hot again so we headed on the metro to a lake near Munich where you can swim. We had a sunbathe and a swim, and I got some proper Bavarian culture when a man in front of us took all his clothes off and went in the lake, came out, got dressed and walked off again. Meanwhile his kid was absent mindedly eating an ice cream. It was a really nice lake though, very refreshing, and we got an ice cream as well!

We went back to the flat as Urmila had to make some phone calls and I had to have a shower. I wanted to cook a meal but we couldn’t find what I wanted in the supermarket, so we made a make-shift meal resembling what I wanted and went to the river for a picnic. It was almost dark when we got there and there were some people playing loud house music nearby, but we had a nice meal and some cake and beer. We got back home just in time for a huge thunder storm! Urmila and I swapped some music on her computer and went to bed. Urmila had to rush off to work in the morning so we had a hasty goodbye. But I feel I made a real friend in Urmila so I would love to see her again!

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