Munich

Oops, I'm getting worse at keeping this up to date...

Friday 1st August
I arrived in Munich and had a wander around, I already love this city... such cool architecture & so much to see and do!
I started with a 'Munich by night' tour, not the best way to get the lay of the land (in the dark) but it was an entertaining tour full of myths & stories. Got a bit of extra entertainment too when the drunk Americans made a scene because the guide called them out on the fact they were late!

Saturday 2nd August... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!
Got a better understanding of the city with a normal walking tour this morning. Munich has so much history and it is so interesting. 

My run of perfect weather ran out as a storm suddenly appeared... of course about an hour before my booked bike tour! I think I am officially cursed when it comes to bike tours, every single one I've done has either been cancelled due to bad weather or has been very wet! But it was fun just the same and we got a good show with the river being massively swollen and raging due to the very wet Summer they've been having (apparently the river is usually clear & calm). 

Sunday 3rd August
After 3 tours in 24hrs I was a bit toured out so had an easy day today and went back to see some places in more detail. Of course the forecast was for rain so I went prepared and it was a warm, lovely day! I walked up through the English Gardens and lucked upon the big beer garden in the middle, I even embraced being in Germany & had a beer with lunch (well a 'radler' aka a shandy).

Had a dumb tourist moment & took the bahn (underground) back down to the city but walked the wrong way when I came out & ended back where I got on! Oops! Haha

I eventually made it back to the Residenz (the Royal Palaces). An extremely impressive building & massive... you can only visit about 90 of the rooms (ONLY 90!!) The Bavarian Royals have a long & interesting history and they definitely did not skimp on anything. For example the king's bedroom that was only for show for visitors, never actually used! Random!

A big walking day today, definitely worked off that beer ;)

Monday 4th August
This morning I visited Dachau concentration camp. Dachau was the first and the training centre for all of the others. It was, of course, horribe but moving to be there and very different from my visit to Mauthausen. (It was hot and sunny compared to the middle of winter in a snow storm last time). 

A much lighter night with the arrival of Melissa (from my Spain tour) and her Busabout friends! We had some drinks and went for dinner at the Augustina beerhall (mmm pork knuckle ;) ). It was lovely to have friendly faces around and they even sung me an early Happy Birthday :)

Tuesday 5th August
I figured I should do something a little special &/or memorable for my birthday so did a day trip out to Neuschwanstein castle (the castle built by 'crazy' King Ludwig II and the one which THE Disney castle is based on). Of course the weather was terrible again because part of the tour was a bike ride around the mountain on which the castle sits. It was fun anyway and such a beautiful area. We rode around Swan Lake (unfortunately no, not THE Swan Lake) which was just breathtaking. After lunch we hiked up the mountain (hence the very red face in the photo), to the castle. I had heard that the inside of the castle is pretty disappointing because there are only a few rooms that were ever finished but wow, definitely not disappointing! The rooms are exactly what you would expect inside the Disney castle and there's even a man-made cave inside! So random but very impressive.

During the day I met some cool Americans and so crazy, 3 out of the 4 of us all have birthdays this week! So it was a nice little birthday party for all of us. We continued the celebration at the Hofbrauhaus beerhall which was fun. Bit annoying that I had to leave pretty early as I don't have my own key for the Airbnb place I'm staying at so needed to be let in.

After the disappointment not being able to get on a tour and simply being away from home on my birthday it ended up being a really great day!! So glad I decided to spend it in Munich!

Wednesday 6th August
Time to say farewell to Munich, Germany and Europe as a whole as I head off to the UK!
I am staying with Barbara (another of Em's friends that I met in Wales) for a few days, looking forward to seeing another friendly face.