If India was an adventure, Germany was a vacation. After our late night/early morning plane from Adu Dhabi, Nicole and I took the commuter rail into central Munich and transferred to a subway that took us to our AirBnB for the next four days. Our host, Benjamin met us downstairs and let us into the apartment. The previous guests were still there and asleep as it was only 8am. Ben made us some coffee while we freshened up. It had been nearly 48 hours since either of us had bathed since the water ran out in India, and we were both very smelly I’m sure.
A nice shower, its the little things
After a year of living abroad in Korea with visits to Japan, Thailand, and India, I’d forgotten what it was like to take a shower with real water pressure. Everywhere we’d stayed over the past year, hotels and hostels included, had poor water pressure and I forgot what it was like to have a good shower with enough water pressure to really massage your back. Munich was my first fantastic shower in a year and I didn’t want to leave, but I wasn’t traveling around the world for its plumbing. I was here to see the sites and Munich was calling.
Marienplatz
After a quick shower and some coffee with our host we headed back into downtown Munich to take a free walking tour of the city. We met at the central plaza, or platz, Marienplatz. It’s the hub of Munich culture and where many of the cities sites and walking tours start.
On the tour we learned about the Michael Jackson memorial, a famous church in Munich, and had a visit to the Hofbrauhaus, one of Germany’s most famous beer halls. Its odd that the beer hall is so well known. Its not the oldest, its not the largest, and arguably, its beer is not the best. However, that being said, no visit to Munich is complete without a visit there. We each ordered a large stein of beer. I got a dark beer, or dunkel, and Nicole got a lighter beer, or helles. We split a giant pretzel and relaxed for a bit.
Nymphenburg Palace in the rain
After the walking tour we took a train to Nymphenburg Palace and attempted to visit it, but the rain prevented us from exploring the palace and gardens that day. Instead we hailed a cab from the palace and returned to our AirBnB for some rest. I intended to take a quick nap then get up and check out more of Munich but instead fell asleep around 7 and didn’t wake until the next day.
It was nice to be back in Europe. Three years ago I visited on a 3 month backpacking trip around the continent and really liked it. Returning with Nicole rekindled my fondness of Europe and Germany in particular. The city was so clean and compared to Korea and India, so quiet. There weren’t neon signs everywhere and every store downtown wasn’t blasting its own music to compete with stores around it. No one on the street was trying to sell me postcards, t-shirts, or to be my guide. The weather was nice too. It was a relief to be out of the Indian heat. The weather in Munich was cool and rainy.
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