3 Days in Bavaria, Germany
One of the best parts about living in Europe is that traveling from place to place is SOOOO cheap. Please, someone explain to me the logic that a train ticket from Providence to Trenton costs me $200 but a round trip flight from Dublin to Munich is only €40!
On a whim, we decided to book a long weekend to Munich and it was by far one of the best decisions we’ve made! Munich might be one of my favorite places I’ve ever been and is definitely on my list to go back to visit because 3 days just was not enough. But we did make the most of the days we had, fitting in as many beer halls, schnitzels and castles as we could.
We landed late on a Friday night. A lot later than we expected thanks to heavy rain and wind in Dublin. But nonetheless, we didn’t want to waste a minute, so as soon as we dropped our bags off at the hotel, we set out to Augustiner Keller for some pretzels, schnitzel and of course, beer!
For our first full day in Germany, we decided to book a day trip out to visit Neuschwanstein Castle through Gray Line Tours. Neuschwanstein Castle or “New Swan Stone” Castle, is best known as the model for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle. But we learned during our visit that it is so much more than that. The castle was built for and owned by King Ludwig II, who was known for being a bit eccentric and reclusive. King Ludwig II never saw the completed castle but was able to live in the castle for just about 172 days before he mysteriously died. There are only 14 rooms that are actually finished inside the castle and originally there was planned to be around 200 rooms.
Getting to go inside the castle and look around was cool but the real experience of the visit was walking around the castle grounds. Neuschwanstein sits on top of a hill in the Bavarian Alps which allows for breath-taking views no matter which way you’re looking. But, make sure to wear sneakers! The walk up from the parking lot to the castle is steep and long. There is the option to take a shuttle up, but for those who are up to it, the walk is worth it.
Our tour also stopped at Linderhof Palace. Linderhof is another of King Ludwigs residences. Unfortunately, during our visit most of the palace and the grounds were under construction. But, we still had fun walking around the grounds.
We also stopped in the village of Oberammergau. Oberammergau is a cute little town in the Bavarian Alps that is most famous for “passion plays” which are once-a-decade performances that the locals put on. They also are well-known for their Lüftlmalerei or painted houses. Some of which are decorated as different fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel.
The tour arrived back in Munich just in time for some more delicious German Food. We stopped in Augustiner (different than Augustiner Keller). It was here I ordered the life changing dish: Käsespätzle. If you ever go to Germany, ORDER THIS. It’s basically mac & cheese, but better.
The next day, it was finally time to explore Munich. We set out to Marienplatz, the central square, for breakfast and to watch the Glockenspiel (cuckoo clock) performance that happens every day. This part of the city also has the new town hall and the old town hall. Ironically, you’d think the new town hall was the old town hall from the style. There is also the St. Peter’s Church nearby that has a tall tower you can climb for an amazing view of the city and the Viktualienmarkt which has all sorts of food, drinks and souvenirs.
When we finished exploring the central square area, we set off to the Munich Residenz. Munich Residenz used to act as the royal palace for the monarchs of Bavaria. It is HUGE. It seems as if every single new resident of the palace decided they needed to build their own section onto the existing building until it became this massive structure. Most of the inside is reconstructed since a lot of the original building was destroyed during World War II, but it’s a great tour to take if you’re looking to learn more about German and Bavarian history.
After getting our history lesson in for the day at the residence, we moved on to the beer halls! What is a trip to Munich without a trip to Hofbräuhaus? The 3-floor beer hall that dates back to the 16th century is must-do on any trip to Munich. And, while the beer is great the food is also good. Here, we tried Obatzda which is a Bavarian cheese spread. There are plenty of beer halls in the area, so we popped in to a few more before dinner and calling it a night.
We only had a half of a day left in Munich, so we took the train out to Dachau. Dachau is home to one of the first Nazi concentration camps in Germany and even acted as a model for the other camps that followed. Dachau was also the concentration camp that stayed opened the longest, which was 12 years and saw an estimated 200,000 prisoners of which an estimated 32,000 died in the camp.
Taking a tour of Dachau is a sobering experience. It felt wrong to be touring a place where so much cruelty happened. But, I believe it’s incredibly important to learn about history so we don’t repeat it.
It was especially important for me to visit Dachau because my grandfather was one of the American soldiers who liberated the camp in 1945. So, not only did I get to pay my respects to the people who were imprisoned at the camp, I was also able to pay my respects to my grandfather and learn more about his life.
I highly recommend anyone in the area to take a guided tour at Dachau. Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable and started conversation among the group rather than just talking at us with facts and figures.