We caught our 7:36 AM train from Berlin Central Station to Munich! What do I know about Munich? Thomas Müller is from there. And Oktoberfest is big here. But otherwise, it was an experience we were going to let surprise us! 

We finally arrived in Munich at 11:45 AM. We quickly dropped off our bags (which was at a hotel near the train station) and headed off on a 30 minute walk to Viktualienmarkt for lunch! We didn’t check in yet, but they said our room would be available at 3 PM onwards. 

At the market, we had weißwurst, a lighter (almost airy) white veal sausage, and a mediocre pretzel. The sausage goes with a sweet süßer Senf mustard which I quite liked! We also had a bratwurst and an elasser rösti mit speck and emmentaler. Yummy, but we ended up not finishing the bun and just had the sausage. 

At a nearby cafe, they specialized in schmalznudel: a fried airy donut that reminds me of Chinese donuts. I quite liked it! 

After, we took a short walk to Marienplatz and instantly decided we’d move plans around to see the glockenspiel. At first, our timings meant we’d miss it, but we moved up our Munich Residence visit instead. 

Before heading to the Residence, we took a quick look at the tiny (but beautiful) Asamkirche church . We also really wanted to try the strawberry matcha lattes at McDonald’s. They were always out of stock when we checked, but we finally got them here! Unfortunately they were overly sweet. I couldn’t finish mine because it was kind of gross. It’s a shame because the matcha itself wasn’t terrible. 

At the Munich Residence, our audio guides told us all about the Wittelsbach dynasty. It was cool to hear about how the residence grew and grew. Some of the rooms were very lavish. The Antiquarium that housed a great collection of sculptures was being set up while we were there. Someone asked an attendant what it was for and they replied “it’s a secret”. Very mysterious! 

The rest of the palace was cool, but it boggles my mind how many antechambers, guest rooms, waiting rooms and more there were. It got a bit repetitive. There were antechambers for antechambers! But I guess it really shows off how rich they were. 

We got back to Marienplatz about 20 minutes before the glockenspiel show started. So we wandered a bit and found it funny to see Thomas Müller at T-Mobile as a cardboard cutout mascot. He reminded us of home in Vancouver thanks to his Whitecaps signing last year! 

The glockenspiel show then started at 5 PM and a pretty big crowd had amassed. The first few minutes were just the bell tower chiming. And then to everyone’s delight, the higher part of the tower started moving. After a few minutes, the lower part started its circle too. Everyone clapped after it ended and the crowds dispersed. 

We knew we wouldn’t have much time the day after for shopping, so we tried to do as much of that as possible on day 1. We also were running out of luggage space. As per the usual, we were only traveling with a backpack and 1 carry on each. With 2 weeks worth of clothes and necessities, space was a valuable commodity! 

Dinner was at the Hofbräuhaus München beer hall. It was overwhelming walking in, as they had a live band going. That was a neat part of the experience and they’d play periodically throughout the night starting at 6 PM. There’s no waiters to assign you a seat. Instead you find space at one of the long tables and someone will magically recognize you need to place an order. 

We got the spargel with hollandaise because I’m now a little obsessed with it after having it the other day. The schweinshaxe had bits that were a bit too dry/tough (skin was so yummy tho), and the würst platter was a good sample of a variety of wieners! We had a non-alcoholic beer and a carbonated apple juice alongside our meal too. We kind of soaked in the music, the hectic environment, and the good food. A fun time! 

Afterwards, we walked back to our hotel, but not without stopping at one of the fruits and veggies stand on the street. The strawberries smelled so good! 

When we got to our hotel, we realized the front lobby (and door) were now locked. We had checked in, but didn’t have our room assigned yet, nor keys. Our luggage and backpacks were also stored with the front desk. We called their 24 hour help hotline and eventually figured it out, but for a hot second, we thought we had to go without our belongings and find another hotel for the night. What a panicked way to end our night 😅

The next day, we spent most of it travelling to Füssen to see some castles. The day trip took longer than we anticipated (blog post for that trip here) and we ended up getting back to Munich at 10 PM ish. At which point we bought a bunch of liquids from the grocery store at the Munich Central Station (so convenient!) and headed home for the night. 

In the morning we woke up early, got to the train station (which was quite close to our hotel), and got some breakfast at the station. We actually already had some sandwiches in the morning but we wanted to try the leberkäse loaf we kept seeing around. It was yummy! It’s like a salty, but lighter thick ham slice.

And then we were off to Frankfurt!