Munich, a Palace, a Castle
We had company in town this weekend, so I took Friday off and we decided to go see some sights around town and maybe do a day trip.
Our adventures began on Thursday evening after I got off work. I came home and we decided to head into Munich for dinner and meandering. We stopped off at the Augustiner am Platzl for dinner before wandering around Munich. We found another gelato place to try, so off we went. Side bar: It would be an interesting exercise to find two points of interest in Munich, say 1 mile apart, and find the walking path between them that passes NO gelato places.
We took our gelato and headed down to the river and see what we could see. The river Isar runs through Munich and, while it's no Seine, it definitely adds character to the town.
We walked down the Isar to Feuerwerksinsel (Fireworks Island). They have part of the river dammed here and only some of the water flows around the other side of the island. This makes for a nice little beach area. I'm not sure you are actually supposed to swim in the river, but there are rebels in every crowd.
We walked further up the river and crossed the island to get up to the Maximilianeum. The view from here was quite nice, especially at sunset.
We took a few more pictures of the reflections in the still waters of the river before heading home.
We woke up Friday morning without any clear plan except that Lisa and I had an appointment at 4:30PM, so we knew we needed to be home by then. After some discussion (and confusion) we headed to Schloss Nymphenberg, a palace with grounds and a huge park in Munich. We had no idea what to expect, so we kinda winged it. It turns out, it is a large, impressive European Palace. :)
And, of course, being a large, impressive European Castle, it must have grounds. And by grounds I mean gardens. With statues and fountains.
One of the many small museums on the grounds was of a type I had never seen before. They had quite the collection of carriages and sleighs.
We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the palace grounds and the surrounding park. It was quite warm (by Munich standards; it was in the mid-80s) and when we finally left around 3, we were pretty beat.
So, after walking probably 6 miles each on Thursday and Friday, what did we decide to do on Saturday? Why, drive and THEN walk, of course.
Neuschwanstein Castle is about a 2 hour drive from Munich, but we got kind of a late start, not leaving the house until noon. We then stopped for a break and a quick lunch and traffic was pretty bad, so we didn't get to the castle until around 3. The castle is quite easy to pick out, even from a distance, but it doesn't look terribly impressive from here.
Once you park the car in town, it starts to look more "Disney Princess"-y and you also start to think, "Hmmmmmm. This might be a bit of a hike to get to."
The walk up the castle is indeed quite a hike. Some 1.6 million people visit the castle every year and a Saturday in July is going to have a higher percentage of those people than most other days. The walk up was pretty, but it was hardly quiet as the general bustle of tourists meant a constant stream of background noise many languages.
Since we were so late arriving, we decided to not to pay for the tour. This only means that you can't go in the castle. Wandering around the castle and the surrounding trails is free of charge (other than the €6 they charge for parking; still not bad!). Once all the way up to the castle, it is hard to get any pictures that do it justice since it is on bit of a cliff and you are up right next to it. There is a trail that leads away from the castle (toward the Marienbrücke, more on this in a minute). From here, it was easier to get a picture of the castle at eye level.
We were pretty tired by now and only barely decided to make the hike to the bridge (Marienbrücke) that we could see from the castle and that had a lot of people on it. We assumed it might be a good view, but it was going to be MORE up. After arriving, it was agreed that the view was absolutely worth the extra hike.
The weather was starting to look threatening and we were pretty tired, so we decided to head out. Our guest had expressed an interest in seeing the lake near Tutzing, so we found a place on said lake to eat dinner. It was actually one of the best Greek meals any of us have ever had.
We decided that today (Sunday) would be a day of resting after three days of serious walking and we have kept to that. Non of us has even been out of the apartment yet, although there is talk of making the short walk for gelato. :)
Our adventures began on Thursday evening after I got off work. I came home and we decided to head into Munich for dinner and meandering. We stopped off at the Augustiner am Platzl for dinner before wandering around Munich. We found another gelato place to try, so off we went. Side bar: It would be an interesting exercise to find two points of interest in Munich, say 1 mile apart, and find the walking path between them that passes NO gelato places.
We took our gelato and headed down to the river and see what we could see. The river Isar runs through Munich and, while it's no Seine, it definitely adds character to the town.
We walked down the Isar to Feuerwerksinsel (Fireworks Island). They have part of the river dammed here and only some of the water flows around the other side of the island. This makes for a nice little beach area. I'm not sure you are actually supposed to swim in the river, but there are rebels in every crowd.
We walked further up the river and crossed the island to get up to the Maximilianeum. The view from here was quite nice, especially at sunset.
We took a few more pictures of the reflections in the still waters of the river before heading home.
We woke up Friday morning without any clear plan except that Lisa and I had an appointment at 4:30PM, so we knew we needed to be home by then. After some discussion (and confusion) we headed to Schloss Nymphenberg, a palace with grounds and a huge park in Munich. We had no idea what to expect, so we kinda winged it. It turns out, it is a large, impressive European Palace. :)
And, of course, being a large, impressive European Castle, it must have grounds. And by grounds I mean gardens. With statues and fountains.
One of the many small museums on the grounds was of a type I had never seen before. They had quite the collection of carriages and sleighs.
We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the palace grounds and the surrounding park. It was quite warm (by Munich standards; it was in the mid-80s) and when we finally left around 3, we were pretty beat.
So, after walking probably 6 miles each on Thursday and Friday, what did we decide to do on Saturday? Why, drive and THEN walk, of course.
Neuschwanstein Castle is about a 2 hour drive from Munich, but we got kind of a late start, not leaving the house until noon. We then stopped for a break and a quick lunch and traffic was pretty bad, so we didn't get to the castle until around 3. The castle is quite easy to pick out, even from a distance, but it doesn't look terribly impressive from here.
Once you park the car in town, it starts to look more "Disney Princess"-y and you also start to think, "Hmmmmmm. This might be a bit of a hike to get to."
The walk up the castle is indeed quite a hike. Some 1.6 million people visit the castle every year and a Saturday in July is going to have a higher percentage of those people than most other days. The walk up was pretty, but it was hardly quiet as the general bustle of tourists meant a constant stream of background noise many languages.
Since we were so late arriving, we decided to not to pay for the tour. This only means that you can't go in the castle. Wandering around the castle and the surrounding trails is free of charge (other than the €6 they charge for parking; still not bad!). Once all the way up to the castle, it is hard to get any pictures that do it justice since it is on bit of a cliff and you are up right next to it. There is a trail that leads away from the castle (toward the Marienbrücke, more on this in a minute). From here, it was easier to get a picture of the castle at eye level.
We were pretty tired by now and only barely decided to make the hike to the bridge (Marienbrücke) that we could see from the castle and that had a lot of people on it. We assumed it might be a good view, but it was going to be MORE up. After arriving, it was agreed that the view was absolutely worth the extra hike.
The weather was starting to look threatening and we were pretty tired, so we decided to head out. Our guest had expressed an interest in seeing the lake near Tutzing, so we found a place on said lake to eat dinner. It was actually one of the best Greek meals any of us have ever had.
We decided that today (Sunday) would be a day of resting after three days of serious walking and we have kept to that. Non of us has even been out of the apartment yet, although there is talk of making the short walk for gelato. :)
That carriage and sleigh museum indeed looks interesting! (Note to self to remember that when I'm there in Dec and looking for something to do. :-) )
ReplyDeleteI bet Lisa would go back. She really enjoyed it!
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