We started our first full day in the city with a walking tour of Old Munich. We visited the old and new town halls at Marienplatz, where we watched the Glockenspiel that happens every day at 11am.
 |
| Glockenspiel |
 |
| Old Town Hall at Marienplatz |
We also visited Saint Peter's Church, which after hiking to the top gave us some amazing views of the city!
 |
| view from the top of Saint Peter's |
After a full day of exploring, we went for a traditional Bavarian meal of schnitzel and spetzel, and of course beer. We then wandered down to the large outdoor beer garden, which served awesome Augustiner beer.
On our second day, we decided to do a day tour of Salzburg, Austria. After a beautiful 2 hour train ride, we arrived in the home of Mozart and the Sound of Music. We first visited a garden where scenes from the Sound of Music were filmed. This was thrilling for us, since we both had been singing all the songs from the movie for the past several days. The building in the background of the second picture which is featured partly in the movie was actually built by the Bishop of Salzburg for his mistress and their 16 children!
 |
| about to re-enact scenes from our favourite movie! |
 |
| the fountain "Do-Re-Me" scene from The Sound of Music |
For lunch we went to an amazing restaurant that claims that it is the oldest restaurant in Europe, having been founded in the year 803!
 |
| enjoying the terrace at the oldest restaurant in Europe! |
We spent the rest of the day exploring, learning about the history of Salzburg, and doing a little shopping. We both loved the city - it was so scenic and charming!
 |
| heading into the old town of Salzburg |
On the third day we did another walking tour organized by Radius Tours about Hitler and the Third Reich in Munich. The tour was extremely informative and showed us a bit of the darker side of Munich in the time leading up to and during WWII. Because it is against the law in Germany to have memorials or plaques commemorating past Nazi events, our guide showed us many locations around town where important historical events had occurred for Hitler's national socialist party.
After the tour we went for a tasty lunch to the old public market, where we bought an array of dips, breads and olives to feast on in the public beer garden. Its great because the beer gardens in Germany require all patrons to buy their beer from the beer garden vendors, but you can bring your own lunch with you!
 |
| beer garden |
 |
| testing the beer... |
The next day we walked back to a place we saw on the Third Reich tour, which was the Haus Der Kunst. The building was built in the neo-classical style and commissioned by Hitler in 1933 to take the place of the "Glass Palace" which had previously been Munich's main art gallery. The Haus Der Kunst was one of the few buildings to survive WWII, as Hitler had it concealed with camoflaouge nets during the air raids that went on over the city. We saw a great exhibition there called "Histories in Conflict" that documented the building's own history between 1937-1955 and how art was used as Nazi propaganda before and during the war. Once American soldiers marched on Munich in April 1945, the building was then transformed into the American soldiers club house and was the center of the American presence in Munich.
After this great exhibition, we spent the afternoon in the nearby English Gardens, sun bathing, relaxing and swimming in the near by river. On our last evening in the city, we met up with our friend from our exchange at CBS, Thassilo, and his friend Ralph. They showed us a trendy part of Munich where we were able to enjoy some drinks and catch up on our summer adventures since Copenhagen.
 |
| river running through the English Garden |
Wish you were here,
Rose and Sydney
No comments:
Post a Comment