München – Jason likes to travel

A return to Augsburg and München – Sep 2016

So recently I’ve had a little unintentional blogging hiatus and then last week I deviated from the travel stuff to share something a little more personal. As a result of that you’d be forgiven for forgetting all about my last travel specific post – the introduction to my Bavaria trip in September 2016. You can read that here but for those who haven’t read it I’ll catch you up very quickly..

I’d foolishly decided to go to Bavaria, unaware that it was opening weekend of Oktoberfest (who named that?). So in an effort to save some money I ended up flying to Memmingen and booking a hotel in Augsburg rather than pay fortunes for a trip to Munich.

After a surprisingly enjoyable morning in the charming town of Memmingen I was catching the train and heading to Augsburg. Or returning should I say, some of the long term readers might recall that I’d been to Augsburg and Munich in August 2015 so it was my second time visiting both cities. Here’s what I got up to!

IMAG4392 — Augsburg’s town hall and belltower

Friday
The reason I was in Germany was to see a gig in Munich on Friday night with a friend. It was a good excuse to catch up with Nicole plus enjoy a weekend away in Munich. However upon discovering how much staying in Munich was going to cost me I knew I couldn’t justify staying in the city, the next best option was staying in Nicole’s hometown and just traveling for the gig.

The last time I’d been to Augsburg it had been close to 40c so although it was familiar returning to the city, it felt very different to be going back with grey skies and rain falling from the sky. Given I’d been here before I didn’t really do anything after arriving mid-afternoon. I went and checked in to my hotel and then just chilled in my room for a bit to pass the time until Nicole was done with work.

I grabbed a quick bite to eat on my way to meet Nicole and then we hopped on the next train to Munich (fortunately they run regularly). Nicole had kindly taken it upon herself to gift me my ticket as a late birthday present which was a nice and unexpected surprise. We had a good catch up as the train whizzed through Bavaria and not much later arrived at Munich’s Hauptbahnhof.

Unsurprisingly Munich was full of tourists, lederhosen and fancy dress as party mode began early in the city, which made for some interesting people-watching on our way to the U-Bahn (metro / subway / tube). After a quick journey we were jumping off the U-Bahn and walking up to Munich’s venue called ‘Strom’.

MooseBlood — Moose Blood at Strom – 16.09.16

I hate being late so was a bit concerned we’d left Augsburg so ‘late’ but Nicole had assured me we’d not miss any of the gig and so it proved. We were in good time ahead of the 10pm time for the opening of the doors. You read that right, TEN PM! I went to watch this same band in London three weeks later and the doors were at 6 (why so early!!?) so it blew my mind a little bit. I think there were four bands on the lineup too so how late was the main act going to be on?

In the end I think it ended up being around 11:30 which is crazy, curfew is usually around 11pm in England irrespective of the act or occasion. It created a very different type of atmosphere, probably helped by the fact it was a Friday night and many would be done with work for the week. Another factor would have been that there was an age restriction meaning the gig was 18+ so no youngsters in the venue.

I quite liked the venue and something else that pleased me was the lack of queue at the bar. I walked up and took a look at the options. Decent beer on tap – that’s a good start and to my shock priced at only 4 euros. At a gig? Prices on par with the rest of the city? What’s that about?

Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice in some respects but also just left me a bit resentful in much the same way German football does. Can we stop with the cheap ticket prices, luxury of watching the game with a beer in your hand and better atmospheres? At some point I have to go back to England and reality. Overpriced tickets, morgue-like stadiums and a terrible fan experience.

This was much the same. Sure, I would love decent German beer at a decent price but in three weeks I’ll be back to drinking bottles of piss and paying £5 upwards for the privilege. The cynical side of me couldn’t help feel they’d missed a trick in not charging more – “you could charge an extra euro or two..”

Anyway, it was good beer and the gig was decent too if not a bit weird. The main act were a band from England. You’ve got this little packed out room full of what I would largely presume were German locals, inbetween each song / break you’ve got this muttering of friendly German chit-chat and then the music kicks in and you’ve got a room full of Germans singing back at you in English. It’s bloody cool but weird at the same time. Overall though I left with the feeling that I need to go to more overseas gigs.

With time quickly moving on and the gig coming to a close we made our way back to Munich’s Hauptbahnhof (main station) and caught a late train back to Augsburg.

Saturday
I didn’t really know what I was planning to do on Saturday. Nicole sadly had to work so I was left to entertain myself for the day. My initial hope had been to visit the famous Neuschwanstein Schloss – a castle further South. It’s a popular castle which is often referred to as the “Disney castle” as I think it went some way to inspiring the castle in Disney’s themeparks. It’s also a popular daytrip from Munich.

Sadly it’s a little further from Augsburg and the weather forecast was also pretty poor. I didn’t really fancy spending hours on trains to hike up to a castle in the rain so I decided a visit to the area would have to wait until another visit.

I was contemplating whether I go to Munich, stay in Augsburg or visit somewhere else nearby. In the end I decided I’d go back to Munich and just see a few bits I hadn’t last time. After spending a chunk of the morning in bed I eventually dragged myself out and returned to the train station to go back to Munich for a few hours.

My first stop was Marienplatz, it’s one of the prettier squares in Munich and home to the old and new town halls (Rathaus). I thought I’d anticipated my arrival time well. There’s a little show which attracts huge numbers each day and I thought this was purely at 11am, I didn’t realise there was another an hour later so I walked out of the U-Bahn into a really busy square despite the rain. On the plus side I got to snap a cool little photo before escaping.

IMAG4339 — Everyone looking up at the belltower safely under their umbrella

I figured I’d walk over to one of my favourite spots from the previous summer – the bustling Viktualienmarkt. They had loads of food stalls and a little place to grab beer with a massive beer garden which was perfect given the glorious sunshine on my previous visit.

It seems when it’s pissing it down it isn’t quite as thriving, it was a bit of a disappointment this time around so I continued my search for lunch elsewhere. Eventually settling on eating at some pub before deciding what to do next. The disappointing weather didn’t really make wandering outdoors too appealing so I decided I’d go and visit the Deutsch Museum which Nicole had said was worth a visit.

It’s huge! I don’t know how you’d see all of it in a day but it was a great way to pass some time and some of the exhibits were interesting to pass through. After a couple of hours of wandering through various rooms I called it a day. I pondered whether I should do something else but I was also conscious of not getting back to Augsburg too late so I could catch up with Nicole in the evening.

As it was she got stuck working late far later than anticipated so my evening was a bit of a bust. By the time it was clear our plans were out of the window I didn’t really fancy going out so I just spent the evening chilling in the hotel, ready to explore a bit more on Sunday before heading home.

Sunday
No work on Sunday! Hurrah! After a bit of a lay in me and Nicole arranged to meet up for what ended up closer to being brunch I suppose. We met up with her friend Alex, who I’d met the previous summer, and then Alex’s partner.

It was a good opportunity for me to practice my German, even if it was just my listening skills haha. They asked if I wanted them to speak English but I was insistent they stuck to German. So I offered little value to the conversation but it was nice to try and follow along and put my German to the test a bit more – every so often pulling words out of the conversation that I was familiar with haha.

From brunch we went exploring. Kicking things off at Augsburg’s town hall which had a few interesting pieces on Augsburg. The roof of the main room was littered in gold and looked pretty spectacular. After wandering for a bit we headed back out and moved on to Augsburg’s cathedral.

The cathedral was pretty, as many religious buildings tend to be. I always enjoy wandering through them, just outside was this little gardened area with loads of cool little gnomes which I was pretty fond of too. Nobody was around either so it was really peaceful.

Sadly time was quickly getting away from me and I knew I’d have to say goodbye to Augsburg and make my way back to Munich’s airport. I probably left earlier than I needed to but it meant I avoided any potential delays, particularly with some of the stops on route being loaded with Oktoberfest attendees. Back at the airport I had just enough time for a stein of beer (or two) before catching my flight home and bidding farewell to Germany once again.

All in all it had been a fairly relaxed weekend, not too eventful but nice to go to a gig in Munich and particularly nice catching up with my favourite German. Augsburg had been a good base once again and I maintained my fondness of it, even if I hadn’t spent huge amounts of the weekend there.

I’m sure trip number three to Bavaria won’t be too far in to the future but for now it’s time to wrap this up.

Next up on the blog? Liege!

Stay tuned!

Jason

München – Trip 1, Part 2 (Aug 2015)

So if you’ve been following my August 2015 adventure around Bayern (Bavaria) then you’ll know so far I’d split my time between München, Dachau and Augsburg.

I slept in a little on the Saturday morning whilst awaiting news from Nicole on our plans for the morning, sadly circumstances meant we didn’t get a chance to meet up again before leaving Germany so I made my way to the train station to head back to München for one night.

I was attempting to buy a ticket at one of the machines when some woman approached me asking if I was going to München – “how closely have you been watching me!?”

I replied that I was and she asked if I’d join her and her mother so we could all save some money. It sounded great but I had no idea if this was a legitimate thing so either had to decline or show a bit of faith, I opted for the latter and handed my money over to some complete stranger.

There was still no sign of this mythical mother at this point which added to my skepticism a little bit but sure enough we found her on the way to the platform. With that said I’d still seen no sight of the tickets so for all I knew I’d kindly paid for her mother’s ticket and then they’d plead ignorance once we were on the train
“I have no idea who he is conductor”.

I was feeling a little anxious as I saw the ticket conductor approaching our seats, fortunately my faith was repaid and although I couldn’t really understand what they were saying they clearly signalled that I was with them! Hurrah!
If you’re traveling in a group you can get discounted regional trains in Bayern, I didn’t know at the time but made good use of it a year later!

With my faith in humanity intact the rest of the journey was a happy one and I was soon arriving in to München’s Hauptbahnhof (main train station).
I’d stayed in a hotel on my four previous nights in Germany but as I was now solo for the first time on the trip I decided I’d stay in a hostel – I did treat myself to a private room though.

I quickly found my hostel, dropped off my things and thought I’d spend the next couple of hours exploring stuff I hadn’t seen already before turning my focus towards evening entertainment. I wanted to see the Englischer Garten before leaving the city, Daniel had mentioned on Thursday night that it was worth a visit and that there were even surfers in the park which was a tad bizarre! It had me intrigued.

My search for it was pretty unsuccessful though. I like walking everywhere, particularly given it was during the summer so rather than use a map I just wandered in a vague direction I thought it was in and sadly didn’t stumble upon it. As the afternoon drifted away I just decided to skip it and save it for my next visit to München – dinner had become a bigger priority.

Munchen103 — An example of the interesting things you see on foot!

I do try and eat local delicacies when I travel but I’d already had a few days in Germany to do that so I decided I’d indulge in one of my little travel guilty pleasures – the Hard Rock Café! Anyone following the blog for a while should know by now that I’ve been to a few (19 in total!).
In this instance it “killed two birds with one stone” too but I’ll come back to that shortly.

The Hard Rock Café’s are just a bit of a novelty experience really, the food is fine but certainly isn’t the best you’re ever going to have and it can be a bit pricey too but I like the overall atmosphere of them and they are an exception I’m happy to make when traveling.
In all honesty this wasn’t one of the better times I’ve had visiting HRC, I got stuck next to a rather obnoxious collective of people and it just ruined the mood for me. I spent most of my time just wanting to finish asap and move swiftly onwards.

Munchen87 — Munich’s famous Hofbrauhaus!

On the plus side the HRC was in a killer (2 birds, one stone..) location for my next stop of the night. Directly opposite the HRC is München’s famous Hofbrauhaus – a tourist trap but I figure you’ve got to visit at least once on your first trip to München. I don’t think the exterior appearance prepares you for how big this place is, it was huge and yet I was struggling to find the bar to actually order a beer.

Eventually I realised all you need to do is take a seat and the beer will come to you so I plopped myself down at a large table and soon enough flagged down one of the waitresses, wearing traditional Bayern clothing that you’d expect to see in a German beer hall. Soon enough a beer was put down in front of me and to my surprise wasn’t as expensive as I thought it would be – it wasn’t that much more expensive than a beer elsewhere in München which made me realise how cynical England has made me.

“They’d have charged an extra pound or two for that in England, a further fiver in London, you’re missing a trick here München”.

Whilst the beer was cheaper than I’d anticipated it met my hopes in terms of taste. I didn’t plan to stay for long. One beer, two at the most but again it was another novelty experience to have had a beer in one of the most famous drinking spots in the world.

Munchen80 — Being a tourist is always fun when beer is involved!

Maybe everybody’s just happier when beer is involved but despite being a tourist trap the atmosphere was great. The typical oompah band was playing to entertain the tourists and everybody seemed to be in cheery mood and you could see new friendships developing throughout the room. I can’t imagine you meet too many locals here but if you want to meet people generally it’s a pretty good place to get chatting over a beer. They do food too if you’re feeling peckish but obviously I’d just eaten.

True to my intention I did only have one beer. I figured I’d go back to the hostel for the evening and perhaps make new acquaintances there, I’d been given a free drinks voucher upon check-in so it seemed rude not to make use of it at the hostel bar.

Soon enough I was at a table with 5 other guys. Four British youngsters enjoying a summer Eurotrip together and then a solo Aussie. Conversation was flowing and the drinks were flowing just as quickly. The Aussie decided to get in a round of shots and I don’t enjoy being “in debt” when it comes to drinking so I had to follow it up with a round of my own.
If you’ve had the pleasure (or mispleasure?) of joining me on a night out you probably won’t be surprised to hear that I switched my round to Jagerbombs which was a decision the Aussie was particularly fond of.

After a few drinks we decided to move on from the hostel and off to find a bar in the city somewhere. The drinks were beginning to have an effect, soon after arriving I found myself dancing with one of the Brits on this tiny stage. I don’t know if we’d embarrassed the rest of the party but they’d disappeared and found themselves an outside table and were soon mixing with new friends and fellow travelers.

We soon caught up with them but we’d missed the introductions. I found myself sat next to some pretty Italian woman that I was instantly smitten with. I’m not a “pick up a girl at a bar” type and I’m not 100% sure how accurate my memory of the evening is but I felt like she was flirting with me. The alcohol seemed to have given me a little more confidence so I went with it. It wasn’t going to lead anywhere and was only a bit of harmless fun.

I’d missed the initial introductions so about 10-15 minutes in I finally realised that the guy sat opposite me was the Italian’s boyfriend. On the plus side it now made sense why he’d been giving me the death stare – “my bad!!”

We seemed to leave shortly after that as we’d all had a few too many drinks. I can’t really recall much of the walk back – I don’t know if that’s just because it was a short walk or whether it was just an uneventful walk back to our hostel but soon enough we’d all gone our separate ways.

My next memory was being awakened by housekeeping the next day. I’d completely slept through check-out, it’s the only time I can ever recall doing this which isn’t really that impressive keeping in mind a lot of places let you check out around midday.
That alone should have been embarrassing enough but oh no. The weather in München had been 30-35c all week so I must have seemingly made the decision that on this night I’d sleep naked.

So as if it wasn’t enough of a surprise for this poor woman finding someone in what was supposed to be an empty room, this idiotic Brit was also fully exposed. I don’t know how much she saw before the panic kicked in and I’d covered myself up, it all happened pretty quickly so I’d like to think not much and I was rather grateful that I’d slept with my back facing the door. I figure a rear view is slightly better than catching the frontal view although I’m sure she wasn’t appreciative of either.

I quickly dragged my disgraced self out of the room and faced the walk of shame to the reception desk to complete my late check out, accompanied with the hangover from hell which was perhaps some form of karma. I began the night drunken dancing with some British guy in an Irish bar. I swiftly moved on to flirt with some Italian woman in front of her boyfriend before ending my trip with a naked surprise for the hostel staff. It was a night with an interesting story but perhaps not my finest evening or proudest moment.

After checking out, the rest of my afternoon was left to recover and reflect in my self-disappointment. I made my way to the airport, ordinarily an airport beer-garden would have been a blessing but I couldn’t face another beer before catching my flight home from München. I’d had a cracking trip with lots of memories but it was time for me to go home.

A year later I was heading back to Bayern and you’ll be pleased (or maybe you won’t?) to hear that it was a much tamer affair. You’ll have to wait for that story though.

Next up: a trip to Belgium!

München – Trip 1, part 1

I announced my return to the blog at the end of August and intended to have posted again before now. Part of my struggle was because I was torn on what to post next. Should I jump straight in to the USA summer trip or do I stick to the blog theme of posting about my trips chronologically? I opted for the latter.

So now that my summer fun in the US is over with, let’s rewind. Last time out on the blog we were focusing on Bilbao (May 2015), three months later I was readying myself for the next trip: München aka Munich!

For the third consecutive year I was going to Germany, having only first visited the country for the first time in 2013 (Köln) before visiting Berlin (2014). My growing fondness of Germany could probably be attributed to two common interests: beer and football! Whilst both are loved all over Germany, nowhere does that seem to be truer than in München (Munich) who happen to be world-famous for their beer (Oktoberfest anyone?) and are also home to Germany’s biggest football club – Bayern München.

It was the latter that was the inspiration for visiting (although I may have had a beer or two whilst in Germany too) as my beloved Tottenham Hotspur announced they’d be going to München for a pre-season tournament. Spurs in the Allianz Arena with no importance on the result? Sign me up! I knew I had to go!

Munich21 — Outside Allianz Arena on the Wednesday!

On the Tuesday I flew out to München, it was a tad frustrating I couldn’t fly any earlier but such were the circumstances at the time. I landed with the intention to rush over to München’s Allianz Arena via my hotel to drop off my things. Having never been to München before I ended up jumping on the wrong S-train, it still took me to central München but seemed to have more stops than the other direction, not ideal given my flight had been delayed so I was stretched for time to get to the stadium. I dropped off my things at the hotel as quickly as possible and then made a quick dash for München’s U-Bahn (tube / metro / subway).

Nevertheless it was clear I wasn’t going to get there on time, admittedly it was only pre-season so it wasn’t a major issue but given Tottenham were playing first (in the first of 2 games) I’d hoped to catch the start. It wasn’t to be and as I strolled up to the Allianz Arena it was deserted, not helped by being in the middle of nowhere but most spectators were already in their seats.

I walked up to the gate and was prepared for a quick body search before entry which put my German to the test for the first time. On my two previous trips to Germany I knew nothing so it was nice coming back with some basic vocabulary in the locker. As the security guard searched me he threw a question in my direction: “Schlüssel? he asked.

Damn, I know that word! What is it? Bowl..? No, that’s schüssel – no L! Why would he ask that anyway you idiot? Hmm.. key..? KEY! Yes, there’s a key in my pocket! That makes sense!

“Ja.. Schlüssel” I replied perhaps a bit too enthusiastically.

Entry accepted, I made my way in to the stadium feeling pretty smug with myself. “Wow, I’m practically fluent”
Of course I wasn’t, I still struggled a lot throughout this trip but it was a sign that I was going in the right direction at least in terms of learning the language. I could come to Germany and not be solely dependent on English for once!

The Allianz Arena is a cracking stadium, up there with one of my favourites in the 40+ football stadiums I’ve visited. German football really is the pinnacle for me in terms of fan experience and it was a nice novelty walking in and grabbing a beer before finding my seat – a decent beer too! I’d missed the first half to find Spurs were losing but soon found my friend Daniel in our seats enjoying the experience. Following our game there was another game with the two winners and two losers set to play the following day, of which we were the latter.

On our way back to the U-Bahn after the two games it had become clear Daniel was drunker than I realised, he’d made the most of arriving in München a day earlier and had squeezed in some beers earlier in the day which was highly amusing for me. Whilst I’d seen Daniel drunk before it was possibly the drunkest I’d seen him so the strength of the German beers had seemingly gone to his head. Not that it stopped us making a pub-stop back in the centre of the city. We’d found an Irish bar with a scattering of Spurs fans enjoying the trip and grabbed a quick beer before calling it a night.

Wednesday had much more of the same in store. Whilst tamer than a competitive European away game we were still planning to soak up some of the pre-game atmosphere. We agreed to meet around lunch so beforehand I woke up early and joined a ‘free’ walking tour, always a great way to see the city.

It’s a good way to familiarise yourself with a new city and they’re usually pretty educational too, it was a chance to learn that München wasn’t all beer and lederhosen and had quite an interesting history too! The tour covered the role the city played in the rise of Hitler and also told some more light-hearted stories with the help of the Glockenspiel – found in München’s Marienplatz. Every day you’ll find hordes of tourists looking up at the belltower as a couple of historical stories are played out.

The rest of Wednesday was football-focused and consisted of a bit of singing, plenty of beers and another two enjoyable games of football (Spurs success this time too!).

We made our way back in to the city centre after the football, had a beer or two and then called it a night. My plan for Thursday was to take a daytrip somewhere, I was tempted to visit the famous Neuschwanstein Schloss (castle that was inspiration for Disney) and also the Dachau concentration camp. Those of you following the blog for a while will know I opted for the latter which you can read about here: A lesson learned in Dachau or a look in to the future?

Dachau was moving, it’s hard to visit somewhere like that and not feel something. Germany has the best pick-me-up though and that’s good beer! I got back to München late on Thursday afternoon and arranged to meet up with Daniel, we decided to spend our last night together with some beers at the Viktualienmarkt. They have a number of food options and additionally a cracking beer garden – perfect given the weather. We had a fun evening and were probably one of the last to leave, the staff clearing tables and stacking benches was a good hint that it was time for us to go.

It was a good end to our third European adventure together following Lisboa and Firenze, on Friday Daniel was heading home and I’d be temporarily saying goodbye to München too. I’d be back on Saturday so it wasn’t a long farewell but it does mean you’ll have to wait for part 2.

Next up was a daytrip to Augsburg on the Friday! Stay tuned!

Jason