Germany Trip 2022 Day 6 (9th June) Fussen

(This posted is written on 24th Nov 2022, I finally have time as the school year has ended and I wish to finish some of the previous trip's posts before we embark on another Europe trip)

Germany Trip 2022 Day 5 (8th June) Salzburg-Austria

(This posted is written on 21st Nov 2022, I finally have time as the school year has ended and I wish to finish some of the previous trip's posts before we embark on another Europe trip)

Breakfast at Flemings Munich

Smaller breakfast area but cosy

Variety not as much but we loved it

The cold cuts

Very crowded platform heading to Austria

Just second class seats

Train operated by Austria company

We were amazed by the connectivity of Munich, as its just two hours away from Salzburg, Austria. Our previous day trip to Dresden was awesome and over there we learnt that the city was also just two hours away from Prague. However, we were not prepared to cross borders from Dresden then so we did not venture to Prague and only planned a day trip quite last minute. After we learnt that we could possibly visit Salzburg from Munich, we decided to make it one of our day trips. 

Before the whole summer Europe trip started, we only roughly planned out the itinerary and the cities we wished to visit, then I booked the hotels. However we did not plan the day schedule and the places we wanted to visit, only started with three nights Berlin and then three nights Munich etc. We only decided where to go one or two days before we got to the city as I know that P and I will change our plans according to mood, weather and energy level. 

After dinner the previous day, we dropped by the Munich HBF to book tickets to Salzburg Austria as I was not familiar with the booking on the DB app. I was mainly concerned about the class of seats, direction of travel during seat reservations and somehow I could not figure it out from the app. The ticketing counter was about to close but we managed to get in and was one of the last fews to purchase a physical ticket and made our seat reservations. Munich HBF was really amazing as the southern city of Germany is very well linked to many parts of Europe so there were many passengers all the time.

Very nice scenery "Sound of Music" style

The train goes from Germany-Austria-Hungary

Fortress views from the Mirabell Gardens

As we did not plan these days trips out from Germany beforehand, we did not have wifi access (we're still using good old ChangiRecommend wifi router) and we researched about all the places to visit beforehand. It was quite easy to get to all the recommended places I saw on the travel blogs, though some places had to be accessed by bus. We bought the tourist day pass that gave us free access to most of the sights and transport but we did not fully utilise it as we slowly strolled through the places and rested when we needed.

 

Crossing the river led us to the old town

Lots of tourists at the old city centre

LV medieval style

Very nice weather so more alfresco dining

Medieval style buildings all along the Getreidegasse

Salzburg is another awesome day trip that we've made that was really unforgettable, I would even rank it as best day trip we experienced for the whole two weeks we were in Europe, even better than Dresden. The weather was so fine so there were lots of tourists and visitors around, the city that where Mozart grew up was simply astonishing with the old stone buildings yet the vibes were vibrant. 

Feels very Italy here, the vibes are almost similar as Sienna

The iconic Mozart statue at the square

There was even Mozart chocs

So cute that I bought some

Entrance to the fortress behind the round building on the right 

Grand view of the fortress

It was generally easy to walk to the old town from the HBF and we could see the grand fortress even from the Mirabell Gardens across the river. After the busy shopping street, we got to the busy main square where there were many historical buildings and little shops. We wanted to get up to the fortress as its the main sightseeing place in the whole of Salzburg but for a moment we could not find the funicular to go up. We went to one of the shops to get water and souvenir and the lady shop owner guided us to the way there. 

Awesome view as we rode the funicular 

P was busy taking photos again

View through the fortress 

We took lots of photos

Picture perfect

The ride up the fortress in the funicular was free as we had our Salzburg tourist day pass. The whole trip up to the fortress was the highlight of our trip and it was really awesome, we spent a long time taking photos from fortress and looking at the wonderful view. We got our phones prepared to take a video of the ride down and it was really amazing once the tunnel opened up to the city view below. 

The queue to go up to the fortress

Cool little Austrian cemetery 

Our dinner, it was nice

We wanted to take the bus and visit another viewpoint but it took us quite sometime to find the bus stop and wait for the bus, thus we decided not to rush and just have a nice early dinner before heading back to the station to get back to Munich.

We noticed that the train always stop longer than usual when crossing the border of Austria and Germany, on the way back the border police even boarded the train and there was a passport check. A dubious looking family was chased away from the train as they failed to produce their paper. Due to the delay, it was already quite late when we were back in Munich. 

Germany Trip 2022 Day 4 (7th June) Munchen- Munich

(This posted is written on 20th Nov 2022, I finally have time as the school year has ended and I wish to finish some of the previous trip's posts before we embark on another Europe trip)

Train ride to Munich

First class seats 

The hotel room

Fully transparent shower cubicle

After our last breakfast at Berlin, we went to the train station to catch the 10am train to Munich, it was quite a long train ride of over 5 hours so we booked First Class tickets but we were a bit disappointed the seats were not like the ones in Italy. We took the seats with the small table and it was quite comfortable at first, till another passenger joined us. The train finally pulled up to Munich and my impression of the place was the vibes felt totally different from Berlin. We were really looking forward to the three nights at Munich due to its proximity to beautiful places and the black forest etc. The hotel we stayed in was Flemings Hotel München-City, it was just across the street from the station but nowhere as new as our hotel in Berlin. It's pretty neat though, so P loved it just as much. 

Impressive buildings greeted us

Town Hall at Marienplatz, the central of munich

The cops with their horses

National Theatre at Max Joseph Platz

Statue of the King

We reached Munich around 3pm, after a short rest in the hotel room, we went out at 5pm+ to take a look at the city. We walked from the hotel all the way to the main square at Marienplatz and Munich was a really a very vibrant place with rich culture. As munich is a city well known for drinking, we saw many people with their beer bottles in the area. There were also trendy shopping streets in addition to the historical and magnificent buildings.

We chose this alfresco restaurant

Quite a lot of patrons eating at restaurants here

Alfresco seating is common in summer

Our unique shower cubicle, embarrassing if its not couple?

We were totally absorbed by the lively atmosphere of Munich, but eventually we got hungry at 7+pm as we did not have lunch again. We were walking back along the busy shopping street while looking for a place to have our dinner. We even chose this restaurant and judging from the name, they probably specialise in schnitzel but we did not order that. P still have not given up on his beef steak and I tried traditional German dumpling stuff. The choice for our dinner was totally regrettable as P had the worst and driest steak he tasted in Germany and I guess my food was quite okay but not impressive. The restaurant felt touristy as it was along the main shopping street, the wait staff were just doing their job and waiting for their busy shift to end.

I also made the mistake of only putting on a thicker top but not bringing along a jacket since it was a bit warm when we arrived in Munich. It was chilly as the sun was setting soon, I ordered some alcohol to go with my dinner since I was feeling cold.

Germany Trip 2022 Day 3 (6th June) Berlin

(This posted is written on 20th Nov 2022, I finally have time as the school year has ended and I wish to finish some of the previous trip's posts before we embark on another Europe trip)

Wonderful breakfast at our hotel

 

As this is the last day we're in Berlin, we planned to see some sites in the city before we leave for Munich the next day. We're rather sleepy and tired after the previous day's trip so we went back to the hotel room and slept till 2pm before we started preparing to head out. I love trips in the summer for this reason. 

Tent in front of Berlin HBF for the Ukraine refugees

Took us awhile to find the U bahn train platforms

Only took 4 stops to get near enough

Gendarmenmarkt Berlin

Took selfie as P was busy with his toy photography

Us in front of the Concert Hall

We wanted to look at some of the historical buildings around Berlin and Gendarmenmarkt Berlin didnt fails us with its magnificent Concert Hall and two churches. We took the U bahn to get to a station nearby, there was a slight drizzle when we reached but we managed to walk to the Museum Island after that. There was a flea market and many people around the Spree River area as we made our way to the island, it did not look like a Monday afternoon at all. 

Lots of people going around on these e-scooters

Nice art market along the Spree River while we walked

More selfies as P was busy again

Very grand structures on Museum Island

The grand Berliner Dom/ Berlin Cathedral

More selfies

People are supporting Ukraine here

Although some visitors to Berlin would spend time visiting the museums on the island, I know that P is not really into these so we only visited the place to look at the buildings from outside. The streets around the museum island is quite vibrant and I wouldnt think Berlin is boring after visiting the area. There are actually lots of things to see but we only had this one day left. 

P took lots of photos in front of the cathedral

Small cafe where we had dinner and hide from the rain

Another selfie while waiting for the food

The next place we wanted to visit was East Side Gallery where there are lots of mural and also the Berlin Wall, a historical site that commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall and the unification of East and West Berlin. The place was some distance from where we were so we were walking to the bus stop when it suddenly rained. We took shelter in a small cosy alfresco cafe and decided to have dinner there while waiting for the rain to stop. Anyway it was already 6pm and we did not have lunch earlier, thus we were also hungry and the timing was just right for us. 

Food was nice though beef still not as rare as we liked

Tried the typical German schnitzel 

Chanced upon Alexanderplatz after dinner

Finally found East Side Gallery

World Peace

The most iconic mural 

We chanced upon Alexandarplatz after dinner while we were trying to figure out a way to get to East Side Gallery, we wanted to take a bus there but kept missing our way to the bus stop. Anyway, Alexandarplatz is vibrant and an iconic area of Berlin though I noted that the mix of culture and people there are more obvious than other area. Thankfully its summer as we only got to East Side Gallery when it was 8pm, we finally found our way there after taking the S-bahn for the first time. It is a very touristy area and we saw more asians there than other areas. As the sun was already setting, the number of people there was also dwindling and we managed to take lots of photos with the iconic mural.

Germany is a city that support LGBT rights

Atmosphere was very nice at the East Side Park

Last look at the Berlin HBF

We were glad we managed to see all the sights in Berlin as planned and we were left with good memories of the city. We took the S-bahn back to the HBF and walked around the area a bit more before we said our goodbyes to the city, heading to Munchen the next day.