Suitcase Stories of the Shea's: Munich, Germany

On the morning of December 26th we headed to the airport and flew to Munich, Germany. We were excited to have Paul and Angie still with us and looking forward to this part of the trip when we were going to travel together before they had to go back home to the U.S. Here is us having a quick coffee while waiting for the cab to bring us to the airport!

We arrived in Munich in the mid afternoon after taking the train from the airport which was about a 45min ride. Once we got checked into our hotel we headed out to wander into the city center. The streets were still very pretty and decorated from Christmas.

We also walked through the square home to Munich's famous Glockenspiel. We thought it was supposed to play it's song on the hour and the life sized people were going to move around however turns out it is only at 11:00am and 12:00pm during the winter. More on that later in this post... It was very pretty seeing it all lit up especially with the large Christmas tree there as well!

Since we were all pretty hungry and wanted some German beer we found ourselves at the famous Hofbrauhaus fairly quickly! The Hofbrauhaus was founded in 1589 by the Duke of Bavaria and is one of Munich's oldest beer halls. It was originally founded as the brewery to the old Royal Residence. Here is what it looks like from the outside...

The inside is huge! We walked around for a bit before finding a table and ordering a round of their giant beers!

Cheers to Germany!

The food was yummy too! Especially the soft pretzels and the massive desserts!

Our first full day started out on a bit of a bad note... Brian and I slept through our alarm! We had planned to leave on a 9:58am train to visit Neuschwanstein Castle and the 4 of us had planned to be ready and meet to go to breakfast at 8:15. When we woke up to a knock on our door it was 8:30am! Luckily we still had plenty of time to quick get ready and grab a pastry at the train station! The train ended up being the second part of our bad morning... it was PACKED!!! Since there are no assigned seats outside of First Class if you don't get there early enough you risk not finding a place to sit. (They do not just sell enough tickets for seats available.) We realized after the fact that since the 9:58am train was the first train of the morning that is significantly cheaper then the earlier ones this is also what lead it to be so packed. We ended up standing literally squished up against a wall in a passageway between two of the cars. Not exactly what we were hoping for since it was a 2 hour long ride!! Luckily we were by the door so at some of the stops we could open it for a quick breath of fresh air! I wasn't sure we were going to make it in the beginning! This is where Brian coined the line that stuck with us for the rest of the trip, "It's all about the experience!" Paul's words in the moment and while thinking he was going to be sick, "Well I don't like this experience!" Once we FINALLY got off the train in the adorable tiny village of Fussen somehow we quickly forgot about the train experience because the view of the snowcapped mountains were incredible! Below are a few pics of the village... we wished we had more time to wander the area but quickly found a cab to beat the rest of the rush from the train that was also headed to the town at the base of the castle via bus.

Once the cab brought us to the small town at the base of the walk up to the Neuschwanstein castle we quickly realized a massive line to buy tickets! It was around 1:00pm and they were already selling tickets
for entries at 4:00pm (around the time it normally closes but they were extending since it was so busy with holiday travelers, etc.) We were sure glad we stuck it out on the train and didn't get off to take a later one because we wouldn't have been able to get in! Once we had our tickets in hand we enjoyed another german meal complete with more pretzels, beer and my favorite part... cheese spaetzle(traditional german dumpling) tasted like mac n'cheese!

After lunch it was time to start our walk up the mountain to the castle! Below is a picture of it in the distance. It is just so beautiful nestled between the snowcovered Bavarian Alps. On top of it we were lucky enough to have blue sky and the sun shining! We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day to be there!

You can take horse drawn carriages up and down the mountain to get to the castle however we choose to walk. It is a pretty path through the trees and even a few waterfalls along the way.

Once we got to the top we were amazed by the views looking back down the mountain and of the beauty of the castle up close. The Cinderella castle at Walt Disney World was built after Neuschwanstein Castle! Certainly looks magical! On the tour although our guide was hard to understand (similar to when we were there on the high school trip) we learned a few interesting things...The castle was built for King Ludwig II starting in 1869 and took more then two decades before Ludwig actually moved in. It was still under construction on the inside and turns out it was never fully completed because Ludwig lived there only 172 days he died a mysterious death! The inside of the castle has tremendous detailing everywhere (sorry couldn't take pictures). The most amazing part was his bedroom in which 14 woodcarvers spent 4 years working on just the carvings above his bed alone!

One of the reasons I was most excited to go back to Neuschwanstein Castle was to buy another print like the one I had lost on the high school Europe trip approx. 12 years earlier! I had bought a print similar to the one I am holding in the picture to the right and carried it around carefully the rest of the trip only to leave it on our connection flight on the way home along with my connection ticket! Turned out to be a mess... So happy I was able to return and buy a new one! The goal is to get this one matted and framed! After touring the castle had a much less eventful ride back to Munich! We all were able to SIT... Whew!

Our last full day in Germany we had another nice blue sky day in Munich! We made sure to get to the square by 11:00am to hear the Glockenspiel and see the life sized people and horses come alive in the center green area of the clock. The performance goes on for about 15 minutes and it chimes and re-enacts two stories from the 16th century. It consists of 43 bells and 32 life-sized figures.