Summer 2011 Europe Trio - Munich ( July 4th - 6th)

Day Seven - Munich:

The old town of Munich looked very interesting as we walked back last night so we decided to just take our time and explore the area today. The main square was closed off to pedestrians only and there were many of them for sure. It made for a very lively plaza, full of people, shops, streetside performers, and even fruit stands. The buildings weren't as old as Prague's or Berlin's, but in the backdrop of the main walk were old cathedrals and churches which definitely adds interests. We chose not to join any tours here because of our limited time. Our hotel was very close to the main square and after our 2 days here I feel like I know the area, but because we didn't get the history and the tours like we did in Berlin and Prague, I felt like I didn't know the city at all. I know the map and I know what the buildings look like, but there lacks the depth that comes with knowing the history of a place.






Janey liked Munich best of all three cities. She states its because of the combination of old and new in the same place. I suspect, it might be because of the shops. Her first impression of Munich (developed through walking in the "darker" areas of the main train station) quickly changed when she walked the plaza and saw the many shops and name brands here. Note to other women reading this, there's a street called Maximillianstrause that many of the high end name brands all within a couple of blocks. There was also no coincidence that many of the cars parked on the same street were exotics. So as Janey was happily shopping away, I was happily photographing the building cars. You'll see in my photograph below that she did some "heavy damage" in this shopping stroll.








In the afternoon, we decided to check out the new BMW Welt (translated to BMW World) since we are in their hometown. A tip for car fans: did you know that BMW stands for Bavarian Motorwerks? Yup, Munich is the capital of Bavaria, one of Germany's 16 states. BMW Welt was very easy to get to, right by their Olympia Park. It's a huge cluster of buildings including BMW main office, their museum, their main plant, and their new car pickup center. Our timing was off because we apparently have to pre-book for the plant tour and their museum is closed on Mondays. Nevertheless, we explored BMW Welt (their new car pickup center) and that was amazing in itself. It was much more than just a showroom. They had some of BMW's history on display along with interactive displays for people to learn about their individual technologies and features available on their cars. There was a motorcycle section and a large gift shop. But for me, the most impressive was the building. It was a beautiful example of modern German architecture; a great counter balance to all the classic buildings we've seen so far.








Day Eight - Munich/Stuttgart:

Being a Porsche fan and fellow Porsche owner, I had to make a roadtrip to Stuttgart, where it all started. I was excited to pick up our rental car (fingers crossed and hoping that it was a foreign brand) and couldn't wait to experience driving in Europe. The experience was amazing, full of wonderful and strange feelings I haven't felt. My first instance of this was when I was coming up to two Polizei (German for Police) cars and I instinctually slowed down and pulled in behind them. Behind me comes a BMW 1 series which zooms by me and the cops. I had a sudden OMG feeling, but then remembered that we were on the Autobahn and understood why the cops didn't go after him. It's a great system where people can go as fast as they want as long as it's not reckless. It works because these people know how to drive. They understand what it means to "Stay right, unless passing", something that Canadians (Especially BC drivers) need to learn from. I managed to get myself an Opel and was gunning it as hard as I can and still got the spooks when I looked in my rear view and saw cars coming up my tail fast! I was doing about 180 km/h so they must have been well beyond 200! I had a strange feeling quickly got out of the way to the right lane. Ah, the beauty of the Autobahn!






We finally got ourselves to the new Porsche Museum and I was excited like a schoolboy on a fieldtrip to the zoo. The whole district is Porsche headquarters, very much like what Munich Olympic Park was to BMW. The Porsche Museum is a beautiful modern structure that looks like it floats above the round-about driveway. The interior is kept all white so the "art" inside is highlighted. The whole museum is designed in a ramp layout which allows for a chronological display of all of Porsche's cars beginning from the year 1900 to current day. I was having a blast photographing everything I saw. There were so many beautiful angles to the car and the space. It's nothing short of eye candy for designers and car enthusiasts. Double impact if you're both!





After they mopped up my trial of drool from the museum floor, we headed back towards Munich. We had plans to check out other places along the way, but my drooling costed us valuable time. But let me tell you, it was worth it.





Since it was our last night last night here, we decided to check out another highly rated restaurant, Augustine's Beerhaus. It's a local brewery that is also a restaurant. It had a great atmosphere, with bench seats like a highschool cafeteria. All the young people from the Hostel across the street probably helped with that. We decided to go upstairs to their rooftop patio and take in the twilight. It was a large but cozy patio in between 2 brick buildings; really gives you that medieval feeling. Being the last day here, Janey was determined to try German's famous Pork knuckles. I opted for the roasted chicken with a 1/2 litre of their famous Augustine Lager. The food was excellent and the atmosphere was amazing. Definitely a must try for those of you thinking of visiting.





We drove back to the hotel just after sunset and reflected on what a great city it was. My only regret is that we didn't have more time to explore the history of it and their famous castle in the mountains an hour south of Munich.




Overall, the trip was amazing. The people in Germany were super-friendly and helpful. In Prague, we experienced a mixture; the people on the streets were generally friendly, but the public servants were unfriendly and cold. One common theme for all 3 cities though is how much they love their beer and how cheap it was (Heck, it's cheaper than water). Case in point, we saw this one mountain biker on the subway and he had some serious gear with saddle bags and all. But the one thing that stood out for me was that he had a pouch in front of his handlebar where he used to store his beer. Of course!

With so much to see and do that I've forgotten what the first parts were like now. Thank god for blogs and photos.

Summer 2011 Europe Trio - Prague (June 31st - July 3rd)

Day Three - Travel / Prague

My first impression of Prague was not a good one. Coming into the main train station, I can see a lot of graffiti and the buildings were not as kept-up as the majority that I saw in Germany. Their Metro station was quite dirty and needs a lot of TLC. Their subway trains and tram cars shows has many marks of vandalization. Also, reading about the pickpocket warnings in the guide book did not help the image at all.



Our hotel Czech Inn turned out to be a very pleasant little hotel that had a combination of Hostel shared rooms, private hotel rooms, and even apartment rooms for multiple people. The staff was very friendly and there was a lively atmosphere full of travelers sharing and interacting. I guess that’s the upside of a hostel. At check-in time, they could not locate our reservation but we eventually determined that we were 1 day too early. I had messed up again and we weren’t supposed to leave Berlin until the next day. This realization of course comes a little bit too late because we are now in Prague so… C’est la vie.




After we got things sorted out, we decided to go and check out a local microbrewery/restaurant/pub that was highly recommended by our hotel host. They served local Czech food and some German favourites. The beer was quite amazing and it’s no wonder they’ve been winning “Best Brew” awards for quite a few years. I had the coffee beer which had a beautiful aroma and a creamy aftertaste. Janey tried their beer mixed with honey and that was quite delicious also. Czech and Germans have similar food which consists of mostly meat so it makes it challenging for true vegetarians. Not to mention that there was an E Coli scare so eating raw vegetable was cautioned against. We tried a few items, one of which had a Bohemian dumpling with it. Janey must have been a bit excited to finally have dumplings so many days away from Vancouver’s Chinese food. But to our disappointment, “dumplings” to them is actually a bread roll that they use to dip with their sauces. Quite delicious but I can tell Janey wasn’t a fan.




Day Four - Prague:

You know the saying “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover”? Well, it’s a good tip. We ventured out to Staremesto or “Old Town” with a free tour that just happened to be at our hotel door step as we were walking out. He asked if we were interested in a free city tour, and I figured, what the heck so off we went. He worked for Sandeman Tour Company and they happen to be quite a good tour company that offers free tours in many European cities. Their tour guides are always local people that speak English and work on a tip only basis. Although this tour is free, they do offer other paid tours also. We actually ended up on a 2nd (paid) tour with them for the afternoon.





Prague’s old town is a charming enclave of beautiful old buildings tightly packed together in winding, cobbled stone streets closed off for pedestrians only. It reminds me very much of fairytales storybooks, just less the dragons, prince, and princesses. In constrast to Berlin, most of these buildings are original. Hitler is hated by many here, but it was because of him that Prague has remained so original. He loved Prague and had given orders to inflict as little damage as possible because he wanted to retire here after he conquers the world. There are some Gothic and some Art Deco buildings, but many are of Art Nouveau architecture. Our tour guide was a history buff, so I learned a lot of Czech’s history starting from the Austrian empire, to Hitler, through to the Soviet’s Communist rule and up to the present day republic. I had a much deeper appreciation and understanding of this city and the country.






We had such a great experience that we decided to join their afternoon Castle tour. This guided us to the Castle district on the other side of the river which turned out to be another beautiful area with a very similar fairytale character. The view from their famous Charles Bridge had a medieval beauty to it. The castle was set way up high atop a village of red clay roofed buildings below. Like I mentioned early, all that’s missing is an armoured knight to ride through the cobbled street on his decorated horse. The Castle is a very old castle that dates back to 1000 years ago. The last piece to finish was St. Vitus’ Cathedral which King Charles had commissioned because he wanted it to be his final resting place. It actually took 500 years to complete so I don’t think he was able to wait.





Day Five - Prague:

Yesterday was a full day of tours so today, we decided to just walk around to explore on our own. Janey had noted some stores which she wanted to check out and I wanted to take more photos because my battery did not make it the full day yesterday.







We found a quaint restaurant on a side street that served pasta and oven-fired pizza. I had the pizza and it was delicious; light crust and ready in minutes from their authentic brick oven. They prepared it fresh in an open-to-view area; everything from kneading the dough to adding the topping, to firing it in the oven.




After lunch, we decided to walk further up the hill towards the castle district to explore more of their shops. We met a nice policeman who chatted with us a little bit and asked where we were from. Upon hearing Vancouver, he exclaimed Canucks! We went on to talk more about hockey and Jamyr Jagr, and Dominec Hasek. I tested his policing skills abit and asked if he can take a picture of us and he said he can’t cause he’s a policeman. I was sure he would’ve after all the hockey talk. Oh well.




After 2 days of continuous walking, our feet felt as heavy as sledge hammers. We decided to seek out a not so famous Garden attraction. It turned out to be a very pleasant formal garden that had several levels to it. From the top, you get a great view of the red clay roof of the buildings below. You can even see the Castle to one side. When were there, there was a wedding couple doing a photo shoot so we watched and had some rest time there.






Day Six - Travel / Munich:

It’s another travel day as we are off to our final stop Munich. We went to the train station early because our ticket is actually for tomorrow but we wanted to leave early to have more time in Munich. Most of the people we’ve met so far are quite friendly and helpful, but the majority of the city workers have not been. A lot of them don’t even look at you when addressing your questions and is very short with their answers. This was the case with us trying to figure out the platform that our train would be on. I had to goto the information desk 4 times and in the end, I still did not get a clear answer. Fortunately, in the last minute, we asked a local Czech woman and she confirmed that this is the right train, although the digital sign says it’s going somewhere else. How confusing! We found out she was going to Munich also, so in my mind, we’re sticking with her. After talking to her a bit, we found out that there are train operators on strike for a portion of our commute between the Czech and Germany border. So they have arranged for buses to connect us over to nearby German town where we had to catch the train into Munich.



This strike added about 2 hours to our travel so we are quite tired. After checking into the hotel, we decided to walk into old town to check out a restaurant called Ratskeller (think Rats Cellar) which seems to be very popular on Yelp. The restaurant is underground and yes, it does look like a cellar, albeit a very large one. The restaurant has beautiful barrel vaulted ceilings and has great character. Janey ordered a salmon and I ordered their roast duck. Both are super delicious! I think now, we can comfortable rest after a long day.