Munich
In late summer, we finally visited Munich. Jessie had wanted to go for a long time - I think with a somewhat romanticized idea of the city in her head.
The first few days we were there, the weather was pretty bad. Therefore, we spent one of them in the Deutsches Museum which it is now my favorite of all museums I’ve been to so far.
I’m a fan of technical museums in general but the sheer amount of items in the collection, the diversity of fields they are from, the context information and fun facts provided make this one truly stand out.
We saw planes, rockets, cameras as well as exhibits about cryptography and nuclear energy.
Due to heavy rains in the alps throughout the previous days, the Isar carried a lot of water; to a point where it felt strange to cross it via the various bridges in the city.
We also visited the famous Viktualienmarkt…
The highlight of the trip was a visit to the Zugspitze - the tallest mountain in Germany. A short drive to Garmisch-Partenkirchen brought us to the first station of the Zugspitzbahn. Me being afraid of heights and Jessie being sceptical of cable cars, we opted for the slower and longer ride to the top using the cogwheel train.
It dropped us on the “glacier plateau” from where it was possible to walk around and enjoy the view. I believe the picture below shows the small remaining glacier that’s present there. It can’t clearly be seen since it snowed a couple of days earlier and therefore everything was snow-covered anyway.
The views were spectacular, though, and we had picked just the right day with clear views. We should’ve brought sunglasses though. There was no getting used to the bright sun and the white snow. It only helped to look at the landscape through the viewfinder.
On the way back down, we stopped at the Eibsee and took a short hike. If we come back to the area, I would like to spend more time here and enjoy the crystal clear lake and views.
Back in Munich, we continued with lots of walks through the city and one of them lead us to the Amerikahaus - a center for transatlantic relations in a building originally used by the American military government after WW2. It offered a free(!) exhibit of photographs of life in Florida by Anastasia Samoylova.
Apart from the pictures, I also enjoyed the interesting architecture of the building.
We concluded our trip with a ride to the last stop of the S-Bahn in Herrsching and a hike from there to the Andechs monastery. The decision to visit was made back in Wolfsburg at the local beverage store that serves beers from there. All beers I’ve tried so far are delicious and I wanted to try them fresh from the tab.
To my surprise, the whole monastery seems very much focused on food and drinks now. There were multiple restaurants and beer gardens in the somewhat small area and not all that much monk business going on. But that what we were there for anyway - so we enjoyed some tasty food and a beer in the beer garden.
I enjoyed this trip and I’m sure we would find interesting things to do when visiting Munich for a second time but the trip also confirmed again that the parts of Bavaria I enjoy most are the nature around the big cities and authentic small-town experiences.