This is a recounting of the first day of a trip that Sahana and I went on in October 2016. We had planned this for a while as a way to celebrate 25 years of marriage together. We would have loved to have our kids travel with us but they were both busy (one in college and another at work). We did this trip on our return from India.
Our flight out of Bangalore was at 3am and we struggled to stay up as we waited for our flight. Fortunately, the flight was on time and we settled in for the long (9hrs 30min) flight to Frankfurt. Both of us slept for the most part of the flight which was very smooth and uneventful. We landed at Frankfurt about 30 min ahead of time. Our layover at Frankfurt was fairly short (75 min) so the extra 30 min came in very handy. It gave us more time to complete immigration and grab a coffee before proceeding to our next flight to Munich, our first stop.
The flight to Munich was very short, in sharp contrast to our first flight. We landed in Munich around 11am after a 45 min flight. Our baggage arrived quite quickly, so we were ready to head out and do some sightseeing by noon. Our plan was to:
In Munich, it was very cloudy and chilly (but not uncomfortably so). We spent quite a lot of time getting to know the locations of the storage lockers and getting foreign exchange, a bit to eat, talking to the Munich information bureau about directions , etc. So, by the time we actually set out for sight-seeting, it was close to 1:30pm. We started by walking to Marienplatz from the station. We passed Karlsplatz (or Stachus, as they prefer to call it) on the way with the fountain in the middle and a great view of the structures in the area, like the Justizpalast and the Karistor. On the other side of the Karistor is the promenade or shopping avenue that leads to Marienplatz. We walked leisurely through this street till we reached the Marienplatz, with the stunning New Town Hall (Neues Rathaus) on one side. We walked through the gateway into a courtyard kind of thing where we admired the building and the architecture from the inside. There was one section with slanted / sloped balconies that intrigued us especially.
Coming back out into the Marienplatz, we took in the amazing detail and intricate architecture of the Rathaus including the Glockenspiel, the gargoyles and depictions of the various notable figures from Bavarian history. Next, we continued on to see the Residenz (from outside) and the Odeonplatz with the English Gardens on one side and Feldherrnhalle on the other. We entered the English Gardens and walked around for a bit, taking pictures.
The ironic thing was that it was the last day of Oktoberfest...in Munich and we were both not interested in trying the beer. Almost everybody around us probably had large quantities of beer sloshing around inside them but no, not us. After exiting the English Gardens, we continued to walk around the streets of the old Munich town area including the Old Town Hall, various cathedrals, the Viktualenmarkt area and the Bavarian National Theater. We stopped at a Starbucks in the Viktualenmarkt area for a coffee and a much needed recharge of our phone batteries. Next, we made our way back to the Marienplatz and as luck would have it, it was exactly 5pm, so the famous Glockenspiel show was just starting. We watched in fascination as we listened to the music and the glockenspiel mechanism did its thing. There was a huge crowd that had gathered for the show and it was well worth the price ($0) we paid for it!
We walked back to the Munich Central railway station but we also realized that our train was actually scheduled for 7:19pm, not 6:45pm like we had originally thought, so it gave us some more time to do a bit more sightseeing. We decided to check out another part of the Munich (The art district), but due to an error in the way we read the map, we ended up walking in the wrong direction for about 25 min in wet/rainy conditions before we realized our mistake and ruefully made our way back to the station. We were hungry with all the walking we had done (20000+ steps), so we had a quick bite to eat in a restaurant and then proceeded to wait for our train. Before that, we picked up one one of our suitcases from the short-term storage facility.
Somehow, without us realizing it, our train had arrived on platform 16 and it was already 7:16 by the time we started walking towards our coach. I had reserved first-class seats since it was only a little bit more expensive than the normal (2nd class) fare. We realized that it was already 7:18pm and that our coach was going to be one of the last (or first, depending on how you looked at it), so we decided to hop on to a 2nd class coach and then make our way to the 1st class coach inside, else we risked missing our train, knowing the Germans' obsession with punctuality. As it turned out, the train started about 1-2 min late, but it was still good that we decided to enter the 2nd class coach because the train started before we were seated in our coach. We made our way to our seats and settled in just as the train was leaving the station.
It was a quick 1hr 41min trip to Salzburg, our next stop. The journey was very smooth, our coach was mostly empty (and thus very quiet). It was difficult to judge how fast the train was going since it was dark outside by then, but I suspect it reaches speeds of about 200km/h. We slept for the most part since we were exhausted from the day's activities. At Salzburg main station (Hauptbahnhof), we alighted and made our way down to the main lobby. Our hotel (Hotel Scherer) was very near but the fact that it was late in the evening (around 9pm) and raining made us decide to take a cab to our hotel. It cost us about 8 euros which we thought was a tad excessive but we were just relieved to have a bed to lie down on. Before that, however, our check-in was delayed by about 20 min because a large group of schoolgirls (teenagers) had just arrived in a bus from Italy (presumably). There were about 40-45 girls jostling around with luggage and talking excitedly among themselves while their chaperones tried to sort out the check-in and ensure that all of them were properly assigned to rooms. We realized later that the elevator was very small, so only two girls could fit with their luggage at a time, so it took a long time for the lobby to clear enough for us to be able to go up to the counter to check in. We picked up our keys and went up to our room only to find that they'd given us a room with two separate twin beds, so we went down to ask for one with a single double bed. It cost us 10 more euros per night but the room was bigger and more nicely outfitted, so it was worth it. Wifi was also not free, so we had to shell out another 10 euros for 24 hours of usage (metered usage, not elapsed time).
We crashed out early due to the exhaustion of travel, the walking around and the jet lag.
Our flight out of Bangalore was at 3am and we struggled to stay up as we waited for our flight. Fortunately, the flight was on time and we settled in for the long (9hrs 30min) flight to Frankfurt. Both of us slept for the most part of the flight which was very smooth and uneventful. We landed at Frankfurt about 30 min ahead of time. Our layover at Frankfurt was fairly short (75 min) so the extra 30 min came in very handy. It gave us more time to complete immigration and grab a coffee before proceeding to our next flight to Munich, our first stop.
The flight to Munich was very short, in sharp contrast to our first flight. We landed in Munich around 11am after a 45 min flight. Our baggage arrived quite quickly, so we were ready to head out and do some sightseeing by noon. Our plan was to:
- Store one large suitcase in a long-term luggage storage facility in Munich Central railway station
- Store one large suitcase in a short-term luggage storage facility in Munich Central railway station
- Do some sight-seeing in Munich for about 5 hours till 6pm carrying our backpacks.
- Return to Munich Central to pick up our suitcase from the short-term facility
In Munich, it was very cloudy and chilly (but not uncomfortably so). We spent quite a lot of time getting to know the locations of the storage lockers and getting foreign exchange, a bit to eat, talking to the Munich information bureau about directions , etc. So, by the time we actually set out for sight-seeting, it was close to 1:30pm. We started by walking to Marienplatz from the station. We passed Karlsplatz (or Stachus, as they prefer to call it) on the way with the fountain in the middle and a great view of the structures in the area, like the Justizpalast and the Karistor. On the other side of the Karistor is the promenade or shopping avenue that leads to Marienplatz. We walked leisurely through this street till we reached the Marienplatz, with the stunning New Town Hall (Neues Rathaus) on one side. We walked through the gateway into a courtyard kind of thing where we admired the building and the architecture from the inside. There was one section with slanted / sloped balconies that intrigued us especially.
Coming back out into the Marienplatz, we took in the amazing detail and intricate architecture of the Rathaus including the Glockenspiel, the gargoyles and depictions of the various notable figures from Bavarian history. Next, we continued on to see the Residenz (from outside) and the Odeonplatz with the English Gardens on one side and Feldherrnhalle on the other. We entered the English Gardens and walked around for a bit, taking pictures.
The ironic thing was that it was the last day of Oktoberfest...in Munich and we were both not interested in trying the beer. Almost everybody around us probably had large quantities of beer sloshing around inside them but no, not us. After exiting the English Gardens, we continued to walk around the streets of the old Munich town area including the Old Town Hall, various cathedrals, the Viktualenmarkt area and the Bavarian National Theater. We stopped at a Starbucks in the Viktualenmarkt area for a coffee and a much needed recharge of our phone batteries. Next, we made our way back to the Marienplatz and as luck would have it, it was exactly 5pm, so the famous Glockenspiel show was just starting. We watched in fascination as we listened to the music and the glockenspiel mechanism did its thing. There was a huge crowd that had gathered for the show and it was well worth the price ($0) we paid for it!
We walked back to the Munich Central railway station but we also realized that our train was actually scheduled for 7:19pm, not 6:45pm like we had originally thought, so it gave us some more time to do a bit more sightseeing. We decided to check out another part of the Munich (The art district), but due to an error in the way we read the map, we ended up walking in the wrong direction for about 25 min in wet/rainy conditions before we realized our mistake and ruefully made our way back to the station. We were hungry with all the walking we had done (20000+ steps), so we had a quick bite to eat in a restaurant and then proceeded to wait for our train. Before that, we picked up one one of our suitcases from the short-term storage facility.
Somehow, without us realizing it, our train had arrived on platform 16 and it was already 7:16 by the time we started walking towards our coach. I had reserved first-class seats since it was only a little bit more expensive than the normal (2nd class) fare. We realized that it was already 7:18pm and that our coach was going to be one of the last (or first, depending on how you looked at it), so we decided to hop on to a 2nd class coach and then make our way to the 1st class coach inside, else we risked missing our train, knowing the Germans' obsession with punctuality. As it turned out, the train started about 1-2 min late, but it was still good that we decided to enter the 2nd class coach because the train started before we were seated in our coach. We made our way to our seats and settled in just as the train was leaving the station.
It was a quick 1hr 41min trip to Salzburg, our next stop. The journey was very smooth, our coach was mostly empty (and thus very quiet). It was difficult to judge how fast the train was going since it was dark outside by then, but I suspect it reaches speeds of about 200km/h. We slept for the most part since we were exhausted from the day's activities. At Salzburg main station (Hauptbahnhof), we alighted and made our way down to the main lobby. Our hotel (Hotel Scherer) was very near but the fact that it was late in the evening (around 9pm) and raining made us decide to take a cab to our hotel. It cost us about 8 euros which we thought was a tad excessive but we were just relieved to have a bed to lie down on. Before that, however, our check-in was delayed by about 20 min because a large group of schoolgirls (teenagers) had just arrived in a bus from Italy (presumably). There were about 40-45 girls jostling around with luggage and talking excitedly among themselves while their chaperones tried to sort out the check-in and ensure that all of them were properly assigned to rooms. We realized later that the elevator was very small, so only two girls could fit with their luggage at a time, so it took a long time for the lobby to clear enough for us to be able to go up to the counter to check in. We picked up our keys and went up to our room only to find that they'd given us a room with two separate twin beds, so we went down to ask for one with a single double bed. It cost us 10 more euros per night but the room was bigger and more nicely outfitted, so it was worth it. Wifi was also not free, so we had to shell out another 10 euros for 24 hours of usage (metered usage, not elapsed time).
We crashed out early due to the exhaustion of travel, the walking around and the jet lag.
