Welcome to our 2022-23 Europe Holiday Blog
Wednesday
7th Dec 2022
An early
start as we headed off at 7:10 to catch the train from Bathurst Railway Station
to Sydney. Met up with friends for lunch at The Little Snail in Darling
Harbour.
Picked up
our suitcases from the luggage storage at Central Station and headed off to the
airport. Arrived well before check-in time so sat and waited. The queue started
to build, but still no staff so we still just sat and waited. Eventually the
staff turned up, but we decided that we would wait for the queue to drop a bit.
Eventually decided we’d better line up as the queue had dropped a bit. Took
about 1 hour to transit the queue and there was still a long queue behind us. Off
to security and Joy was called out to have an “explosive residual” test.
We boarded
and the plane took off on time 9:50 pm. After an hour or so we hit some really
bad turbulence. Joy said it was the worst she had experience by far. Even with
our seat belts on our backsides cleared the seat!! The rest of the flight
wasn’t too bad as we had some more turbulence but only slight to moderate.
Arrived at Qatar 4:20 am with an interesting landing. Watched the “front view”
on the entertainment system and could see and feel the plane swerving along the
runway. We were some of the last to disembark and the plane was a pigsty with
mess everywhere.
Thursday
8th Dec 2022
4 hours in
Doha Airport, we boarded the next flight to take us to Munich. With a coffee
about $12 Joy gave that a miss. Our flight was uneventful, and we landed in
Munich just after 1:00 pm. Passed through passport control where we were to
show our passports, tickets showing a return leg, our accommodation details and
what funds we had to cover the trip (although they didn’t ask us for this last
one). Picked up our suitcases and headed to customs as we had some Milo and as
it has milk powder it was required to be declared. There was no one in customs
and the fellow at the green door (sitting on a chair – not doing anything that
we could see) just waved us through!! Got a train to Munich city and our accommodation.
The sun sets at about 4:30 and so it was dark by the time we’d settled in and
done our grocery shopping.
Friday
9th Dec 2022
Slept in
this morning and not out of bed until about 8:30. We went for a short walk to
look at the church just down the road and wandered around looking for a post
office. It was nice to get out and about and get a bit of a feel for the place.
Headed off at 1:15 to join our first guided tour for the holiday. We had 17 on
a walking tour of the Munich Christmas Markets. We were the only Australians
with most others being Americans, 2 Italians and 3 Spanish. Forgot to mention
that as we left the accommodation it started to snow very lightly and by the time
we started the tour it was snowing heavier but melting as it hit the ground. We
found out that this was the first snow of this winter so we must have brought
it with us!! Over the next 2 hours we visited some of the sights of Munich but
also several markets including a Medieval Markets which was like the others but
had older style buildings. One amazing item was a nativity scene created by a
blind man out of rocks and pebbles! The medieval market was set up to give a
feel for what the Christmas markets would have been like back then – they’ve
only been going for about 15 years. The tour was in English and gave us some
history of the places and the markets, and what things German people buy for
their Christmas decorations – a pyramid (a wooden tower that has vanes on the
top that are turned by the heat given off by candles that are placed on the
pyramid lower down – wonder how many house fires they have?), a nativity scene,
a tree (natural, of course), and decorations for the tree. Didn’t have time to
buy anything other than the opportunity to buy some glühwein which we gave a
miss. You pay about 4 euro for the gluhwein plus 4 euro deposit on the mug,
which you get back when you return it – if you return it. Being Friday, the
markets are also busier than most days, which we found out when we were heading
home and the crowds were heading to the markets. It was still snowing with some
settling but we were cold and wanted to get home.
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| Les and the Big Jolly Man at Christmas Markets, Munich |
Saturday
10th Dec 2022
Up early for a tour to Nuremburg. It was only a fairly small group of 13 people. Arrived in Nuremberg and had a short break so we bought a jam pretzel. Very nice.
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| Les with Jam Pretzel at Nuremberg Station |
We then started the tour of the old part of Nuremburg which has a town wall that goes about 80 percent of the way around the town and was built about 1,000 years ago. Being a Saturday, the Christmas markets were very busy, and we just walked through and out the other side.
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| Nuremberg Christmas Markets |
The guide told us where we had to meet after lunch and said we could have some free time for markets and lunch, but we stayed with her and went to the top of the Imperial Castle that has a view back over the city. Not bad view but have seen better. Steepish uphill but the route downhill was even steeper. Wandered the back streets and past the sculpture of Albrecht Dürer a famous painter from Nuremburg (who Les had never heard of!). Had lunch in the bus shelter as it is very cold, about minus 1 degree but with a cold wind coming straight off the snow! After lunch we took the bus to the Nazi Rally Grounds. This is where Adolf Hitler staged many rallies, and we got to stand in the exact spot that the rallies were held. Also saw the remains of the Congress Hall which was never finished. The pond next to this building had ice on part of it so yes it was cold. The train back from Nuremberg to Munich was extremely crowded, with people sitting on the floor and standing in the aisles.
Point to
note about Nuremburg – although the old town all looks old, it has actually
been rebuilt, as 90% of it was destroyed within an hour on January 2, 1945, as
a result of bombing by the US Army and Royal Air Forces.
Sunday
11th Dec 2022
Another
reasonably early start for a tour to Dachau Concentration Camp. Because of the
snow that had fallen overnight the view from the train was special. Seeing the
concentration camp covered with snow also added to the atmosphere. The
temperature was about minus 1 or 2 but felt like minus 3 to 4. Thankfully we
had decided to wear our thermals today, so were reasonably warm, but hands and
feet still got a bit cold. We had to be very careful as there were several icy patches,
and we had a few slips but no falls. The thought of being a prisoner in Dachau
in mid-winter with temperatures this cold and even colder and only having
wooden clogs and a pair of striped pajamas really hits home how bad the
prisoners had it even before how they were treated, the poor food, etc that they
were provided with, and the punishments they had. It amazes me how some humans
were able to treat other humans just because of their faith, beliefs or
thoughts. The first prisoners weren’t Jews but were Germans who didn’t meet
Hitler’s perfect Aryan race image or Germans that spoke out against his views.
Very little of the original bunk houses remain however a few of the huts have
been reconstructed to show the way they were. The original crematorium,
complete with ovens, is still there, and very sobering to see. Seeing the video
that was taken when the camp was liberated by the Allies was very confronting.
Unfortunately some people in the world haven’t learnt from these horrible days
and wars still occur.
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| Sculpture at Dachau Concentration Camp. It symbolizes the barbed wire and the prisoners. |
Monday
12th Dec 2022
Today was
our first DIY Day as we headed off to Burghausen. It was very cold this morning
and the train was late, so we were standing waiting in the cold. Our thermals
are working great, but fingers still got cold especially when we need to take
them out of our gloves to check the phones. When we got on the train we couldn’t
find first class so just jumped on and sat in 2nd class, even though
we have a Eurail First Class pass. Just after we left Munich Station the ticket
inspector came around and he told us where 1st class was, so we moved.
On this train there is a big difference between 2nd and 1st
class. Settled down for a 1 h 10 min trip to our first stop at Muhldorf
(Oberbay) where we had to change trains. The scenery is beautiful with fields
full of snow, a true winter wonderland and all from the comfort of a lovely
warm train and not having to drive. Along the way, we saw our first wildlife
that wasn’t a bird – some deer grazing in a snow-covered field.
From Muhldorf to Burghausen the train was definitely a regional train. 1st class was just a small section (12 seats) separated from 2nd by a sliding door. Maybe different seats and a little extra leg room but hard to tell. When we arrived, we had the choice of a 20-minute wait for the bus or walk the 1 km to the castle so headed off through the “new town”.
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| Les has found another friend at Burghausen. |
Passed an ice rink where they were playing something – a cross between curling and bowling. Need to research this one. Arrived at the beginning of the castle. As a bit of insight, you should know this is the longest castle in the world at 1,051 metres long. It is built on a ridge above the “old town”, so the walk was fairly flat. Great views in both directions but especially down over the old town, the Salzach river which forms the border between Germany and Austria, and across to Austria. There are some museums in the castle, but they all appeared closed.
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| Burghausen Castle |
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| View of the Old Town from Burghausen Castle. |
After walking the length of the castle, we headed down the steep (STEEP) path to the old town. A picture postcard scene!!
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| The start of the STEEP walked into the old Town, Burghausen. |
Some magnificent old buildings lining the central square with the square covered in cobblestones. As it was lunch time and we had missed morning tea headed to a café that was on the edge of the river and got a window table so we could watch the river pass by and look into Austria.
After lunch
we walked to the centre of the bridge and stood in Austria! Back for a quick
walk around the rest of the old town. We had noticed some stairs going down to “garage”
and Les checked it out to find that the medieval square has a modern car park
under it. How they built it is beyond us. The bus timetable said the next bus
was 2 minutes away, but we didn’t know if it was correct, so we decided to walk
back to the station. Only problem was it was ¾ of a kilometre uphill and Les
struggled a bit but managed to make it. Much easier once we reached flat ground
again.
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| The long walk up the road |
Arrived with
a few minutes to spare and jumped on the train. Hadn’t seen the bus come from
the old town so glad we walked otherwise it was an hour wait for the next
train.
Tuesday
13th Dec 2022
Rest Day.
Woke at 8:30 am to outside temperature of minus 10 but felt like minus 14! Joy
has come down with a cold and did a RAT test, which came back negative. From us
checking at regular intervals it appears the warmest it has gotten today was
minus 5 degrees!!!
Wednesday
14th Dec 2022
Another Guided Tour Day. Off to meet the tour guide at about 8:45. A big group today as we head off to see Neuschwanstein Castle. This is the castle that inspired Walt Disney when he created his logo and some of his cartoons. It’s known he visited the castle at least 45 time when serving in the Red Cross in France (he was too young to serve in the World War I as a soldier). We had 49 on the tour plus our two guides Matt and Kevin (English and Irish!!). We headed out of Munich on a coach and the weather isn’t looking very good, showers and cold. As we got closer to the castle the weather fined up a bit and the cloud lifted a bit. The country is surprisingly flat and then the mountains just pop up. We arrived at about 11:15 and were told to have lunch now as we would be heading off to the castles at 12:30 at the latest. We went for the cheap (?) and cheerful as compared to a sit-down restaurant meal in the hotel which quite a few of the others did. Les had chicken schnitzel and chips and Joy had bratwurst on a roll. The bratwurst tastes very much like a frankfurt and wasn’t as spicy as we thought they would be, and the roll was much smaller – totally in a different scale, and according to Joy’s brother, only exists so you don’t burn your fingers on the sausage.
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| Les' Chicken Schnitzel and Chips |
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| Joy's Bratwurst on a roll! |
After lunch we went for a walk through Schwangau which
is the town below the castles. Several shops selling souvenirs at greatly
inflated prices.
After lunch we first walked up to Hohenschwangau Castle, which is where King Ludwig II spent much of his childhood. We didn’t go in – only looked from the outside.
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| Hohenschwangau Castle |
Then we headed back through town and up to Neuschwanstein Castle which is about a 1.5 km walk each way and is a steep walk up the hill. You can get a horse carriage ride, but it only goes 2/3rds of the way and you still have to walk the rest of the way.
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| Neuschwanstein Castle |
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| Neuschwanstein Castle |
Once at the castle, waited for our tour – they start every 5 minutes and you only have 4 minutes from your scheduled time to get through the gates and to the starting point or you miss out. German precision engineering, other than the fact that the scanning machine couldn’t read a lot of the tickets!! No photos are allowed inside the castle. When King Ludwig II had the castle built there were to be 200 rooms but only 17 of them were ever finished. The king built several other castles and, in the process, bankrupted the family after spending the considerable wealth that had been built up over several centuries. The family opened the castle to the public (for a price) within 6 weeks of Ludwig II’s death – maybe hoping to get back some of what it cost? Great views from the balcony (photos allowed here). Lots of steps up and down in the castle and most were circular so started to get a bit giddy.
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| View from Neuschwanstein Castle |
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| View from Neuschwanstein Castle |
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| Mary's Bridge at Neuschwanstein Castle but it was closed. |
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| View from Neuschwanstein Castle |
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| View of Hohenschwangau from Neuschwanstein Castle |
To exit the castle you have to pass through 2 gift shops, worse than the duty free at the airport. We were lucky and the weather was fine while we were at the castles and at one stage we even had sunshine.
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| Yes some sunshine but only briefly. |
Thursday
15th Dec 2022
Had a quiet morning although the Kids went out in the snow and made a snowman, albeit a small one.
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| Not a bad effort considering they have no opposable thumbs |
Did a walk around parts of the town and historical locations but got lost at one point and the map was on the mobile so hard to follow.
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| Joy walking the streets of the more modern Munich |
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| Outdoor dining anyone? |
We eventually headed to the Hofbrauhaus (Beer House) for lunch at just after 12:00. Was quite busy and we found a table but then found a quieter area so moved to it. Ordered our lunch of goulash and potato dumpling for Joy and Poulard breast with baked potato and tomato ragout (ie grilled chicken and potato bake) for Les. Les’ was very nice but Joy’s was OK but salty. We also bought a pretzel which turned out to be much larger and expensive than expected. It also covered our salt intake for the next week!! Les also had apple juice with mineral water, which looked more like a beer!
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| Now that's a pretzel! and no, it's Apple Juice and Soda Water. |
Dessert was apple strudel with
vanilla ice cream. We both thought it was only average. This is a very
commercial place aimed squarely at tourists. Glad we have been but now we’ve
ticked off the bucket list probably wouldn’t go back. Les also lost one of his
gloves there so had to wrap his hand in his scarf. Luckily he has several more
pairs of gloves for the rest of the trip.
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| Park in Munich on our way home. |
Friday
16th Dec 2022
Earlyish start this morning as we needed to be at the railway station about 8:30 and had to buy some lunch – cheese pretzels and scrolls – as we forgot to go to the supermarket yesterday on the way home. 1st class on the train is just a few seats separated by a glass door from the rest of the carriage (2nd class). The train wasn’t as crowded as we thought it might be, being a Friday and plenty of snow about.
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| Decided to give the kids a day out today! |
A relaxing trip of about 1 hr 20 min saw us arrive at Garmisch Partenkirchen (GP) in sub zero temperatures. We checked the web cam at the top of Zugspitze and it was clouded in as was GP. We decided against doing the cog train to the summit as we know we will be doing one at Zermatt. Instead we walked from the station to the Tourist Information Centre with snow both on the ground and falling. Very helpful lady at the centre gave us some maps, a brochure, and details on how to get to Partnach Gorge. We took a bus that dropped us off at the Ski Station which is where the World Cup Ski Jumping has been held.
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| The big Ski Jump |
Then it was a 30 minute walk along a snow-covered road to the information/ticket office. The Gorge is spectacular in summer but in winter is even better as there was snow on the cliff walls and lots of frozen waterfalls. It’s very hard to describe so you will just have to look at the photos. While we were walking through the gorge it had been snowing heavily and when we got to the other end we didn’t exit to wander around the other tracks as we were worried about getting lost and didn’t have a proper map of the tracks.
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| They certainly know how to stack firewood in Europe |
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| A unique snowflake |
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| Partnach Gorge |
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| Partnach Gorge |
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| Partnach Gorge |
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| Partnach Gorge |
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| Partnach Gorge |
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| Partnach Gorge |
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| Partnach Gorge |
We returned the same way we came. It has continued to snow heavily with big fat fluffy snowflakes.
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| We let the Kids out to play again! |
We now have the 30-minute walk back to the bus stop.
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| Walk back to bus stop. |
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| Walk back to bus stop. |
We can certainly notice the extra snow on the ground compared to when we went out – so what did Joy do? Another Snow Angel, no video this time and she managed to slide down the slope into the gutter!
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| Joy as a Snow Angel. |
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| The snow is getting heavier. |
Back to the bus stop and had a 20-minute wait. Luckily there was a shelter that gave some protection. We talked to a fellow there who told us he was on a team building exercise where part of the exercise was to go to the top of the highest ski jump which is something like 80 meters above the ground. The ski jumpers are doing close to 100 kph when they get to the end of the jump. The children use the small jump from the age of 3 years and by 16 or 18 are on the full size jump. They were also preparing the slalom course on a 60 degree hill next to the jumps. There are competitions coming up including an annual Ski Jumping competition on New Year’s Day. He also told us that on the other side of one of the hills was a steeper slalom course which includes a 90 degree section (yes, that is straight up and down!!). Back to Munich, then went to Marienplatz and to the Hofbrauhaus to see if they had found Les’ glove there but no lost and found section so no luck. With so many people going in and out they probably just throw out anything left behind! A walk around the Christmas markets and a chance to see the Christmas tree all lit up. Being Friday afternoon it was fairly busy but bought some Lebkuchen (gingerbread). 5 pieces for 15.30 euros (about 25 AUD). Joy also had some glühwein – decided she isn’t keen on warm wine!
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| Marienplatz Christmas Tree |
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| Joy prefers her wine room temperature or colder! |
Train back to the main station and managed to exit out the
opposite side to where we wanted - again!!
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