Europe 2016: Day 8...Salzburg...

We woke up Friday morning to no rain and I was super excited!  I was finally going to get to go for a run in Munich.  It was a nice little run that was completely flat, but it was quite humid.  I did have some construction workers hit on me, which was pretty fun.  They were speaking German, but certain things are universal in any language.  I responded with Prost!  I am sure they thought I was a nut.

Anyway, we were up and at it to make our way to Salzburg.  It was about an hour and forty minute train ride to get to Salzburg.  We were pretty excited about Salzburg because we had heard it was a beautiful city and we had some great day trips planned from there.

Train riding on the way to Salzburg

We passed many cute villages that always had a darling little church

We arrived to Salzburg and dropped our bags off at our hotel.  We set out to get some food and to hit up the Augustiner Brau Biergarten,  Little did we know, the biergarten does not open until 3:00 pm.  You better believe we were waiting in line with the locals as those gates opened!

We ended up loving this place!  They had really good beer and we really liked the laid back atmosphere.  

Augustiner Brau in Salzburg

To get beer, you select a mug, pay for your beer, keep your ticket, wash your stein, give the ticket to the keg master, and you are good to go!  We were not entirely sure of the process so we watched others to make sure we were doing it correctly.

Waiting in line with my stein and ticket

Ken washing his stein

Fill her up please!  I know it looks like the guy is peeing, but I can assure you he is not.  That was beer in that stein!

This guy looks quite happy to be in Salzburg!

We sat outside drinking our beer, people watching, and enjoying some pretzels.  It started raining, so we went inside to enjoy the beer hall from the indoors.  The entire building was beautiful as it used to be a monastery.  

Some of the many food vendors set up for delicious treats

Another view of the food vendors

Part of the indoor seating area.  I loved the wooden chairs!

I am not a big beer drinker at home, but I love me some German style beer!

This was one of Ken's favorite places of our whole trip

We got a kick out of watching the table of older men behind us.  They were having a good old time!

We really did not want to leave the biergarten!

We let the rain pass and walked back to our hotel.  We checked into our room and made our way to old town Salzburg.

Walking along the Salzach River

Old town Salzburg

We crossed the bridge and went to Old Town.  It was pretty packed with people.  We decided to cross back over the bridge and find a place for dinner that was off the beaten path.

The darling streets of Salzburg

Where we ate dinner.  I am not going to lie, I chose it because there was a fox on the sign.  It ended up being one of my favorite meals in Austria.  You can never go wrong with schnitzel with cranberry sauce!

We enjoyed our food and Ken said he wanted apple strudel.  I offered to share with him, but he said that he wanted his own.  Well, that was a surprise since he hardly ever has a sweet tooth.  He also ate his much faster than I ate mine.  If you know us very well, you know that never happens.  I always finish any dessert before Ken and I barely speak a word while I eat it.  Priorities.  

Patiently waiting for my apple strudel

This was the best apple strudel I have ever had.  It was a good thing we got two and did not share, otherwise there may have been a fist fight at the table.  It was amazing apple strudel.  Alter Fuchs did well!

We wandered around for a bit and made our way back to our hotel through Mirabell Gardens.  For all of you Sound of Music fans, you will recognize it.  

Mirabell Gardens

Mirabell Gardens.  I am not going to lie, I did sing Do, Rae, Mi while we were there.  Although, Ken had no clue what I was talking about because he has never watched the SOM.  

Enjoying our first day in Salzburg!

Up next, a day trip to St. Gilgen!

Europe 2016: Day 7...Chiemsee...

We woke up on Thursday with plans to go to Bamberg for the day.  We got to the train station and saw that tickets were 270 Euros!  We opted out of the trip and instead decided to go to Chiemsee which was only 29 Euros with the Bavarian ticket and only a short hour train ride away.

We did not know a lot about Chiemsee except that King Ludwig II had a palace there. Quick side note, King Ludwig was an odd duck.  He had many palaces in Bavaria with the most famous being Neuschwanstein, but I would hate to deal with all of the crowds there.

We grabbed our lattes and boarded the train to Prien am Chiemsee and watched the beautiful scenery pass by.  I had read that we could either walk to the boat ramp to get to the island on Chiemsee or we could take a small steam train.  Well, we decided to walk.  In the wrong direction.  About 2-3 miles out of the way.  In our defense, we were headed in the direction of the lake, just the side without a boat dock.  On the walk, we were both pretty hungry and could not find a place to stop, so we ate the gummies that I had in my purse.  Tough times call for tough measures.

We finally found the boat dock and then found a restaurant for lunch.  We chose a little Italian place and since we were in a small village, no one spoke English.  We ordered wine and pizza, which were both pretty tasty.  We were the only people eating outside, I guess it was too chilly for anyone else.  We like to eat outside as much as possible, since we do not always have the opportunity to at home.

After we filled our tummies, we walked over to the boat dock and bought tickets for the ferry ride to the island.

The boat dock with an iron cutout King Ludwig

Our ride for the afternoon

The other island that visitors can go to 

When we arrived at the island, we knew we would not want to tour King Ludwig's palace of  Herrenchiemsee, but we wanted to see if from the outside.  The palace was about a 15 minute walk or you can take a horse and buggy. 

Herrenchiemsee, which was designed to favor Versailles.

Herrenchiemsee

Herrenchiemsee

Herrenchiemsee

After we checked out the grounds of the palace, which were lovely, we walked back toward the boat dock.  Much to Ken's dismay, we also walked back to the train station, just the shorter way this time.  We bought a few snacks at the train station and boarded a train back to Munich.  

We had made reservations at a place in Munich that is famous for pork knuckle.  Ken was pretty excited about eating pork knuckle.  

Ken's pork knuckle, a pretzel, and potato dumplings.  About as German as you can get right there.  

The restaurant had .25 L of beer, which are more my size!  Tiny beer for a tiny person.

My delicious spaetzle

After dinner we wandered around and shopped for a bit and then made our way back to the Augustiner biergarten for a final round of drinks at one of our favorite places in Munich.  I ordered some amazing apple strudel that I was kind enough to share with Ken.  It was a lovely way to eat our time in Munich.  

Ken and me at King Ludwig's Herrenchiemsee

Next up, we go to Salzburg!  And yes, the hills were alive with music.

Europe 2016: Day 6...Munich...

We woke up on Wednesday morning around 9:00 am.  I guess we needed to sleep in a bit!  We had originally planned on making Wednesday our day trip day, but since we slept in, we decided to make this our hanging around Munich day.

We got ready for the day and headed up for lattes.

Lattes and pastries are the perfect way to start the day!  I love how beautifully made the lattes are.

the streets around Munich

Wondering around Munich.  I love the green space that is outside the Dallmayr.

After breakfast we decided we would head to one of our favorite places, the Dallmayr.  I absolutely love this place!  It is a fancy deli/shop on the bottom and there is a restaurant on the second floor.  We visited on our last trip and had breakfast.  One thing that I really wanted to do was to get stuff for a picnic and then go to Englischer Garten to enjoy a picnic in the biergarten.  

Inside the Dallmayr

Delicious pastries

We picked up some meat and cheese and headed to the park.  Englischer Gartens is one of the largest parks in the world and is even larger than Central Park. We saw people running, walking, and enjoying their day.  I would have loved to have gone for a long run in the park.  There was a moment where I pictured Ken and me living in Munich and using the park.  I know it is stretch, but I can at least dream about it!

My favorite sign in the park.  Hold on to your children people.

Inside the park is a very large biergarten called the Chinese Tower biergarten.  You can bring your own food as long as you buy beer!

Stuffing my face with meet and cheese from the Dallmayr!

We had a great time having our little picnic and drinking beer.

It was a pretty chilly day, so the biergarten was not super busy.  I took a few pictures of the garten itself, even though it was basically empty.  I am sure it is a lot of fun on a beautiful sunny day!

Chinese Tower

Look at all of those tables!

After our picnic, we wandered around the park for a bit and eventually found ourselves at the bridge where you can watch a little urban surfing on the river that runs through the park.  It was very fun to watch.

Ken watching the surfers

There were a lot of guys and one girl.  This girl was just as good and even better than some of the guys.  It was really fun to watch.  

We made our way back to the Marienplatz and started to make our way to the Viktualienmarkt to check it out. This is an outdoor market with vendors and food stalls.  There is even a biergarten inside the market.  

The New Town hall with a looming storm

Naturally, we stopped in the biergarten for drinks.  Naturally.

It was perfect timing that we stopped for drinks because it started pooring!  Luckily, we were under a huge umbrella, but it was storming pretty hard.

It was pouring!

The funny thing was that people did not let it ruin their time.  They huddled under the umbrellas and kept drinking and smoking.

These guys were not letting a little rain ruin their day!

Happy and dry at the Viktualienmarkt!

Viktualienmarkt biergarten

The rain did not last very long, so we wandered around the rest of the market.

May Pole outside of the market

The six breweries of Munich

Some of the vendors

We made our way back to the Marienplatz and the day turned out to be beautiful!

Marienplatz

The New Town Hall

We were in the mood for a snack so we found a place with outdoor seating that had dunkel.  Our favorite dunkel is at Augustiner, so we found an Augustiner with a patio.  

My delicious iced coffee with bourbon ice cream.  It was love at first sight.

It was getting closer to 5:00 and I really wanted to watch the 5:00 pm glockenspiel, so we decided to climb to the top of St. Peter's church so we could watch it from above and check out the views of the city.

Watching the jousting

The views were beautiful!

Munich from above

The view of the Viktualienmarkt from above

Having a fun day with this guy!

Next up, we stopped at Paulaner for beers.  It is vacation after all and we were in Munich!

Prost!

The cute place where we stopped for beers

We slowly made our way back to our apartment and then went to dinner where I had an amazing schnitzel.  It came with fries and I soon learned that Germans eat their fries with a fork.  Yeah, I was a sloppy American using my fingers.  Oops.  After dinner it was back to our apartment for wine and a little German TV!

We had a very fun day all around Munich!

Cheers to an amazing day that was full of all the things we love!

Up Next, another day in Germany!