Munich, Germany

Germany. We had heard lots about it, especially from our dear friends, Corrina and Kevin. Land of innovation with the most famous automobile in the world, given us aspirin and MP3 technology and it’s birth places of Martin Luther, Albert Einstein and Karl Marx, of Goethe, Beethoven and the Brothers Grimm even the pope is German!

We started our journey by taking an early flight to Munich. My first impression of Munich was that it’s clean, organise, hi-tech and safe. We took a train to city centre and alight at Marienplatz, the big central square in Munich. First, we spent sometime tracking around Munich and checking out Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), Viktualienmarkt (city market), Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall), Neues Rathaus, (New Town Hall), Neuhauserstrasse (main pedestrian street that leads to Marianplatz). Next, we had lunch at the the most famous beerhall, HofBräuhaus . I used to think that Danny’s 1 liter giant beer glass at home was a joke, but it is really how the German drink beer with. It was crowded, the waitress were rushed (but they are strong women as they can hold 3 huge glasses of beer in one hand), the oompa band was so fun and the food was delicious. On our way to our hotel, we passed by the high street of Munich, whereby all the top brand name can be found here. We just enjoyed looking at the posh cars along the street, watching rich and famous doing their shopping.

Danny and his favourite beer.

Mei Mei with her Giant Pretzel

The next day, we took the U-Bahn train up to Olympic Park where the Olympic games were held in 1972. We got to checked out the stadium, Aquatic centre and the Olympic Hall. It was quite a hot day and YH & YX got tired after a while. After that, we visited the BMW factory, which is just right next to the park. It was so cool to see variety models of BMW, the technology, the mechanism, the technology and the history of it. Then, we went to English Garden where in part of the river the are huge waves created by an underground tunnel so people can actual surf in the river. There were lots of people there enjoyed the beautiful sunshine, and some men even naked sunbath in the garden.

Day 3, we set off to to Fussen, which is 2 hours train ride from Munich, to visit the Schloss Newschwanstein castle aka the Cinderella castle because Walt Disney modeled the castle at Disney World. King Ludwig II spent the family billions to built many of these stately homes. We took a horse ride to the fiercely steep hill upto the castle. It make us feel like living in a fairy tale.

We took our own sweet time wondering around Munich City on the last day. Danny was eager to find Oktoberfest, where a 16-day beer festival held here each year and it attracted some six million people attending, and is an important part of Bavarian culture. We stepped out of the train station and saw a huge ground, approx 0.5 km² area, where people setting up tents. It’s a dreamland for Danny.