You also may recall that our first anniversary fell on 28 July, halfway through Paul's Munich project. He can't take any vacation time since it's a student internship, but I did visit for a week. That meant a married couple and a guy sharing a one bedroom apartment for a week. I know, you are jealous. Between our student flat with Brillo pads for carpet and separate stubby hot and cold water taps, and the shared bachelor pad in Munich, it's not quite the glamourous life you may picture when you think of Oxford and Germany. Anyway, this post is about my visit to Germany.
I arrived on a Friday and met Paul at the main Munich train station. We booked a weekend at a B&B in Mittenwald, a small tourist town on the Austrian border in the Alps. Paul had booked us some sort of special weekend group train ticket, so for about $75 we covered all our travel expenses on the train. Mittenwald is about 2 hours by train from Munich, so we were able to have dinner there once we arrived and checked into our B&B.
Here's Paul in downtown Mittenwald:
The town is somewhat overshadowed by it's neighbor, Garmisch Partenkirchen, but that was fine with us. There weren't crowds anywhere, but the town is set up for tourists, with tons of B&Bs and apartments to rent, as well as many restaurants and shops. Not to mention some excellent hiking and skiing in the winter (they have the longest ski trail in Germany - 7km!). Our room at the B&B had a balcony that overlooked the mountains and it was just the kind of peaceful place we needed after living in busy tourist areas for so long. The only strange thing about the B&B was that the bathroom had a frosted clear door that you could kind of see through. I can only imagine how uncomfortable that would be if you were sharing the room with a bunch of brothers and sisters!
So back to the town. On Saturday we decided to take a gondola up to the top of the Karwendel. I get scared of heights, and dangling from a wire in a metal box doesn't comfort me. You get let off at a height of about 2300m. But we made it up and the view was fantastic! Here we are at the platform on top of the mountain where the lift lets you off. The area behind us is a sort of sunken in basin at the mountain top. Kind of strange, but you could hike all around it:
To give you an idea of the elevation, here's Paul at the edge of a trail. It pretty much drops right off the edge there, no rails or anything. You can see into Austria in the background.
Here I am getting ready to hike around.
And here's Paul trying to climb some rocks
And now me trying to not to fall off the side of the mountain. They actually had a metal wire to grab onto at that bend in case you lost your footing, which I swear, I almost did several times. Note the pebbly paths - you can roll right along if you're not careful! The building behind me is where we came up on the lift.
Here's me pointing out where we went. You can't see it because of the clouds.
It rained that night, so we had a romantic night in with some wine & cheese and watched the thunderstorm shoot lightning around the mountains. It was really cool, though I didn't get any pictures of it.
The next day, we had to go back to Munich, but we took our time and the B&B let us leave our bags while we explored the gorge.
Here's Paul showing me that it's no big deal walking on slippery, mushy wooden planks held up by rusty rails suspended over icy cold water moving at a very fast speed.
Here's me with my explorer's hat running back to go feed the fish instead (I did make it to the end of the path, but not for long enough to get a picture!):
And here's the really scary part - we hiked up this mountain, and they have this suspended walkway that crosses over the gorge. Paul had to get a picture of me from the back because I refused to stop until i reached ground that I couldn't see through. The bridge actually sways a little as you cross it, probably to make it safer in the end, but shaky bridges don't make me feel safe!
Here you can see the height of the suspended walkway and the mountain gorge below
Another hiker took our picture after crossing the bridge. I'm not sure I could have done it without the explorer hat!
And because it's cool, here's a picture of me at the border of Germany and Austria. The gorge we crossed used to be a huge barrier back in the day for armies trying to invade, so that walkway had some political significance to it as well.
Of course, because it's Germany, you have to have a place to stop for a beer while on a hike. A little nicer view than the local pub in Oxford!
I don't have many pictures from the rest of the week back in Munich, because i mostly just walked around town all day. For our actual anniversary, which was on a Monday, we went to an amazing Italian restaurant in Munich. It was recommended by one of Paul's colleagues and was tucked away in a residential neighborhood. We did their set menu, which was about 6 courses with things like veal tartare, monkfish, and a trio of desserts. It was a big change from Oxford where Italian food means Pizza Express. Definitely a great way to celebrate our first year of marriage!
So...my pictures from Munich. I'd been there before, so I'd already seen most of the tourist sights. Really all I took pictures of was the Residenz, which was the royal palace until WWII. They had all these descriptions of things like 'the room had x,y and z until 1943...' without actually mentioning the war. Kind of strange. Anyway, here's a picture I took to prove I was there (can you see me in the picture? I'm so sneaky.):
And for some reason, Munich has this - the oldest known English crown. It got re-gifted around different royals until it ended up in Bavaria.
Ok, and just a couple more pics... here's to show how clean the river is in Munich - people actually go swimming in it! And it's not just the random drunk guy jumping in!
And finally, Viktualienmarkt, a fantastic outdoor market in downtown Munich where you can get fresh produce and all kinds of tasty treats. I wanted to buy some pretty lavender heart things they had there, but I wasn't sure if that'd get through customs...maybe next time.
