Munich

Breakfast at the Hotel Victoria was very nice. As usual, the breads, cheeses and cereals were good, but we also had options for eggs or other hot items. Mary and Jodie opted for French toast but Cindy and I had the more continental breakfast.

One of Munich's many Christmas markets

We checked out of the hotel after giving the desk clerk some postcards to mail to family back in the US. Since the Nuremberg train station was such a short distance, it took only a few minutes to walk. This morning felt much warmer than previous mornings despite the light rain. After arriving at the station, we learned that our train to Munich was canceled. The cancellation was apparently due to the rail strike making travel less predictable. Mary and Cindy checked with the help desk and got our tickets moved to another train only a few minutes later. This train required a transfer to another train midway but that was fine with us.

The train was an express train (ICE) and took us through some beautiful country in Bavaria. There were lots of fields and woodlands with a blanket of snow covering everything, making postcard views from the train windows.

Our hotel in Munich

The King’s Hotel in Munich wasn’t far from the train station so we found it fairly quickly. Cindy and Jodie’s room was ready, but ours wasn’t available yet so we piled our things into Cindy and Jodie’s room while we walked to the subway to take us to Munich’s Old Town.

Munich's Imperial Palace

The first stop was at the Munich Imperial Palace built in the early 1500s. We checked our backpacks and got our tickets for the self-guided tour of the royal residence. The palace was huge with 130 ornately decorated and furnished rooms. The palace suffered some damage during WWII, but most of the restoration is now complete. We noticed that several features have been restored at the Imperial Palace since our visit in December 2010. We picked up voice guides in English, but the signage in the palace was good so that we didn’t really need the narration. One of the most spectacular rooms in the residence is the Antiquarium with ornately painted ceilings and walls covered with statues and statues. We left the palace around 2:30 and walked to the nearby site of the Beer Hall Putsch, the location of Hitler’s attempted takeover in 1923 that landed him in jail for treason for one year. During this time, he wrote Mein Kampf.

Mary & Cindy share a pretzel at Hofbrauhaus

The walk to Hofbräuhaus Munich was not long, and we were able to get a seat at the family style tables despite the beer garden being very crowded. A couple of journalists from Miami joined us at our table and had good conversation. Mary had the Vienna style schnitzel while I picked the Munich style schnitzel, which was prepared with a little sharp mustard. Cindy had the goulash, and Jodie had kasespatzel which is German noodles with cheese and fried onions. We shared a large pretzel as an appetizer and tastes of apple strudel for dessert. I had a half liter weiß bier and a half liter dunkel bier. Both were very good and refreshing. Cindy had a Rockler, which is comparable to a shandy. Everyone seemed pleased with their meal. We had been here with Emily while she was in college in Germany in 2010 and have since been to Hofbräuhaus restaurants in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and other US cities.

Subway station in Munich

We walked to the subway to return to the train station which was near our hotel. Upon returning to the hotel we learned that the train that we had planned to take to Salzburg, Austria on Friday was cancelled because of the rail strike. However the strike was to end on Friday afternoon so we could be rescheduled for Salzburg on Saturday. After Cindy spoke to representatives from to-europe.com we were scheduled to take a bus to southeastern Bavaria on Friday to visit Neuschwanstein and other sites in the Bavarian Alps. Basically, we flipped Friday and Saturday’s schedules. There is snow forecast for that area tomorrow, so we are hopeful that all continues to go well. Everyone is predicting that the rail strike will end on Friday.

The King’s Hotel is very nice and well positioned for our time in Munich. We will be spending three nights in Munich since we will leave for Schwangau and Salzburg from here.