European Adventure: Prost!

Munich

Our journey started as we arrived into Munich and took the S8 train into the city center. We stayed in a German couples’ home, which we booked on http://www.airbnb.com. A great site that allows you to find affordable housing, “bed and breakfast” style. If this is ever an option while in Munich I totally recommend staying with Tim and Miriam, there home is situated ~6 stops from the city center via the S7 train, and it was close to the train stop. For dinner that night, Tim and Miriam recommended a local joint called Pizzeria Europa, within walking distance of their home with both good food and service.

The first day, Keyur, Sapna and myself walked from their Hilton Hotel at Rosenheimer train stop to Marienplatz city center. If you plan to stay in the city, the Hilton City Munich hotel was a great choice with both location and service. The Rosenheimer stop was on the main line and the hotel was situated literally above it. There are ticket booths throughout all the train stations in Munich and an ATM at the Rosenheimer stop for sure. We arrived to Marienplatz looking for the city bike tour, however we noticed a big crowd of folks going on the FREE Sandeman walking tour of Munich which began at 10:45 am. That would have been a fantastic tour, but if you decide to go on this, make sure to go with Sonya. We wanted her but got branched off onto another tour guide who shall remain nameless. He was informative but boring, which he blamed on a night of drinking at Oktoberfest, but really do your job! We did a 3 hour tour and saw all the main sites which included Residenz Home, Opera House, Maximillen Strauss shopping district, Hofbrahaus and the Glockenspeil cuckoo clock tower in action. Later we wandered through the V market and then to Englischter Garden.

After our tour we went to eat lunch at Schnider Weisse Beer hall, 2 blocks east of Marienplatz, which was a less touristy location. Needless to say if you plan to eat dinner in the main city center or at any of the beer halls during Oktoberfest, don’t count on it unless you have made reservations prior to. Our question was how the heck do you do that? That evening we met up with Anuj and had dinner at Ganga Indian restaurant near Isator station, which we highly recommend.

Friday was what we had been waiting for, Oktoberfest! In order to get to the festival, take the train to Theisenweisse station and follow the crowds into the fairgrounds, you cannot miss it. There are ~13 tents and parts of the tents are reserved and other seats are first come first serve basis. We luckily were able to sit in the reserved section with Anuj’s school but even arriving by 10:45 the non-reserved seats were fairly full. You want to definitely sit indoors to enjoy the music and craziness that happens once the beer starts pouring! Our reservation was from 12-5, and liters of beer later we stumbled our way back to the hotel. There are plenty of souvenir shops at Oktoberfest and things to do besides drink beer, but let’s be honest, that is the best part! Needless to say, that day ended fairly early for some more than others, the rest of us went to La Hacienda Mexican restaurant near the Hilton for dinner, food and service was alright.

Saturday afternoon, we took the S2 to Dachau Concentration Camp. Keyur and I unfortunately did not make it to the BMW museum as planned. Once we got off at the stop labeled “Dachau” you follow the crowds to the bus stop and take bus 726 to the campsite. It is free to enter and you can opt to do the 3.50 euro audio tour which we suggest. We spent about 2 hours at the site, it is open from 9-5 daily except major holidays. I think we would have spent even more time there except it was pouring and cold. Once back into the city we were hoping to get into Hofbrahsaus, which was a total fail due to the crowds, so we made our way back towards the hotel and miraculously got into Palaner Imtal restaurant and beer hall.

Our souvenirs of choice from this part of our trip was one of the ornate beer mugs with metal cap, my husband broke one so now we only have one left, which you know will be mine!

Sunday morning we went to Neuschwanstein Castle via train to Fussen. We bought the Bavarian ticket for 34 euros which we used all day long. It’s a 22 euro ticket + 4 euros for extra persons. We unfortunately picked the wrong day to go, it was very foggy and we did not get the postcard picturesque view of the castle we came for. To get to the castle, you take the Fussen train from Hauptbonhauf main station which took 2 hours. Once you get off the train you catch a bus (again follow crowds) # 73 or 78 to the bottom of the castle hill. Here is where you can buy tickets to enter the actual castle, we choose not to do that. We hiked up 40 minutes to the castle grounds, walked around and made our way to Marienbecke Bridge which from the castle is 15 minutes further. If you opted to buy tickets to enter the castle they call your number which can take 1-2 hrs from time of purchase. There are a few finished rooms inside the castle, as King Ludwig II died before the castle even finished.

We arrived back into main station that afternoon and got our bags and took the train to Salzburg with the same Bavarian ticket which was another 2 hours from Munich.

Marienplatz, Glockenspiel

Keyur, Sapna and myself at the Hofbrahaus Munchen

Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial

Neuschwanstein Castle

 

Salzburg

We arrived into the main terminal and began walking towards our hotel, we realized quickly a cab was a better option which was about 10 euros. We stayed at the Goldenes Theater hotel located in new town. We stayed in a nice and clean 2 bedroom apartment with kitchen (no fridge) and a normal American bathroom. A mediocre breakfast was included in the cost of the stay. Concierge/reception were not as kind as they were in Munich, but they were able to provide the information. We ended up not doing any tours because of the weather and we really were only in the city one full day. But if one decides to do a tour, the hotel had options and the tour company would pick you up from there which is convenient. Options included going to the ice caves, salt mines, bikes tours or doing the sound of music tour, which was filmed in Austria. We ended up having dinner down the street at the Taj Mahal Indian restaurant which was not as good as our first Indian meal in Munich, more geared towards non-Indians. The next morning we woke up and spent the day exploring the Old Town. It was another cloudy day, but thank god no rain! Salzburg is a beautiful historic town with most of its original architecture. We made our way through the town with a map, provided by our hotel, checking out the main sites before heading into the Augustiner Brew House. Note to self, the brew house does not open till 2:30 on weekends and 3:00 on weekdays, since we arrived a tad early we found a great lunch spot called Bio Berger right nearby. After Augustiner, we made our way back into the Old Town to Steigl keller Brew house which is tucked away behind the Dom Platz, a fairly large building that had great outdoor seating which had views of the city. We opted to sit outside, and note you have to self-serve if you chose to do so. Our last meal in Salzburg was again right near our hotel, across the street from the Indian joint called Restorante Pizzeria Bicoffino. We were really craving Greek food but that was a bit of trek. The pizza place had good enough food, but service was terrible. Our souvenirs of choice from Salzburg included the chocolate Mozart Balls, which are found everywhere and mini metal beer bottle covers which we got at Augustiners. I preferred the Mozart Nougot chocolates to the balls but found them later at the train station.

The morning of our departure, we were able to have reception get us a cab and headed to the train station to catch the 10 am train to Prague. The can ride was approximately 8 euros from out hotel. There is a ticket counter at the Salzburg main terminal which was easy to get tickets from the day of, we did look ahead of time for timings to have an idea what time we wanted to leave. I recommend at least an 1 hour for newbees, this gave us time to explore the grocery store at the station to get a lunch for the train ride.

So we thought we purchased the ticket that went directly to Prague with only one stop, WRONG! During the ride, the conductor informed us we had to get off at C. Budejovic stop (all in his native tongue) and then take an autobus (which temporarily broke down) to the train station in Veseli. From Veseli we finally headed to Prague (we hoped). It is unclear if there is any other straight forward option from Salzburg to Prague, we were thinking there should be a direct train from these two major cities. We did get to go on the Railjet train for 1 hour which was very nice and had free wifi.

Mozarts Birthplace

ANuj & Sapna at Dom Platz

Doorbells

Keyur and I with a view of the city

Augstiner Hofbrahaus

 

 

 

Prague

We finally got into Prague and got off at the wrong station which was called Vysherad. We needed to get off at Hiavni Nadrazi which is the main station, we ended up taking the next train and got off at some terminal which ended up being the main station but no one would really tell us. We couldn’t figure out the tram system so we took a 500 kz cab ride to the Blue and Red Design Hotel to pick up keys. From there we walked from lesser town to our Prague central apartment located between old and new town which was across the river and a 20 minute walk, there was a tram but that seemed quite overwhelming. So Prague is set up in a few sections divided by the Vltava river. Old Town, New Town and Lesser Town are the main ones for major sites. The next day we ended up doing the Prague Bike Tour for 490 kronors/person which is located on the corner of Dlouha and Rybna, very close to the Malastrana Square. The tour began at 2:30 and they do not take credit card, so make sure you get cash or they did take euros. We did not preregister for this, just showed up. I recommend the bike tour if you want to get a good sum of the cities main points. Before the tour we had a variety of beers at the Prague Beer Museum (actually a bar) and then had lunch at a pizza place around the corner, which was not so mentionable.

We had an adventurous 2 hour trek through the city, I thought my husband was going to get run over as he had not ridden a bike in ages but he made it and was a trooper. Afterwards we had a beer at Hastal bar, which our tour guide had recommended for a local brew. For dinner we went to an Italian place called Restaurant Carmalita off of Ujzed Road, which our good friend Azim recommended. Both service and food were great and they had fresh CRP which almost blinded me! Pooped from our days adventures, we walked back to our apartment. The neighborhood where our hotel was located was busy, and at night a bit sketchy. It was a great for the size of our large 2 bedroom apartment with fully functioning kitchen, only thing it lacked was a washing machine which would have been nice. The shower is not standing but does have a hand held shower and they didn’t provide extra towels unless you go to the main office. Prague Central Apartments are located throughout the city, I would recommend them again, and maybe closer to the squares.

The second day we got up at leisure and made our way to Wenceslas Square that had an outdoor market. We had fresh sweet bread and later a beer sample and fresh potato chips. We then headed towards lesser town through the Vitezna bridge where we followed the path of our bike tour. We had lunch at the Restaurant at the Charles Bridge, which was very overpriced with a simple not so extravagant Czech meal. After lunch we made our way through Lesser Town towards the Palace grounds, which was free of charge, and walked up the old castle stairs to see amazing views of the city. We then made our way towards Old Town for a beer, which if you are on a budget, 30-50 kroners is reasonable but in the Jewish quarters and squares they increase beer prices to 80-90 kroners. For dinner that evening we had Mexican food at Las Adelitas. Service was good and so was the food for meat eaters, there beans had chorizo in it and only thing for veggies were the nachos and special requested enchiladas. It was a nice change and located close to Malastrana Square.

The next morning we took a cab from our hotel for 220 kroners to the train station from Spalena, they did not take credit card FYI. The train station seemed less intimidating then when we arrived, it seems we had arrived eventually at the correct station and just needed to explore for the trains. That’s one thing that seemed difficult in Prague compared to most western European cities, there train station was a bit complex but again we did not venture into them. We walked the entire city. Monitors at the station make finding the platform very straight forward and they also had ticket counters like Salzburg did.

We didn’t have our own map, but got one from the Blue/Red Design hotel which we used for the days in Prague. I would recommend getting a decent map of Prague and Berlin from the states as they are bigger cities and more complex to navigate, prior to arrival.

Astronomical Clock @ Malastrana Square

View from Prague Castle

Charles Bridge

 

Jewish Cemetery: Recommend!

 

 

Berlin

We arrived into the Berlin Hauptbonhauf (main station) and we got to platform 15 to take the S bahn to Friedrichstrausee, we should have from there taken the U6 to Stadtmitte stop but due to construction it wouldn’t have mattered anyways. We ended up walking about 15 minutes from Friedrichstrausee to the Winters Hotel Gandermarket on the corner of Charlotten and Leipzinger St. It was a modern clean hotel, with a good location near trains and some of the main sites; the four of us shared one room which was a decent size and good deal for a city hotel. Overall clean hotel with fair service from staff members (Nils was an exception) but our AC did not work, and the last day our internet went out for a while. They also have a cap on the amount of bandwidth you use at a time, which for being such a new modern place it’s somewhat unnecessary.

Berlin is broken up train wise with S and U bahn which is a bit confusing. Its best to get day pass for 15 euros, which would have worked for the 4 of us. Our train ride took off from Prague at 8:30 am and arrived into Berlin at 13:30, these train tickets were pre bought, first class was not all that, so save a few euros and stick with the 2^nd class compartments. After checking into the hotel we took the U6 from Stadtmitte to Oranienburger Tor to eat at Dadas Falafal which I totally recommend. The food hit the spot and they had this amazing spicy sauce, that neighborhood in general had a lot of delicious international and eclectic menus. After lunch we made our way to Hofbrauhaus of Berlin. Instead of our intended plan to stay for 1-2 hrs, we stayed for 6 and had a mini Oktoberfest replay! Here we bought a few souvenirs for a few of our loved ones, a 0.5 L mug with the HB symbol on it. The next day we headed to the Starbucks at Brandenburg tor for our free Sandeman walking tour of the cities sites, we chose the 1 pm start time, but there are a total of 4 tours you could choose from. We had Rob, a British chap, who was absolutely wonderful, entertaining and informative. We encountered a rain storm halfway through but were still able to finish the tour. The tour ended on Museum Island and was about 3.5 hrs long. I really recommend this company again, you give them tips accordingly, but if the weather is bad I recommend one of those bus tours. On our walk back to the hotel, we made a pit stop at Ritter Sport chocolate shop to by some yummy treats. For dinner that evening we had a lovely meal at a well themed Indian restaurant called Amrit, food and service overall were great, but would recommend telling them to add spice according to your preference. Prior to our arrival into Berlin, I made a free reservation at the Reichstag Parliament building for the 15 minute dome tour. The evening turned out to be clear and we to see the city night lights of Berlin from the dome. There was even a free informative audio guide we got and the dome is open most days of the year until late into the evening. Just make sure you reserve a spot and you will get a confirmation email which I printed out, they also need your passport for ID purposes.

Sunday was a more chill day, we visited the free Jewish holocaust museum which is situated underneath the memorial. It is open all day through the year except Christmas time and if you would like to do the audio tour it was a few euros, we chose not to and were able to read most of the inscriptions and be done in less than 2 hours. I absolutely recommend this museum. After lunch at some random restaurant, the ban mi sandwich place we wanted to go to was closed, we headed to the Pergamon Museum located on the Museum Island. This was a 10 euro charge unless you have your student ID, then it was 5, this price did include an audio tour. This museum was ok, not really worth the time if you aren’t in berlin for long as a lot of the artifacts are replicas. For dinner we went to Zumi Sushi, right near our hotel, we were very limited in choices as the first 3 places we visited were closed or didn’t take credit card. It was a run of the mill sushi joint, I am sure there are better places in the city. One of the highlights of our last day in Berlin was we got to see the Dallas Mavericks leaving the Hotel Adlon at Brandenburg Tor, we saw German celebrity Dirk Nowizki! On the morning of departure we took a taxi cab from our hotel to Tegal Airport which was a 20 euro cab ride. We would normally take the train as the U6 station was 1 block from our hotel however there was construction going on in the station, making you have to get back off and walk to the next main station which would be ~10 minutes + take a bus once you get close to Tegal. Tegal airpot was small, check in was fast and security was nothing, so even for “international” flights you don’t need to be there super early.

Hofbrahaus

Jewish Holocaust Memorial: A must see!

Berlin Wall

Nazi Book Burning Memorial

 

Brandenbeg Tor

Mother with Fallen Soilder Son

View from Reichstag Parliament Dome

 

Dirk N!

My husband so interested in the Gates of Babylon at the Paragom

 

A few tips when traveling in Eastern Europe:

A lot of places do not take credit card    

Water in restaurants is not free and one must differentiate if you want sparkling or regular water, apparently Eastern European love “gas” water. If you want non bottled water, ask for tap, overall the tap water in all the cities was fine to drink and none of us got sick. Some restaurants only give your bottled water which you must pay for.

They really don’t bother you while you eat dinner, but sometimes when you need something or are done it takes the servers a bit to get to you

A lot of restaurants and 99% of shopping is closed on Sundays in Germany so be prepared.

On the S Bahn in Germany, there are employees who will come and check your ticket so be prepared to pay a hefty fine if you decided to skip buying one. We did notice on the U Bahn in Berlin it was less enforced.

 

We had a fantastic vacation with Anuj and Sapna and I totally recommend it, I would just go mid-September and make Munich your last stop to party at Oktoberfest in order to ensure decent weather!