Switzerland via Munich

Switzerland is beautiful. Maybe that's all you need to know.

We went there back in 2009 after seeing a Rick Steves' travel show filmed in Lucerne.

Lucerne was the scenic magnet that drew us. The fact that Richard Wagner had lived there for 12 years while in exile from Germany also drew us. There was even a fine hotel there that he had stayed in for a few months to write one of his operas-another lure!

Before we get to Lucerne and Switzerland though we have to go through Munich, Germany, which is where we often  begin our European visits. We have direct flights from Chicago to Munich and it is a city we have visited many times and love dearly.

We'll stay two days in Munich before driving our rental car to Switzerland. We'll have 3 days in Lucerne then move to Zurich for one day before returning to Munich for two days to end our vacation.

I took a lot of video on this trip but it was on analogue tape (Sony hi8 mm) which was hard-no-impossible to get onto my PC to share with the world. Now I use a Mac computer and feed it images from a digital HD camcorder. So it will be photos only I'm afraid. My old Dell PC has 3 or 4 expensive ($100) video recording programs that didn't work very well....

So on May 15 2009 we left Chicago at 6 p.m and woke the next morning in Munich Airport......

On the way to the Hertz car rental we saw a familiar face- it was a statue of King Ludwig II who was once King of Bavaria and the biggest fan of Richard Wagner's operas ever. When he became King at age 18 in 1864 his first mission was to find Wagner who was on the run trying to hide from all the people he owed money to. Ludwig paid off his debts and changed his life. Ludwig is held in high esteem in Bavaria.

Then we passed a novel advert for Sixt, a big European car rental agency. The sign is saying "Doesn't matter- Sixt cars have parking assist" which is a good thing to have in a car in Europe where streets are narrow and parking is tight.

We always rent from Hertz and have been doing so for over 20 years. We found our car up in their garage and Carol programmed the GPS to help us find our way to our hotel.

Our car for this trip was a BMW 3 series with stick-shift ( 6 speed) and auto energy-saver, which means that when you stop at a traffic light the engine stops and doesn't start until you press the clutch in again. I found this out the Hard Way in Munich traffic! Still it saves fuel and fuel in Europe was over $5 a gallon then (dispensed in liters)

Munich airport (Flughafen Munchen) is right by an Autobahn so once out of the garage you can soon be driving at over 100 mph which is much faster than in the USA but the drivers in Germany are all paying attention to the road so it feels safer.

Soon we were in the slower streets of the city of Munich, driving along by the River Isar to our hotel.
 We stayed at our favorite small hotel in Kohlstrasse-The Admiral.

A small hotel with no frills-no pool, spa or gym. No conference rooms or restaurants. One small bar with some comfy sofas. It's quiet and well-run by a wonderful staff some of whom can speak good English. We muddle along trying our Rosetta Stone German and it is appreciated.

It has a beautiful quiet garden and we always stay at the back of the hotel overlooking it. That is where they serve the wonderful German breakfasts.

Speaking of food, our first thought after unpacking and settling in, was to walk to our favorite restaurant near Marienplatz (the hub of Old Munich). Spaten is one of the six big breweries in Munich and Spatenhaus serves traditional German food. They have outdoor seating which is what we crave when the weather is 72 degrees F. We would return here for dinner after the opera on Sunday night.

Across from our table is another of our favorite Munich buildings-the Bavarian State Opera. We had tickets for a Wagner opera-the flying Dutchman on Sunday evening.

Flying from West to East we were of course Jet-lagged. When we ate lunch at noon our bodies thought it was 6 a.m back in Chicago. So after lunch we walked to a nearby park. There are a lot of green spaces in Munich.

The River Isar. As it was such a nice walking day our feet just kept on going towards the Englisher Garten which is the largest park in Europe and home to my favorite beer garden on Earth-the Seehaus
(Lake House) as it's by the water.

Join me for a beer!

A beer like the one above in a big glass called a Mass cost E7 which was $9 US back then. There is no waiter service at the tables so you go get the beer yourself and while you're there you might be tempted to get some grilled sausages or roast chicken or giant pork knuckles. Maybe just a big pretzel?
There are dozens of savory dishes to try and they are beautifully presented and smell wonderful. You can easily have a good cheap lunch in a beer garden.

Seating (for approximately 2500) is on communal benches and people at the tables will welcome you and make room.

The ducks don't mind if you toss them some bread

The people around you will be predominately German and they are friendly and peaceful people just enjoying the good life of beer and food and sunshine in good company. There's never any trouble so you won't see the Police nearby. The park has several beer gardens. One of them even has a bandstand with a brass band playing what we call oom-pah music in a multi-tiered Chinese pagoda. Happy marching music and waltzes basically. 6,000 happy people perch on benches nearby for a happy afternoon of eating and drinking.

We can easily spend a couple of hours here,watching the world go by.

Lazy afternoons in the Englisher Garden are a good way to ease into the German lifestyle and get through your jet-lag, rather than rushing from museum to museum.

Back in 2009, before I bought a digital SLR camera, I was using a pocket Canon digital camera but used it sparingly. Nowadays and in most of the blogs you've read here I have been using an Eos Rebel DSLR and take many more photos. Back then I was shooting more video than stills-so this will be a shorter blog than usual with only 140 photos to choose from.

Dinner that evening was in the park where we started our day. We dined at an outdoor restaurant at sunset where we had never eaten before. Like most of the restaurants near Marienplatz it served typical German meat and potatoes food, which is fine by us.

After a heavy meal and a few drinks we walked back to our hotel in the dark. Munich is a safe city so dark streets there are no cause for concern. There are lots of other people walking them.

Back to the hotel for that long-awaited sleep!

Our Sunday began with church bells ringing and blackbirds singing as only they can.
Breakfast in the garden is one of the main reasons we stay at the Admiral Hotel. It is a quiet secluded garden with high walls draped in ivy. The only sound is the birds singing in the trees. The food is simple and fresh and the staff very welcoming. It is served buffet-style.

Our day would be one of walking by the river and enjoying lunch in a beer garden. We literally stopped to smell the roses and savor each moment.

An afternoon nap followed by the opera which was as great as anticipated in such a fine opera house.
German opera audiences are very quiet and attentive which is a pleasure to find. As there was no intermission in this opera so we didn't eat or drink until after when we took a table across the square at our favorite SpatenHaus and ordered dinner.

Tomorrow we would have another great Admiral breakfast and then check out of the hotel, pack our luggage into the car and set a course for Lucerne, Switzerland. We were allowing 5 hours for the drive, including stops for coffee and leg-stretching.