Our next adventure was to do Rick Steve’s Munich city walk. Today is essentially our only day to discover Munich as the other days we’re here are booked for other excursions.

We started out at Marienplatz, the grand city center, home of the new Town Hall, multiple old churches and landmarks. Right at our arrival it was 5:55pm and all the churches began their bells, loudly and beautifully ringing out across the city. I took a quick video to briefly capture their song, hopefully it works with Journo.

Marienplatz, or Mary’s Square is a snapshot of the glory that is Munich. Grand buildings, outdoor cafes, people bustling to work, or just hanging out. Lining one entire side of the square is the impressive facade of the New Town Hall, with its soaring 280-foot spire. The New Town Hall or Neues Rathaus looks medieval, but was actually built in the late 1800’s. It’s a gorgeous Neo-gothic style with pointed archways over the doorways and a roofline bristling with prickly spires. The Rathaus is famous for its Glockenspiel. A carillon in the tower chimes a tune while colorful little figurines come out on the balcony to spin and dance. This only happens at 11am and 5pm so we unfortunately missed it.

We continued our tour, stopping at one of the worlds oldest and most famous beer halls- The Hofbräuhaus. We walked in for a huge liter beer and some dinner of different sausages, saurkraut, potatoes and mustard. Doesn’t look the most appetizing or appealing, but it was delicious! The sausages and actually the mustard were the best parts and paired perfectly with the beer. This rowdy beer hall, standing since 1583 was one of the first buildings rebuilt after WWII- pretty apropos for this city and their enthusiasm for beer. It’s a sudsy, touristy, comforting atmosphere, filled with sounds of oompah music, rowdy cheerful singing and happiness found at the bottom of a stein. I had a liter of their famous helles (light) lager, Khrystyan had an orange spritz. And yes, I downed it all. Empty stein pic to prove it. Biggest, almost comical looking stein, and we (I) stumbled out to continue our tour through the cool evening air.

Our tour of Munich for the rest of the evening included: the Old Town Hall where in 1938 Hitler called for Germans to rise up and ransack everything Jewish. What became known as Kristallnacht, throughout the land synagogues and shops throughout the land were burned and trashed. We also visited St Peter’s Church where a Holy Mass was in session; we hugged the back and listened to the huge pipe organ, singing of hymns and the traditional Catholic service. It is a solemn and beautiful church, designed to make you feel extremely small with the ornate and grandiose architecture and altars and frescoed ceilings. We visited the Viktualienmarkt, which unfortunately was closed so we’ll definitely need to try and come back; it’s a beautiful farmers market that the city actually supports with rent controls and only charging a small percentage of earnings for rent. The city also outlawed fast food restaurants, and chain stores helping to keep the high standard and local feel of the shops and market. We visited the Jewish synagogue, Assam Church (incredibly beautiful and ornate interior), Sendlinger Strausse, Kaufingerstrausse, the Frauenkirche, Marienhof, Dallmyer Delicatessen. We ended back at Hofbräuhaus again for another beer and glass of Grünr Veltliner.

After a long tiring day, we stumbled home happily. On the walk home, I snapped a pic of this street name. Good luck pronouncing it.

We’ve now arrived at Linderhof Palace.

Leaving the Palace, we drove through a small town called Oberammergau which is known for some of these painted frescoes of fairy tale scenes.

We’ve now arrived at the tiny village of Schloss, home of Hohenschwangau Castle (where Ludwig II was born and raised) and the more famous Neuschwanstein Castle across the meadow.

Back in the bus for a 90-ish min drive back to Munich. We stopped at the restaurant downstairs right outside our stay, where I had a delicious 1/2 Bavarian duck, cranberry apple cabbage, and potato dumpling. This is the first restaurant we went to that actually asked if we’d like an English menu. Really funny what they have listed on the back of the menu listed as “American’s”.

We met our tour guide after walking the market for a while and hopped on the S-bahn train to Dachau. The majority of the day was spent at the Dachau concentration camp. As you might imagine,I have some mixed emotion about what to write here. I’ll say that it was very emotional, very stirring, Khrystyan shed some tears, and I got nauseaus and felt sick. I won’t go into much detail, as we all generally know the story of what happened. So maybe a couple of facts and then a photo dump? Dachau was open for 12 years from 1933-1945, and was the only concentration camp opened the entire time of the third reich. Thousands of Jews were brought here “to work” (what the Nazi propaganda told the world). They were systematically stripped naked, shaved with dull razors, assigned a number and uniform and symbol patch depending on a select few groups (jehovahs witness, Soviet pow, homosexual etc) doused with disinfectant powder and then for their foreseeable future barbarically tortured and brutally beaten and killed. I won’t go into more, but the items, images and film captured at Dachau was enough to make me nauseous and sick. Fuck nazis, and fuck people who trade in hate and work to marginalize and demonize others not like them. Obviously there’s a lot of easy similarities that can be drawn to today’s political and global events. Glad we went, we learned a lot, however sickening it was and made us feel. Would highly recommend going if you’re in Munich. Photo dump below is of the gated entrance to Dachau, the barracks, specific areas of grounds of specific tragedy (walls where hundreds faced the firing squad, or were hung, or the gas chambers, or crematorium, or the mass ash graves of thousands of unknown Jews.)

A couple photos I’m leaving included that might be confusing, are of white maps with a ton of dots. I didn’t know the extent of the network of concentration work camps the Nazis had. We hear of Auschwitz and Dachau most commonly as those were the biggest and most horrible, but I didn’t know the massive vast network of these all around Europe.

Ok, enough with the depressing stuff. It was hard to shake off that somber sadness, so we went to the beautiful English Gardens- which takes up a massive amount of space in the city, and many locals use and enjoy. We sat at a bench and recovered, watching some ducks. Then we went to eat a really nice dinner- best dinner we’ve had in a long time, and the friendliest and nicest service we’ve had in Germany. Not sure if it’s because the world kind of hates us at the moment, but we’ve found the vast majority of interactions with German shopkeepers to be very rude and cold. So this dinner was a complete opposite, with some very kind and warm service that made our night. If you’re in Munich, look up Sanjay’s for fantastic steaks (or tamarind beef bowls or red Bavarian duck.)

After visiting the library, we climbed 272 stairs up the Astrological Clock Tower passing several floors that acted as study rooms, experimentation areas (like the 4th floor Meridian Hall that is a Camera Obscura which until 1842, solar noon was determined in Prague using their invention housed here involving a line of thread across the entire room and a pinhole of light that moved across it as the sun moved. At the end of the climb, we were rewarded with some incredibly gorgeous views of what I’m now confident is the most beautiful city we’ve been to (close tie with Venice). Not the best- but the most beautiful.

Old sextant

Camera Obscura invention

Old telescope

Once we made it down all those steps, we were off to dinner. Coincidentally enough, at a restaurant that claims to have the highest restaurant in the city offering the best views. They weren’t wrong! We dined outside in the beautiful weather, had some great food (Khrystyan ordered the sea bass, I got the seafood pasta, and we shared the tuna tartare to start.) Great first day in Prague!

A little bit about Prague now for my fellow travel nerds, and maybe a glimpse into why I wanted to come (with a lot of help from my boy Rick, of course). After our tour today and spending the last 24 hours here, few cities can match Prague’s over-the-top romance, evocative Old World charm…and tourist crowds. Prague is equal parts historic and fun. No other place in Europe has become popular so quickly. And for good reason: Prague — the only Central European capital to escape the large-scale bombing of the last century’s wars — is one of Europe’s best preserved cities. It’s filled with sumptuous Art Nouveau facades, offers tons of cheap Mozart and Vivaldi concerts, and brews some of the best beer in Europe (no other country drinks more beer than the Czech Republic, not even Germany!) Known at the “Golden City of 100 Spires,” Prague boasts a fairytale medieval Old Town, historic churches and synagogues and perhaps Europe’s largest castle (our castle tour is tomorrow.)

Today, we began with a two hour walking tour of the Old Town “Staré Město” quarter. We crossed the famous Charles Bridge, communing with vendors, artists (we definitely picked up some beautiful art to bring home), tourists, and a stoic lineup of Czech saints in stone. Today also happened to be the anniversary of when St. John became a Saint. The short version of the way the story goes, St. John wouldn’t snitch on the Queen when being tortured by the King in an attempt to find out who she was cheating on him with. The King has him tossed out a window and killed in front of the Queen (they were great friends) and when he died people said they could then see five brightly lit stars in the sky. They immediately took this as a sign of holiness, and made him a Saint. So I guess there’s a lesson to be learned in there somewhere about snitches. Anyways, the St John statue on the Charles Bridge was decorated with a lot of flowers; and later in the evening a huge concert and light show with a few barge-stages and a bunch of boats were to follow next to the bridge. Our tour guide was fantastic, and easily one of the best guides we’ve had. We’re in the heart of Bohemia, and he’s also a young artist- and he looked every bit the part of a Bohemian painter. He took us through a bunch of neighborhoods, explained some of the history in a really digestible and funny way, called out a bunch of stupid tourist traps, took us to see some beautiful areas and synagogues and then dropped us off at noon at the old Town Hall and Astrological Clock for our hour long tour there operated by the Czech state. So first- a photo dump of Staré Město:

You probably noticed the two pictures of the Astronomical clock. I won’t go into too much detail, but I’ll say it’s one of the coolest things I’ve seen. The astronomical clock in Prague, otherwise known as The Orloj, shows the relative positions of the Sun, Moon, Earth, and Zodiac constellations. It also tells the time, provides the date, and, best of all, provides some theater for its viewers on the hour, every hour. The clock shows how much daylight is left in the day, the phase of the moon, the day of the year (the Czech’s celebrate your “name day” in addition to your birthday, the clock points to the specific date of the year and its correlating name day.) It’s so beautiful, ornate and a work of art and technical skill. Here’s the best part- it’s accurately kept all of those mechanisms and ticking away since 1410! As legend goes, the day the clock stops working means something bad will happen to the city (similar to ravens at London’s Tower Bridge), so every hour on the hour a skilled orologist checks on it 24/7. I would highly recommend watching a YouTube video about it if you have a few minutes and are interested.

Our tour behind the scenes of the Old Town Hall building included a look behind the face of the clock, and while that room is sealed off, we were able to see the 12 apostles that come out of the clock as part of the hourly signal. It also included an underground tour of the old prison below the town hall which was very unique and interesting. These buildings date back to the 14th century and you can still walk through the same halls, touch the same walls and floors that have stood the test of time.

An altar inside the Old Town Hall because every town hall meeting began with a religious service.

Graffiti from prisoners- note the one that says “1699”.

Beautiful ceiling in one of the rooms of the Old Town Hall

After our last tour, we walked around Prague’s central areas. Every Thursday they have a few farmers markets so we had fun walking through them. We then went to a local watering hole and Czech restaurant that our first guide recommended (he gave us a list on our phones of a few of his favorites restaurants and pubs and made us promise not to share it so the locals don’t get upset too many tourists show up.) I had goulash and a couple of beers (first thing the bartender asked when we walked in- “two beers?”). Khrystyan had a potato pancake with pork and cabbage inside. They were very good, I really enjoyed the goulash. The bar we went to is actually claiming to be the first place the Czechs precious and famous Pilsner was first tapped back in 1843. After lunch- more wandering Prague until it was time for a coffee and pastry, and then more wandering until dinner.

All these buildings you can see are Prague Castle

St Vitus Cathedral is the big black building

Royal Gardens at the castle

Guards at the main gate

Changing of the guard ceremony

2 tons of silver for St John’s tomb

2 tons of silver!

Old gargoyle that was taken down before it broke off

Gold mosaic! Zoom in, very reminiscent of Italian churches

Old cathedral hall, still used for royal ceremonies

Defenestration window; google Prague Defenestration to learn more

Defenestration window

Czech Crown Jewels (replica, which actually still dates back to the 18th century.)

Some of the Hapsburg’s

Old cathedral in Prague Castle

After the castle tour, we went back into the center part of town for a lunch. I had roasted pork, cabbage and dumplings, Khrystyan had seafood risotto. Very delicious! We then made our way to our next walking tour, which was more just the castle quarter and castle side of town- not the castle itself. Our guide Ondra was great, he took us to some lesser known areas, some hidden gems, we stopped for a beer at a monastery, then went to some really beautiful scenic viewpoints of the skyline, then for some “Czech tapas” where we ordered just a bunch of traditional Czech dishes and split them and passed them around- along with more Czech beer of course. Remember, Czech’s drink more beer per capita than any other nation on earth, averaging I believe 130 liters per person annually. They invented Pilsners and make fantastic ones.

Some windows painted to avoid the window tax

This is an old Capuchin Monastery (still active) that still has cannon shots in the walls from the Germans

Trdlenka, or “chimney cake” is a delicious dessert!