Switzerland and Germany in 2025

Contents

• Switzerland and Germany Day 1 (07/29/25): RDU to Zurich
• Switzerland and Germany Day 2 (07/30/25): Planes and trains
• Switzerland and Germany Day 3 (07/31/25): Wengen, Lauterbrunne, and the panorama walk
• Switzerland and Germany Day 4 (08/01/25): Wengen to Zermatt
• Switzerland and Germany Day 5 (08/02/25): Hikes, bikes, and carts in Zermatt
• Switzerland and Germany Day 6 (08/03/25): Up to Gornergrat and its Matterhorn views above Zermatt
• Switzerland and Germany Day 7 (08/04/25): A brief overnight in Appenzell
• Switzerland and Germany Day 8 (08/05/25): Füssen - a fairytale castle and less-than-fairytail transit
• Switzerland and Germany Day 9 (08/06/25): Scenic journey to Garmisch-Partenkirchen
• Switzerland and Germany Day 10 (08/07/25): Around Garmisch-Partenkirchen
• Switzerland and Germany Day 11 (08/08/25): Walking around Garmisch
• Switzerland and Germany Day 12 (08/09/25): To Munich!
• Switzerland and Germany Day 13 (08/10/25): Casual Sunday in Munich
• Switzerland and Germany Day 14 (08/11/25): To the airport
• Switzerland and Germany Day 15 (08/12/25): The trip home

Switzerland and Germany Day 1

RDU to Zurich

• Start of day: Holly Springs, North Carolina
• End of day: Somewhere over the Atlantic

When I’m traveling west to east, even if I’m somehow able to sleep on the plane, it still feels like one continuous day. This particular day was unusual, too. It started with an appointment in Durham at 8:00 for my wife to get her US citizenship. Then back home, finish last minute packing, then leave for the airport around noon.

RDU, the perfectly sized airport:

We’re doing a split family trip this summer. My almost-16 year old son will come with me to Europe, while my wife and 14 year old daughter will head to Nova Scotia to spend time with family and friends there. Originally they were going to fly out the day before us. We rescheduled that around her citizenship interview time, which meant we all got to ride to the airport together. We were all even bound for the same city – New York – but with them going to LaGuardia and us through JFK.

So close yet so far:

I’m happy to say all the travel was not much to write about. Our first flight was delayed half an hour departing, and our 4 1/2 hour layover in JFK cushioned that without blinking. Boarding was well-organized, our 8:30pm flight to Zurich left on time, it was a little bumpy but not unusually so, and… yeah, no real excitement. I’ll take it.

I managed to fall asleep as we crossed into tomorrow, so I’ll end Day 1 here.

Switzerland and Germany Day 2

Planes and trains

• Start of day: Somewhere over the Atlantic
• End of day: Hotel Bären, Wengen, Switzerland

We landed a bit early in Zurich and had to wait while they freed up a gate. The Customs and Immigration line was longer than I expected, taking around 30 minutes. With fresh stamps in our passports, we headed to the train station.

On last year’s trip to Switzerland I’d decided to get a room in Zurich to sightsee and wait out my jet lag before heading to the mountains. That meant it was an easy transfer from Zurich Airport to Zurich central station, 12 or 15 minutes or so.

This year I decided to head straight to the mountains. We landed and took trains from the airport to Zurich’s central station, transferred to a train for Bern, then transferred to a train for Interlaken Ost, then a transfer to a Lauterbrunnen-bound train, and then finally transferring to the train to Wengen. Our flight landed around 10:30am and we finally made it to our hotel right at 3pm. It was a lot of train travel after the international flights, and both of us were struggling at times to stay awake and not miss our stops, but it was worth it to be sitting here in Wengen this evening.

Sleepy on the train:

Making another connection, this one in Interlaken Ost:

We made it! Getting settled into our room at the Bären Hotel Wengen.

I had my favorite salad from Coop (sorry about the focus):

My old friend from high school and college and life, Joshua Levens, currently lives in Geneva. We’d planned to spend the first two towns together – Wengen and Zermatt. I was able to meet up with Joshua and his son Max shortly after checking in, and we did our first loop of town, having a look at things. Rowan didn’t sleep on the plane AT ALL, so I left him in the room to nap. I made it back to the room around 4:30 and had a nap of my own until around 6:30.

The four of us all met up for dinner at Restaurant Pasta & More. The food was fine and the company better. Oh, there was a guy in the restaurant playing live music. Joshua made the comment along the lines of “this is the kind of guy who would play The Gambler [the Kenny Rogers song]” and, I shit you not, it came up two songs later. Nobody left the table to request it, either. My mind was blown.

We wrapped the evening with another loop around Wengen and a quick stop at their hotel, Hotel Falken, before my energy level cratered and I needed to call it.

I’m now sitting on the balcony of our hotel room, 50-something degrees outside and the door open, taking in the clean mountain air. Tomorrow we have a full day of activities planned, and I should have no problem smashing my steps goal for the day.

Switzerland and Germany Day 3

Wengen, Lauterbrunne, and the panorama walk

• Start of day: Hotel Bären, Wengen, Switzerland
• End of day: Hotel Bären, Wengen, Switzerland

Good morning!

Today we met up early to ride up the gondola to Männlichen to do the Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg walk. It’s the third time I’ve done this walk but the first time I’ve turned left at the top of the lift and hiked up to the “crown” at the very top. It’s not a bad uphill but enough to get the heart rate up. The weather wasn’t as cooperative as in previous visits, gray and damp this time.

At Kleine Scheidegg we took some time to have a snack – chicken or sausage roll thing for Rowan, hot coffee for me – then made our way back to Wengen.

Later in the afternoon we met back up again with Joshua and Max to descend down to Lauterbrunnen. We hiked up and behind Staubbach Falls and then along the valley a little bit further before heading back to the train.

I regret not going up to Mürren and doing the walk back to Grütschalp station. I quite enjoyed that last time.

For dinner we went to The Deck, which was at the turn toward the Alpenrühe I stayed at last year and had had my eyes on previously. I wish I had gone earlier! As one might gather from the name, the deck at The Deck has a fantastic view. The people occupying our reserved table were running behind, so we had extra time to enjoy the outside. Once at dinner, Max ordered the fondue and Rowan decided to give it a go. He was a good sport about it but it wasn’t his favorite. Josh and I both ordered the Entrecôte and it was not good. Not medium rare, not flavorful at all… oh well. At least the weather had cleared and we had a nice after dinner walk and talk around the village.

Sadly we leave Wengen tomorrow. I never seem to have enough time here.

Switzerland and Germany Day 4

Wengen to Zermatt

• Start of day: Hotel Bären, Wengen, Switzerland
• End of day: Hotel Albatross, Zermatt, Switzerland

Moving day again! Who’s excited for 4 hours of trains and transfers!?

We all met at the Wengen train station around 8:50 to start to make our way to Zermatt. Today’s route was Wengen to Lauterbrunnen to Interlaken Ost to Visp to Zermatt. It was the busiest train travel I’ve encountered in Switzerland so far. For one segment, I can’t remember which (or I’ve blocked it out), we were all crammed with our luggage into the boarding area of the train for about 25 minutes. All told I think the trains totaled 4 hours or so. With crowded trains, very little time to transfer between them, and suitcases to find space for, it was a moderately stressful day.

And then we were in Zermatt! Which tends to make the stress go away. We had a healthy walk from the train station to Hotel Albatros, at least 15 minutes, possibly 20. Clear across town. Josh and Max were staying at a different hotel but in the same general area.

We arrived around 1:15 and our room wouldn’t be ready ‘til two. Exhausted, we were content to lounge in the hotel lobby with a ham sandwich we’d bought at the bakery down the street. Once we got up to the room, we relaxed on our balcony and enjoyed the cool-but-not-cold fresh air.

Later that afternoon, we did our own exploring until early evening when we met up with Joshua and Max for dinner at Restaurant Pinte. Pinte did not have amazing signage but DID have good weinerschnitzel. We sat outside next to the menu board, which is always weird as people come and stand two feet next to you.

It was Swiss National Day, which meant live music and other activities around town. Joshua and I caught the beginning of one act, who were GREAT!, but I was concerned about aggravating my tinnitus so I went on a photo walk instead.

Oh, this was the first of several place where I’d procure distilled water for my CPAP from the pharmacy.

Tomorrow: hike, cart, and bike.

Switzerland and Germany Day 5

Hikes, bikes, and carts in Zermatt

• Start of day: Zermatt, Switzerland
• End of day: Zermatt, Switzerland

It was a big activity day for us in Zermatt! In the morning we hiked through Gorner Gorge¹ along the Gornerschluchtweg (Gorner Gorge Trail). If you’re in town and follow the lefthand side of the river walking towards the Matterhorn, you should run right into the trail. The first part is paved road in town, then it becomes gravel road, then you need to be on your toes to catch the turnoff on the left into the gorge itself. It’s easy to miss it and to just mindlessly continue up the road (ask me how I know). You’ll hike a bit through the gorge, then come to the booth where you pay, then continue on down more into the gorge.

By the way, Zermatt has a stargate you’ll pass along the way:

We hiked through the gorge, then picked up a trail that makes its way up the hill some and ultimately finds its wsy back to Zermatt (conveniently near our hotels). It was periodically spitting rain but we made the best of it and it ended up being a nice hike. We only went the wrong way twice, and were able to correct quickly.

Waiting for a train to cross:

Along the hike:

The afternoon was busy, as well. We took the funicular up to Sunnegga² and then a gondola onward to Blauherd. At Blauherd the four of us rented mountaincarts, which are like Big Wheels you’d have when you were a kid, only made of rigid metal with beefy wheels instead of sun-brittled plastic.

The mountaincart has to be one of the more dangerous things I’ve done in my life. It was a lot of fun, don’t get me wrong, but at no point while I was in motion did I feel like I wasn’t moments away from death. It lasted around 20 minutes and I managed to capture some video (see Mountaincarts and Kickbikes video below).

The carts are turned in at Sunnegga, where we then stopped for a late lunch at Buffet Bar Sunnegga. This is my second time eating here and have been pleased with the Bratwurst mit Rösti und Zwiebelsauce / Fried sausage with Rösti and onion gravy both times, so I can recommend. Even with some clouds obscuring, the views of the Matterhorn are worth the price of the food here.

After lunch we rented kickbikes for the trip back down to Zermatt.

It was more fun than I expected, and I don’t remember any parts of the trail where a lot of effort is involved. You’re mostly just cruising along.

We stopped at Restaurant Chalet Reid nearish the end of the kickbike trail to give our wrists a rest and let the experience last longer.

From there it’s a fairly short ride further to turn in the bikes. One note about the station. Outside, the signs are very good for telling you this is the exit for the kickbikes:

Inside, not so much. And the staff was a little grumpy. For future readers, it seems you’re supposed to wait at the turnstiles where you go back up the funicular and try to make eye contact with a worker? Or just leave them over on the side?

Side note: I thought they’d have some sort of fancy system for getting the bulky mountaincarts or kickbikes back up the mountain. Nope. For the mountaincarts they just jam them into an empty gondola. For the kickbikes they seem to put them in the bottom car of the funicular.

I put together this video of the carts and kickbikes:

Dinner was a block down from our hotel at the North Wall Bar for pizzas:

Footnotes:

Switzerland and Germany Day 6

Up to Gornergrat and its Matterhorn views above Zermatt

• Start of day: Zermatt, Switzerland
• End of day: Zermatt, Switzerland

Our friends Joshua and Max headed back to Geneva this morning.

In the morning Rowan and I were lazy, recovering from activities the day before.

Mid-afternoon we took the train up to Gornergrat, a site above 10,000 feet adjacent to the Matterhorn.¹ It felt like another planet, surrounded by rocks, glaciers, and the Matterhorn itself in the distance. Rowan and I even made a little bird friend.

Here’s a short video about our afternoon visit to Gornergrat: YouTube short

There are several stations along the Gornergrat rail where you can stop and hike up or down. I considered having us do a downward hike between stations, even doing the Riffelalp to Zermatt hike I did last year but after yesterday’s hike I didn’t want to push it. We took the train all the way down.

In the evening we both needed a break so we settled for McDonald’s near the train station. It was aggressively mediocre. Not like in the States. The fries were almost tasteless. The chicken sandwich was somehow TOO crunchy. And it cost the two of us US$30. At McDonalds. Ha ha! Zermatt.

Tomorrow: a long day of trains as we start to make our way towards Bavaria.

Footnotes:

Switzerland and Germany Day 7

A brief overnight in Appenzell

• Start of day: Zermatt, Switzerland
• End of day: Appenzell, Switzerland

This was our first of two truly long train days. I’m not even counting the Zurich->Wengen or Wengen->Zermatt days.

We took the 8:37am train out of Zermatt¹, made a bunch of transfers, and finally made it to Appenzell around 2pm.

From the train station we had a short 8 minute, mostly downhill, walk to our hotel. Amenity-wise, the Adler Hotel in Appenzell was a step down from the Albatros in Zermatt, but both of us agreed that we didn’t really mind. It was a decent location and had a balcony for me to read while Rowan gamed with friends. It was near the high street of Appenzell where the restaurants and shops are. The hotel restaurant was closed for a few days; the hotel overall probably would’ve felt more lively if it had been open.

What started as a gray day started to clear late afternoon and the beauty of the surrounding area started to grow on me. Appenzell was planned simply as a midpoint to break up what would’ve been a 9+ hour train day as we transited from Zermatt to Füssen, but now I think I would return and try to do some activities in the area. I mean, look at this!

Having more time, I would take the ~17 minute train to Wasserauen and then take the lift up. I might even consider staying at the Aescher Inn (photo), the very Instagrammable hotel/restaurant built into a cliff, but that would need to be a backpack not rolling-suitcase trip.

We walked up and down the main street and finally ate at Café-Hotel Appenzell, where we both enjoyed the weinerschnitzel (not pictured) and fries.

Here are some other views from around central Appenzell:

After dinner we wandered down to the supermarket for some snack provisions for the trains tomorrow, including my favorite:

Tomorrow: what else? More trains.

Footnotes:

Switzerland and Germany Day 8

Füssen - a fairytale castle and less-than-fairytail transit

• Start of day: Appenzell, Switzerland
• End of day: Füssen, Germany

Today was probably the most complicated travel logistics day of the trip. We needed to rely on the transportation networks of SBB, DeutscheBahn, and whatever Füssen has going on.

Appenzell to Füssen

We had two major milestones: we had to be at St. Margrethen SG station by 12:25pm in order to take the train I’d booked weeks before, and we had to be up to Neuschwanstein Castle by 5:50pm in order to use the tickets I’d purchased months before. Funny enough, out of a 160 mile trip with multiple connections, the final 3 miles from Füssen to Neuschwanstein would be the most challenging. More on that below.

I could bore you with a lot of train stuff but the summary is that the tickets I bought meant we were free to take whatever train times we wanted as long as they were along the ticketed path. Meaning, I didn’t have to take the 12:25pm train, I could’ve taken the 1:25pm or 2:25pm, etc. Taking advantage of that, I created space in the schedule by taking an earlier Swiss train to give us a comfortable buffer in Bregenz, Austria, where we’d pick up our only leg of the day on a specific train and with seat reservations.

We made it to Bregenz without problem. The Bregenz train station is a short walk from Lake Constance. We had more than an hour to kill before our next train so we walked through a nice park and over to the lake to hang out for a bit. Oh, and this was my first time in Austria! 🇦🇹

At Bregenz Festspielhaus:

Next to Lake Constance in Bregenz:

Along the way, we found vending machine risotto in St. Gallen:

And this was a nice empty bike train at St. Margrethen. I’ve forgotten now but I think this the train that took us from St. Margrethen to Buchloe:

The last leg of the day, from Buchloe to Füssen, was weird. It was a bus-train kind of configuration: gas-powered like a bus but running on train tracks. It was fine, though there wasn’t a lot of space for luggage.

We made it to Füssen intact and made our walk down to the Best Western Plus Füssen, a 15 minute walk¹. We did a quick drop of our bags, then set back out to figure out how to get to the castles.

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The castles

Here’s where we started to hit some obstacles. Despite the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau royal castles being the main draw for the area, the transportation system doesn’t seem oriented towards getting people to and from those castles efficiently. I’m deleting a few paragraphs about this that nobody wants to read, so I’ll summarize by saying that signage and bus schedules could be improved, both in town and over at the castles.

We managed to find a bus and make our way over to Schwangau and the castles. For future travelers making the trip to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau: you arrive via bus in the parking area. From there, to get to your castle up a hill, you need to either 1) walk up, 2) arrange to ride the shuttle, or 3) arrange for the fancy horse-drawn buggy. Signs on how to do any of those three things, if they exist, were not evident. We started walking on the road that seemed to lead toward Neuschwanstein and ran into a mother and daughter (German, mind you) who seemed equally perplexed. The mother asked a shopkeeper which way it was, shared that info with us, and we were on a quick hoof up the hill to the castle for our appointed time. (It’s around 1 mile and 500 feet up). Note that the never did see a shuttle pass us on the road up to the castle, so perhaps the shuttles stop earlier than the tour groups do? There were a lot of people doing the same walk up as us.

We made it, a little winded but no worse for wear! And still with about 20 minutes to spare before our tour.

We waited in this courtyard area for our appointed time of 5:50pm to show on the screen:

Once our time arrived, we made our way through the turnstiles and into the castle for our guided tour. They hand out stick devices that amplify the tour guide’s spiel, but I found it better just to stand near them while they were speaking. There’s no photography allowed inside², so I don’t have anything visual to share. Our tour guide was excellent and the tour was well-paced, spending just enough time in each spot to appreciate the space while not making the tour drag on. Oh, and prepare yourself for a lot of stairs right at the beginning of the tour!

Here’s a video I made with the various views:

The buses back to town ran every half hour or so. There was a light drizzle while waiting for the bus. I can’t complain about the view from the bus stop, though:

Back in town we wandered up and down the main strip looking at the menu boards for dinner, only to end up at the restaurant at the Best Western instead, which was fine.

After dinner we settled into our now-usual routine where I’d head downstairs to the lobby with laptop and work on this journal and son would game/Discord with friends.

Tomorrow: more trains and buses, with another brief visit to Austria.

Footnotes:

Switzerland and Germany Day 9

Scenic journey to Garmisch-Partenkirchen

• Start of day: Füssen, Germany
• End of day: Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, Germany

Another single hotel night, another packing and moving day. Gratefully it’s the last quick-move of the trip.¹ There were a few ways to get from Füssen to Garmisch, including bus 9606 which starts in Füssen and ends in Garmisch and seems good on paper, but I chose a combination bus+train. With the hindsight of having experienced the bus for 25 minutes from Füssen to Pflach, I’m super glad I didn’t sign us up for the whole 2h 15m trip on just the bus. The bus driver was taking these windy mountain roads at speed, driving uncomfortably close to the car in front², ripping through towns, etc. He was a minute or two behind schedule and intent on making up the time.

Instead we took Bus 100 from Füssen to Pflach, Austria. How cute is this train station? The bus dropped off a 3-4 min walk away from the train station. There were two older women on the same bus who were then connecting on the same train, so we walked together and had a little chat. There was a little language barrier with the one woman I was talking to, but we got along OK. She did throw me for a loop, though, on one thing. She compared our crazy bus ride to “That one old Steven Spielberg movie about the car race” and my friends, I had no idea what she was referencing. Once we hit Germany and I had data service, I did some IMDb sleuthing and found Duel (1971), which is a wild pull. Full credit to her for knowing her movies!

We waited 15-20 minutes here for the S7 train. It was an hour and 15 minutes to Garmish and honestly one of the most beautiful train rides I’ve ever had, a list that includes the Goldenpass Express.

We had a long-ish but flat walk to the Hyperion Hotel in Garmisch. We both liked the hotel. There’s a great balcony and lots of space in the room, plus it’s in a somewhat residential neighborhood but still close to stores and restaurants. For a late lunch we went to nearby Bungalow 7 and had the fish & chips. It definitely landed with Rowan, as he wanted to have it again for lunch the next day, but I’m racing ahead of my journal.

And this was the evening:

Footnotes:

Switzerland and Germany Day 10

Around Garmisch-Partenkirchen

• Start of day: Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
• End of day: Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

We had a lazy day today. Rowan slept in late and I read on the balcony for much of the morning. Our balcony is great until mid-afternoon when the sun comes around.

For lunch we made our way down the street to L’Osteria Garmisch Marienplatz, where I managed to polish off half of a pizza much larger than I expected, and Rowan got the lasagna which he unfortunately burned his finger on. (It was fine an hour later, luckily)

In the afternoon we went down to Lidl next to the train station, about a 10 minute walk each way, to stock up on some Cokes¹ and snacks. I liked this building along the way:

At dinnertime, we considered eating at our hotel:

But instead opted to return to Bungalow 7 so Rowan could get the fish & chips again. I opted for baby back ribs and Caesar salad, which were both great. I feel lucky we found this restaurant and that it was so close to our hotel.

On the topic of the hotel, it’s a good property. It feels like an older property that has been through a successful remodel. Some areas, such as the stairwell, appear older and in a more traditional style. The rooms themselves have modern ACs and controls, with updated windows and patio door. Our balcony faces into a courtyard with an obtuse angle so you can sort of see other people if they’re sitting out on their balconies, but still much better than the deck fishbowl we have at home. The hotel property sits on a corner of two well-trafficked roads and I think noise might be more of an issue if we were facing one of those. The location is great with many shops and restaurants just a few blocks away on the main street.

Since tomorrow would be the last day we could cancel our Munich accomodations, I spent some time researching other options. Not that I’m unhappy on paper with what I’ve picked (Mercure Hotel München Altstadt), but I wanted to see if there were other neighborhoods in Munich that might be more our speed. Having compared ratings and prices for a lot of hotels around Munich, I still feel like we’re well positioned. The hotel is more basic than our Garmisch one but the location and reviews seem great. It’ll probably be more like the Appenzell place, which reminded me of the Drei Koenige in Lucerne my dad and I stayed in in 2023. Perfectly serviceable, but probably won’t be attracting any Instagram influencers.

Oh, and of course I had a side quest earlier today to find CPAP water.

Footnotes:

Switzerland and Germany Day 11

Walking around Garmisch

• Start of day: Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
• End of day: Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

Another beautiful weather day here in southern Germany! I was able to sit comfortably on the patio in shorts at 8:30am. I woke Rowan around 10:00am. He’s not a big hiker, so I set out to find a nearby, low effort walk for us. (It’s that path leading from the south tip of town south toward the tree line.)

Once you cross the train tracks at the tree line, it’s around 270 feet of vertical ascent to reach Riessersee Hotel and Riessersee Lake. The hotel there looks pretty nice, with the disadvantage of not being right in town. We took the short 1.2km trail around the lake, then walked back down the hill to our hotel. It was beautiful!

On the walk back to the hotel I came across this nice resting spot:

Rowan wasn’t hungry at lunchtime so I got takeout Pad Thai from a place up the street. This is another place I’d definitely return to as the food was good and the service friendly.

Being honest, the afternoon was pretty boring. We should’ve visited Eibsee but I think we both still had some bus + train burnout after the long days getting here. We considered Zugspitze, also, but we’d already done Gornergrat in Switzerland, which feels similar. Further, for Gornergrat we had a Swiss half fare card and Rowan rode for free. We had none of that here in Germany, which would’ve put the roundtrip price at more than $100.

Toward the evening we had an outdoor dinner at Restaurant Zum Lamm, where Rowan ordered something called the Treasure Chest which was like a bunch of appetizers served together (he really liked it, especially the onion rings (!?)) and I satisfied myself with a salad. OH! And they had our old flatware.

Afterwards we walked around town so I could get some photos.

Switzerland and Germany Day 12

To Munich!

• Start of day: Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
• End of day: Munich, Germany

So long for now, Garmisch!

At the Garmisch station, the train crew realized the train would be overcrowded and called for additional cars, delaying our departure by 10 minutes. In the 1st class car with us was a woman who worked for a university (I didn’t catch which one). She proactively told us what was up with the delay, which was nice. She was connecting onward in Munich, and said she always books extra time with connections due to frequent delays. Switzerland would never.

The whole trip was maybe an hour and a half, not a big deal for us given the longer train days we’ve had on this trip. The Munich train station was bustling. There was construction in progress and nonexistent signage (in any language) for finding the exit. I just headed east and looked for sunlight.

Rowan was not impressed with how busy the city was. It was his first real big city experience.

Neues Rathaus at Marienplatz:

The famous Rathaus Glockenspiel:

For the afternoon Rowan wanted to hang in the room so I headed out to explore the famous English garden and definitely get my steps for the day.

Bavarian State Chancellery building:

If you watch any Munich shorts you’ll eventually see these falls:

Dinner was at an Kilians Irish pub where they also had a separate Australian pub. We managed to get in and fed before the cutoff for Rowan being underage. While we were able to grab 2 seats at the bar at 8:15 pretty easily, the whole room was really busy by 9.

And here’s my CPAP water for this city:

My overall feeling from the day is that Munich would be an incredible place to be a 20-something year old.

Switzerland and Germany Day 13

Casual Sunday in Munich

• Start of day: Munich, Germany
• End of day: Munich, Germany

Good morning!

Today we’d have our first experience with Munich’s U-Bahn rail system to reach BMW Welt, a “combined exhibition, delivery, adventure museum, and event venue located in Munich’s district Am Riesenfeld, next to the Olympic Park, in the immediate vicinity of the BMW Headquarters and factory.”¹ I had to search up a description because I don’t know quite how to describe it, even after visiting. It seemed like a really neat place to take delivery of a new BMW or to attend a swishy cocktail party, neither of which were on our itineraries. Still, we had a nice time here walking around, checking out a variety of BMW models, and people-watching.

We had food truck hot dog and fries outside, walked through the Olympic Park, then made our way back to Marienplatz. It’s Sunday in Germany, so lots of stores and restaurants are closed. We contented ourselves with walking around and exploring some but didn’t do anything notable.

In evening we dined outside in the courtyard at the Ratskeller restaurant in Neues Rathaus to celebrate a special occasion.

After dinner I wanted to show Rowan the English Garden, where there were still a lot of people walking about but nobody lounging, unlike the festival atmosphere of the day before. Still, we had a great walk and talk, and managed to get our steps in.

Tonight will be our last night in downtown Munich.

Footnotes:

Switzerland and Germany Day 14

To the airport

• Start of day: Marienplatz, Munich, Germany
• End of day: Hilton Munich Airport, Munich, Germany

We hit the travel wall, where we’ve had a great time but are ready to be home. We’re both more tuned to the town or village kind of experience. It’s unfortunate that we hit our wall in Munich, as it seems like an interesting city that we just weren’t able to explore thoroughly. I wonder how different our experiences would’ve been if we’d started in Munich instead of ending.

The original plan was to stay at this Mercure hotel for 3 nights but I ended up booking a room at the Hilton Munich Airport for the last night. We checked out of the Mercure and took the S-bahn out to the Munich airport station.

After checking in early, I spent the next 30 minutes trying to find a sushi spot that Google Maps insisted existed called EAT HAPPY. It ended up being a stall in a grocery store; nowhere was this mentioned. My tenacity paid off, though, as it filled me up for 14 euros. I ended up writing a review to help future travelers find the place.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty lazy. Rowan played games in the room and I walked around the airport, half to kill time and get steps in, half to scope out where we’d check in tomorrow. In the early evening, we had an excellent final night meal at the Mountain Hub Gourmet restaurant in our Hilton.

Tomorrow: we fly.

Switzerland and Germany Day 15

The trip home

• Start of day: Munich Airport, Germany
• End of day: Holly Springs, NC USA

I’m packed with the essentials and ready to go home.

I’m grateful to Past Brian for not booking an early flight. Today’s first flight is at 10:25am, a perfectly reasonable time for reasonable people. This means we had a chance to get up at a decent hour and not be rushed. The extra time was helpful, as the people in front of us to check bags had three each, of varying weights that needed to be redistributed between them. It would not have occurred to me to buy floor tile in Europe and then fly back to the States with it in my checked bag, but it did occur to the people in front of us.

Once on the other side of security, I had a chance to tuck into the latest issue of Business Punk.

The flight was fine:

Including this legend a few seats up who fired up Ferris Bueller within 3 minutes of boarding.

Our layover was in Detroit airport. Rowan’s Global Entry wasn’t working at the kiosk and he had to get another photo made at the booth, but it didn’t cost us any time. Of note was that we had to claim our bags and then walk them across to the next room to recheck them. They made multiple announcements on the plane and there are lots of signs about it. Still, I wonder how many people are on autopilot.

Our Detroit to Raleigh-Durham flight went off without a hitch and then we were back to our friendly local airport, RDU!

That’s it! Thanks for reading!

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