Eurotrip Day 6: Munich, how I have missed you! (9/20/13)

Woke up early to give myself time to explore the Mirabell palace and garden, however, the palace is now a government building so no entrance is allowed and the garden is nice but rather small. So after enjoying the morning sun and the view of the high fortress, I go change money and head back to hostel to get to the train station. 

Well kept courtyard with nice view of the castle up high (in the distance - blends in with the white clouds)

Pretty statue in the courtyard (this courtyard was small but nice)

Another view of the castle on high. If you didnt believe me on how much I loved the views of this castle, these pics will prove it. Such a beautiful city!

View of the courtyard from one side looking upon the castle. 

Church in the main transportation square, on the outskirts of the courtyard. 

I get there rather early and get an earlier train and try to contact my cousins to plan my pickup with them however as I mentioned, my sim card/phone were a POS so I had to borrow a person’s phone on the train and called E to coordinate the pick up. Turns out it took me an hour and half to find them so the earlier train was all for not. We meet up, and get to C’s place to get settled in (they had picked up D earlier as his plane landed that morning) before walking to a nearby augustiner bier haus for lunch and some beers. We then go back to the place so D could take a nap (jet lag is a beast). We then got ready and headed into town to check out Marienplatz in downtown munich where E, D and I grabbed a bite to eat and some drinks while exploring the area. We then caught the last train back so we could get some sleep for tomorrow’s festivities.

I took a picture of the nearest street sign from the house we were staying so that if we got separated (which happened) we would know how to get back if I didnt remember the way (of course I remembered the way :) )

One of my longest known/best friends, my cousin and myself in Marienplatz having a small beer. Oh wait, thats the native Deutschlander having the tiny beer cause he cant keep up with the auslanders. mwahahah!

Drinking from an oktoberfest mug. So pretty! 

Does this need a caption? This is how we chose to gear up the night before drinking festivities. Good decisions all around.

Eurotrip Day 5: The hills are alive with Stiegl Bier (9/19/13)

After breakfast at the hostel, I walked down to the Mirabell station to catch the bus down to zoo and the Hellbrunn palace (Schloss Hellbrunn) near Anif. In Salzburg, the rain was still falling but once I had gotten down to the palace, it had cleared up, the sun was out and it was a really nice day. First explored the palace where they had some trick fountains around that used water to make noises and make things move within them; it was really cool to think this was all built 100s of years ago and the intricacy of it was amazing as they only used water and gravity to operate.

Little palace house on the hill overlooking the city. I wonder how they get up there.

Let the fountain tour begin. Back before there were Lambos and yachts, wealthy people made water fountain yards. We get to marvel at their creations centuries later. 

First trick fountain was around the dinner table. Water squirts away from the guests but close enough to be unnerving. 

Beautiful cascading waterfall on the grounds of the palace.

More trick water fountains at an entrance. There was a little kid with a poncho who didnt care and was just walking through the water spraying on him. 

This was one of the well crafted scenes that had movement due to the water flowing through the gears behind the display. There will be a giant display of this later.

Beautiful palace gardens to look forward to once the tour is over.

This was a huge moving/singing water powered scene. Many of these sculptures would move and there was an organ in the display that played music as it went along. Very impressive, especially it was made centuries ago.

A description of the gears that allow for the giant water powered display to operate.

Water tunnel to get into one of the buildings on the grounds. These people were debating whether to risk it. 

Beautiful arrangement of statues with a cascading waterfall in the foreground. 

Infinity pool on the grounds of the palace. With all the water works based at this palace, cant be surprised it has a giant pool on the grounds.

Entrance to the palace. Looks similar to the one in Vienna.

Palace entry way and courtyard. Not a bad little compound they got here.

Walking down the entryway to the palace.

I am going on 17 - this was the pavilion used in the sound of music movie. These sights are all around town with SoM tours exploring them. 

The grounds were beautiful and I stumbled upon the vestibule from sound of music where they sing 16 going on 17 as it was on the grounds of the Hellbrunn palace. I then went to the zoo which was small but cool as they built the animal entrapments into the side of the hill/mountain so the animals had trees and elevation changes they could explore. But they did have some weird/different animals which was cool. 

Zoo on the side of a mountain. They build the enclosures into it, to give animals a more natural habitat.

This was an exhibit of mice/hamsters they they built to look like a kitchen for the rodents to wonder around 

One of the information signs in the zoo. This zoo had all kinds of information on the animals. Great zoo.

A smaller outdoor enclosure for ferrets I believe. 

This zoo had guinea pigs hahaha. 

Wallabies (lil kangaroos) just hanging out in their enclosure.  

Beautiful picturesque field on way back into the city. 

The castle on high as seen from the countryside. Wish I was able to go on top of the castle today as the weather is much better.

After finishing up at the zoo, I headed back into town where I made my way to the Stiegl Brauwelt where I explored a bit and had a few of their beers; the night warmer was pretty tasty and their grapefruit radler was dangerous as it was really easy to drink and sweet enough to enjoy without being too sweet. 

Eventually I found my way to Stiegl brewery. Had to take some buses to get to the area then walk a ways, but I made it before it closed.

A map showing the various breweries in Austria. 

The brewery was part museum that was a part of the tour. You learned the beer making process then saw many artifacts of the brewing world.

These are some of the horse drawn carts they had on the second floor showing the evolution of the delivery vehicle. This side seemed to have horse drawn sleds to use during winter deliveries.

Of the few beers I had here, this was their special release of the time, the Nachtschwarmer. Nice change of pace from the traditional lager as always. 

After they closed down, I walked over to Augustiner Brau, which was an awesome experience with getting beers from guys as they tap the kegs and giant beer halls (something I will be getting more of in the coming days) with tons of people just hanging out with friends and strangers alike. Met a couple from the woodlands (area of Houston) who come to oktoberfest every year and we got into discussions about what I should expect in the upcoming days and just about how they enjoy traveling in this area. I then walked back to the hostel and had dinner while packing for tomorrow’s journey for the main attraction Munich and its Oktoberfest.

Walking to my next stop I noticed this abandoned fort/castle wall being taken over by the trees. Thought it was really cool that among all these modern buildings and cars, theres a relic from the past right there.

My last stop of the day, I walked over to the augustiner biergarten which was a large facility with plenty of outdoor/indoor seating and free flowing beer to pair with their food. 

One of the beer pourers. You walk up to them, tell them the size you want and wham, beer poured directly from the barrel. Dont know why they had to wear those yellow jumpsuits but was cool just getting in line and getting a beer poured for you. 

Eurotrip Day 4: Arrival into/exploration of Salzburg (9/18/13)

Woke up early and got to the train station to catch my train to Salzburg. This eurotrip was different than my graduation trip as this time I did not get the euro-rail pass; it turns out if you know your plans, the tickets are cheaper if you buy them ahead of time like a normal plane ticket or something along those lines so that’s what I did for this trip, planned it ahead of time, bought the tickets online and kept to that itinerary. I arrived at the Salzburg Hauptbahnhof and walked in a slight drizzle to the hostel where I checked in and started walking to the old town area.

Beautiful church in central Salzburg near the main city transportation hub.

Old town Salzburg with a modern train rolling in front of it. Little bit of the old with the new.

Old school weather center near the old town. Does it all and looks pretty nice doing it. 

Residenzplatz of old town Salzburg. They were setting up for some festivities as can be seen at the bottom.

Cool statue of Hercules? beating a dragon as part of a fountain. 

The rain picked up so I was forced to get an umbrella from a local CVS type of place. I normally don't like umbrellas as I always have to dodge other people's’ umbrella nibs from poking me in the eyes, but I hate being cold and wet more. Went and explored the Mozart house and birthplace which had a bunch of cool history about Mozart and his family and how he lived.

City of Mozart has a statue to him in the old town. Not a bad guy to claim as your city's child. 

After exploring those places for a little bit, I headed back to the hostel to get into dry clothes. Once dry and comfy, I headed back out to check out the Salzburg cathedral and the Residenzplatz area and the Residence gallery which had some pretty big and amazing rooms, the main one had a banister with metal pegs that when struck each one was a different note which was fun to play with (not sure if I was supposed to but no one stopped me so I took that as an invitation to continue).

Main room of the building. There was a small recital later that night (why the chairs are set up). Most importantly, that stairway's banister across the way was musical; each pillar was a different note and you could strike them to make music. At the end of my tour, I went ahead and tested it out. It was awesome!

One of the ceiling murals in the Residenz house. Insanely pretty.

Winning at mirrors! This place is posh.

One of the many rooms with beautiful furniture, intricate molding, and art everywhere.

Another room, another example of living in luxury.

I waited for someone to pop out of that giant cake for a while :) such an amazing room.

MUSICAL BANISTER!!!! (view of the main room from the other side)

Artistic Door? Forget what this was but it looked really cool so wanted to share it.

After exploring this area, went up to the Hohen Fortress, the symbol of Salzburg. Personally, I loved Salzburg for many reasons, this fortress was one of the top ones; it's kinda cool that this castle on a hill sits above the city and you can see it from everywhere in the city to give you a bearing, AND its just really amazing to be able to look up at any moment and see a castle in the sky.

Climbing the Salzburg Castle. Nice view of the city below. 

Up in the lookout roost and the clouds start coming in. No bueno as this is my only day to really explore the castle. Still an impressive view.

What is going on with the doors in the hillside? I wonder if you can rent those out :)

Cemetery in the old town. One of the prettiest cemeteries I have ever been in. Flowers everywhere (not ones placed on sites, but planted so they live).

I walked around the fortress and went to the view points, which were anticlimactic due to the weather and the rain clouds obstructing what would otherwise be some awesome views I am sure. After having my fill of the fortress, went to the nearby Stieglkeller for some great food and Stiegl beers while enjoying some wonderful views from this hillside restaurant.

After a day of walking around and exploring Mozart's birthplace and the surrounding buildings, I stumbled upon a restaurant for some grub and a drink, right near the funicular up to the castle. 

After finishing up, I went on a pub crawl on my walk back to the hostel, first stopping at zum fidelen affen, which was more of a restaurant, but they let me sit at the bar (they were packed) for a beer before I headed to a nearby Belgian beer bar (Alchimiste Belge) where I had a few of their huge selection of great Belgian beers (I always welcome a break from the normal lager drinking as variety is the spice of life :) ).

Monkey bar, why not? Not monkeys actually in the bar but that's their name. Stopped for ein bier as I went on a pub crawl to check out the places people raved about on the travel sites. This was more of a restaurant, but it was popular. I sat on the corner of the bar as it was the only seat in the house.  

Belgian Alchemist? This is promising. The inside looks like a proper bar so lets give it a look.

Found my watering hole if I lived in Salzburg. This place has Belgian beers up the wazoo. Needless to say, this was the majority of my pub crawl.

After this I ended at Die Weisse where I had their dunkel and regular weiss biers. These beers were pretty good and the place was huge and packed. I sat at the bars at all these places and chatted with the bartenders and people next to me while I sat there enjoying these beers. After I finished at Die Weisse, I went back to the hostel and had a beer or 2 with my fellow travelers while watching some UEFA cup match on TV before bed.

Last stop on the way back to the place was Die Weisse. As you can guess, their specialty was wheat beers. So I got a dunkelweisse which was delicious.