germany – FamilyOnAFurlough

Schloss Neuschwanstein & a beautiful afternoon in Füssen

Day 4-

We spent the night in Füssen, a small boutique town just 5 min drive away from Neuschwanstein castle. During the planning stage, we couldn’t get a decent accommodation in Hohenschwangau, a small town at the base of the castle, also the home for the original and smaller, Hohenschwangau castle.

So, Füssen was seen as the second best option. But reaching the town, we were pleasantly surprised by its quaint, old-world charm, cobblestoned streets lit in an orange glow. The Hotel Sonne Füssen was an icing on the cake, which went beyond all expectations, which were already high, after having read great reviews. This was a beautiful hotel, decorated in a quirky and eclectic manner!

This morning we ambled to the restaurant and feasted on a lavish breakfast, definitely one on top of the list during all our travels! We gorged ourselves, then set course relatively early by 9 ish, for Neuschwanstein castle, …the fairy tale castle celebrated by Disney..
DH had visited the castle 10 years back, on a tour starting with a train ride from Bahnoff station (Munich) till Fussen, then a bus from Fuessen to the base of the castle, followed up an uphill hike with a Japanese student guide. He remembered that the inside tour of the castle was pretty boring (by our point of view), just like all other palaces and castles, with the routine of gold inlay everywhere… So this time we decided to skip the indoor tour and decided to head straight to the best vantage point for spectacular views of the castle from the Marienbrücke (Mary’s bridge).

So we started walking uphill from the bus stop, a very steep hike and saw this regiment of German army passing us, using this path for rigorous training!! As we hiked up, we were overtaken by huge horse drawn carriages, with 15-20 people sitting in, some of whom gave us…the breathless sweaty mortals’, supercilious looks. That lasted till the half way point beyond which everyone has to walk up…Huh!!

We just motored on and reached the bridge meeting a pleasant young Frenchman who insisted on talking to us in impeccable Hindi.

The views of the castle from Marienbrucke, are Classic with the majestic turreted Castle rising amongst dense woods surrounding it. Obviously, traveling during the Fall season is even more beautiful with the verdant greens interspersed with hues of orange and red! This I know because I bought a magnet with such a picture!

The bridge can get a bit crowded, very windy and younger ones need to be firmly taken hold off.

After taking the mandatory pictures, we walked down, and drove back. There is an alternate adventurous hike down to the stream, at the back of the castle, which DH had loved last time but in company of younger and elderly, we went the routine way. …And yes we, the non-drivers, tried some Glühwein (just like Mulled wine), on the way down, which tasted heavenly after the strong winds on the Marienbrucke!

Coming back to Füssen by 12 noon, we first went to a super market to stock up on essentials for our long road journey ahead.
Then we went down cobble stoned streets led by Sriram who was looking for this Vegan restaurant called Casa Veda…which had tremendous reviews on Tripadvisor. This was a self service restaurant with funky decoration.. We tried the soup of the day (smoked pumpkin, coconut, curry leaves and veggies) and the meal of the day with tasty vegetables, greens including asparagus & mild spices ( without the heat). The meal was so good that we ordered seconds. For dessert we had Chia seed pudding with fresh strawberries, and a Johannisberry (Redcurrant) cake…In all, a Delicious, heavenly affair! Sriram got a lot of thumbs up and pats on the back for his excellent choice of hotel and restaurant.

To call it a perfect afternoon, we shopped at the gift shop of Hotel Sonne Füssen which was again loaded with eclectic lamps and other curios. Happy Me!

Rest of the Day was spent in a long, pretty dull and dreary road journey to Montreux…more about it in the next post… Guten Tag.

Two nights in Munich- Day Zwi

Began the day…passing this Mercedes Benz ? Headquarters…Definitely felt like Germany!

Our plans for this day was to visit Viktualienmarkt, akin to a farmer’s market, a foodie’s delight!

Enroute we stopped at Marienplatz for the Glockenspiel. The clocktower has a twin-level moving (puppet like) figures, with a king and queen, musicians, courtiers etc. Nice for a short stop, but not with rain! I forgot to mention that the second day had rain all the time, and we had reason to thank our hotel staff for sending us of with umbrellas.

Once inside the market, we first entered a cheese and wine shop, tasted and bought a truffle cheese (melt in the mouth stuffed brie with the aroma and taste of truffle cutting through) and rosemary cheese. There were many charcuteries, but with four vegetarians there wasn’t much point…

We then went to a wine shop and bought two German wines, troken (dry) white Riesling and robust red Spätburgunder. Rieslings in US etc are commonly sweet wines, but here, dry tasty Rieslings are the norm. The Spätburgunder (pronounced Shpæt Boorgoonda) is German for Pinot Noir, and is called so, as it’s late ripening compared to Burgundy Pinots. Delish wine anyway…This buy started our wine bottle counter. W2, meaning two bottles.

The next shop we went to was Honighaus, where everything was about honey including beeswax candles, organic honey and… Mead which is an alcoholic drink made from fermented honey and water, best drunk warm.

We tasted a glass of Mead, bought a bottle of Honigwein aka Mead and also bought some liqueurs. W3.5

Next we moved onto some gift shops, some fruit shops, more cheese and more wine shops.

We thankfully didn’t buy more wine bottles, but we stumbled on a delightful shop “Chocolates & more!” that hubby had researched about before.

The shop had the usual run of nougats, flavored chocolates, chocolates with rum, with nuts, orange peel etc, but it was when we asked for dark chocolates, single origin, that the young lady got animated, and started bringing the most exotic chocolates, including an Amadei couverture dark chocolate drops (pistole) Venezuelan raw cocoa bar, different types of cocoa beans, (African, South american, Sri Lankan) roasted and unprocessed (yummy Cocoa tasting!!). While the ladies and the baby were getting raptures sipping on the delicious hot chocolate; DH and dad tried out different bars of Ecuadorian and Madagascar chocolates (bean to bar) and some Criollo chocolates from Venezuela.

After this heavenly experience we sauntered through the market, buying some fresh fruits, some more beer tasting, ogled at some beautiful crafts works and then decided to eat some more!

We reached the same alley with Andechser am Dom and decided to try Augustiner today. We had a tasty tomato soup, some Ravioli like German dish, Sauerkraut and Nuremberg sausages along with a wheat beer.

The one notable point was our server, a tall Valkyrie in a “Lederhosen”. I researched it later and found that there is a recent fashion of girls dressing up in these leather short pants; you only look good in them if you are fit!

After miscellaneous shopping and eats, we headed back. Dinner that night was at an Italian place called Mozamo, close to our hotel, with super thin crust wood fired oven baked Pizza with some good Chardonnay!

Gute Nacht!

Two nights in Munich- Part Ein!

Ah, Munich! Aptly described as the city of Beer & good cheer!

Day1- Delhi to Munich (june 2015)

After an uneventful flight, we landed in Munich at 6:00am, nearly 7 hours before the usual check-in time. Since we had only 2 nights to make the most of Munchen, we decided to power through the day, after dropping the luggage at our hotel-Laimer Hof.

Being a sweetheart, I decided to take some load of my hubby and In-laws and tried to lug more luggage than my slender shoulders could carry and ended up getting a back sprain and losing my sunglasses in the process!..I know..already!

Our hotel Laimer Hof is in a residential neighborhood, close to the Nymphenberg palace and within walking distance to metro and bus stops. Nice place with helpful staff.

After dropping off luggage we took the tram to Karlplatz, then the train to Münchner Freiheit (Freedom of Munich- World War II name coming from anti Nazi radio station broadcasting from here) this is in Schwabing, and a really pleasant walk towards our goal Englisischer Garten.. You walk past the most delectable cafes bakery’s wine bars and what not..I planned on walking though half of this garden ( which happens to be larger than Central park!)

We first stopped at Seehaus, by the lakeside which is a Paulaner bier garden, where the vegetarians enjoyed their first ever, Obatzda (a cheesy savoury dish), Pomme frites (French fries) & a kirschkuchen (cherry cake). I had a currywurst, a Movenpick ice cream for the little one couple of Pils and wheat beer to drink, where the wheat beer won hands down, as everyone’s favorite! Oh…and forgot to mention the Pretzel!

Next we strolled on along the lake towards the Chinese tower, or Chinesischer Türm, another beer garden, only to have “German beer, in a Chinese Tower, in an English garden in Bavaria”!!

There were plenty of fun rides for the little one as well as the oldest carousel in town! It was pleasing to see carefree children enjoying the mud and puddles without over –protective hovering parents.

We appreciated the Pfand system. You pay a deposit for the Stein, and after you finish, you go back with the empty mug and Pfandmarke (token) to get back 2€ per mug!!

From here, we got a little lost, wandered a little and eventually reached the Eisbach welle, after following some soaking wet students on the bus.

The Eisbach is a man made standing wave, that all young surfers come to practice and show off. The vicarious exhilaration of watching black clad surfers taking up the challenge of surf’s up was just awesome!!

Another short bus-ride brought us back to Karlplatz, from where we walked through Viktualienmarkt- a food market which was closed on Sunday, to Marienplatz, where luckily the breweries weren’t.

At Andechser am Dom, we sampled (probieren) some of their monastery beers, had a Käse Spätzle (another vegetarian dish- just like Gnocchi, but smaller and made of cheese), Butter and Spargel (asparagus) and Nuremberg sausages. The food was one amongst the best on the trip.

We then walked to Chocolaterie Beluga (used a Munich map app) and had their chocolate sticks dipped into hot milk.. The orange and cinnamon chocolate was good, but the rum and chocolate was under-whelming.

Finally on a loaded tummy, waves of somnolence washed over us and with aching limbs, we trudged back to our beds, tucking in early!

Königssee & to Füssen

Day3 – Narrated by Sriram

After first two relatively touristy days spent in Munich, it was time to head to the road! We woke up early for breakfast full of apprehension as a long day beckoned. But first we trouped down for breakfast…

Our second morning breakfast at Laimer hof was fantastic thanks to Sebastian the owner whose personal attention definitely made a difference! He served hot breakfast, fresh coffee, hot chocolate for the little one and kept up a cheerful conversation with everyone.
After getting directions from Sebastian to the car rental location-Laim , I and dad reached the pick-up location with the passport and driving license, forgetting the booking confirmation.. All three are usually needed for picking up the vehicle.. But luckily lady at the counter wasn’t fussy and as soon she heard my last name she chirped…oh, the Minibus!! Taken aback, we realized that the 9 seater van, a Ford Tourneo, that we’d rented was big enough to look like a minibus (comfortable van with two passengers sitting along with the driver in the first row, one car seat and two adults in the next row and ample space for 5 suitcases and three bags.)

Set out with DW in the front seat navigating, as always, while waiting for the GPS babe to activate… We took the scenic drive avoiding the Austrian highway, driving towards Siegsdörf, then Inzell, on the way meandered through German village roads and passed Chiemsee, and finally reached Königsee (pronounced Kueenigcee).

We arrived with rain and wind on our back, enough that some of us were wondering if it would be worth stepping out..Berchtesgaden (and eagle’s nest) was definitely out because of the overcast weather. I tried to reassure everybody that we would be traversing lake Königsee in a covered boat, but there first was a short wet cold walk from the tourist information center to the dock that had everyone wondering…

So we had to saunter into a very inviting cafe, displaying all its bounty…got hot coffee, chocolate, strawberry tart and apfelstrudel.. I think we shared the strawberry tat, kept the apple strudel , and squashed it in luggage on the subsequent trip 😉

After buying tickets we got into the boat with a whole class of French/ Swiss children… For the most, the school teachers kept the children in a cheery and not too noisy order..

It was very beautiful in the covered boat with some light rain and thankfully not as cold. Half way to the first stop the captain switched off the electric engines, to cut out the noise and blew a few notes pausing to let us hear the echo… It was eerie and at the same time beautiful…

The first stop was at St Bartholomo, a beautiful church with orange onion domes where everyone got off. We the smart, well researched lot, knew that the most awesome views were from the boat and decided to stay in the boat for the next stop..

Salat, the second stop, is at one end of lake Königsee, where all get off and walk to the next lake, the Obersee..

We got down at a small harbor, with a beautiful wooden arch, and after utilizing the WC, tottered on for a 15 minute hike.. It was a lot like half an hour going through pouring rain, muddy puddles that our little one wanted to jump in, passing many laconic German cows, mama cows and baby calves.. And we realized that we were missing one person. I had to run back get Dad…who was patiently waiting by the WC..

The final view at Obersee was worth the wet hike.. Lovely wooden hut giving a great foreground, the placid lake and mountains all around hiding in the mist..

After hiking in pouring rain with only our (wet) jackets keeping us sort of dry we got back to the harbor, got on the boat and reached land..
At Königsee, seeing everyones bedraggled appearance, I knew we needed some hot nourishment…and happened upon the Hotel Koenigssee Restaurant, specifically looking for German vegetarian options. The restaurant had pleasant seating with large wooden round tables, and good portions.

We ordered the Spargelzuppe (white asparagus soup), Kässezuppe (cheese soup), omelette with asparagus and some more. Surprisingly the cheese soup was the most appreciated.

We drove back and reached Füssen quite late about 9:30, and fortunately our rooms were still held for us! The city of Füssen had an otherworldly charm in the evening, with beautifully lit warm glow to the cobble-stoned streets.

The second surprise was the Hotel Sonne Füssen. Now while booking the hotel, I had looked at many many hotels in the vicinity, but I didn’t like their reviews, and the ones I wanted were not available.. I finally booked Sonne Fuessen knowing it was expensive, but it really exceeded expectations, starting from the staff, who were extremely helpful, the ambience, with beautiful gowns on tasteful mannequins, paintings and quirky lights in the corridors..

Each room had it’s own different decor and paintings..

We got together and had a light meal, furnished on the spot with the groceries we were carrying..and many of the party called it a long day, crashing on the luxurious beds!
Anyway after reaching, I and dad went down to the bar to have a glass of wine, we tried a Chardonnay and local German Riesling ( Trocken meaning dry).. The Riesling was excellent.. the chardonnay was passable.. The bar at this place seemed a happening site with lots of couples in snazzy outfits, arriving in great rides!

Thus ended the long day…