2023LittleFamilyAdventure: 2023 Little Adventure

Munich Germany -

It is sad to leave Switzerland. It is one of the most beautiful countries I have visited.

It is always a challenge traveling on public transportation. Getting luggage on and off buses is a little challenging , especially with 8 people and young kids. After a couple bus connections we made it to the station. We had to switch trains in Zurich. Karen and I made a mad dash to a Co-Op grocery store before boarding the train for our usual bread, cheese, salami, fruit, chips, and cookies, to eat on the train.

The train rides were very nice and beautiful scenery. I love the countryside of Switzerland and Germany traveling through farm lands and small villages. We played card games, read, chatted and enjoyed the scenery. Unfortunately we found out later that Ryan and Monica's car the AC died. It got pretty hot. Ours was great and we wished we could have had them join us. (We were divided into two different train cars. )

The trip took most of the day. We took a taxi to our hotel. However, we found that there are two Ibis Hotels. Unfortunately we got the wrong one and had to walk to the other one. It was only about a 10 minute walk.

So far, Munich looks like a big city. We dropped by the grocery store for some breakfast food and off to try some Kebabs tonight, since there is a place close by and the kids are not in the mood for exploring tonight.

Leaving our AIRBNB and off to Munich.

I was kind of looking forward to a nice German Brat. However, it was late and the Kebab place was close. They did make fresh pita bread made from dough on the spot. It was pretty good. We have been living on nice brown bread, cheese and salami for a while it was nice for something different.

Meat right off the spit and fresh pita bread. What else could you want.

(Just expecting this in Greece rather than Germany.)

Exploring Munich Day

Today we spent exploring Munich. Karen downloaded a Rick Steves walking tour of Munich and was our tour guide.

I am always curious about city populations. Seattle is about 4M, Orlando 2M, Barcelona 1.6M, Paris 240M, and Munich is 1.5M. So it is a large city but fairly average. I am very impressed with their great Metro and mass transportation system. It was pretty modern and quite extensive.

The Munich Metro is unusual in one sense. Most all cities that I have been to before, including the US, the metros have tickets checking spots with doors or something you need to go through. The Metro in Munich seems more like it is on the honor system. No one ever checked us for tickets. They don’t have ticket booths to go through or places to put your ticket in. You validate your ticket in a machine when you buy it and that is it. It was the same at the train station. No one ever checked for tickets there either. Maybe they have severe penalties and do random screening??

It is interesting to note. During the war a lot of Munich was bombed. Instead of rebuilding with modern sky-scrapers like Frankfurt, Munich built with the old Gothic building style. So a lot of the rebuilt building look old but they are actually new.

Town Square (Marienplatz)

The main square down town is pretty fun

Karen was a great tour guide

Street music players always make it more fun

We took a tour of several churches .

Hudson was excited when we found the one that had the skeleton in a box.

Note the skeleton

We toured several different churches . Many of the churches were bombed in the ward and had to be rebuilt in their original style.

At 11:00 and 12:00 the clock starts to chime and the wedding party comes out and figurines come out and dance around. It is like a big cuckoo clock but even more fun.

It is a bigger deal than when the dragon fires at Harry Potter World in Orlando. People all come out and watch the fun and take pictures.

They even have Knights on horses jousting and the 2nd time around one of the guys gets jousted and falls off his horse.

It is a blast.

Market Place

Shopping at the outdoor market place is fun for everyone.

Say CHEESE!

BUT NO WHINING

There is a large May Pole in the center of the outdoor shopping area.

Hudson liked the PIGS SNOUTS

Bud LOVED the Brats and pretzels. Lots of different kinds and colors of sausages. Luckily we have Google Translate and then the lady spoke pretty good English.

We stopped at a little park to let the kids play

The adults just chilled and hung out

Unfortunately Grandpa got the spinning disc going too fast and Bryson fell off.

Play in the water was fun.

Shopping

Munich has a nice pedestrian only shopping area

We went into a Second Hand store. Bud found a pair of Laterhozen but wasn't sure where he would wear them. It seems like the only people who wear them are servers in restaurants

Addie bought some new sun glasses

Karen found a nice cushy chair to try out

Hudson and Bryson spied a HARIBO gummy shop with TONS of gummy things.

Everyone went CRAZY using their travel money to buy gummy things

Hudson saw a LEGO store about 3 blocks away

Munich in LEGOS

Bryson was thrilled about the accordion and remember playing one in Switzerland

Even Grandma had fun making LEGO people

Munich still has some of the old wall from when it was a walled city.

We explored a few more churches

Dallmayr has been in business since 1700 in Munich.

They are a VERY high end store with exotic foods.

They are known for their chocolate.

We ended up buying a bar of chocolate

Hofbrauhaus is the largest BEER HALL in Munich

There are tons of tables with people drinking mugs that looked like 2 litre pitchers

As you might guess that beer has to go out somewhere.

They have TWO large urinal rooms in addition to a bunch of stalls.

Continuing our tour by some fountains

The square has a big statue of Maximillian. Everyone would have to hill Hitler when they passed. It had some cobblestones dedicated to shore where people would detour to avoid giving praise to Hitler.

Opera House

We ended the tour at the gardens

Tired and hungry we went in search of food.

Friday Night Pizza Night

Salzburg Austria - Day Trip

Ryan and his family went to the Duetsche Museum and thought this might be a good opportunity or us to go to Salzburg since it is pretty close. He wasn't sure if his kids would do the train ride. We thought that sounded fun and decided to take on the adventure to go there. The kids did have a blast at the museum. They have a great exhibit for airplanes, (including simulators) and Hudson like the robots.

Now when you are talking 'Old People' just going to Salzburg is not as easy as it was when we were younger.

1. You need to figure out how to get to the Metro Station (fairly easy)

2. You need to buy a ticket. (easy)

3. You need to figure out how to get to the train station (medium)

4. You need to figure out how to buy a ticket to Salzburg (kind of medium)

5. You need to find the right platform for the train (not so easy. It took us a couple of missed trains to figure it out, but we finally succeeded )

Then the return trip do everything again.

Off to Salzburg

The trip over (once we got on the train) was quite nice. Lots of farms and small villages with quaint churches. It takes about 1.5 to 2.5 hours depending on if you have a direct or milk-run.

Arriving in Salzburg

So what is Salzburg most noted for?

The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Music

Mozart Symphonies

Well, actually both. The VonTrapp Family actually performed in the Salzburg Music Hall and some of the filming of The Sound of Music was done in Salzburg. Also, Mozart was born in Salzburg and grew up, performed, conducted, and wrote music and lived there his first 25 years of his life. He later went to Vienna to seek his fame and fortune and became popular.

The train ride to Salzburg was quite pleasant. As you get out of Munich, there are nice green farmland with little villages along the way. As we approached Salzburg, it became a little more mountainous. Salzburg is situated in some small mountains.

Church

Salzburg Information

I learned quite a bit about Salzburg, between the walking tour that Karen read off the Rick Steves downloaded tour and the information that I learned at the Fort on top of the hill.

Salzburg became quite wealthy from the Salt Mines and putting tariffs on the barges that went down the river. Salt was an expensive commodity since people didn’t have refrigerators and used salt to preserve food. Also, since Salzburg was right on the waterway used for shipping salt and other goods, they would put a tariff to pass. The ruler became quite rich and as a result had the funds to build the large fort on the hill and the many churches down below. I think there were seven churches. At that time church and state were tightly connected.

Today, the river separates the Old Town from the regular part of Salzburg. There is a funicular going up to the Fort. They have a good museum and rooms decorated as original. They even have a little puppet-like program that tells the story of Salzburg.

River

Church

The Old Town has one street with high end shops, many of them being US like H&H and of course a McDonalds. You go through some archways and enter the street with the market place. Small stands (some portable) sell cheese, brats and some fruit or bakery items.

Mozart

He was born in Salzburg. He began performing at a young age and even conducting music. He had an ArchBishop as a mentor but was still treated as a servant. He quit his job, or was fired at the age of about 25. He left to go to Vienna where he became very famous.

Below is the Mozart Museum - It also has plaque saying this was Motzart's residence.

One of the things on our 'bucket list' was to find some good apple strudel . We found a little bakery and it turned out pretty good.

We had lunch in the Market Street area. We enjoyed some more sausages. (They have a ton of different kinds of sausages.) We also tried a chicken snitzel sandwich, which was pretty good.

There is a big square where Mozart’s statue was and the palace residence. They just happened to be having a Half - Marathon race ending up there. It was filled with people and food trucks.