Mike D Goes to Europe!

On Wednesday, the 29th, I finally arrived at the final stop on my European tour - Munich. After more missed and late trains, I arrived in the early evening. A little while later, I met up with Bernd, a German friend of Colin Sears, one of my good friends (and former bandmate) from back in DC. Bernd has lived in Munich for several years, but is originally from (West) Berlin. He took me out for some traditional Bavarian food (despite his advice against it - I insisted), followed by beers at a smokey, but otherwise very cool, punk rock bar.

Thursday was rainy and cold (a common condition for the German leg of my trip), so I thought I would visit some museums. I planned to check out the Deutches Museum in the morning, grab some lunch, then swing by the Residenz (former royal palace of the King of Bavaria). I never made it to the Residenz because the Deutsches Museum was way too damn cool. This place is to technology what The Louvre is to art. They have some 40 or so wings, highlighting the histories of everything from printing to aeronautics to microelectronics. Despite the sparse descriptions in English, there was a lot of really interesting stuff to look at. My favorite sections were the ones on musical instruments, electricity, and computers (lots of cool “antiques” from the 50’s and 60’s, with rooms full of vacuum tubes and tape reels). I kept thinking I was about to leave, right after I checked out just one last section. I was there all day and maybe saw about a third of the place.

Thursday night’s dinner was the obligatory visit to the touristy, but still fun, Hofbräuhaus, where I fulfilled my dream of drinking two liters of beer (a single mug full is one liter) and eating a pretzel the size of a small dog. I ended up sitting with an American couple, Dave and Catherine from Charlotte, NC, and we had a good time swapping travel stories to the relaxing sounds of oompah.

Friday, I took a tour bus to see “Mad” King Ludwig’s castle, Neuschwanstein, out in the Bavarian countryside. Ordinarily, I don’t really like organized tours, but in this case, without renting a car, there’s really no other way to get there. I made some more travel buddies for the day, including Jason from Minnesota, Nivia from Puerto Rico, and two lovely ladies from Siberia, Veronica and Tatyana. The tour went first to Ludwig’s smaller palace, Linderhoff, then to the tiny alpine town of Oberammergau, where we were directed to shop. Clearly, the tour guide is getting kickbacks from the souvenir shops there, as it is not a particularly remarkable place. Tatyana and I wandered around the town and then found ourselves lost only a few minutes before the bus was supposed to leave. We made it back just in time and earned a good-humored scolding from the guide.

Then we made our way out to Neuschwanstein. Scarcely have I seen such beautiful scenery in my life. It was so picturesque, it almost didn’t seem real. That said, the castle can only be seen with a guided tour and no picture-taking is allowed. The guide practically runs through the various rooms, and the tour of this magnificent building is over in half an hour. The tour of Linderhoff was just as bad, if not worse. As long as it took to get out there (about two hours in the bus, plus a 25 minute walk up the hill to the castle), it felt like a bit of a letdown, compared to Versailles, for example, where you can wander around on your own schedule. Don’t get me wrong - it’s a very cool place. I just think the tour experience could be better.

Update: here are some photos from this part of my trip:
Deutsches Museum
Neuschwanstein

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