In Göttingen, we checked into our hotel (a cute little hotel near the center of the city) and realized that it did not offer us any air conditioning in the mid-90s heat (it was “broken”). We hung out in the room, watched the last 20 minutes of the Germany v. Argentina game (Deutschland won 4-0! Off to the semi-finals against Spain tomorrow night!) and relaxed until we had to leave to meet my host family (from my exchange program) for dinner. When Germany won, the city went crazy (just as Marburg did during the earlier games). People were driving around, honking their horns, and waving anything they could find with German colors on it. It was cool for about 10 minutes, but when it continued for over an hour, it got pretty old. We met my host family (everyone except my exchange partner, Franzi, who is currently in Wales) in the city center and were surrounded by excited, loud, and drinking Germans.
City center of Göttingen after the game
We ended up at quite a nice restaurant called Junkernschänke and ate delicous food and enjoyed good company for about three and a half hours. It did get a bit long, especially in the heat and, again, no air conditioning, but it was definitely a good time.
The Junkernschänke
The next morning, we slept in a bit so my parents could fight off the evil jetlag monster. We hit the road around 12:30 towards Munich. After a few stops, one of which took an hour longer than expected because the restaurant would just not make our pizza in a timely manner, we made it to Munich around 7:00pm. We hunted a Biergarten down on Neuhauser Straße which was delicious but pretty much as touristy as it gets. The building was authentically old, but when a German restaurant doesn’t even have a menu in German (but English, Italian, French, and Russian were all represented), you know you’ve hit tourist jackpot.
All in all, it was a lot of fun though. As we walked back to our hotel, it began to pour – we had too far to walk to even have a chance of not getting soaked so we enjoyed it to the fullest extent. 15 minutes later, we arrived at our hotel, soaking wet, and very happy.
The following day, we headed out to Füssen to see Neuschwanstein. Right as we pulled into Füssen, it began to rain – it got steadily harder for the next half hour and continued for two hours. It was slightly miserable until we were able to find some cheap ponchos for sale at one of the gift shops, after which we made our way to the castle (by horse-drawn carriage, of course). We made it just in time for our tour through the castle, which was interesting but a little difficult to enjoy fully with about a gazillion other people on the same tour. It stopped raining just as we got outside of the castle and we made our way to the Marienbrücke (the foot bridge overlooking the whole castle) and enjoyed the view.
After our lovely carriage ride back down to the little tourist town, we ate some delicious Bratwurst and enjoyed the finally sunny afternoon. We left the area around 5:00 and found ourselves in Munich once again by 7:00.
We opted to find another Biergarten for dinner last night and ended up at the most famous one in Munich: the Hofbräuhaus. It had a good vibe, a better menu than the first one, and a fairy authentic German band playing. With the good food and good conversation it was quite an enjoyable evening.
The Hofbräuhaus
German band!
Today we’re off to Salzburg, Austria (filming location of the Sound of Music) and I’m hoping to see some beautiful Alps. It’s supposed to rain yet again, however, but hopefully that doesn’t bring the experience down too much. More updates to come!
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