Munich & Neuschwanstein Castle

I attended a conference in Munich last week with a few people from DTU, and Amy came along to do the tourist thing. We flew to Munich on Saturday afternoon, and took an Autobahn-worthy cab ride to our hotel that peaked at 190 kph (118 mph)! We rode the U-Bahn train from Garching (where we stayed) into Munich, and because it was the last weekend of Oktoberfest the city was pretty busy. We wandered around for a while and had hoped to get dinner at an authentic German restaurant, but everything was pretty booked. We settled on a vegetarian-type place because apparently everyone wants to eat meat there and so this restaurant was pretty quiet. Amy says it was a tasty dinner, but because I was in the midst of a cold I couldn't taste too much. (A side note about Germany: overall the food was much tastier than in Copenhagen. I think the Danes just don't have much interest in good food.)

On Sunday we took a train ride through the Bavarian countryside to Neuschwanstein Castle, which is at the edge of the Alps near the Austrian border. Weather-wise it was a perfect day to visit: the blue sky really accentuated the brilliant fall colors. The castle was simply incredible - everything was built to the most exacting standards, and because of that the castle is only 1/3 finished (the woodwork in the bedroom alone took 16 people over 4 years to finish!). It was built by King Ludwig II as a tribute to Richard Wagner and his operatic works, but it's kind of sad because work on the castle stopped when Ludwig died and he had only spent 150 days there total in the 17 years it was being built. This does mean everything is in good condition, though. We have a bunch of pictures from the castle on our Picasa site, but they don't do the majesty of the area much justice.

When we returned to Munich we met up with the DTU group and went to check out Oktoberfest. It was pretty crowded in its last night, and the beer tents (Festzelts) were pretty full even though most hold 3-4000 people. We found a table outside the Paulaner tent and hung out for a bit and shared 1 liter beers (the only size offered).

I was at the conference the rest of the time, but one evening we had dinner at a German biergarten (do you see a beverage theme here?) with traditional food. It was all pretty neat. Though I didn't see too much of the city as a whole, I would definitely visit again. Queen Elizabeth II once referred to Copenhagen as a "human-sized" city, and I think the label would apply equally well to Munich.

(I think Amy will write a little more because she saw so much more than I was able to. And check out our Picasa site for pictures.)