This weekend I went to Germany all by myself (sorry Mom and Dad) and it was incredible. I don't really have any better way to describe it other than exceptionally indescribable.
I flew out of Sevilla on Thursday afternoon and after a short layover in Mallorca, I arrived in Munich that night. It was pretty late, so I decided to get some sleep in my cozy hotel so I could be ready for whatever the next day would bring.
And man, was it one heck of a day.
I went out for breakfast to a place I found on a Buzzfeed list of the 30 best hot chocolates in the world, and I was not disappointed. Chocolaterie Beluga is hidden in a tiny alley just off the Munich Viktualienmarkt, and if you're in Munich, I strongly suggest you go find it. They have over 60 flavors of hot chocolate, all served as a cube of chocolate attached to a wooden spoon and then stirred into a generous mug of steaming milk. I had the 70% dark chocolate and a delightful apple tart, and I brought a few other flavors like brownie and blackberry home for my roommate and señora. While I was sitting outside Chocolaterie Beluga, I noticed some people pointing phones and tablets directly at the sun and passing around a pair of tinfoil glasses. It turns out I had stumbled onto the perfect place for viewing a solar eclipse! I tried to take some photos, but they didn't turn out too well. I did borrow those tinfoil sunglasses though.
After breakfast, I went for a stroll. I was headed to the Deutschesmuseum, but not in any particular hurry. I wandered the Viktualienmarkt (an open-air market selling flowers, cheese, sausages, fruit, and anything else you can imagine) for a while, then headed down along the Isar River to the museum. The Deutschesmuseum is the German Museum of Science and Technology, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Germany has student discounts for just about everything, so I got in for only €2. The museum has a wide range of exhibits, from ancient Mesopotamian boats to carbon fiber prosthetic limbs, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was hoping to get my dad something cool and nautical like a compass or sextant from the museum gift shop, but Germany is not exactly an inexpensive country.
After the Deutchesmuseum, I went strolling along the Isar again and eventually found myself at Prinzregentenstraße, one of Munich's main streets. On one end stands the Angel of Peace monument, and the rest of the street is lined with municipal buildings and monuments to Prince Regent Leopold, namesake of about half the things in Munich. I walked down Prinzregentenstraße in search of lunch and picked a restaurant called Cafe Luitpold. It was delightful. I strongly recommend the Bavarian Croque Madame and the Luitpol Lemonade, made from an 80-year-old secret recipe. After lunch, I walking through the city center until I reached the Hofgarten, part of a massive public park and botanical garden called the Englischer Garten. I sat in the Hofgarten for a little while, listing to a violinist play "Ave Maria" in the central pagoda. When I headed out of the Hofgarten, I found myself in front of a very large monument of some sort, which I later learned was Field Marshall's Hall, site of the infamous Beer Hall Putsch. I was hoping to make it to Schloss Nymphenburg before it closed, but I couldn't walk quite that fast. I did have a great time exploring the city for a few hours though, and even stopped to watch some urban river surfers under a bridge in the middle of the city (see the Videos page to have a look!).
Once I realized Schloss Nymphenburg was just not going to happen, I did the only logical thing and went looking for ice cream. I started walking toward the museum quarter, at the center of which stands a massive ornamental arch as well as a few Greek-inspired temples. I found a great little ice cream shop called Balla Beni, where your ice cream is served in waffle bowls with no cardboard shell, and the whole place is totally paperless. You get two and a half scoops -- one scoop each of any flavor you want, plus a third sample-sized scoop. It was definitely a good choice, and the employees were very friendly and understanding of my complete lack of ability to speak German. I finished my ice cream and went museum hunting, which is really not that much of a challenge in the museum quarter. I picked the State Museum of Egyptian Artifacts, a two-year-old museum in the basement of a art museum. It has an excellent collection, very well organized and artfully presented. The gentleman at the front desk was incredibly excited to hear that an America had heard of this brand new museum and that I would be writing about it on my blog. If you're into Ancient Egypt, it's a must-see.
After the State Museum of Egyptian Art, I couldn't figure out why I was so tired. It turns out I'd walked about 13 miles in 9 hours, so I decided it was nap time, especially since my train left early the next morning. I stopped in a cafe for a pretzel, a raisin roll, and an apple soda and brought them back to my hotel room before turning in early. It was a big day, and it was only half of my big German adventure.