Munich and Salzburg.

First off, you should probably know something about me. Something a little embarrassing. I love Germans. Despite being Made in England (although, technically, I was "made" in Texas but I don't particularly want to go down that road...), a full-blown tea addict and known to use the word 'ghastly' on more than one occasion, I bloody love our lederhosen-clad friends. Every single German person I have ever met has been kind, caring and downright hilarious. Despite this affectionate inclination towards the German people, I had, until recently, never actually been to Germany. Unless you count stopping off to use the loo at a service station on the way to a ski resort in Austria, but I'm not going to. So it was lovely to be invited to spend New Year's in Munich, where a dear friend of mine is currently working.

After getting up disgracefully earlier (or rather, not going to bed the night before) to catch the coach from Southampton to Gatwick, we boarded our 6.30am flight and arrived in Munich in a zombie-like state, completely unaware of anything beyond the need for a large coffee. Our host, having been out the night before, had also failed to arrive at the airport to meet us. He arrived two hours late and we got to experience Munich's stupidly efficient transport network as we went to his apartment. Day 1, given the antisocial timing of our flight, was somewhat of a write off. We slept off some of our tiredness and went out in the evening for a quite beer (or two, or three, or four...with German quality and prices, I couldn't stop at just one).

Can I just take a moment to ogle Munich's
U-Bahn stations?

Day 2 was when my first experience of Germany truly began. It was New Year's Eve, so few actual attractions were open. No matter. Munich is a lovely city to wander around, particularly for an architecture fiend like myself. Although, if I'm perfectly honest, my actual architectural knowledge goes little beyond 'ooooh, PRETTY!'. Pretty it certainly was. The weather was very grey, but that did little to detract from the overall...niceness. Nice is a bad word that everyone was told by their English teachers never to use in anything EVER. But it fits here, and I don't think it's a bad word. Even on a dreary day, I was enjoying the experience of just wandering around this new city, with my friends, looking at the buildings and getting nice, warm, fuzzy feelings. Of course, no trip to Germany, especially Bavaria, is complete without a trip to the beer hall to consume die Maß. After a quick sneaky peak into the overcrowded (and very tourist-geared) Hofbrauhaus to ogle blond men in lederhosen and some unconvincingly covered-up swastikas, our host took us to a smaller beer hall. I wish for the life of me I could remember what it was called, but it was in the Marienplatz and it was wonderful and here have a picture of me weight-lifting:

Cheers!

New Year's Eve: the less said the better. Let's just say, it was the Germans who mentioned the war. And the Brits who drank too much.

Day 4 - SALZBURG. Day 3, being New Year's Day, was a write-off. Everything was closed and all I and my compatriots were capable of doing was lying down groaning and eating vast quantities of carbohydrate. No matter. Day 4 more than made up for it. We travelled, on a group ticket, across the border from Munich to Salzburg. For around five Euros. FIVE EUROS. British trains, sort it out! I digress. We somehow managed to get the right bus from the Hauptbahnhof ('main station' is probably the main German word I picked up on this trip) to the Old Town. Then many, many pictures were taken. Salzburg is nothing short of beautiful. Gorgeous baroque buildings with a backdrop of mountains. Pretty perfect if you ask me. We then took the cable car up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress, an imposing castle which dominates the city's skyline.

Busking is a classier affair in Salzburg

An all-round bargain at around 12 Euros for the cable car, entrance to the castle and museum, we spent the entire afternoon exploring Hohensalzburg. As well as offering spectacular views of the Alps, you can see some of the state rooms of the castle and there is a museum about the history of the castle, Salzburg and Austria in general. Very well priced and interesting. The restaurant, where we ate dinner, was also very good and surprisingly cheap for being in such a tourist hotspot and having such wonderful mountain views.

Hello, this is Austria. We would like to casually offer you
some mountain.

Our final day in Munich was again spent exploring the city. The weather was much more pleasant and our photographs were much better for it. We visited the Schloss Nymphenburg, which was stunning. There's something so classy about even the grandest of buildings in Munich. I noticed that the ornamentation on the Palace was a soft yellow, rather than gold, ensuring none of the gaudiness that one would expect from similar British or French buildings.

Schloss Nymphenburg

After lunch and some shopping for tacky souvenirs and postcards, we visited the Olympic Park and sat on some of the old stone steps, chatting as the sun set over Munich. After a quick diversion into the BMW museum (which was quite fun, but I'm not admitting that to the boys), we went back to our friend's apartment, picked up our suitcases and sadly made our way to the airport.

It was with a really heavy heart that I left Munich. I truly loved the place and had a wonderful experience. This trip only serves to support my hypothesis that Germans and Germany are truly underrated.