AK Diaries: Europe Vacation 2:Munich

It has been three since years since I wrote and again another successful Europe trip has inspired me to update my travel diary. Here it goes…..

Unlike last time, it took us almost a week to finalize on the country that we would like to visit. SS was keen on Italy but I firmly said NO because I knew summers in Italy can be as bad as Chennai. So I decided to tour north. The next best option was Germany-Austria. Once we decided the country, choosing the cities were not difficult – Munich- Salzburg- Vienna was the itinerary.

Austrian embassy would take a longer processing time so I had chosen German embassy to apply for visa. At the visa counter, I was told that since I am travelling to Germany for the first time, I have to appear for an interview 20 days later or take a chance and submit it; sometimes they do issue visa without an interview. This meant I have to either postpone or cancel the trip, if I don’t get the visa in 2 weeks. I took a chance and submitted the application. The embassy gave us the visa in 15 days. After a bit of research I found that there is nothing much to do in Vienna and found Prague to be more interesting. I replaced Vienna with Prague in my itinerary.

This was first time we were travelling to west with Vidur. As it neared, we were little anxious on how would it transpire. On 20th July 2012, we landed in Munich at 13hrs local time, reached the hotel by 4pm. Vidur managed this flight journey better than the previous ones. The S Bahn took us to Holiday Inn City centre from airport in 40 minutes. The weather was around 17 C and it was drizzling. We checked in the hotel in euphoria. After taking rest for a while, we had to venture out for dinner. Vidur was extremely cantankerous and unwilling to listen to anything that evening. After a bit of struggle with him, we entered “Bombay Tandoori”, an Indian restaurant, a 10 minute saunter from the hotel. I had done adequate research this time as well; I had the route map from hotel to the restaurant with me. The lady at the reception desk was quite impressed upon seeing that. The rice and sabzi were good but Naan was unpalatable.

On day 2, we set out to Marien platz. It was 2 stations away from our hotel. This was the main attraction of Munich. The whole place was vibrant with tourist, historic buildings and cafes. The aura was unique. Vidur slept off; the stroller was a real savior. Thanks to SS for choosing a fully reclining stroller and thanks to mom-dad for the gift. We covered the tower top, Residenz and maximillan strasse. The walk was long; hence we decided to take a break at the hotel. I was trying to explain the rest of my tour plan to SS, in vain. While walking along the entrancing streets around marienplatz, I made an off the cuff mention about Dachau – a Nazi concentration camp thinking she wouldn’t be fond of those places. Unexpectedly SS was quite keen to visit that place. Since we were late for Dachau that evening, we visited Nyphemburg palace. It was mizzleing; the walk around the palace was exquisite.

Day 3 – We took off to Dachau. We were late and hence we could not cover the entire camp albeit we covered 80% of it. Due to high tourist influx, the guided tours were full. We would have loved to take one that day. Both of us enjoy 19thcentury history. The train to Salzburg was around 3 and we were running little late. Vidur thankfully slept off during the return journey. I made SS stay at the main station, went on to check out the hotel and rushed back to station with luggage.
We reached Salzburg around 6. We were not given the room that was promised to us at Der Salzburger Hof and hence it took us some time to settle down. The manager apologized and requested me to adjust for one night and agreed to reduce 30% of the cost. The next day we shifted to the room that I had booked.

Day 4 – We purchased Salzburg day card and proceeded to Untersburg Mountain. Vidur was indisposed to stand in the cable car. But at the top, he had good fun walking in the hard terrain. After spending some time at the top, we returned to our hotel for a break. That evening we had planned to cover hohensalzburg fortress and Salzach river cruise. We missed our back-pack in the bus on the way to the river. We immediately crossed the road and got on to the same bus number in the opposite direction to reach back to the main bus station. The driver of that bus helped us by contacting the main office through his wireless device. Surprisingly all of them spoke English. He asked us to wait at the same bus stop where we got down and the bus in which we missed our bag would come back exactly at 6.30pm. We got our back-pack from the driver at 6.30pm. That’s Europe!! Because of this fiasco, we got a bit late to the fortress and could do only the rivers cruise. By that time, Vidur was fed up with ostentatious Indian food and asked for ‘kai mumum’ (sabzi rice). SS made phenomenal beans rice from rice cooker. I was opposing to carrying rice cooker but it turned out to be a real savior. Thanks to SV for pushing this thought of carrying the rice cooker to SS.

Day 5 – I was quite keen on visiting the ice caves in Werfen which was about 1.5 hours by road from Salzburg. It’s the largest naturally formed ice caves in the world. Upon enquiry at the tourism info at the station, we came to know that there are 700 steps to mount to reach the caves. After profound thought we decided to drop the ice caves. That left us with a day extra in Salzburg. I advanced the day 6 plan to day 5. VB had suggested Lake Konigsee on the eve of our departure. VB’s suggestion has most often been paradisiacal, so I never bothered to study it. At the hotel desk, I enquired about the bus tours to the lake. There was an organized trip from 12noon to 6pm for 37euros per person. I could clearly feel it was exorbitant. Upon enquiry at the railway station, they gave us a bus schedule run by Duetsche Bahn and it was 15 euros person return fare. The lake was bounded by mountains, impeccably clean, calm and serene. The boat took us to a chapel which stood strikingly by the shore below the mountains. SS was keen to get Vidur into the water. It was shallow near the shore and hence Vidur had a blast in the water for about 45 mins. Luckily we got vegetarian pan cakes at the restaurant there for the afternoon brunch.

Day 6 – We thought of advancing our Prague journey but decided against it since we had to change too many bookings then. We decided to take the day easy and do Salzburg sightseeing. We headed to Mirabel gardens, which was a 20-30 minute walk by the river. Sky was nubilous which made the walk exhilarating for Vidur as well. We had lunch at an Indian restaurant nearby (Hanas Rasoi) and took a break. We proceeded to Hohensalzburg fortress in the evening. It was up the hill and by the time we went up, it started raining. The view of the city from the fortress was incredible. We got a small break from the rain; we strolled around the Salzburg cathedral and old town. Encouraged by the delightful weather, we took a long walk back to hotel (30-45mins).

Day 7 – Quickly after the breakfast, we set forth our last part of the vacation – Prague. I had done an extensive research on how to reach Prague from Salzburg. It normally takes 6.30hrs-7hrs by train, be it Austrian or Czech railyways. I took a train upto Linz (Linz is a city in northern Austria). From there I had booked a bus (westbus co) to prague which takes less than 3 hours. The total journey was reduced to 5 hours. Undoubtedly, there was a bit of pressure on us to reach the pickup point in less than 10 mins from the train station. We had to rush and fortunately the bus hadn’t departed. Even a 5 minute delay would have cost us the whole day. We reached Prague at exactly at 1.10 pm. I had arranged a hotel pick up from the bus station. The hotel was right on the Charles Bridge. Charles bridge is most famous tourist spot in Prague. It is the oldest bridge built across the river Vltava. I was thrilled to some extent because Hotel Pod Vezi was ranked 7 by trip advisor. The room was spacious and had a lovely corner bath tub. We covered old town square, astronomical clock and Vez tower. We had Becherovka (the famous Czech vodka) and pizza for dinner.

Day 8 – Prague castle was top on priority. It was pretty hot and I guess that would have been the hottest day of this summer. Since we had done so much walking last week, our energy levels to walk were stumpy. The castle was huge and Vidur had a tough time adjusting to the change in temperature. We retuned back for a break and proceeded to Winceslas square. I would rate this as the most beguiling place in Prague. This was similar to Champ Elsyees of Paris. Both sides of the road were full of Pubs, Cabarets, Cafes, shops and Grandiosity. We spent the whole evening enjoying the charm around the place. I had Jewish cemetery in my list but decided to drop it and spent the evening at Winceslas square.

Prague, unlike other western counterparts, is a slightly impoverished city. I feel it is over populated for its size and has the influence of eastern European countries. The city has a unique beauty and would have been groovy had the temperature been 10C less. It was quite unusual for a city located so north to have 30+C, but this was only the downbeat in the whole trip.

Last Day – Our flight back to Dubai was at 4pm. SS and vidur had no vigor to roam around that morning. I got up a little early, had a coffee and walked across the Charles Bridge to enjoy the early morning calmness. After the breakfast, we clambered the tower at one end of the Charles Bridge. We shopped some souvenirs to finally say goodbye to Prague.

It was a long arduous trip and thanks to GOD for making it happen. SS was marvelous the whole trip in managing Vidur by planning his food, sleep, etc and gratifying my enthusiasm to see as many places as possible. I must mention that the little kid adjusted so well to changing environment every day and enjoyed himself to the core. I had to push myself to write this lengthy memoir but I hope my son would enjoy this reading 6-7years later.