Celebrating the Holidays In Munich: Part 1

As I get this blog up and running, I'm posting summaries of our past trips, starting in 2011. This is the first post about our trip to Germany in December 2011.

Day 1: December 21, 2011

On a whim, Aaron and I decided that we'd like to spend some time in Germany. We both have some German heritage, we took German in school (I remember significantly more than he does), and we love beer and sausage, so it seemed like a great fit. We decided to go over the holidays to maximize our vacation time. This was the first trip to Europe for both of us, so we didn't really know what to expect.

We flew on US Airways from Milwaukee to Munich, with a stop in Philadelphia. Many of the travelers seemed to be full of holiday spirit. We saw Santa and one of his reindeer in the airport in Milwaukee. Our first flight left at noon and only took two hours, but we had a 3.5 hour layover in Philadelphia. Once we made our way to the international terminal, we had a leisurely sit-down dinner in a restaurant that made us feel like we were in Europe (even though we didn't know what that felt like, yet). Then, we boarded our 8-hour flight that would land in Munich at 9:00 a.m. the next day (which would feel like 1:00 a.m. to us). I slept a bit on the plane, Aaron didn't.

Day 2: December 22, 2011

After landing in Munich, we gathered our luggage and quickly made it through passport control. We found the U-Bahn station and bought tickets to the Hauptbanhof.  Our hotel (the Courtyard Marriot), was just a few blocks from the train station, although we definitely wandered around in circles for a bit before we got our bearings and found it. We were able to check in right away (we had requested an early check-in through their Virtual Concierge about a week earlier), and then we took all the advice we received and immediately hit the streets to try and ward off jetlag.  We walked about 10-15 minutes to get to Altstadt and immediately went to the Augustiner restaurant for a meal. This was Aaron's first real German beer.

He had Regensburger Wurst and Kraut, while I opted for for venison chops with gravy, mushrooms, spaetzle, and cranberry sauce (it was the holidays after all).

The food and beer was excellent, but all we wanted to do was sleep. After the meal, we went back to our hotel and slept for about three hours. After our "nap," we walked through our first Christmas market in Odeonsplatz. It was cold and rainy, but we didn't let that dampen our spirits.

We warmed up with some Gluhwein (we weren't really fans of it at first, but now—over three years later—we've grown to like it). We walked back through old town and found a delicious treat called Rahm-Schmankerl for 3,50 Euro.

You can't go wrong with bacon, cheese, and bread.

We only purchased one item from a stand: two of these paper illuminated stars.

One of the stands had chocolate in almost every shape imaginable.

This Christmas market seemed to never end! We later realized we had been entering and exiting small markets all throughout old town. It was snowing/raining and cold, but that didn't stop the Germans from gathering outside to socialize with food and drink.

Aaron, of course, felt compelled to join them. He bought a special Christmas beer.

It was served in glass, but he was charged a deposit. All drinks were served in glass (and some food came on substantial dishes), with a deposit charged to encourage you to return it. Having made it to a respectable time in the evening, we went back to the hotel to get a good night's sleep.

Day 3: December 23, 2011

We woke up extremely early—around 3:00 a.m. We watched movies and played around on our computers while waiting for the sun to come up, but then fell back asleep and didn't make it out until after 10:00 a.m. We walked to Viktulienmarkt and found a nice cafe for breakfast. Aaron was pretty excited to see that he could have beer at breakfast, and he ordered a half liter of Paulaner, along with a traditional Munich breakfast: weisswurst, mustard, and a pretzel.

I had a selection of bread, cheese, and cold cuts with Spezi to drink.

And... Aaron had a second beer. This was the moment he realized he liked wheat beer...at least in Germany.

By the time we finished breakfast, it was almost noon. We walked a block or two to Marienplatz to see the Glockenspiel. (Spoiler alert: Bavaria wins.)

We then returned to Viktulienmarkt and explored the vendor stalls. There was fresh produce and handcrafted goods from all around the world.

Then we went to the Deutsches museum. Although many of the exhibits were in German, we saw this cool old wine press form 1723, and had great views of the city from the top level of the museum.

There was, of course, an entire exhibit dedicated to brewing beer, and Aaron spent some time here.

During our museum visit, we stopped at the cafeteria/snack bar for a drink. I wanted some water, and the staff only spoke German. I knew how to ask for water in German, but took a minute to figure out what follow-up question they asked: "Mit gas, oder nicht?" Turns out, Germans love their sparkling water, and always ask if you prefer sparkling or still when you order it. By the end of the trip, I was a sparkling water fan.

After the museum we wandered back through Viktulienmarkt and stopped for another beverage.

Then we went to Altes Hacker Haus, for dessert (dampfnudeln—and another beverage).

By now it was getting dark (there's not much daylight in Germany in late December), so we wandered through the Christmas markets again, and stopped in the Augustiner beer hall for a beer and a snack.

We then went back to the hotel—probably much sooner than most tourists in their 20's and 30's would like to admit.

In case you can't tell, the theme of this trip quickly became "Aaron drinks a beer." He was never obnoxiously drunk, but enjoyed a beer with every meal (and often in between meals). We'd had a fun two days in Munich, but on December 24 and 25 we decided to stay with my best friend from college. He was stationed in Grafenwoehr, a fairly short train ride from Munich. Since it had been years since we'd seen each other, we caught up, met his son, and got over our jet lag once and for all. It was a very relaxing two days during a time when the city would be basically shut down anyway.

Part two of this trip will pick up after we returned to Munich from our short Christmas break.

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