Europe 2015: Munich Update

I think most people who include Germany in their Europe itinerary usually choose to go to Berlin. But when I booked the ticket to Prague and was trying to decide what other city to visit, Munich was the first place that I thought of. Mainly because I wanted to see Neuschswanstein Castle, which I will talk more about in a different post. If I had done more research, I probably would have chosen to visit the Romantic Road from Frankfurt to Munich, which is a tour of medieval towns in Bavaria. I can always go back, right? 🙂 While Munich is not always an obvious choice when planning a European tour, I did enjoy exploring and discovering more about Bavaria’s capital. As a bonus, I got to meet a long-time online friend in person! Again, more on that in another post.

It’s funny how we visited as many castles and palaces as we can during our trip. Our first full day in Munich, we chose to explore Nymphenburg Palace and its surrounding gardens:

Park palaces Amalienburg and Badenburg:

The Hall of Mirrors inside Amelienburg, a smaller version of the one in Versailles:

During one of the days we were in Munich, we met up with one of Kim’s friends and she showed us around the area. We visited the elaborately decorated Asamkirche, which was built by the Asam brothers to be their private church:

We explored the outdoor market Viktualienmarkt:

The famous Marienplatz:

Shakespeare and Co. is an indie bookstore in the Marienplatz area. It has the same name as the renowned bookstore in Paris. Unfortunately, most of their stocks are German titles so we weren’t able to buy anything:

The Munich Residenz is another royal palace located in the city. It was previously used by the monarchs of the House of Wittelsbach.

The Antiquarium, the oldest room in the Residenz. It was created to house the royalty’s collection of antique sculptures. If these were antique during the 1800s, then they’re now ancient:

One of the mirrors inside the palace and a super fancy cabinet for china:

Ancestral Gallery, which displays portraits of the rulers of Bavaria:

A bejeweled crown and a ceremonial sword from the Treasury inside the Residenz:

A traditional German meal that I had was cheese spatzle with Hacker-Pschorr Radler (beer with lemonade and my favorite out of all the beers we tried):

Have you visited Munich? If you have, what did you think of it? I’m not aware of any books set in Munich but I believe The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is set in a city nearby.