It was still dark when we arrived in Munich Airport, we brought our outerwear in our cabin luggage and we quickly ‘suit-up’ before exiting the plane. It wasn’t too cold, partly because we were still indoors. But when we had to walk across the open-air atrium to the S-bahn, it got really cold, really quickly! To make matters worse the train platform was outdoors, so we had to deal with the cold while waiting for our train to arrive. We used the Airport-City-Day-Ticket to get to Veronika’s apartment in Hirschgarten. This ticket covers all forms of transport within the Munich area and the partner ticket can cover up to 5 adults, but even for two of us it was well worth the price. To make full use of this ticket, visit places outside the inner district of Munich i.e. Neuschwanstein Castle, on the day of your arrival. For day 2, we used the Partner Day Ticket. *Do take note, the train doors do not open automatically, you have to press a small circular button. We almost missed our stop because of that! Luckily, Germans are nice, helpful people 🙂
After settling down at Veronika’s apartment, we cooked a quick meal and made our way to Nymphenburg Palace. It was a leisurely walk through Hirshgarten, followed by a short tram ride. The park was huge; filled with joggers, cyclists, people with their children and pets. We viewed the Nymphenburg Palace from the outside and strolled through the park in the brisk cold winter morning. We don’t get to see much wildlife in Singapore; so for us seeing swans gliding along the lakes and geese flying in V formation are such amazing and unique sights.
Afterwards it was off to Viktualienmarkt at Marienplatz for lunch! Most of the Christmas market stalls were open and there was already a crowd. We strolled around the area, snacking along the way and finally found a shop selling the blauworld Allnet. The sales person was nice enough to help us activate the number using his laptop; the phone line was activated immediately while the data only 12 hours later. We were able to use the card to call all numbers in Germany (very useful for contacting our hosts) and the 1GB data plan was more than sufficient for navigation and surfing the internet during train rides.
Feeling the effects of jet-lag, we decided to go to REWE, a supermarket within walking distance from Hirschgarten, grabbed some groceries and headed back to our place for an early dinner and much needed sleep. On day 2, we visited the Deutsches Museum, the largest technical museum in the world. It is recommended that you dedicate an entire day to explore, but frankly we know we don’t have the stamina, but we did manage to last 4 hours before deciding it was time for lunch.
We had lunch at the famous Hofbrauhaus Munchen! We ordered roast pork crackling, pork knuckle and apple strudel for dessert. The food was good and the service was quick, just that it was difficult initially to get the attention of the busy waiters/waitresses.
Next was a quick visit to the BMW headquarters, with their iconic four cylinder engine building. It was located near the Olympiapark, which we walked by for a quick look. There wasn’t any events going on so it was pretty deserted and quiet.
On day 3, we checked out of Veronika’s apartment and took the S-bahn to the Haupbahnhof (Hbf) to catch our train to Stuttgart, this cost was covered by the City-Ticket that came with the BahnCard. It was definitely an eye-opener entering the gigantic building with 10+ train platforms; looked more like an airport than a train station. There were lots of eateries in the area, so we didn’t have to worry about getting hungry.
That wraps up our short stay in Munich. We would have liked to stay longer in Munich as we didn’t manage to cover everything we wanted to, so we pledged to return to Munich for a proper visit next time in summer!
absolute honesty 