Nuremberg

It's amazing how 12 hours of sleep can make you feel like a brand new person. After not getting any sleep the night before we arrived in Munich, 12 hours was much needed. No more cranky Linda (much to the delight of Steve, I'm sure).

Because we slept in, we were too late to make a trip to Salzburg or Neuschwanstein, so we decided to visit Nuremberg. It was only a 90 minute drive from Munich. A word of advice, Nuremberg can show up on the GPS in many ways: Nuremberg, Nürnberg, Nueremberg, and Nüremberg).

We had zero expectations about what Nuremberg would be like. I think because of that we found the city much more enjoyable than Munich (the 12 hours of sleep probably helped too).

Before visiting, I only knew of Nuremberg from learning about the Nuremberg trials that took place there between 1945 and 1946. Nuremberg itself is a beautiful, quaint city that really displays the best of Bavarian culture, something I didn't see too much of in Munich. The vibe was super chill, a nice change from the crowds and commercial stores in bigger cities.

The city center was fun to explore. It was bustling with tourists. There was a little market and a music stage. Hovering over all this was St. Lorenz Church, which was originally built in 1477. Fun fact: constructing the church first began in 1270 and took over 200 years to complete. We just don't have history like this in the US!

restauration kopernikus

We loved this Polish restaurant so much that we ate there for lunch and dinner. We ordered the bigos (cabbage stew with sausage), the piroggen (pierogi), the fränkischer schweinebraten (baked pork and a side of dumpling), and the pfannenschnitzel (schnitzel). The portion sizes were on point.

Munich

Munich is only a 2.5 hour flight from Dublin, but we made the mistake of taking an early morning flight. This meant we only caught a few hours of sleep in our Dublin hotel before dragging ourselves to the airport.

I was a grumpy cat for the rest of the day. Steve can attest to this. After an afternoon of being very cranky and wandering around Munich, I ended up giving in to my exhaustion and taking a long nap on a bench in Englischer Garten.

Note to self: when tired and traveling, always make time for a nap. It'll make the rest of the day much more pleasant.

THE NICEST CAR WE'LL EVER DRIVE

Steve made it a goal to tell as many people on our trip as possible that we were on our honeymoon. And I must say, it often worked in our favor.

"You're on your honeymoon?" said the gentleman at the front desk of the car rental service at the Munich airport. "You can't drive a Volkswagen on your honeymoon. I'm giving you a brand new Mercedes, fresh off the factory floor. It only has 13 km on it."

Stuff like this never happens to us. We're not the types who win lotteries, run into celebrities, or get upgrades. But, maybe we are now...

the Architecture

We should have enjoyed our first day in Munich more because little did we know that it would rain for the rest of our visit. In the sun, the colors of the city popped unlike any city I've been in. Red flowers on the windowsill, the golden walls of the Theatine Church, the bright green trees in the gardens. Every scene could have been straight from a painting.

The architecture in the city was simply stunning. Everywhere I turned, there were monstrous, gothic-style buildings and some that reminded me of the baroque style of Versailles. We learned that the city was heavily bombed during WWII. Up to 80% of the historic buildings were destroyed and much of what we saw was rebuilt after the war.

The food

Beer, bread, schnitzels, and strudels.

One of the neat things about Munich is that most restaurants have a beer garden or outdoor seating of some sort. We had lunch at the Park Cafe, where Steve ordered a delicious plate of pork schnitzel - lightly breaded and thinly sliced. It came with a side of lingonberry sauce and creamy dill potatoes. 

I once read in a magazine that the average German consumes over 3,500 calories a day. This doesn't surprise me considering the amount of bread and dairy and sugar I consumed during my stay. No regrets though. Everything I ate was delicious.

One last thing...

My favorite photo of Steve.