Saturday 21 August 2010

Starnberg to Munich

August 10th

Starnberg
Today again the weather was great so we had a bit of a chilled one,
window shopping in the town, catching up on e-mail (while sipping
coffee!) and finding out what there is to do in Munich and how to do it.
The afternoon was spent reading on the Lakeside and snorkeling -
there were a surprising amount of fish in the Starnbergersee, massed
shoals of silver streaks of light and larger solo wrasses graced the
blue water. It was really clear considering the amount of water and
therfore mud which had been added to it recently!

Munich
After getting ourselves together we made the relatively short hop to Munich (München), the first big city since Strasbourg to meet up with my parents who had flown out for a few days to help celebrate my 30th. Once we had found a suitable parking spot and paid the appropriate fare we met up with the old fogies and had a lovely meal (proper Bavarian stodge to line the stomach before a good drinking session) and sunk a few Augustinas (one of many local brews in Munich) to round a lovely day off.

August 11th

We got up and moved the van to the second campsite or the expedition, Campingplatz Nord-West. We had decided that it would be easier using public transport to get around the sprawling city, and the campsite afforded us showers, washing machines and a place to try out our awning, without the risks associated with driving your home through, and parking in a busy city. The nearest rail link into the city centre, a small satellite suburb called Moosach, was a twenty minute cycle ride through a nice park and on good cycle lanes, so we got a regular bit of exercise each morning an night. Our bikes were safely locked at the station and we knew that as we had the cheapest bikes out of the hundred and fifty or so locked up at the small station, only a tiny blind thief would try to steal our humble transports.
The rail links were excellent, ran frequently, always on time and were also incredibly affordable. We bought a 3-day, 5-person (and 1 dog) ticket which allowed unlimited travel to the "Innerraum" which was basically all of Munich which allowed all of us to scoot around the city at will. Nailz was a bit perturbed by the train at first, but by the end was a seasoned rail-traveling dog.

Once we had met up with Ma unt Pa, we had a leisurely mooch around Munich city centre, working our way up to the Englischer Garten. This is a vast expanse of parkland, in fact the tourist guide says it's the "largest park within city walls" and I can believe it. It is huge and took us all day to amble through part of it. We were distracted a little by the beergarten in the centre of it, but we were soon back walking among the picturesque paths alongside the river. We even came across a waterfall and some surfers riding the waves created by a bridge! The Garten was so big we struggled just made it back to the beergarten where we decided to sink a few more (for strength) and enjoy the "Oompa" band which was playing in the Chinesischer Turm (a big four-level Chinese-style tower). We then staggered back toward the Marienplatz where we hopped on the train, stopping to drop off the Mum and Dad before headed back to Moosach.

Click here for our photostream (flickr)

Click here for our route (google maps)

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