Airport-hostel-food

Okay, I'm going to write my last post about my Munich trip. Though it won't be the last if I forget something... :P

This post will mostly be of odds-and-ends photos...those that I can't exactly put in the other posts.

Shall we start at the airport? This is a room we passed through to board the plane from Lyon (we took a bus to the plane; they do that often for flights in Europe) I liked the painting on the walls...but just when I was going to snap a photo, this guy just walked up and stood there. (Argh!)


So I snapped the pic anyway...it even looks real, like he's standing on the riverbank. (by the way, I think that's supposed to be a painting of Lyon scenery...I don't know about the details, but it sure resembles it a lot)

And then I wanted another pic, of the wall further away, where two guys were using some gadget...I think it's a camera, 'cos those are the Lumière brothers (search for them if you want to know more)


And there's that same guy again...he noticed me taking photos, I think...and I just hope he wasn't perasan enough to think that I was taking photos of him! lol

Anyway, after he left, I managed to get the pic I initially wanted :P


And since I'm talking about airports I might as well put a few photos I took from the plane...though this was while leaving Munich.




I didn't know which photo was better, so I'll let you decide for yourself :P And I didn't notice it at that time...but when I look back at the pics, I wonder whether that white oval thing is the Allianz Arena...

Now a few pics of the hostel...the hostel is called Wombat's, and appropriately, there was a wombat at the counter to welcome us :)


I didn't even notice it at first...I saw it when I was asking something at the counter later on (not while checking in, I mean)

Upon check-in they gave me my key card, a voucher for a welcome drink (which is about the same as the one in Vienna), and a breakfast coupon since it was my second visit to a Wombat's. (I got a sort of loyalty card at the first one)


There's also a pretty cute weather forecast board :D


But unfortunately it was only updated once when I was there...the first or second day, I believe...and as you can see, it got warmer the last few days I was there!

And what trip would be complete without food? :P

This is currywurst, something that I saw almost everywhere, and it looked so good I decided to give it a try.


The sausage was good (normal, I guess), the sauce was like ketchup, but sweeter, which was why I liked it better (I'm not a big fan of ketchup), and the curry powder on it was just nice ^_^ And...the potato wedges were the best I had ever tasted 'cos they were really super crispy. (that's the only part I like in potato wedges...lol)

Then I tried pork knuckle.

half pork knuckle with potato dumpling

I have always rather liked "weird" parts of animals...so I liked this as well...though some people said that it made them lose their appetite! lol The skin was crispy (though rather hard), a bit like the roast pork we get in M'sia sometimes. I liked the potato dumpling as well...I don't know how they did it but it was springy...a little starchy...a bit like "lo mai kai". lol (less starchy though...)

Then on my last day I was pretty adventurous in trying this diah:


It is goat's lung stew with bread dumplings. It was rather good, though a bit too sour...the sourness kind of "accumulated" and in the end it wasn't so good any more.

And I had it with a radler (beer + lemonade ~ shandy :P ) Since it was after the beer tour, I wasn't that worried about not liking it...


I took apple strudel for dessert...I was slightly full but I still had time (with nothing to do before going to the airport) so I decided to have a little dessert! But........


The apple strudel turned out to be huge. I couldn't finish it :( (It was just okay, by the way...not that special...though maybe because I was full as well)

So that's all for Munich...the only thing I didn't write about is the visit to the Valentin-Karlstadt Museum...and I'm not sure it's worth writing about...we'll see.

Of sportive destinations in Munich

On my last day in Munich, I took a day ticket for the whole public transport network (which includes getting to the airport) and so made the most of it by venturing out of the town centre.

My first stop was the Allianz Arena. Remember my visit into the miniature at the Munich airport?

where to get off

We can see the stadium upon coming out of the metro station
(the shadow on the top left is the fence of the overhead crossing which I was on)

I was there! lol

There wasn't anything special about the interior of the stadium; what's more, everything was closed and it was very cold, so I didn't spend much time there.

It was a lot colder there (and at the Olympic Park that I went to later) than in Munich itself, probably because these places were north of the town. In the town the snow had melted, but as you can see, the ground's still white around the stadium...

inside the metro leaving from Fröttmaning; it was empty because this was the first stop (only for certain times, usually the metro goes further than this station)

Before I left for Munich, Dinie told me that the metro there was great and that I'd love it. Taking the metro (S-Bahn) from the airport to town, I was wondering what was so great about it... It turns out that the U-Bahns (metros in the Munich centre) are newer than the S-Bahns (trains passing through the centre of Munich, but going further out of town, like the RER in Paris).

As I mentioned, my second stop was the Olympic Park (Olympiapark) Here's a map:


The guys I met the night before had said that they were staying there...probably in one of the blocks on the left. But they were working that day, so I suppose they weren't there anyway. I didn't walk all over the park since it was so cold, just went around taking a few pictures. It was nothing really special anyway...maybe because it was winter?

Olympic Tower
We can pay to go up, but the last trip up was at 11:30am and it was already about noon when I arrived there.

the swimming pool; it was wonderfully warm inside!!

The restaurant and souvenir shop on its left

The restaurant has Augustiner!! (haha Augustiner is gonna be my bière de référence from now on :P )

the SoccaFive arena

I think it's rented out because:


Inside:



The BMW museum is just nearby, but I didn't go there. I wasn't planning to go there anyway, and what's more, the guys from the beer tour told me that it was just like a huge car showroom.



I don't know which one exactly is the museum...probably the big one and not the tower.

And actually WW was really lucky I went to the Olympic Park...I wasn't planning to go there at the beginning, and that was where I found the Bayern Munich souvenir shop! I was initially going to visit the Allianz Arena and then the Nuremberg Palace (without going in, just looking and taking pics from the outside) But those guys (again lol) told me that the Olympic Park was a good place to visit, and when I asked the guy at my hostel reception whether the palace was close to the tram station (we have to take the tram there, not the metro), he said that the palace was nothing special anyway. Which was why I finally decided to pass on the palace and go to the Olympic Park instead.

That's all for my touristic pics...though I believe I will be doing another post about Munich, with all the "odds and ends" photos.

Northbound

Heading north from Marienplatz:

the National Theatre

next to it

Munich Residence

further along (still the Munich Residence)

the first doorway in the previous photo

the second doorway

through it: a Christmas market inside the Munich Residence

an interesting dustbin (I seem to be always taking photos of dustbins :P )

chocolate fruits again...this time I bought one

the dark-choc coated mandarin orange (yum :D )

Back out on Odeonsplatz:

Theatinerkirche (another church)

the Field Marshal's hall

the entrance towards the Munich Residence's garden (though there was no greenery; everything was under the snow) You can see the signboard saying Hofgartenstrasse.

along the side of that doorway

on the right, upon going through that doorway (on the left is the garden)

between that previous photo and the garden

garden

snow

towards that "thing" in the garden

inside that "thing"

that long corridor between the garden and the Theatinerkirche is where the drawings were

After that I went to have lunch, since it was about noon I was starting to get rather hungry :P (you see? I saw all the sights of Munich in a morning!) After lunch I headed towards Isartor to check out a museum listed in the city guide I got from my hostel.

the Isartor gate/doorway (Isartor is one of the metro stations, also a square, I believe)

local curiosity museum dedicated to two (local?) comedians

I went in because it was recommended as an "interesting" visit by the Wombat's guide, and it only cost 1.99€ for students (2.99€ otherwise, unless if you're 99 years old and you come with your parents, in which case it's free (this info is also courtesy of Wombat's)) but unfortunately everything was in German so I couldn't understand much of it.

Check out the opening hours...and I think Wombat's wasn't lying 'cos I see a 99 on the door...

I think I won't put any more photos of the museum here...I'll reserve that for another post (if I finally decide to write it)

Then there's the hunting museum, also recommended by Wombat's as a less-serious visit. I didn't go into this one...mainly because it was late, but the entrance fee was also higher (about 5€, 4++ I think)

outside the museum

Oh, and by the way, I didn't spend the whole afternoon in the first museum...I went back after that and took a rest at the hostel...then I felt bored and decided to come out walking again, which was when I went looking for the hunting museum. I had already walked past it before noticing it, since it was on the way to Marienplatz.