Munich: Part 3

After the toy museum we took a walk to find a meeting point we had to catch a bus tour from in a few days for our trip to Linderhof and Neuschwanstein.  All the buildings are so beautiful that I never really stopped taking photos, much to Ewan’s embarrassment!

We then went to this beautiful beer garden which was absolutely huge.  It was covered in lovely paintings and looked very grand.  For lunch we went traditional German and our waitress said she couldn’t speak much English so it gave me another chance to attempt some of my Standard Grade German!  I had wiener-schnitzel which is so fun to say!  We wear constantly surrounded by wasps though because of the flowers on our table which didn’t make for a very pleasant, relaxing meal – I’m such a wuss!

Then it was back to happy hour and some white Russians and fruity cocktails!

For dinner we went to this restaurant which we’d seen the night before and looked really cute (I should really take down the names of these places) but unfortunately it was a huge disappointment.  Service wasn’t great and the food was really overcooked.  What we hadn’t realised was that there was lots of restaurants further down the path where it had looked cute so I wish we’d had a proper look round before choosing rather than just sitting down at the first one.

The next morning we went on a Third Reich & Nazi Party walking tour which was one of my favourite parts of the trip.  We saw the place where Hitler became leader of his party, the square where he did a lot of his public speaking and the Gestapo HQ (which is now a police station).  We learned how Hitler was shot at and his bodyguard took 7 bullets for him (and survived!).  We learned what the three Ludwigs are famous for: Ludwig I – Oktoberfest, Ludwig II – the Disney castle and Ludwig III – letting Hitler join the army!  There was a pathway which had golden cobbles through it and that was because it was the way people who refused to do the Nazi salute walked, even though they were watched and their names were all taken – how brave!

This is the courtyard where Hitler used to paint.  I’m sure lots of you have seen his artwork.  He was very good at painting landscapes but got kicked out of art school because he had “no appreciation for the human form”.  He also used to paint busy places such as Marienplatz but never with a single person included.  Very interesting!

This is the beer hall (or Bier Halle) where Hitler became leader of his party.  He used to entice people into his speeches with free beer and it worked!  The hall was huge and is now a restaurant.  They had an exhibition up with history of the hall but never mentioned Hitler or the party once.  Similarly, Hugo Boss, who used to design their uniforms, have no history on their website unlike most fashion designers who have a history to their brand. It was a great tour, our guide was great and I’d definitely recommend it.