Hallstatt, Munich, Neuschwanstein

On March 7, I was spending half of my second day in Salzburg by traveling to Hallstatt, a picturesque lakeside village a short trip from Salzburg. In the morning, however, I had more exploring to do in Salzburg.

My first priority was to take the funicular up to the Salzburg fortress, and the views of the city below and the opposite side (which were maybe suburbs?) were lovely.

View of Salzburg from the fortress

View from the other side of the fortress, which looks like suburban Salzburg to me, but this might also be in the city limits, so take that with a grain of salt

Descending in the funicular

I didn't stay too long up there, because it was pretty chilly up on that hilltop, but I saw the view from all sides before heading back down. The funicular lets out right near the Cathedral, so I did a quick lap through there, as well.

Organ inside the cathedral

Inside the domes

The detail here was pretty stunning

This statue outside the cathedral is 100% the scariest one I've ever seen. Looks like a dementor from Harry Potter

My next stop was the Museum der Moderne, or Salzburg's modern art museum, which you can access by elevator because it's also on a clifftop. The walk from the fortress took me maybe 20 minutes because I'm a slow poke. The honest truth is I don't love modern art, but I knew this would also have lovely views of the city, and they had a cafe where I planned on eating breakfast. Oh, and the patio in front of it also happens to be where they filmed Maria from The Sound of Music explaining how adding words to the notes is how you make a song in "Do Re Mi," but of course that had little to do with me visiting there (Read: it was the only reason I was going there).

View from the museum (The fortress is in the upper right corner, and the cathedral has the green dome, behind the black domed building, so you can get your bearings)

I then walked over to where my half-day Hallstatt tour was leaving from. Hallstatt is in Salzkammergut, a beautiful resort area in Austria that has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Hallstatt also has an overtourism problem, averaging 10,000 visitors a day to a village of 780 residents, but I hoped that going in the off-season wouldn't contribute to the problem too much; I hope I didn't, because the town didn't seem painfully crowded to me. In addition to the beautiful scenery of the mountains and Lake Hallstatt, visitors can also see the ancient salt mine Saltweltzen and the Skywalk Hallstatt viewing platform. I know how out of character this sounds but I actually didn't do anything in particular, for several reasons: partly because it was foggy and cold and the view from the Skywalk would have been crappy; also, I grew up in coal mining country, so if you've seen one mine, you've seen them all, with very few exceptions; lastly, I don’t remember how much it was, but Hallstatt is primarily for bougie people (which I am not) and the cost of those activities was very high. I just explored and did a little shopping and had a delicious lunch of weiner schnitzel. But I did come home with a locally mined pink salt seasoning mix that I still use, and it's delicious.

Hallstatt

Still in a sweatshirt (and the sun peeked out for a moment!)

On the bus ride back from Hallstatt to Salzburg, it started to snow, and the Filipino family across the aisle from me on the bus started losing their minds in the cutest way possible. They were taking videos of the snow falling and exclaiming how they couldn't wait to show their friends/family when they got home. Definitely the most wholesome part of the day.

On the walk back to my hostel from the tour office, I grabbed a quick sandwich takeout and ate it at the hostel, then watched Jurassic Park in my bed for the evening.

In the morning, I walked back to the train station and hopped on a train to Munich. Nothing makes me happier than how easy and affordable it is to zip around Europe, so my train from Salzburg to Munich took 90 minutes and cost me $22. Doesn't get any better than that--except maybe that of all places, I was headed back to Germany, which is one of my absolute favorites. I love the scenery, the architecture, the food, how clean everything is, and so many Germans speak perfect English. It's just a delight to travel there. I also felt like the universe was rewarding me for going to Germany because the first beautiful sunny day I had since I left Africa was that full day in Munich, so it just felt like all was right with the world.

My hostel was right near the Munich Hauptbahnhof, the main train station in Munich, and thankfully I didn't have a hard time finding my way to the hostel. I dumped my bags, pulled up directions to Marienplatz, the old city center and where my (you guessed it) city walking tour was leaving from. Naturally, I couldn't find the train that I needed, because being right near the Hauptbanhof meant there were about 10 different ways to get around from there, including commuter rails, trams, subway, buses, etc. I wandered around for the better part of 10 minutes before I figured out I needed to get on the above-ground train on the other side of the main train station, which meant walking through it to the other side. It's always exciting, let me tell you. But when I got to Marienplatz, heaven knows it was worth the effort.

Munich's Neues Rathaus, aka New Town Hall, which is in the same square as Old Town Hall. The glockenspiel on this clock tower is world famous, and the little characters move around at 11am, noon, and 5pm.

First stop was lunch, so I went to the Café Glockenspiel on the opposite side of the square, which had huge windows so you can see the glockenspiel move. I was right in time for the noon showing, and admittedly, it was a little underwhelming, which I had read beforehand so I was prepared. But I'm definitely glad I saw it!

Video of the glockenspiel from a café across the street

My fearless tour guide in Africa, Eva, was from Munich, so I had asked her for recommendations before visiting, and she suggested having a Bavarian white sausage, Weisswurst, which they eat for breakfast or brunch. I was eating right around noon so I barely made it. They're served in a bowl of hot water, which kind of threw me off, but I just fished them out and ate them on a plate (Yet again, I clearly don't belong in nice restaurants). It was served with a pretzel and I also ordered a cappuccino, which Eva gave me a hard time about. She told me "having a weissbeer with the sausage before noon is the rule" and said the sausage and beer "must go together," so I clearly failed my first test in Munich. I really enjoyed the sausage though, so things were off to a good start.

I went back into Marienplatz and walked around a bit. The Neues Rathaus has an inner courtyard, so I explored in there for a few minutes, then took the elevator up the tower for the city views, since I'm all about the views, as I'm sure you know by now.

Inner courtyard of the Neues Rathaus

View from the Neues Rathaus clocktower of Peterskirche (St. Peter's Church), which is supposedly Munich's oldest church. It was destroyed during WWII bombings and rebuilt.

View from the New Town Hall of the Old Town Hall

View of Frauenkirche, Cathedral of Our Lady (More on this later)

Back at the bottom, view of the Neues Rathaus with the Frauenkirche towers peeking up

Closer up of the Old Town Hall (Altes Rathaus)

My walking tour was leaving from Marienplatz, and at that point, I met the tour guide, Ben, an Irish guy living in Munich who was a delight. He had a really dry sense of humor and loved history so we hit it off immediately. Also, a side note/travel tip for whenever it's safe to travel again: I used Sandeman's to book two tours in Munich, and I loved them both. I've also toured with Sandeman's in a couple of other European cities, including Edinburgh and Madrid, and I cannot recommend them enough.

Frauenkirche, the two towers of which are the tallest in the area because of local rules that nothing can be taller. This monstrosity was built in only 20 years, which still blows my mind. The body of the church was largely destroyed in bombings in 1945, and reconstruction and restoration weren't completed until the 1990s. Apparently the Augustiner beer hall, also pictured in this photo, is worth a stop for a good beer and some good food, but I'll have to take my tour guide's word for it, since I didn’t make it there in my limited time.

One side of the Munich Residenz, the former royal palace of the Wittelsbach royal family of Bavaria. It's since been turned into a museum but this crazy building has 10 courtyards and 130 rooms. This photo really doesn't do justice at all to how much area it takes up. This side is the Alte Residenz (Old Residence), but there are two other sections as well. Much of this has also been rebuilt post-WWII due to bomb damage.

Also, related to the path in that photo, I took this photo around the corner from Odeonsplatz, where Hitler's associate Ludendorff led a march during the Nazis' attempted coup d'état to seize power in Munich. They were marching through the city streets, on their way to Odeonsplatz (marching down this street in the photo) and came around the corner to a police cordon. The ensuing confrontation claimed the lives of 16 Nazis and four police officers--the news of which put Adolf Hitler on the map, so to speak. Shortly after this incident, he was thrown in jail for treason and wrote Mein Kampf. So in a way, this is basically where it all began.

Other side of the Residenz, which I hope helps get a visual of the the scale of this thing

National Theatre Munich in Max-Joseph-Platz, named after King Maximilian Joseph (the statue is of him). This theater has had some pretty terrible luck. Its first iteration was subject to a pretty bad fire in 1817, which was rebuilt. To combat this fire issue, they purposely built the theater near a water supply. However, when the theater caught fire a second time in January of 1823, the water supply had frozen. In a panicked attempt to save the structure, locals set up a water-bucket-passing line, coming from a nearby beer hall, so the people in line were passing buckets of beer to put out the fire. Unsurprisingly, most of the buckets arrived at the fire less full than they started, and many of the bucket passers were having a great time in line, but they managed to get the fire out. That version of the theater stood until it was destroyed during air raids in October 1943. The current version was built in 1963 based on the original architect's designs, but a little larger than the original.

That's not even everything Ben told us about on the tour (and frankly, writing this more than 6 months later, I'm impressed I remembered that much, with the help of Google), but clearly you can see that I learned so much. Ben had recommended a few art museums and I decided to check one of them out: the Neue Pinakothek, which housed 19th-century art, including a few masterpieces by Impressionists I love. I figured out how to get there (a tram, this time), and made my way over. Well, when I got there, it turns out this museum is temporarily closed for renovations, which was definitely a disappointment, but I decided to do a lap through the Alte Pinakothek, the sister museum across the street that was considerably larger but also held older art. Admittedly, I'm not a huge fan of much art before the 19th century, but I figured I'd made the trip over so it was worth a stop. As it turns out, the museum was closing in about 40 minutes, so the ticket seller let me go in for free, and they had a special exhibit of some of the highlights from their sister museum that was closed, so it was a win-win!

Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein by Gustav Klimt

View of Arles by Vincent Van Gogh

I hope I didn't take those pictures illegally but I honestly don't remember, so enjoy them now in case I get cited.

After I finished up at the museum, I headed back in the direction of my hostel, because Ben had recommended a beer hall nearby that I wanted to try for dinner called Müchner Stubn. I ordered a Radler, which is my favorite lemon shandy and literally the only thing I want to drink while I'm over there, with the Variety Beer Plate, which was beer-pretzel soup, roast pork shoulder with potato dumplings, and a deep-fried apple pastry in beer batter served with ice cream. If you're drooling reading that, welcome to the club. It was just as delicious as it sounds.

In the morning, I checked out of the hostel and left my bag in the luggage storage room, then headed across the street to the train station, where we were meeting for my final tour of the trip: a day trip to Neuschwanstein, the gorgeous German castle that supposedly served as the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's castle in Disneyland. Much to my absolute delight (because I had booked this tour with Sandeman's, as well), Ben was my tour guide again today.

The tour was a full day "through the stunning Bavarian countryside" and it really did not disappoint. Our first stop was in Füssen, a picturesque town that is home to the Hohes Schloss, aka High Castle, which was once the summer home of the Prince Bishops of Augsburg, as well as a ninth century monastery.

Füssen is on the banks of the Lech River, which is so clear (and shallow) you can see the rock on the bottom in this photo

One side of the Basilika St. Mang, a 9th century monastery

The High Castle

Clock tower of the church attached to the monastery

Inner courtyard of the monastery

Strolling through town. I was eating a delicious pastry at this point, if memory serves. Have I mentioned how much I love German food?

The weather could have been better, admittedly, but I couldn’t complain, considering I was in Germany in March. After having a stroll around Füssen, we continued on to Hohenschwangau, which is where Neuschwanstein is.

If you don't have interest in history or my long-winded writing (both totally valid points of view), skip ahead to the photos. If you're still with me, settle in now, because you're in for a wild ride.

Hohenschwangau is the name of both the town and a castle there. The castle was the summer home of King Maximilian II, and where his son Ludwig, who became King Ludwig II, spent much of his childhood. Ludwig was an odd bird, to say the least, and grew to be known as "Mad King Ludwig," so if you're getting Game of Thrones vibes, you're not alone. So Ludwig's dad, Maximilian II, loved the area so much (And you'll see why; it's absolutely stunning) that he ignored his dad's suggestion to move the residence to Füssen because the existing building was pretty dilapidated, and insisted on restoring it at the existing location, which is how the castle Hohenschwangau came about. So his son Ludwig spent his summers there as a child, and also fell in love with the land. He gets it in his head that in addition to Hohenschwangau, he needs his own castle to be built, which is how Neuschwanstein comes about.

So Ludwig (who never married, just FYI) becomes completely obsessed with Wagner's operas when he’s young, and eventually manages to develop a close friendship with him. I am of the opinion that Ludwig definitely wanted to be more than friends with Wagner but that's never been confirmed historically. So because Ludwig is obsessed with Wagner--and his operas, but honestly, mostly just Wagner--he develops the idea that he's going to build this castle as a tribute to his work, particularly Lohengrin, the opera based on the Knight of the Swan legend. Neuschwanstein translates to New Swan Stone. Ludwig also loves the "romanticism" of the Middle Ages, for reasons unknown (Mad King Ludwig indeed, am I right?), so he tells Wagner he's going to live out his dream of living far away from the hustle and bustle of Munich like in the good ol' Middle Ages, and better yet, he's going to feel like he's living in one of Wagner's operas! And Wagner is welcome to come visit and have a sleepover, whenever the castle is done. (I'm really not exaggerating any of this; you can read it for yourself on Wikipedia). So the moment Ludwig's grandfather dies and frees up some of the royal coffers, he has his people get to work.

The cornerstone was laid in 1869, but things didn't exactly go smoothly. Ludwig changed his mind a lot, and at any point, up to 300 people could be working there per day, depending on his whims and the deadlines he set for them. He started living there in 1884, and I think that probably only made things worse for the workers to have him around all the time. But here's my favorite paragraph from the Wikipedia page about this insanity, which you can find here: "Despite its size, Neuschwanstein did not have space for the royal court, but contained only the King's private lodging and servants' rooms. The court buildings served decorative, rather than residential purposes: The palace was intended to serve King Ludwig II as a kind of inhabitable theatrical setting. As a temple of friendship it was also dedicated to the life and work of Richard Wagner, who died in 1883 before he had set foot in the building. In the end, Ludwig II lived in the palace for a total of only 172 days." I didn’t add the italics, for the record; they’re from Wikipedia as well. Seems like whoever worked on that page might agree with me about Ludwig’s romantic inclinations.

In case you were wondering, yes, this did cost an ever-living fortune. And did I mention he was also tackling two other palace construction projects at the same time? Linderhof Palace and Herrenchiemsee, both which you can also visit if you'd like. The construction costs of Neuschwanstein during Ludwig's lifetime total about $48 million current USD (which thankfully was privately funded, not using taxpayer money). At one point, with all his construction projects still underway, as he threatened suicide any time a creditor threatened to seize his palaces, he was about $100 million in debt when he asked his cabinet for another loan of $50 million, give or take, which they denied. So he asked parliament, but at this point, everyone was pretty tired of a king who cared more about building more palaces than actually, you know, being the king. So they decide it's time to depose Ludwig.

Seeing how this story takes one soap opera turn after another, stick with me. Ludwig gets tipped off about the people coming to seize him from Neuschwanstein, and he orders the local police to protect him, which they do, and the guys coming to kidnap him are attacked by Ludwig's friend, the 47-year-old baroness Spera von Truchseß, who beats them with her umbrella. Ludwig then runs a letter in the local newspaper, telling people what's happening in an attempt to rally them around him, but the government seizes the newspapers, so the message doesn't get far. Ludwig then decides to make a break for it, but he hesitated too long; he is seized that evening by a doctor, on the grounds of insanity, for which they supposedly have "copious and substantiated evidence" from servants and people working at Neuschwanstein. Ludwig was then transported by the doctor to Berg Castle on the shores of Lake Starnberg. The following day, Ludwig's body was found in the lake, along with his escort who had taken him for a walk. It was initially thought to be suicide, but no water was found in Ludwig's lungs, and his escort showed signs of strangulation. There are many theories surrounding the king's suspicious death, most of which are elaborate murder plots, and Neuschwanstein (as well as Herrenchiemsee) remains unfinished. He was 40 when he died.

Wow, what a doozy! And to think, I went to this castle just because it was pretty. Talk about a crash course, to say the least. Major shoutout to Ben, my amazing tour guide who is the only reason I can share this crazy ride with you. But after all that, Neuschwanstein is also stunning, so check out these photos.

Hohenschwangau, Maximillian II's summer home and where Ludwig spent much of his childhood

Neuschwanstein model

Sneaky photo during the interior tour. There were gold, gems, art, and tapestry everywhere. Not surprised Ludwig was $100 mil in the hole

View from the castle

Another view from the castle, and you can see Hohenschwangau

Neuschwanstein

The best photos of the castle are from this bridge over a gorge

If I look a little rosy-cheeked in this photo, it's because I hustled up here

Funny story about the photo above: Ben, my wonderful tour guide, had told us that the bridge I'm standing on was closed for the winter. So after I finished my tour of the interior of the castle, I hung around for awhile to stay out of the cold, had a coffee, used the WiFi, etc. I wandered outside and took some of the earlier photos in this series. But then I ran into a few people from my tour who were coming back from the direction of this bridge. Turns out Ben had been misinformed, and the bridge actually was open. I only had about 30 minutes left before I had to be back at the bottom of the hill to meet the bus, but I decided I'd totally regret it if I didn't get this photo, so I hustled to the bridge, convinced a stranger to take this photo of me, and then basically ran back downhill. I ran up to Ben, huffing and puffing and definitely redder in the face than I am in the photo above, to apologize for still managing to be 10 minutes late, and he tells me, "Oh, I actually changed the time and added 15 minutes but I didn't see you to tell you (because I was hanging out in the café drinking coffee), so you're actually 5 minutes early!" I promised you misadventures, so there's another one to add to the tally. I took this photo of the hill after I basically ran down it so you have a point of reference for where I started, which was behind the castle on the other side.

My thighs start hurting again just looking at this photo. Never a dull moment with me!

We took the bus back to the Munich train station, and I decided to eat at the same restaurant again as the night before. But this time I had the spaetzle, which is basically the German version of mac and cheese, and enjoyed every bite.

Spaetzle and another Radler

I went back to the hostel, picked up my bag, and made the trek back to the train station for the last time. Rather than booking another hostel stay and then a train, I killed two birds with one stone and booked an overnight train from Munich back to Vienna (which normally isn't that long, but the overnight train goes pretty slowly and makes a number of stops). I rounded out my trip by being not only in the top bunk, but the top of three bunks. Here's a picture of the ladder for your enjoyment:

It was a delight to haul myself up there, to say the least. I didn't sleep all that well, unsurprisingly. Then I accidentally got up a stop early and felt weird about clambering back into my bunk at 5:30am or whatever it was so I just lurked in the train hallway until we got to Vienna. As I said, never a dull moment with me. But thankfully I made it back to the Vienna airport, got my big bag out of the locker I’d stored it in a week earlier, and got on my flight to Newark without incident.

In case you're curious about the timeline, I got back to the US on March 10. March 12 was when President Trump gave that disastrous press conference where he basically said (incorrectly) that "international flights are canceled" due to Covid, so to say I made it back just under the wire would be a considerable understatement. He also said in that press conference that they were taking all sorts of precautions at airports, and let me tell you that was not my experience at all. I got off the plane with lists of addresses of places I'd been, ready to have to give a detailed rundown and maybe even to quarantine before they let me go home, but I went through digital passport control (where your passport is checked by a machine) and didn't even speak to a human being before I walked out of the airport and drove back to Scranton with my dad after being out of the country for a total of seven weeks. So I can confirm that was certainly not my experience. But I'm grateful it doesn't seem like I was carrying anything because as far as I know, I haven't been sick and neither has my family.

I hope that I will have more exciting adventures to update this blog sooner rather than later, but who knows when that will be. Thank you to anyone who has stuck with me this far. I promise to write about more adventures and misadventures as soon as I can!