Guidebook - Rick Steves' SNAPSHOT Munich, Bavaria & Salzburg
We really enjoyed Salzburg. Everything is quite compact and walkable so it was easy to maneuver around. We started with a stroll through Mirabell Gardens (near our hotel) and then across the river to Salzburger Christkindlmarkt where we immediately consumed bratwurst and bosna (2 small sausages in a bun sprinkled with curry powder). I also had to try one of these crazy ice cream cones I had been seeing in all the markets. They are ice cream cones with marshmallow cream instead of ice cream with the whole thing dipped DQ-style in chocolate. Fun to look at - fun to eat.
We were in Salzburg for just under 2 days so we hit just a few sights... the first day mainly the Old Town area (including Salzburg Cathedral) and Hohensalzburg Fortress. The walk up to the Fortress area was grueling, but this is how you justify getting to eat all the caloric market food. The views were gorgeous and though we didn't actually do much at the Fortress except walk around (What's this I smell? Another Christmas Market?), it was a fun way to spend the afternoon. We capped off that day dinner and beer at at Augustiner Brӓustübl, a monk-run brewery that's been around since 1621. They have a "deli arcade" where you can assemble a dinner from multiple vendors (like a food court) and this is where we had, quite possibly, the best dinner of our trip. This roast pork (pork shank?) was expertly carved of it's bone in mere seconds and when Kevin cried uncle on my behalf, my final bite was of this amazing pork with a hint of bacon-y rind. Unbelievable. The brew garden was also a little bit out of town so we felt like the only tourists in a locals-only spot (many tables are reserved for groups of regulars called stammtische). It was also a neat ordering experience... grab your .5L or 1L ceramic mug off the shelf, tell the cashier what you want, bring your ticket to the kegmaster to fill up and grab a seat.
The second day started with lunch at Gasthaus zum Wilden Mann (Rick Steves said "I simply love this place" so we just had to check it out). Kevin had the Steves-recommended bauernschmaus (ham roll, roasted pork and sausage "peasant's meats" with potato dumplings) which he quickly pronounced his favorite meal of the trip. We took a lazy walk through the Mönchsberg area (high elevation overlooking most of Salzburg and the Fortress) and had a quick dinner at another Steves recommendation, St. Paul's Stub'n Beer Garden. The recommended meal was kasnock'n which we then ordered deluxe mit speck, which was mac-n-cheese to the extreme, served in a iron skillet with bacon. Rich, creamy, cheesy insanity. We finished the night with another stroll through the Christkindlmarkt to try weihnachtsschmarr'n, which was like a bread pudding with raisins and nuts with applesauce later poured on top.
A brief side note about train travel...
We rode trains for the first four cities on our itinerary. Some books/sites will lead you to think for the number of cities we were doing that you should buy a Eurail Select Pass which allows you to travel to 3 countries across 7 days in 2 months, but these were over $400 per person. We also looked at neighboring country passes which would have allowed us to travel to just Austria-Germany but those were about $150 per person.
We ended up train-ing from Vienna to Salzburg for $54 each (std. one way fare), used the Bayern pass (next paragraph) for Salzburg>Munich for $20 each and Munich>Prague for $83 each (std. one way fare on slower train that saved us $40 pp for one extra hour of train). I guess we are one of the rare cases where it did not make sense for use to buy one of the combo passes. We didn't buy anything in advance of leaving Qatar, but we did buy our Bayern pass online because the Salzburg station was under construction and we didn't want to attempt to find the ticket counter.
For Salzburg>Munich and our Munich day-trips, we followed Rick Steves' recommendation to buy a Bayern rail pass, which saved us a ton of money. I could never find info on this pass on the English DB site but Google-translated the German site and bought them that way. Up to 5 people can travel in second class on one ticket on any regional trains or buses (or S-Bahn trains in Munich) in the Bavaria area after 9am for just 29€ ($39). This beats the standard one way fare per person so it was quite a deal for us.
Steves also has a handy map here that shows time/cost to European cities.
With our ticket in hand, we hopped an early train to Munich!
MUNICH
Guidebook - Rick Steves' SNAPSHOT Munich, Bavaria & Salzburg
Our base for Munich was across the street from the train station, which in most cities is usually a seedy area, but for us it was well trafficked and located close to everything, especially the train station since we were arriving/departing by train and made 2 day-trips during our stay.
We started our quick stay in Munich at Marienplatz where the main Christmas Market was. We stayed for the glockenspiel joust at noon and walked to the top of the spire at St. Peter’s for a view of Marienplatz and Viktualienmarkt where we headed next. This is another large permanent open-air market filled with bountiful food stalls and take-away restaurants. We then took a quick day-trip to Dachau Concentration Camp, the first Nazi concentration camp. Most of the camp was razed after it was liberated, but the main administration building now houses an elaborate museum and there are reconstructed barracks to view. Unaware of how close to closing time we were, we were rushed through the crematorium and gas chambers which were a somber end to our trip there. The next day we toured Neuschwanstein Castle, which inspired Walt Disney for Cinderella’s castle. It is also quite close to Hohenschwangau Castle which we opted to just view from the outside. It was a quick tour and again blinded by delicious smells, we were detoured on the walk down with some mind-blowing freshly made donut balls, still gooey on the inside.
We had some great meals in Munich. We went to Hofbrӓuhaus, the “world’s most famous beer hall,” and Dürnbräu, where at both we indulged in roasted meats and dumplings, fresh pretzels and tasty beer (according to Kevin after 1L).
We were treated to Dürnbräu by a friend from school (the math says we have not seen each other for 16 years – ouch!) who was great company and a generous host in helping us plan our trip. He also steered us to a restaurant at Viktualienmarkt called Milagros where we treated ourselves the following day to enchiladas verdes, my favorite Mexican dish on earth that I haven’t enjoyed in 4+ months. I am convinced it was not that I had not had them in forever, they were truly just incredible – perfectly tart and tangy. They also had a salsa (paste-like texture) that was made from ground pumpkin seeds and other unusual stuff - the owner said it was from a Mayan recipe, I believe. It was a taste like I've never had before and it was delish.
Another benefit to knowing a local? Inside track on where to buy quality ornaments at better prices than the touristy Christmas Markets. :) From Munich we hopped a train to spend Christmas in Prague...
WANT TO SEE MORE?
Check out the photos from this part of our trip over on Facebook.
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