Innsbruck-Salzburg-Munich in 1 Week

Dear Readers,

During our Christmas and New Year 2015 holidays, I and Sayantani went to Munich to visit our friends Vinay and Raksha and to visit nearby towns of Austria. We went to Munich by train from Amsterdam. Vinay came to pick us up at the Munich Hbf and then we went to Freising which is a town just outside of Munich. Raksha works at the university there and we were going to stay in her apartment. We were greeted by some mouthwatering home made Indian food (read biryani, raita level stuff). Raksha and Vinay are amazing cooks! 

Munich is not a very pretty city in itself. As a tourist, all you are going to hear about is Munich's famous beer halls and world war concentration camps. Well tourism in many parts of Germany (specially cities) are focused on world war remains so that was not a surprise for us but the craze for beer in Munich is just another level. A visit to Hofbrauhaus is a much to get a glimpse of this madness. Amazing place! The beer, the atmosphere, the music, the meaty greasy food, the women in Bavarian dirndl dress selling pretzel ... its a unique place.    

Drinking some solid Bavarian beer @ Hofbrauhaus

Eva joined us @ Hofbrauhaus for beer and food :)

Waitress in sexy bavarian dirndl dress + big pretzel + big beer = feel! ;)

Potato Knodel with mushroom sauce, a delicious option of vegetarians in Munich

The surroundings of Munich are a delight. Within 1-2 hour train journey, you will find your self among beautiful mountains and fairy tail castles. We went to visit the Famous Neuschwanstein castle. Its a castle at the border of Germany and Austria and this is a must do day trip from Munich.

View of the mountains from the train just after leaving Munich

The queen of the castle :)

Why take picture with one castle when you can take one with so many!

We spent a couple of days just roaming around Munich and Freising with Raksha and Vinay. In Freising, we went to Weihenstephan, the oldest brewery in the world. 

@Weihenstephan, Freising. Shan, Vinay and the heart shaped pretzel :)

On 1st January, Vinay took us to a gurudwara in Munich for the new year special langar. Such a great way to stay our new year! We got the blessings, heard the sermons and had delicious lunch at langar.

New year langar at gurudwara in Munich, blissful food!

In between all this, Vinay planned a 2 day trip for us to Innsbruck in Austria. We went by bus as it was the most convenient, fastest and cheapest way to reach there. Its a small city tucked among Alpine mountains, a winter sport paradise and home of Swarovski. At this time of the year, all the peaks were snow covered. All the ski resorts in Europe were suffering from less snow fall but resorts here managed to have some ski slopes open. I guess winter is the best time to go here because the charm of the city will not be the same without all the snow. With the 48 hour pass, we could take both cable car options available in Innsbruk. The videos and pictures below give a glimpse of Innsbruck city.

Glimpse of Innsbruck city ...

Going up Nordkette mountain in Innsbruk in the famous cable car designed by Zaha Hadid

Excitement on the top!! Shan was seeing so much snow for the first time!

Selfie with the gang in Innsbruck

View from the top of the Olympic mountain Patscherkofel, just outside Innsbruck

Shan and Raksha on top of Olympic mountain Patscherkofel

The unmissable landmark of Innsbruck city - A Christmas tree made of Swarovski crystals 

Another 2 days trip that we planned at the last moment from Munich was to Salzburg. Vinay and Raksha could not join us because they had to work. So just me and Shan when for this trip. First I was a bit reluctant to go there because I read that its all about Mozart and Sound of Music in Salzburg (and I had no interest in any of them). But we went anyways. And it was one of the most memorable two days for us. The day we reached Salzburg, it was cold and grey. So we decided to go to a Motzart theamed dinner concert at Hohensalzburg Castle to avoid the cold. It was an amazing concert and the dinner was very good as well. Highly recommended! Though I am not a big fan of Mozart, I still enjoyed it quite a lot. In our remaining time that day, we just walked around the town clicking pictures and buying souvenirs.

Cheese Balls! :D

Salzburg was filled with random statues like these

Many buildings in the city center are carved like this one

One of the many decorated alleys of Salzburg during Christmas

The 'we were there' pic at Mozart's birth place

When we woke up next day, we realized that Salzburg is experiencing heavy snowfall!! We decided to explore the city again in snow. It was the first time Shan was experiencing such a heavy snow fall. She was excited as a kid!! And believe me, the charm of this city goes up 10 times in snow. Walking among those old houses, small alleys, cobble stone streets, Christmas decoration everywhere and the heavy snowfall ... it almost became like a fairy tale walk. We were jumping with excitement ! Some videos and pictures below will give a better impression of how beautiful the city really was.

Cable car taking us to the Hohensalzburg Castle

View from top of Hohensalzburg Castle

Just a random restaurant where we had breakfast

This one will be framed! Our best pic of the trip :)

Mystic look of Hohensalzburg Castle in snow ...

Overall it was a great one week trip. We had enough time to rest and we saw many things. Anyone can cover Munich, Innsbruck and Salzburg in one week. Keep 3 days for Munich and 2 days each for Innsbruck and Salzburg. And according to me, the best time to go is during January when its snowing.

So that's it for the moment. We have a lot of nice memories from this trip. I will end this blog with a funny one (shown in the pic below) :D

A post card I found in Munich, says 'for Men' :P, Shan didn't let me buy it tough :(

As they say in dutch ...

Tot later,

Karan