Autumn + Winter trip @ Munich, Germany [ entry 1 of 5 ]

event :: Autumn + Winter trip @ Munich, Germany 2011
date :: October - December 2011
locatio :: Munich / München, Germany.
theme :: red.

[1] During the few months that hubbykun was away in Munich, I was working like hell to finish up my datelines. So I really welcomed this much needed break. On Friday, of 9 December, I took early an morning flight from the London City Airport. This was the first time I took a flight at this airport, never knew about its existence until then. It is the only London airport which is in the London city (Zone 3). To get here by tube, you need to take the Jubilee line from Victoria to Canning Town, and then the DLR to London City Aiport stop. The tube ride took almost 40minutes tube ride and it just cost £4. At first I lined up to get the tube ticket, because I wasn't sure if airports require different ticket. But even though it was midnight, there was a long queue that was moving extremely slow. I decided then to try the ticket kiosk instead. Turned out it was a piece of cake ;)




[2] I reached Munich airport at 11am and then took the S8 bahn to get to the city centre. The train ticket cost €10.80. I had to wait for 30minutes for hubbykun  to come meet me at the central train station (Hauptbanhof). While waiting, I watched 'Rio' on my ipod. It was about a blue parrot who can't fly, a really funny, colourful and enjoyable animation (would highly recommend it!). After that, we headed to the apartment hubbykun was staying at (we were staying at Vi Vadi Hotel which was just 200m from the Hauptbanhof). We had instant noodles for lunch. I then accompanied hubbykun to pick up his laundry. We went separate ways after that: hubbykun went back to the office, while I went back to the apartment to catch some sleep. I slept like the dead that afternoon (not because of jetlag :P since its just 1 hour difference from the UK), but rather because I didn't sleep very well the night before. We were supposed to check out the German Christmas market that night. but hubbykun had some urgent work and had to work late. Meanwhile, I was starving at home (just kidding, actually hubbykun asked me to buy dinner first but i was just really lazy to go to the restaurant alone) :P hubbykun colleague said 'your wife must be crazy now' :P




[3] Because we have wasted the previous day not sightseeing, we decided to sightsee with a vengence during the weekend. We woke up as early as 5.30am on Saturday and had an Italian breakfast at the hotel's restaurant. We then went to post office to change some cash (because some of the notes that we brought were too big). Unfortunately, the post office only opens at 9am, but at that time it was only 8.30am. So had 30 minutes of time to kill. Hubbykun spent the time to show me around the Hauptbanhof area and the recommended places where I can do some shopping and recommended some places to eat.




[4] It started snowing that Saturday morning. Since the months hubbykun has been here, this was the first snow he experienced in Munich! Hmm just a few hours after I stepped foot in Munich, I'm beginning to think cold weather follow me wherever I go :P Because of the snow, we decided to spend the day with indoor activity. The first thing in mind was of course the BMW museum that I've heard so many recommendations from. The museum is located near Olympia Zentrum. Hubbykun has been here with his friends a few weeks before. He told me that they have a scrambler motorshow daily.




[5] We asked a BMW staff at the show room there and he confirmed that the 11am show will be going on as schedule. They also have another show at 2pm. I really enjoyed watching the motor show (check-out our video, at the end of this entry). The bike did free-wheely and even climbed 3 flights of stairs! so cool! Besides the motor show, there was also a lot of other activities you can try such as  games and you can even get inside some of the cars and pose like you own them! I think I stand out too much skipping around for hubbykun's video shots and what not, that the BMW staff that we talked to before came up to me and gave us some sweets when he passed us next. errr perhaps he thought we were happy lost children? :P




[6] Hubbykun newly made Malaysian friends (who are currently staying in Munich. BTW, thank you on behalf of hubbykun for being so nice and keeping him company while I was not there) posted in their group that Tom Cruise came to the BMW museum just the day before because BMW sponsor the car that is being used for the new upcoming movie titled Mission Impossible: Phantom Protokoll (this is how its spelled in German). I looked it up and the movie is called Ghost Protocol in English. I'm so frustrated to think that I missed having to see the handsome actor face-to-face by a single day! Guess we are not fated for each other :P Not sure the name of the model car on display here. There was an even cooler car where the doors open vertically (known as winged-door) and the convertible roof are automatically stored inside the car boot. A show girl was showing how to operate it at a couple and we were staring awestruck at it. Unfortunately, this car was not available for me to play around with. Would have loved to try pressing some of them cool buttons! hahaha




[7] There were also some BMW cars being displayed outside. This Santa Claus car is not a real one though. I thought the snow on the car was really suitable for the Christmas spirit ;) some car has snow on them. After we had our fill at the museum, it was time for lunch. We planned to have lunch at Vapiano, an Italian restaurant that hubbykun went with his friend before. He said their pizzas and pastas are really authentic. But hubbykun didn't remember the exact location of the restaurant, all he remembered was that it was near Marienplatz. we even asked some people we passed, but we somehow asked all the wrong people who were not locals.




[8] After walking in circles 2-3 times, we gave up and ended up having halal KFC near Marienplatz instead. I tried the coney fries at KFC and the hot + spicy chicken just like what we have in Malaysia, it was yummylicious! How come they don't have all this stuff in UK? :( We came to the BMW museum at night too. The museum building will change colors from green to red. We were lucky we were here just before 10pm, because they started shutting off some of the pathway lighting after that.




[9] After lunch, we went back to the apartment for prayers. Hubbykun took the opportunity to look up the address of Vapiano. He found our that it is located at Theatinerstrasse 15 and that we were going the wrong direction (trust me : hubbykun to get this kinda thing mixed up) :P Even though our earlier plan was to spend time indoor, we changed our mind because hubbykun wanted to photograph Munich during snow shots. And what better way to do this than at a garden.




[10] We went to the English Garden (the nearest train stop to get here is Universtat i.e. the LMU=Ludwig Munich Universitat). The canal running around the garden was really beautiful.hubbykun went here a few months before during autumn and he said the view was even more amazing. Because it was snowing, the wooden Chinese pagoda roofs were covered with some snow, a little bit like the photos we saw in the travel book (although there was much more snow in the book). There was even a charming small Christmas market and festive horse carriages which carry  passengers at the garden.




[11] Hubbykun told me that lions represent the symbol of Munich. That night went to the Tollwood christmas market at Theresienwiese (just 1 s-bahn stop away from Hauptbahnof where our hotel is located). It was perhaps the biggest xmas market in Munich with a number of huge tents selling goods such as christmas decorations, personalised trinkets, bazaar even a tent only for international food hall), each filled to capacity making it hard to move because it was a Saturday. Hubbykun went there with some Malaysians a week before during a working day, and according to him it wasn't as busy. So he was really surprised as well.




[12] After that, we went to Vapiano for dinner (now that we knew the exact address. Hehe). True enough the pasta was divine! On the way  heading to Vapiano, we even went inside the Mercedes show room and took more photos. The staffs were smiling by the time we left huhu (I must have been acting extremely 'jakun'. nothing new there :P). I was suddenly approached by 2 german gentlemen who asked me: 'Are you Msians?'. He was in a very excited manner that I was a little taken aback myself. He said he immediately guessed when he saw me (because of the way I wear my head scarf). They are currently working in Malaysia and just come back to Germany to spend the holidays with friends and family here. He seemed very excited to have found us. Hehe.




[13] After dinner, we headed back to the hotel. Our shoes were soaked because the rain/snow/sleet did't let up since morning.Thankfully the room heater managed to dry up the shoes and socks. We went to bed at around 9pm that night, we were both exhausted but honestly we dunno why :P Hubbykun's friends said this year's winter was actually unseasonably warm. Last year, it was much colder since October and by December it was snowing almost everyday. In our case, almost all the snow melted by the next morning. Hubbykun was rather sad because of this :(




[14] We  woke up at 7am, which meant we slept for 10 hours straight! I couldn't believe we overslept even though i have set the alarm. Somehow we both didn't hear anything! After taking our morning shower, we went to breakfast at the hotel restaurant again. This was at Konigsplatz, a square near our hotel too. It's just walking distance from hauptbahnof too. you can take u-bahn too, but we decided we needed the exercise ;) there was 2 museums and a 'arch de triump'-like architecture at this square. hubbykun told me all the archs are in celebration of defeating napolean bonaparte (didn't know this :P)




[15] Today, our main plan was to do the 'royal munich' recommended walk, which starts from Odeonsplatz and ended in Marienplatz. Hubbykun particularly save this walk to do it with me (isn't he the sweetest? ;) ). We saw that there were a stack of some pine/christmas trees at Residentplatz. At first I thought that they were planning to checkout more christmas decorations at the square, so I was really excited to come check out this spot again come night time. But turned out that the xmas trees were for selling. We also found a small xmas market inside Residentplatz, but since it was early morning, not many of the stalls were opened yet.  When we checked out this place again at night, the area was jammed packed that it was near impossible to get through the gate to the market. We ended up not spending much time there.




[16] We also went to check out hubbykun's work place this past months. Hubbykun took some extra photos to show to officemates back in Bristol Just in case, I warned him not to put the one where i was happily skipping away :P While we were fooling around, a security car passed by and was giving us a puzzled look :P After that, we headed back to the hotel to grab a quick lunch and perform our prayers.




[17] Because it was rather cold walking outside for long hours, we took a short break at the Starbucks Coffee here. Found out that over here, you'd need a code in order to enter the starbucks's WC. The code is printed in your receipt. After that, we went to Hard Rock Cafe located at Platz to take photo of Rock Shop interior. Hubbykun has already bought the HRC fridge magnet. There were 3 different designs (1) guitar-shaped, 2) HRC logo and 3) odd-shaped specific to munich (octoberfest, archbishop palace, etc)). he took the guitar-shaped, i.e. classic HRC fridge magnet. we prefer the guitar-shaped because we have quite a few of this design. this time we were there, that particular magnet has been sold out. Glad he purchased it beforehand.




[18] The xmas light at Theatinerstrasse (a pedestrian shopping street) was especially beautiful. We also went to the Maffeihof shopping mall, a rather impressive mall with beautiful xmas lights & trees. The decorations here reminded me of our New York trip last December. There were not many people because apparently no stores are open on Sundays, not even supermarkets (so be sure not to plan doing your grocery shopping on Sunday. I had stocked my fill of snacks and junk food the day before ehehe.). Only restaurants are open for business. Since the mall was deserted, it was nice taking photo here. At the junction connecting Theatinerstrasse to Maffeihof, there was a tram track. Pretty convenient if you're lazy to walk when doing your shopping I guess ;)




[19] After that went to Hofgarten. I mistaken the green house in the map as the EU building that we found by accident the day before when we were aimlessly looking for Vapiano. The building looked rather new and not  labelled as a tourist landmark but the architecture was very beautiful. It is located along Maximilien strasse, that are filled with expensive boutiques (salvatore, gucci, escada, etc.). We walked all the way towards the bridge crossing the river heading towards the Bavarian Landtag (state parliament) that sits atop a hill (but we didn't actually climb the hill, just took photos from the bridge).




[20] There was a tram stop near here called 'Maxmonument' (tram no. 18). I wanted to try taking a ride on a Munich tram. Hubbykun who has been here for few also hasn't been on one, and so far only took u-bahn and s-bahn and the bus. The tram passed through Isartor, saw beautiful tower gate with what looked like xmas market. We passed the stop before noticing the beautiful backdrop. So we took the tram stop at karlsplatz and then backtrack by s-bahn to Isartor. However, it turned out that we were wrong. It was not an xmas market that we saw, but rather it was just a huge outdoor bar with xmas deco :P




[21] We actually wanted to go to Nymphenburg Palace, that hubbykun has been to before. He said that the walking route there was really beautiful. Unfortunately, Schloss Nymphenburg was too far and there was no direct tram or train getting there from where we were (require some changing of transport at the Hauptbanhof. the nearest public transport to the schloss was by tram no. 17). We didn't have much time because it was almost night time so we decided to spend the time enjoying the xmas lights at Marienplatz instead. The xmas market at Marienplatz goes all the way to Rathaus, and Karlsplatz. It looked like a neverending xmas market street. Bristol xmas market is nowhere near as big as the ones found here! And the xmas decorations at the stalls were really authentic too! There use real alpine trees, so the market smelled like fresh pine wherever you go, I loved it! ;)




[22] Because Marienplatz is perhaps the most well-known landmark in Munich, we find the place is forever crowded with people. It was part of the 'royal Munich' route recommended by the travel book. There was a huge difference on the view when the xmas lights were all lighted up at night compared to when we explore it in the morning. While walking from Marienplatz to Karlsplatz german market, we also made a slight detour when we saw this xmas lighted street that ended at Pettenbergstrasse, with another small market. There was an old synagogue structure near here. We decided to take a break to eat some popcorns and macademian nuts here. The place ambience was really lovely. There was a big fountain at this square, but they covered it with wooden plates, I'm guessing to protect it from freezing.




[23] Hubbykun showed me an xmas window full like moving teddy bears, gorillas, bunnies, etc sponsored by Steiff. This is a very well-known soft toy manufacturer in Germany, and their toys are extremely expensive too! The window was always surrounded by viewers too. I hereby declare it  the most interesting xmas windows we saw in Munich. There was a little boy who came with his father while we were here. He was literally glued to the glass window and didn't wanna move away from the window. He was so extremely cute!




[24] We then continue back to our walk to Karlsplatz. The ice skating rink at karlsplatz was also extremely busy due to the weekend night. So we decided to check it out another time during the weekdays. We then took the S-bahn back to Hauptbahnof. We bought dinner from a Chinese restaurant. I also wanted to try the bubble tea (the tea has boba/a jelly that pops in your mouth) but the shop has closed 1 hour early the their usual time. I decided to try my luck some other time. After dinner, we went straight to bed.




[25] On Monday, hubbykun was busy that he had to bail out from our plan to check out the xmas market in Marienplatz. We did managed to go out on Tuesday night after hubbykun got off work, but by the time we were there, most of the stalls were closing down because they closed at 8pm. I spent Wednesday night at the hotel alone too, because hubbykun was again busy :( I did went to the laundrymat in the morning though and reward myself to the bubble tea I was dying to give a try ehehee. We finally managed to spend some quality time at Marienplatz xmas market on Thursday night. I really liked the tin soldier being sold here, really cute and reminded me of the sad children story about the tin soldier with a missing leg that fell in love with a ballerina miniature. Not sure if they were handmade, but they sure looked high quality! Hubbykun didn't allow me to have one though :P




[26] This is another xmas stall that we especially like. The roof has a miniature archbishop church installed on it. And the stall is located right next to the real archbishop church. Hubbykun told me that there was a tower that you can climb with a €1.50 fee with a nice view of the Munich town, but he wasn't sure if this was the one. We didn't try that out due to lack of time. We also went to Saturn, a huge gadget store that sells almost everything. Hubbykun got a new tripod here, because his current one was acting up and also a AUX cable because I forgot to bring the one we have. We will be needing this for the long drive to our next destination, and let's face it we can't really enjoy German radio due to language barrier :( We then spent time watching ice skating rink at Karlplatz. There wasn't as many people as during the weekend. There was skating aid in the shape of polar bear for use of beginners. There were some funny moments people-watching here. The skills (or rather lack of skill?) on some really determined people here can be pretty amazing. I felt bad about laughing at one particularly funny skating style guy, but there was also a group of people laughing really loudly near us (I guess I wasn't being mean, but it really was funny). After that, we headed back to the hotel and it was time to pack our luggage for the next destination tomorrow.




[27] A week later, when we were driving back to Munich airport (to heading back to Bristol), we made a stop at Arena, the Munich Bayern football stadium, shaped like a tire. When we were driving past the A99 motorway the color was blue. It was snowing lightly, not enough to set on the motorway, but at the car park there was a thin layer of white snow. When we parked and ready to take a pix, the stadium color turned to white. We tried taking some photos but the shots were too bright and lost the details. We then went back to car and while waiting we browsed through and laughed at the videos from past days. We waited almost 15 minutes (it was very cold wait because of soaking socks and having spent a few hours in the warmth of the car heater), then the color changed to red, which was more beautiful than blue. We quickly ran to take photos then.




[28] Finally, this is my favourite photo, which was taken at an u-bahn station. Hubbykun tried many times to get this shot at multiple tube station of a cute leg photo and finally satisfied with this.




[29] Video during the famous Octoberfest event at Theresienwiese Munich




[30] Video during walking trip at Mittenwald, southern Bavaria.




[31] And our video in Munich :)







up next on our 2nd destination, the xmas town :)