My very last stop of my 12 day journey after traveling to Barcelona and Madrid, was Munich, Germany. I was looking forward to city most, not only for the anticipated tours I had booked, but because my best friend and cousin, Lauren, was going to accompany me in my travels. We started our experience in Munich on Monday, April 11 where we met Lauren and her boyfriend, Eric, at the airport.
After an hour of train travel, we made our way to Munich Central Station where our hostel was located just a few minutes away. A little background about Munich: Munich is the capital and largest city of the German state of Bavaria and north of the northern edge of the Alps. It is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg. Everything was very centralized around one major area which made it fairly easy to navigate around on foot. The location of Munich at the center of Europe dictates that many climatic factors impact the city, making for fluctuating weather conditions more often than in other locations on the continent.
From 80 degrees in Madrid, to 35 and snowy in Munich, it was a hard adjustment to take in. Before anything else, I suppose I will begin with the topic everyone knows and loves: food. When visiting Germany, how could you NOT indulge in the culture of its food and drink? Our first night in Munich was occupied by a four hour beer and food walking tour that took us through the ins and outs of the most famous restaurants serving the most traditional German cuisine.
Munich is the beer capital of the world. Home of the beer-halls, beer-gardens, beer-cellars and the legendary Oktoberfest. Throughout the tour, we d iscovered how beer is brewed and the fascinating story of German brewing.
For as long as there have been Germans, there has been beer. The world has looked to Germany to set the standards of what a cool drink of great beer should be. And Germany looks to Munich. We were thoroughly informed about the different beers available and were able to try a few samples. German beer isβ¦. The origins of Bavarian cuisine are rural.
