This was a trip with my son and daughter-in-law focused on the Munich and Garmisch-Partenkirchen areas with just a bit of Iceland thrown in. This was their first international travel and it was a joy to see their enthusiasm for just about everything on our trip. I came down with covid about a week prior to our trip and it looked like it might not even be happening. Fortunately, I did end up meeting my doctor’s criteria to travel and I honestly felt pretty good throughout the trip.
We purposefully had a 24 hour stopover in Iceland on our way, but found that we really didn’t enjoy it that much because we were so tired and our plan for hop on/hop off was sidetracked by a large number of unexpected people wanting the same thing. By accident we had a 24 hour stopover on the way back that we really enjoyed so I would suggest any stopovers be scheduled when you are returning to the US vs. on your way to Europe.
I bought the plane tickets and then went to look for lodging. It was then I discovered that I had planned this trip for Oktoberfest in Munich because the hotel prices were 2-3 times the normal costs. Gulp! I ended up choosing the Hotel Gastof Maisberger at the Neufahrn S1 stop because of its convenience to both the Airport and Munich as well as reasonable prices. I felt a little badly about not being in the center of Munich, but the prices were just too high. This hotel was such a happy surprise! So convenient and a nice German family hotel. The restaurant was amazing. In the end we all agreed that while we enjoyed exploring Central Munich during the day, we also enjoyed coming “home” to our hotel in Neufahrn.
The other thing that I had wondered about was going to Oktoberfest as a non-drinker with two others that really don’t care for beer. So much was happening in Munich, it really didn’t matter if we went to the festival grounds or not. We thought we would go one weekday morning just to see the tents, etc. We found a line of about 1,000 people waiting to get in and decided we had higher priorities for our time. We wandered on our own, took a two hour “free” walking tour, and visited Dachau Memorial. There were a lot of people in Munich, but it was also so fun to see so many people dressed in traditional costumes just about everywhere one went. One afternoon my niece, who lives in Frankfurt, came to join us and that was really a special treat. The German food was excellent and the weather perfect every day.
We had the D-ticket for September and used public transport everywhere we went. This was a significant money saver and so convenient as we never had to worry about buying any other tickets. I found the MVV app particularly useful for travel in Munich and the DB app convenient for travel between Munich and Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
After 3 days in Munich we headed to Garmisch-Partenkirchen where I had reserved a two bedroom flat. The location, cost, etc were great. There was a bit of a cultural difference between what I expected would be included in a rental vs. what the owner felt was appropriate. When I asked about toilet paper and soap, I was told that a German would have known to bring their own.
We enjoyed hiking the gorge, the summer luge, walking around, a few trips to the Eibsee, some photography excursions and a trip up the Zugspitze. There is such a nice mix of outdoor activities surrounded by tourist infrastructure that this community is very accessible and enjoyable for people with a variety of interests. The Alps, well they are just beautiful…..
Continued in next post