Munich

We took the train from Zurich to Munich in the morning and it is a loooong ride. I woke up late because I was exhausted and didn’t hear my alarm go off so I didn’t have chance to eat breakfast at the hotel. LUCKILY there is a food car on the train (it was excellent for preventing a hangry (hungry + angry) Sarah). I got this delicious cream and yogurt with muesli in it. YUM.

I actually really enjoyed the train ride- it is so beautiful here. I never realize that yes, Utah is actually a desert, when I am there. Then I go other places and think to myself “how is it so green?” The train is perfect because you get to see SO MUCH! My favorite thing to see were these little tiny garden lots that have a little shack on the property. There would be a group of them together and they just looked magical! My dad told me that because the majority of people live in apartments they aren’t able to have gardens. Because of this, they buy those tiny properties and on the weekends stay in their little, tiny shack houses (which are really cute and don’t actually look like shacks, they are just itty bitty) and garden! Also shout out to Vera Bradley for making a wonderful backpack that can double as a pillow on the train.

MUNICH… it is a big city that is kind of dirty and everyone smokes here; I swear I saw 12 year olds smoking! We walked through this gigantic mall that was outside until we got to the glockenspiel. It is huge! Unfortunately, it doesn’t play every hour so I didn’t get to see it spin, but image life-size statues on a large turntable in the middle of the city center. Actually, you don’t have to imagine because I took a picture…

The outside of the city center was built in the 1400s, but the inside courtyard was built in the 1700s. Imagine that this beautiful building was built before Columbus even discovered America. Our history and buildings are just babies compared to Europe.

We ate outside at this restaurant that claimed to have the first white sausage. I decided to play it safe and get a cheeseburger, which was really good and ginormous! The fries don’t have salt on them and they kind of taste like scones; they are delish! My dad got the white sausage, which looked super gross… it was in this dish full of water and then had two thick white sausages in it. BUT… in the spirit of being in Germany, I tried a piece- it was actually pretty good.

After lunch we walked to this big church that was really pretty. On the inside it had a really tall ceiling with pointed vaults. It was a square and as you walked the perimeter there were little worshipping rooms that were blocked off by these gates. You could still see inside them because of the large slits in the iron gates, there were some cool stained glass windows. You can walk into the basement, which was kind of creepy. It was brick (the outside of the church is red brick too) and had really dark lighting. There were a couple of important people buried there on one side of the room. On the other side of the room was an abstract painting of Christ’s crucifixion.

Then we had to get back on the train because we had another train to catch to Heidelberg! This train reminded me of Harry Potter on the Hogwarts Express with the aisle on one side and then small rooms with 6 seats on the other side. Again, thanks VB for the soft, pillow-like backpack.