Day 15: More German Culture

After a rather intense  day before, we wanted to do something a little easier and lighter today. As is the general structure of our days on holiday, we left the hotel and went to another Coffee Fellows for our standard brekkie and to plan our day. Avocado Bagels and strong caps filled us up, while we schemed. Nymphemburg was high on Addys list. I realised that there was a Bundesliga (German Premier League) match on at Allianz Arena that afternoon, however tickets were sold out and it was just down to the official resale. I'd heard the atmosphere was great and I really wanted to go. Unfortunately during my search I guess the remaining resold tickets disappeared as the match became unavailable when I went to refresh the page. Oh well, now Bayern FC has my email!

With that idea quashed we made our way to Nymphemburg Palace. We caught the local train to Laim again, this time alighting rather than transiting. We passed through a rather stabby tunnel and on the other side was an Aldi. Surely it must be better over here, right? Adelaide and I investigated and turns out, not really. It's mostly the same, except for two differences. Their "random junk" section is far smaller and far more limited, and they have bread ATMs.

We continued towards the palace and gardens via some suburban streets. While it had been a clear day when we woke up, it was evident that was due to the stiff breezes now set in. We entered the palace Gardens on the south eastern entrance. In the winter season most of the trees had lost their leaves so it was a bit more bland, but it's beauty was still evident. It was popular with joggers, although they were fully kitted out in thermals and warm stuff.

The Nymphemburg palace itself is massive. A classic "this place is stupidly big" type palace that you might imagine. I think I wouldn't actually like living in because it would mean having to plan your next trip to the toilet because it takes so damn long to get anywhere.

Its BIG

We lined up and got tickets to go in. The first room you enter is the main atrium which has an opulent ceiling painting a la cistine chapel, with gold trimming and twin giant chandeliers. The palace gets its name for the numerous nymphs painted all around it. The inner side of Either flank of the castle is preserved, each room explaining another part of the history of the building, as other barons, earl's and wealthy people poured money into it to make their mark. There was one room which contained a kings 36 "pictures of beauty" in which he had 36 separate portraits made of girls he found exceptionally beautiful. The artwork was impressive, albeit the concept was a little creepy.

Spotto!

Boxy bed

Once we'd done a round of the palace it was time to explore the gardens out the back.. Many of the statues had been boxed up, presumably to protect them from the cold. It became evident outside that there was still so much more floorspace in the palace that we hadn't seen in the preserved section. It was huge. We wandered down the main path out the back of the castle but the wind was menacing. Something something bad weather, something something in appropriate clothing. Adelaide and I found the nearest map and made our way to a Cafe to get warm.

Ironically enough we ended up at a garden Cafe, where we got a coffee and a hot chocolate, and had a slice of cake each while sitting outside. I had black forest (which I completely forgot I needed to have while in Germany!) and Adelaide had chocolate mouse. They were both generous sizes and went down great with our warm drinks.

We made another attempt to delve into the gardens but that too was quickly quashed when it started to rain. We decided to abandon our walk, and changed course back for the station. With fears that the rain might intensify, we opted for a route that took us along the main road, so we could maybe fall back on public transport but ultimately it was not needed.

At the station we boarded the first train that arrived as all of them go to Central, howrver when we got to the next stop, the train stayed at the station. There were a few announcements all of which we didn't catch or understand, but nobody seemed to worried. I think there was a track fault. Around 15 minutes later, another train arrived going in the same direction across the platform and Adelaide and I bit the bullet and jumped on that one.

We returned to our hotel for our daily nap. I watched some world series snooker while Adelaide read. At around sixish we headed out for dinner, after only having a rather light lunch. We wanted to have a beerhall night, but early indications on the google machine said we might be in for a two hour wait anywhere nearby. We left and figured we check for ourselves.

Our first stop was one near a small park we had passed a few time when heading to the Christmas markets. It had some Christmas stalls out the front as well as another dry curling board. We managed to snag a table, but there were a sea of reservations around us. Funnily enough few of them actually showed while we were there.

The restaurant turned out to be a diamond in the rough. The menu had some many options addy and I wanted to try, with a solid mix of international flavours and local grub too. Us sydney-siders are too accustom to living life under the rule of the Fun Police, so when we saw that happy hour started at 10pm we thought that must be a typo (but nope!). I set my eyes on the bratwursts with potato and sourkrsut, while Adelaide, in turmoil, waited right until the waiter was taking our order and her heart went with pork roast with potato dumpling. We had a round of hoffbrau beer.

The food came out and it was deceptively big. In truth it was a struggle to completely finish, but was so tasty we prevailed. While we let our mains settle, we spotted what was left of a pig on a spit and about 40 bratwursts on their way back to the kitchen, before a huge triple layer wedding cake went the opposite direction.

The dessert spread looked pretty good so we squeezed in a chocolate lava cake with cream and ice cream, washed down with some schnapps - home made lemon schnapps for Adelaide, and plum schnapps for me. It was a tad on the stronger side.

We contemplated going somewhere else for a night cap but settled on the trust hotel-lobby-fridge beer and a few episodes of Nailed It! Christmas season.

Tchuss!
D+A