For the first November trip during our semester abroad, we flew from Edinburgh to Munich to enjoy a weekend in Bavaria. There were five of us, which worked out perfectly for the five person group train tickets to navigate the city. Our first stop was L’Osteria for lunch — yes I know it was Italian and not German — and I had some delicious penne arrabiata and tiramisu! 

My tiramisu from L’Osteria in Munich.

We checked into the hostel, explored the city center, then had dinner at the Münchner Stubn  Bavarian Restaurant. I had a salad, tried some cheese dumplings, and devoured an apple strudel for dessert. The restaurant was so cute! The servers were all in lederhosen and there were beer steins everywhere. Very Bavarian.

Exploring the Old Town in the Munich city center.

Apple strudel at Münchner Stubn Bavarian Restaurant.

I bought a baguette, grapes, a banana, and a smoothie for breakfast at Lidl the following morning as we walked back through the city center. We were able to rent a car for the day, an Audi, and drove through the German countryside to the tune of Taylor Swift’s Midnights (and, of course, the ten minute version of All Too Well). We even got to drive through Austria for a little bit and see a gorgeous Austrian church as the bells chimed on the hour!

Eventually, through the red and golden leaves, the Neuschwanstein Castle appeared on the horizon. All of the Disney princess castles came to life before my eyes. It was perched on the hillside in front of the picturesque mountains, and was absolutely stunning. I spent one euro to use the restroom before we began our hike up to the castle. There were horse drawn carriages along the path and the trees truly felt like a magical forest from centuries ago.

The Neuschwanstein Castle, inspiration for many Disney princess castles.

The outside of the castle was incredible, but, in all honesty, I wasn’t a huge fan of the tour of the interior. Don’t get me wrong, the castle was beautiful and I would have loved to explore it on my own time, but the guided tour was significantly lacking. Our tour guide was low energy, there were no photos allowed (literally why), and the whole tour only lasted fifteen minutes. We were ushered down through the gift shop and I bought a postcard, a pin, and some collectible soap before heading back outside. 

A group photo on the balcony of the Neuschwanstein Castle.

The others wanted to go back down to the town for lunch, but Evin and I were committed to hiking up to the viewpoints along the mountain. We stopped for a quick pretzel and cookie break before walking over the Marienbrücke bridge. Evin looked at me and asked “are you scared of heights” as he wiggled the boards beneath my feet. Luckily, I am not scared of heights and it just made me miss the Sky Park at Camp Pinnacle. 

The view over the edge of the Marienbrücke bridge.

We hiked up the side of the mountain, having to use our hands and feet to climb some of the more treacherous areas, to find the best views of the castle from above. It was like I hopped into the whimsical world of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as they flew over the castle in the classic film. The sun came out just in time for us to reach the summit, and we spied an illegal drone circling the highest tower. I imagined that I lived in the tower in a fluffy circular canopy bed surrounded by bookshelves. We also saw a proposal on the Marienbrücke bridge down below! So cute.

The last bite of my baguette on the hike with Evin.

We drove back through the countryside to Munich, this time listening to Folklore, and I took a nap as Taryn sped down the Autobahn. We ate dinner at  another Italian restaurant called Ca’D’oro — again, I know, we were in Germany — and I enjoyed some much needed lasagna. One member of our group, I won’t name names, spoke every language imaginable to the waiter except for German. Merci, sí, grazie!

My pretzel in the Munich airport.

We had an early flight the next day, so after a quick trip back through the city center and to the train station, we made our way to the airport. The S1 Train had several delays, and at one point we were even stranded on a train platform three stops from the airport. Luckily, another train came to save the day and we made it to our gate with plenty of time to enjoy some last minute pretzels. Danke deutschland!

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