Matt and Janelle in Europe

We did some laundry after we woke up and looked for some things to do in the city before we left. We got a message from the girls we'd met the night before, asking if we'd like to meet up for lunch. We set a time and place and headed out to the nearest metro station.

We arrived in the rain outside of the town hall and found our new friends. They took us to another beer hall, Weisses Brauhaus, though it was far more tame than the night before since it was the middle of the day. We ordered some more great German food and beer and talked with them more about our travels and their life in Germany.

After lunch, we said goodbye to our new friends and went our separate ways - perhaps to meet again in Frankfurt at the end of our trip. The rain had stopped, so we walked around the old town, including inside a few churches. We also walked through the gardens of the Residenz, the former royal palace of the Bavarian monarchs.

Next, we took the metro to the Olympiazentrum, which was home to the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Before going into the Olympic Park, we went into BMW's strange, modern building nearby. We walked through the building, which was a sort of advanced showroom and exhibition. Their museum was nearby too, but it was closed the day we were there, which wasn't a big deal.

We continued on to the Olympic Park, which we each found very impressive. Its buildings are done in a fabric tent style -- though made out of metal and glass -- which makes for some strange, asymmetrical structures. We stopped for a little while inside the pool building, which had been converted into a private workout facility. We tried to look into the track and field stadium, but it wasn't open. We continued around the park and up to a hill, which had a great view of the park and the city around it. The hills around the park are all man-made, built from the dirt that was dug out when they built the underground metro system for the Olympics. We noticed a lot of people running through the park, and we thought it was great that the Olympic Park had been converted into a park that everyone could enjoy.

We made our way back to the center of Munich and just grabbed a quick dinner from McDonald's before heading back to our room and going to sleep.

The next stop on our trip was Munich, Germany. We ate a nice breakfast at our hotel, then figured out which train to take the Munich. We got to the train station and boarded the train, which started out empty. Eventually it got full and very loud, which was annoying.

We arrived in Munich and found our way to the Airbnb room. Our hosts were Tim and Miriam, who were probably in their late twenties. We got settled in while they listed off some of Munich's main sights. They had a number of Munich tourism books and told us that Munich's art and culture museums were only 1 euro on Sundays. Miriam works in a museum, so she offered to show us how to use the public transit as she went to work.

We went along with Miriam and went to the Pinakothek der Modern, one of the museums in Munich's museum district. It featured a design section, which was devoted to the history of design of products such as furniture, computers, and appliances. The museum also had an architecture section, which we got to briefly visit before the it closed.

Next, we made our way to the city center to find Hofbrauhaus, the beer hall that our hosts recommended (despite it being a bit of a tourist attraction). It's a historical and famous beer hall with a huge restaurant with picnic table-style seating; i.e., you sit on a bench with strangers. Also, most of the beer is sold exclusively by the liter! We found a place to sit by some guys, and an older couple sat down soon after.

The beer hall itself was enormous, with many, many rooms full of tables. There was also live, traditional German music being played. We ordered our food -- Matt got a pork steak with au gratin potatoes and sauteed onions, and Janelle got a pork dish with a strange, spongy potato dumpling -- and a couple liters of beer. Later, we ordered a plate of sausages and a couple pretzels. The food was very hearty and excellent. While eating, we also talked to the people at our table.

There were three guys, probably in their late thirties (they had teenage kids), who were friends visiting Munich from Copenhagen, Denmark, to go to a soccer game. By the time we got to the Hofbrauhaus at 6:30, they had already been there for a few hours and, over the course of the night, consumed over 4 liters (that's about a gallon, or 128 ounces) of (5%) beer each!

Also at the table was an older Ukranian couple who live in Missouri. They enjoyed telling us about other parts of their trip to Europe and recommended some places to visit.

We spent several hours here talking with our tablemates and people around our table, eating more food, and drinking more beer. After the others at our table left, we moved across the aisle and sat with a couple of girls who were visiting from Frankfurt, Germany, and were about our age. One was on a short trip home to Germany from working in Afghanistan. We talked with them for a little while until the beer hall closed at midnight, then walked with them a short distance to their hotel lounge, where we got some coffee. We exchanged information on Facebook so that we could meet up again the next day.

We left their hotel and went to the underground station to get on the train back to our room. As soon as we got on the train, it stopped, with some German announcements. We asked another rider what the announcement said, and apparently someone had jumped in front of the train. We were stuck on the train for a little bit, then had to get off the train and walk out of the tunnel. Since the train wasn't running, we had to walk back to our room in the rain, which was frustrating, but not too bad.

After a nice breakfast in our hotel (although we were still a little full from the dinner the night before), we decided to head towards the city center and buy tourist passes called Salzburg Cards. These cards entitle you to free entry to many attractions around the Salzburg area and free public transportation; after viewing many of the potentially free attractions, we decided to buy the one day passes and then planned out where we wanted to visit.

First, we decided to visit the fortress on the top of the hill that is visible from all around the city. Early construction of this castle, called Hohensalzburg, began in the 11th century, and later Salzburg Archbishops continued to expand the castle to protect their interests. It was successfully used in many wars, but eventually became a tourist attraction in the late 19th century. Now, there is a rail car that quickly brings you up the hill to the fortress, which we took to the top. In the castle, we enjoyed an audio guide tour through some of the rooms and a 360 degree view of Salzburg from the castle's position on the hill.

Next, we took the rail car back down and then stopped by the cemetery we had visited the day before. This cemetery also has catacombs that are built into the hillside, which were closed the previous night, but were now open and included in our tourist card. It was interesting to see catacombs so different from those we visited in Rome, but there was no tour nor signs to read, so we moved on to our next location quickly.

After the central Salzburg attractions, we took a bus to the nearby town Grodig, which is at the foot of the mountain Untersberg. In this town, there's a cable car that goes up to one of the peaks about 4,000 feet above. When we arrived, the cable car (which runs every half hour) had (frustratingly) just left, so we ate some sausages in the small shop at the base while waiting for the next trip. When we went up, it ascended into the clouds and became very difficult to see anything in any direction, but you could still catch glimpses of the jagged snow-covered cliffs. At the top, there was a lot of snow on the ground and it was very foggy (i.e., you couldn't see down the mountain at all), but it was still fun. We walked around for a little bit before descending. The cable car tickets were normally almost the same cost as the Salzburg Card, so we were glad to have gotten our money's worth!

Next, we took the bus a few stops back towards Salzburg, stopping at Schloss Hellbrunn. It's was the villa palace of a 17th century Archbishop of Salzburg, built as a day residence for relaxing in the summer. The palace is famous for it's so-called "trick fountains;" these fountains, which were built before electricity and therefore driven completely by water pressure, were hidden and used to spray the Archbishop's unsuspecting guests with surprise jets of water (while the Archibishop remained dry, presumably laughing). The water-works also included animated diorama-like displays and an organ, all powered solely by water. We took a guided tour of the fountain area, where our guide displayed the fountains and slyly sprayed people as they walked by. Matt tried to avoid getting his camera wet.

We took the bus back to the city center. As we didn't have much time left in the day (before many attractions closed), we had to decide between a river boat cruise and a brewery tour. Since we were near the river, we checked out the cruise, but decided against it when we saw how crowded the boat would be. Instead, we ran across town toward the Stiegl brewery, which had its last tour departing in 10 minutes. The busses were all going to take too long, so we quickly rushed over to the area indicated on the map, only to find that the brewery actually wasn't where it was located on the map. Eventually, we found the brewery but were about 20 minutes late for the tour. Fortunately, we were still able to get into the brewery museum, which discussed the brewing process, the culture of beer in Austria, and the history of that specific brewery, which was founded in 1492. Included in the museum tour is a beer tasting, so after a stop by the brewery's shop for our free gifts of small beer glasses, we headed to the attached restaurant, which was our first experience with a big beer hall.

The restaurant was full of people, but we managed to find a small table near the corner. The restaurant was loud and rambunctious, with an accordionist playing songs (which many people sang along with) and several tables of loud people yelling out beer-drinking chants. With our museum ticket (also free with the Salzburg Card), we got a ticket for three free 200 ml beer samples, so we chose a few to try. We also ordered some food, including Janelle's hamburger that reminded us more of meatloaf than hamburger meat. Later, the group of men that were singing the most loudly (and that we later learned had actually brought the accordion player with them) were preparing to leave when one of them came over to talk to us. He said that they were a beer-drinking club that was celebrating 30 years of being friends (and also let us know that the restaurant would be getting quieter after they left). We finished our meals (and a few more glasses of beer), took a bus straight back to our hotel, and went to sleep.

We stopped at a McDonald's for a quick and cheap lunch (because out favorite kasekrainer place wasn't open yet) before heading to the train station to catch a train to Salzburg, Austria.

The train ride to Salzburg was pretty nice, with some scenic views of the Austrian countryside. We had booked a hotel a couple kilometers from the city center, so we made our way by foot from the station to the hotel.

After checking in, we talked with the receptionist about recommended sights and got a nice overview of navigating the city. We headed out in the direction of the city's old town, stopping at some gardens that the receptionist had recommended (and that we later learned were the location of a scene in the Sound of Music).

We continued on toward the old city center, which is a car-free zone. Before seeing any sights, we stopped in a grocery store to get some food for later instead of going to a restaurant. We struggled with the German meat names but figured it was hard to go wrong and ended up with a few different types. Next, we walked through the old town which has well-preserved baroque architecture. We stopped in some buildings, including the cathedral, but had to be pretty quick as it was getting dark. We also walked through a quiet cemetery that the receptionist had recommended stopping by. For the most part, the evening served primarily as an introduction to the town we planned to explore more the next day.

We walked back to our hotel and ate sandwiches, carrots, and hummus. We also tasted a few of Salzburg's local beers. The food was pretty basic, but delicious. We ended up eating way too much -- we couldn't save any of the food since we didn't have a refrigerator -- and falling asleep relatively early.

After trying to wake up early, we ended up just pressing snooze and sleeping in a bit, having not gotten enough sleep the night before on the train. Before leaving our room, we came up with a rough plan for what we wanted to do that day. On the way out, we got kasekrainer hot dogs at a nearby stand, which were delicious.

When we were on the overnight train, the guy who worked in Vienna suggested that we check out a Viennese coffee house, specifically recommending Cafe Central. We navigated toward the coffee house in some light rain and found it pretty easily. We didn't know about it before visiting, but the coffee houses are actually pretty important in Viennese culture. Rather than small coffee shops like those in the U.S., Viennese coffee houses are extravagant, and some are even converted palaces. Viennese coffee house culture is even on a UNESCO list of "intangible cultural heritage." In the past, important intellectuals were regulars in these coffee houses, where they met, read international newspapers, played chess, and more. The coffee house that we went to, Cafe Central, had been frequented by Sigmund Freud, Leon Trotsky, Vladmir Lenin, Adolf Hitler, and others.

The coffee house was very impressive inside, with marble columns and tables. Janelle got the supposedly-local melange, which mostly tasted the same as a cappuccino, and Matt got the cafe's eponymous Cafe Central kaffe, which was espresso with cream and apricot liqueur. We also got some of the specialty desserts that were on display, including the Viennese specialty sachertorte. The drinks and desserts were fairly expensive, but it was still an interesting experience to see such an important part of Viennese culture.

After taking a long and relaxing coffee break, we took the metro to Schonbrunn Palace, which was the summer home of Vienna's wealthy Habsburg family. The palace was fairly plain on the outside, but it was decorated nicely inside. You could only see most of the palace interior with an expensive guided tour, but we got a chance to see a couple of the rooms through the windows. The palace grounds also have extensive gardens and walking trails, including a maze and the world's oldest zoo (with Baroque buildings). The gardens have essentially become a public park, with many people jogging and walking through them. We spent a while walking around the grounds (in a little bit of rain) and checking out the views of the palace. One thing that we found funny was that the family had built large fake Roman ruins and an obelisk with fake (i.e. meaningless) Egyptian hieroglyphics as decorations.

After walking around for a while, we took the metro back in the direction of our room, but took it a little further because Janelle wanted to check out a ferris wheel she saw on the map. It ended up being part of a large, open amusement park that included a huge swing ride higher than any we've seen in the U.S.

Next, we headed towards our room, stopping at a grocery store along the way. We're always surprised by how cheap the food is at these stores. We bought a few snacks as well as a couple cans of some beer-based drinks called radlers. We'd heard about them from the Viennese guy on our train, who said that a lot of people in this region love them, especially in the summer. They are essentially a half-and-half mixture of beer and lemon-flavored soda or lemonade (after trying them, we don't recommend them).

After stopping at our room to book a place in Salzburg (unfortunately, a potential CouchSurfing host backed out at the last minute when his girlfriend was too busy with school), we headed back out for a late dinner at the brewery we'd gone to the night before. It was crowded again and we had a enjoyed a very filling dinner of Wiener schnitzel, "spicy" (like the Italians, the Austrians don't seem to have any tolerance for spiciness) chicken wings, and, of course, beer. Once we'd finished our dinner, we walked back across the center of Vienna towards our room and went to sleep after updating the blog a little bit.

Overall, Vienna was a very nice city. It consistently ranks first or second for the best quality of life in the world; we thought this was easy to see even after only a little time in the city. There are numerous parks, public transportation is consistent and convenient, food is cheap and hearty, everyone dresses very well, and people seem friendly. Vienna would be a great place to live!