After seeing the beaches of Portugal and Croatia in the heigh of summer, I never expected Central Europe to look quite so good in October. It seems that almost overnight the colours of the scenery has changed from bright green to varying shades of red, burnt orange and yellow everywhere we look. Munich certainly didn’t disappoint in the scenery stakes, our cheap mixed-parking lot on the other side of the large ‘Englisher Garten’ was perfect for getting into the Old Town on our bikes.
We struck Munich on a Sunday and it seemed that the whole city was enjoying the sun in one of the various green spaces near the centre – some choose to even run the Munich Marathon! We stopped by to watch some of the local surfers doing their thing in the river, whether the built-purpose was for surfing or not we did not know, but some of them sure had some skill.
Our first stop in Munich was unsurprisingly the famous state run beer hall, Hofbräuhaus München. You know a country takes beer drinking seriously when it is partially run by the government! A few 1L pitchers of dark HB and numerous pretzels down, the lure of the Irish pub to watch some of the RWC was too much to resist and we watched Japan sail into the quarter finals. We did our best to see some of the other sights in the Old Town that afternoon before a final evening beer and an interesting ride home through the park to Big Karl. It is safe to say I am now a fan of ‘dark’ beer.
Our second day in Berlin got off to a shaky start with bike tyre issues (Damien’s dodgy road bike) but we recovered well with lunch in the Old Town Markets; roast pork, bratwurst and sauerkraut and a few more different german sausages later we waddled to the Oktoberfest grounds which were sadly being dismantled…our travel plans hadn’t aligned to make it here in time. The bike issues weren’t over for us and Damien’s other tyre went flat! We were lucky that almost everyone in Munich owns a bike and there are service shops every few blocks. Another great day experiencing life in Munich with a beer garden or two thrown in for good measure! A very modern and eco-friendly city, we didn’t really want to leave.
We drove east the following day, back into Austria with our final destination being Vienna. A few weather and traffic woes later, it wasn’t long until we hit the streets again on our bikes and exploring Austria’s capital. Weiner Schnitzel, corner Hot-Dog stands and apple strudel were on the cards along with the historic sights of Vienna’s inner city – a quiet day taking in the atmosphere.
The following day we headed out of the city to a slightly different type of holiday destination; the HERZ Energietechnik Factory in Pinkafeld. You can’t keep engineers away from toys for too long and this was a fantastic way to see first-hand how Europe efficiently heats biomass in a clean and economical way. The company specialises in wood/biomass boilers from residential to commercial purposes, a relatively new technology for Australasia. Shout out to my Dad for setting the tour up!
Next destination…the famous Budapest!
C xx
Damien + Caitlin 