We spent two days in Munich, Germany, while on a European Alps road trip.

Several years ago, my sister stopped in Salzburg, Austria, and I never expected I myself would go there. I’m a pretty frequent traveler due to the nature of my studies and research, but it has always been in Asia. I love Korea and the rest of Asia from the bottom of my heart, and for the longest time I never had any interest in going to Europe.

In 2024 I won a Fulbright, then I lost it when the country I was selected for refused to give me a visa after a four month wait. It was a confusing time for me, as I had quit my job for this opportunity, and suddenly I was left unemployed and without any prospects ahead of me.

I did end up taking a year off in order to focus on my goals, as I was in the right financial situation and had enough savings, and in December I decided to take a leap of faith and book a five country Europe tour through EF Ultimate Break.

I’ll be writing a review of the company and tour on my blog, but I paid about $4,300 with all the excursions and whatnot to roam around Europe. I needed to unplug and not think, and I could afford the tour that would give me that.

As I mentioned before, I’m going to be writing blog posts for each of the countries and cities I visited during this trip, except for Liechtenstein, as we only went to that country for only thirty minutes as a bathroom break on the way to Switzerland.

Today’s blog post is going to be dedicated to Munich, which was the third major stop, and fourth overall stop when we were road tripping around Germany. I had zero expectations for Munich because I had talked to my sister, who had roamed around Germany a few years ago.

Her take was that she did not care for Germany, especially Munich. I was realizing as I was trying to find things to do in Munich that would fit within my interests. I was struggling to find things to do, which was an indicator to me that this might be a city that is more ideal to live in rather than be a tourist within.

With that said, let’s get into what we did in Munich specifically!

A walking tour of Munich helps you uncover all of the city’s history.

We arrived in Munich at around 12 PM, then our tour guide told us about an affordable nearby market by Marienplatz that we should eat lunch at. We entered Marienplatz, gawked at the government building, then went into the market to stop at a soup stall. He told us about a nearby juice stall to stop at too, but I didn’t go there.

At the soup stall I got a vegetable curry, which was kind of Indian inspired, and a German pretzel. Weird combo but it worked pretty well, and it was a nice break for me from all of the European food. It was slowly driving me insane, as I’m used to eating Asian food at home.

Munich is the capital of Bavaria, and also the city where most of Germany’s best known brands originate from. Our director was from Berlin, so he was telling us about how Munich and Berlin people tend to hate each other, as Munich is seen as more business-like, prim and proper, and Berlin is where the artists are.

Munich is also the place where it’s more conservative in Germany, as Bavaria as a whole is more conservative (according to him). Anyways, after lunch a friend and I began roaming around Marienplatz, bought our souvenirs, then people watched until it was time to go to our next scheduled event.

At 1:15 PM, our walking tour began with a guide and his dog (the real tour guide right there). He took us around all of the spots in the area, poking our heads briefly around churches and seeing how exactly the buildings were reconstructed after being bombed in World War II. A lot of Marienplatz alone was bombed and destroyed during the war, so this city was heavily reconstructed.

Once our tour was over, we got onto the subway, as our tour guide was showing us how to use it for the first time. We checked into our hostel (the Wombat) after a brief ride, then I relaxed. My friend and I grabbed Indian and Mexican food for dinner, then I passed out for the night after reading for a bit in my bed. The rest of my room went partying until 2 AM (some 4 AM even), which messed them up for the next day.

Nymphenburg Palace is somewhere you could spend all day at.

The next day was our only full free day of the trip if you didn’t book the excursion to Dachau. I wasn’t paying for Dachau, as I knew it was free outside of a structured tour, so I found the people who weren’t going to go to the drawing board. It was probably for the best, as most of the Dachau group was extremely hung over or still drunk (which I had some opinions about, but that’s for another time).

Anyways, a friend and I decided to go to Nymphenburg Palace, which was about an hour from where our hostel was. We decided on this one as our tour guide from the day before told us to go here instead of Residenz Munich, as this was the original building and design. Residenz Munich was destroyed and reconstructed during the war.

After trying to figure out the subway by ourselves, we eventually made it after a bit of a walk. We took photos around the outside, then paid the 10 euro fee in order to enter at the next time slot. The actual inside part of the palace is pretty short, and it’s what you have to pay for. I would say heading out to this palace is worth the trek, though, as the architecture inside is absolutely stunning and beautiful.

We spent about 40 minutes in the inside part, although if I was by myself I probably would’ve spent longer in there. Then we wandered the garden, which is a much larger trek around. It’s a massive estate, probably acres, and this is what I think you could spend all day in. There are other places where you can get ticketed entrance too, including a little flower garden, but we didn’t want to spend more.

After this we took a bus and a train back to Marienplatz. For some reason I thought the Residenz Munich was free, but we decided not to go and pay the fee. Then it started pouring down rain as we tried to find a Chinese restaurant I had found, which was at the bottom of the Galleria shopping center.

Called Chen’s Nudelbar, this was one of my favorite meals the trip. They were making fresh biang biang noodle soups at the corner of a grocery store’s counter, and it was packed with locals and Asians alike. That soup brought me back to life, even though this place was hard to find. It was so good.

I stopped in the store and bought some chocolates for friends and families, then we headed out onto the subway.

Munich has a thriving young and nightlife scene, even if I did not utilize it.

Once we ate at Chen’s, we went back to the hostel and napped for a bit. I ended up going with two people to grab souvenirs again in Marienplatz, then we landed back near the hostel to go to the Augustiner bar that was next to it. Our tour guide told us we needed to try Augustiner beer before we left, as it was Munich’s oldest brewery established in 1328.

I ordered a pretzel and bread snack platter with cheese and vegetables, which was delicious, but the standout was the Augustiner beer. That was the best beer I’ve ever had in my life, and I’m going to be thinking about it for a long time. Our entire group was raving about that beer and looking for it the rest of our trip, but it seemed to be a very Munich local kind of beer.

A few of us ended up at an outdoor Bavarian concert nearby where they were doing German songs with a sprinkle of American pop here and there. It was fascinating to see the locals, who clearly knew the group, and some grabbed another beer here and there to enjoy the music with.

I went to bed after this, but some of the group went to the nearby bars again. They were really living their best lives, but this trip I wasn’t feeling it and wanted to relax before we had another stressful day.

And that’s it for Munich! We ate breakfast and headed out on the bus early the next day. I don’t know if I personally would come back to Munich unless it was for work or business, but I did enjoy my time there.

One last easy day trip: Neuschwanstein Castle.

When we got on the bus and planned to drive to Switzerland, we had one planned stop along the way, near the border: Neuschwanstein Castle. After a scenic drive through the German countryside, we saw Ludwig’s two castles in the distance.

We only had two hours here, as our tour guide told us it was not worth going inside, as the castle is unfinished. Ludwig died before he could finish the renovations, and when I got home, my sister who went inside told me that it was not worth paying for an inside trip.

But the outside is free to roam around, so we went to the bridge that overlooks the castle, took some epic pics, then did the short hike to the outside. It started pouring down rain, so we rushed down the mountain. We also wanted some souvenirs to pay with card, as the one near the castle only took cash.

Once we made it down, we stopped for some pomme frites and snacks, then it was pretty much time to head out to our next stop: Lucerne, Switzerland! I was glad to check the castle off my list, as I didn’t have to worry about ever going back there. It’s not worth a revisit for me.

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