Day 1
Unsure of where to go on our leave from work we decided upon a road trip around Europe, stopping in Germany, Poland, Hungary and Austria. Here is our day to day taster and diary of those places...
Having flown in to Southampton from Guernsey the day before, where we went shopping and ate food at West Quay shopping centre, and stayed the night at the Premier Inn at the airport for £45, we had a leisurely morning of eating hotel breakfast and wandering across the road to the airport.
Our flybe flight left SOU at 1115 and took 2 and a half hours to get to Munich. Even although I work at flybe, I didn't want to risk going on standby so we paid full fair of £202 for both of us, return. We were treated to lovely views over the English coast and then into France.
Arriving in Munich and putting our clocks forward 1 hour we were pleasantly surprised by the swift walkthrough of customs and our bag arriving first off the carousel.
We headed to Hertz to collect our hire car for the 14 days, total cost including second driver, insurance, and the basic extras cost £410. We were teamed up with a nifty little black citron c3. Plenty of room for us, our one suitcase and hand luggage.
Switching on our satnav we headed 30 minutes or less to the Ibis hotel at Feldkirken, where we would stay one night now, and our final 2 nights of trip at £37 a night. The room was spacious enough, with views to the alps. The bathroom kit was all built in like a spaceship but was fine.
As we headed out in the evening we had a little bit of rain, but headed in the car to Feldkirken S- Bahn train station which was 4 mins away, left the car in free parking and headed into the city. A train was on the platform when we arrived so we didn't grab a ticket and didn't really know which stop to go to. On the 20 minute journey we seen a station (Ostbahnhof) we thought would be central so hopped off. But we hadn't found where to buy our ticket, and there was no barrier, so out of the station we walked. I later read that its an honestly thing, you're expected to buy it but you're not always checked.
We in fact hadn't got off at the most central stop but that was more than fine, the rain had stopped and we strolled though Munich, taking in the atmosphere.
Eventually we arrived at Marienplatz, the main square where we marvelled at the Old Rathaus and Neus Rathaus (new town hall), walked around and went inside Frauenkirke, and then ate delicious baguettes from one of the many bakeries.
We then found a Brauhaus and drank our first Bavarian Stein, which was just what we needed. Later we found another bakery and had yummy pastries, before jumping on the S-Bahn back, and of course purchasing tickets, which was less than €2.
Useful German words and phrases and (my) pronunciation:
Hello - Hallo Ha-lo
Good morning - Guten Morgen Gooten morgen
Goodbye - Auf wiedersehen Awf veederzayne
Please - Bitte Bitt eh
Thank you - Danke Dank eh