Europe
Munich, Germany and Prague, Czech Republic
Munich
We bid farewell to the cactus (our trusty rental car) and settled into Munich for a few days of Bavarian culture. As per usual we enjoyed a walking tour of the city in our first day, braving the rain and cold. Munich isn’t packed with sights but we did hear a lot of stories about beer saving everything—including the city, the church and the opera house—and squeezed in a viewing of the famously disappointing glockenspiel. With the rain not relenting we took the opportunity to do some shopping and replace our broken camera, before enjoying a traditional Bavarian dinner of sausages and cheese dumplings.
The next day was all about sampling Munich’s unique produce. We went to the market square for lunch and ordered pretzels, white sausage and currywurst, all delicious. Then we washed it down with a mid-afternoon stein and some oompah music at the infamous Hofbräuhaus. We did earn all of the calories via a morning walk to the English Gardens to watch the surfers ride a naturally occurring wave in the river—a pretty interesting sight. Our final day mostly consisted of us walking across the city in search of some decent coffee to feed Adam’s caffeine addiction…we got there in the end.
Prague
Beautiful (and affordable) Prague came next. We arrived at night but had just enough time for a quick pub dinner, rolled beef and beer for Adam and fried cheese and cider for Elle. We spent our first day wandering the old city as part of a walking tour and learned a lot about the complicated history of what is now the Czech Republic…there was a lot of throwing people out of windows. Our guide stopped us at the also famously disappointing astronomical clock to try to win us over by telling us its history, and to be fair it is a fairly impressive piece of kit for its age. At lunch we realised that Czech cuisine is another literal one, if it says beef goulash or potato and cauliflower, that’s exactly what you’re getting, no more or less.
Despite some not so amazing weather, we used the next couple of days to explore Prague’s picturesque old town some more. We ventured along the crowded Charles Bridge and wandered through the grounds of Prague castle, enjoying the views of the city across the river. We also took the opportunity to sample some local sausage and a delicious chimney-shaped, sugar coated pastry called trdelník, which we bought more than once. We managed to find time for one last dinner and night stroll through the gas lamp lit old city before our departure—Prague is even more beautiful at night!
