We had a leisurely morning and got to the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof early for our train. We passed the time with scrabble (on Allen's netbook) and spent an easy and enjoyable 2 hours on the train back to Munich. Once we arrived at the Munich Hauptbahnhof, we stored our luggage in a locker at the station and boarded the S1 train to Freising. Freising is essentially a suburb of Munich so the S-bahn train goes out there and back. We got to Freising around 2:45pm and got directions to the bus that would take us to Weihenstephan Staadtbraurei. The bus dropped us off at the base of the hill, and the brewery/restaurant is at the top with a beautiful view of the mountains and valleys surrounding. Yesterday was probably 70-75 degrees and sunny. Today was probably closer to 60 and foggy. It went from summer to fall overnight, literally, so we couldn't sit outside and enjoy the view over a beer.
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| From Germany-Munich-4 |
When we got up to the brewery, we discovered that they only do tours on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so we weren't able to tour the brewery. But we could definitely smell the malt and wort as we walked through the building.
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| From Germany-Munich-4 |
On the back side of the building is the Weihenstephan Brewpub. I visited this pub in 2005 with my grad school advisor, Dieter, and two friends from Clemson, Anna and Christina. When we visited, it was night and Dieter drove, so I didn't really remember the area until we walked in to the building. There are a few small dining rooms and a bar area, so we sat in the main dining room and ordered a beer, a salad and a pretzel each. I had the weissbier dunkel and Allen had the Korbinian.
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| From Germany-Munich-4 |
The Korbinian was deee-lish! A dark, malty beer - it was heavier and thicker than we expected. I had a small one for my second beer while Allen moved on to the Original Hell. Gotta love beer fresh from the brewery. We picked up a few fun souvenirs and took lots of pictures. We noticed a Weihenstephan getrankeshop (drink shop) next door, but it closed at 5pm, and we didn't finish with dinner and drinks until 5:30pm. We probably wouldn't have wanted to haul beer all the way back to Munich anyway.
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| From Germany-Munich-4 |
We took the bus back, but got off one stop before the train station to walk in the downtown area. Let me tell you - Freising is adorable. There is a sweet little pedestrian zone lined with shops and little pubs and such. Most things close around 6pm, so we missed most of the shops, but I did find one little clothes shop - Tally Weijl - that was open. It's kind of like a Forever 21 or American Eagle or something. But this shop also sells shoes... Specifically, boots. Gray boots. To go over leggings. That are inexpensive and *not* made of leather. Super score! I will be showing these off in subsequent photos, I'm sure. Okay - all boys who stopped reading at the word "shoes" can come back now.
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| From Germany-Munich-4 |
We had a lovely stroll back to the train station - there is a little creek running through the town that we passed, plus some fun buildings and green areas.
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| From Germany-Munich-4 |
When we got to the train station, I saw that the train to the Munich Hauptbahnhof left in 3 minutes... We hustled to the appropriate track and got there right as the train pulled up. The train didn't look like the train we took down to Freising, but the next train to Munich was not for 22 more minutes, so on we got.
Here's the part where we may have run the rails.
Once on board, looking for a seat, we realize that this is not an S-bahn train. The metro trains in Munich are either U-bahn or S-bahn. This was neither. The ticket we bought to go to Freising was a metro card, good for two people for the whole day. Before we could discuss whether we should get off or not, the train pulled out of the station.
We found two seats and saw that the train was an "Alex" train. We still have no idea what that means. We also discovered that it was an express of some kind as it was not stopping at any other station. We watched them all go flying by in the dark. We also realized that the train may or may not stop at Munich Hauptbahnhof at all. As we are sitting there pondering what may have been a massive stupidty leak, the ticket clerk walks into the car. She stops at the couple closest to the door and has a long exchange with them regarding their tickets - or lack thereof. Allen handed me his wallet, since he had the metor ticket and the cash and I have more German at my disposal. The ticket clerk spoke with this other couple for 5 minutes or so, and then...
Walked right past us and out of the car.
What?!
We were mystified as to why she stopped to talk to that couple and check their paperwork and skipped right past us. And we were definitely acting squirrelly. We had money out, we were speaking English, and we looked like we clearly did not belong. For whatever reason, she passed us by. We were on pins and needles until the train pulled into the Munich main station. We jumped off the train with the crush of passengers disembarking and counted ourselves lucky. Plus, the ride back was significantly shorter than the ride out - around 20 minutes, rather than about 45 minutes. We may have totally scammed a free ride off the German railway system, but we aren't too fussed about it. We're spending plenty of tourist money... :-)
So today? Total success!
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| From Germany-Munich-4 |
You had me at "boots" :)
ReplyDeleteSteve says don't forget the White Rose in Munchen... if you have time. (Linda sees a b-day gift opportunity) :)
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