4th December Munich

4^th December:  A day in Munich and on to Salzburg

A 10 euro train ride from the sports arena (our overnight parking place) into town convinced us to develop our own park and ride scheme.  This involved parking nearer to the centre of the city and then cycling in.  We found a good spot about 5k from the centre, got our bikes off the van, locked up and pedalled in.  Fortunately it was a straight road in which meant it was easy to find our way home later on in the day. We headed straight for the newer of the town halls (although this was a neo gothic building) that was famous for its rather tuneless glockenspiel played by clockwork figurines at 11am and midday.  We missed the 11am as we couldn’t find the building originally so wandered around looking at the other historic buildings until midday.  It was nearly worth waiting for!  Mike and I had promised ourselves lunch in one of Munich’s bier halls.  We chose Hofbrauhaus, famous for being the largest and most famous, noted for its painted walls, large tables, and ‘oompah’ style music.  Being traditionalists we had bratwurst with sauerkraut, washed down with a white wheat beer for me and a dark one for Mike.  There was a good atmosphere in this beer hall and we had a good time there.  Unfortunately I left my camera at home and so there are no pictures today. We did some more wandering around and then decided that rather than spending another night here we would push on to Salzburg.

The River Salz at night

Salzburg at night

Evening traffic leaving Munich was busy and it was nearly 8pm when we arrived in Salzburg only to find our intended campsite closed.  You are not supposed to ‘wild camp’ in Austria but we decided to risk it and parked along the river Salz. Mike and I had had an enjoyable few days in Salzburg a few years back so we were familiar with the city.  We revived some of our memories with a late evening walk around the town.  

We crept back into our van trying not to draw attention to the fact that we were sleeping there overnight, wondering if we would be moved on.  All was well and we were only disturbed at 6 am by a road sweeper.  We also realised that the road that we had parked in for the night and had been full was now empty apart from us so we decided to get up and have an early start.