Here is to our new adventure in a new country, well at least for me. It definitely won't be as easy as the UK as there will be a huge language barrier for me, but i have to give it a shot and see what happens. So far the first few weeks were good, slowly adjusting and settling in.
As I have not lived in Germany and have only traveled briefly before for holiday, the first few weeks were for me to drive around and to explore the areas that we could potentially live in. For now we are staying near the factory in the small town of marktoberdorf, which is roughly an hour and half away from munich downtown. Therefore the goal is to find some place to live in between munich and the factory. But in the meantime we will be staying on the farm near marktoberdorf.
The first day
April 10 2017
it was Not a bad first day in Germany, the sun was shining and blue skies were everywhere. upon driving towards our new place, you can see the amazing sights of the alps in the background.
While the weather was still nice, we decided to grab a bite to eat and to explore the area a bit. We drove about 30 minutes down to Fussen, which is a very famous town because of the Neuschwanstein Castle or the Disney Castle as most people know it. We did not go to the castle but we did have some traditional smoked fish at a local restaurant by the lake. at this time of the year The lake is not much of a lake as they have not filled the lake with water yet. We were told in the next month or two the lake will be slowly filled with water, so that means we will need to come back soon. nevertheless it was still a nice view and a good start to my first day in Germany.
April 18 2017
The nice weather did not last very long, in the next few days it would snow quite a lot. Yes snow in April, Even the locals said this is not normal. one good thing about the cold nights it allowed us to make use of the fireplace. the smell of the wood burning and the warmth of the fire, it was a real treat. although The snow was nice for a few days, i was definitely ready for the warm weather again and for summer to come.
April 24-27 2017
My parents decided to make a stop in Germany for a few days before traveling further to spain. as where we were currently living might have been a bit too remote for them, we decided to spend the time in Munich. I had not seen much of the city myself, so it was nice to be able to explore the city with them. i also had a cousin who had been living in munich for the last six months doing an internship so he was also able to show us around.
As they arrived in the early afternoon, the First day we decided to just walk around the city center near Marienplatz. I had only been in munich briefly once before and the only place we saw was marienplatz, so some of it did look familiar.
we then headed to dinner at Theresa grill. this restaurant is all about meat, they have a huge variety of different cuts of beef either wet or dry aged. i had never heard of wet aged before but the method sounded very similar to sous vide. the meat was very delicious, it had a slightly different texture than what you would get with dry aged, definitely worth trying. also it was white asparagus season in germany so during this time you will find white asparagus everywhere, on restaurant menus and supermarkets. the season only last for a few months so when its the season you do have to eat as much white ASPARAGUS as you can. if you haven't tried white asparagus then come to germany during spring time, the taste and texture is much different to the green asaragus.
for The next few days the weather was cold and rainy with a little bit of snow. So we decided to take it quite easy, doing short walks and trips around the area. one of the days we went back to marienplatz and went inside the munich residenz. it was a former royal palace with over 100 rooms, it is said to be one of the largest city palaces in germany And once you walk in you can see why. There are three parts of the palace: the treasury, the residence musuem and the Cuvillies Theatre. as we arrived later in the day we didn't have time to see the theatre but we were able to see the other two parts. first you walk through the treasury where you see all the old jewels and ornaments from the former bavarian royal family, then you walk through the residence museum, all 100 rooms if you really want to see them all. it is interesting to see the different styles and deco of each room and its function but after a couple the rooms they do begin to look almost the same. crazy to think that people had lived in such a palace, i wonder if each and every room was actually used at some point.
after all that walking, we grew an APPETITE and wanted to try some traditional german food. We were recommended to try Wirtshaus in der Au. as there were seven of us we ordered the sharing platter of Duck, suckling pig, sausages, potato dumplings, and sauerkraut plus a few other dishes. it was all very delicious but also very heavy and rich in flavor, a lot of meat, carbs, and heavy sauces. even after all that food we all still had some room for dessert, so we ordered the APFELSCHMARRN or apple pancakes with vanilla sauce and cranberries to share. i don't know how authentic the taste is but we thought it was very good, so i would DEFINITELY recommend if you want to have a bavarian meal in the city.
