“Guten tag, fraulein (good day, miss)!”, said my German uncle-in-law when we found him waiting outside the airport for us.
Day 1:
My aunt and her husband live in a cute little town called Aichach which is located approximately 50 minutes by car from Munich. The first day was, for lack of a formal word, chill. We explored the little town’s attraction such as the quaint bakery with the most amazing bretzels (Bavarian baked bread made from dough that comes in the shape of a pretzel), a café that serves delicious chocolate milkshakes, and clothing shops.
While we were walking around the different sites, I saw my brother look around then turn to my aunt to ask: “Are we the only black people here?” Once we stopped laughing, my aunt was able to explain that at least in the area that she lives in, she’s the only black person but thankfully, the town never isolated her or regarded her as different: in fact, they took her in with open arms.
Day 2:
We woke up early on this day to make the most of the Munich trip as we can. After a delicious breakfast, my uncle-in-law drove us all to Munich where we first visited the Munich Zoo. The zoo was enormous; we spent a little over two hours there and we still couldn’t finish the whole park but it was okay: I got to see my favourite animals (i.e. wolves) as well as other beautiful animals such as giraffes, lions, hippos and more.
Once everyone was bored of the zoo, we hopped back into the car and drove to Marienplatz which is central Munich’s main square and one of the biggest attractions particularly for shopping purposes.
Here was where I spent 3 wonderful hours (3 dreadful hours according to my father, brother and uncle-in-law) shopping and taking advantage of visiting the stores that we didn’t have here in the UAE.
Day 3:
This day was quite eventful yet again; we woke up very early so we could visit King Ludwig’s Castle, also called the Neuschwanstein Castle, which is located approximately 1 hour and a half away from Aichach. Once we arrived at the castle, we had to trek up the mountain for about 30 minutes before reaching the top where the castle was located. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the vicinity but we did enjoy taking a bunch of family pictures outside of it. The castle was beautiful; it was large and luxurious with many different rooms that told different stories about how King Ludwig made use of a particular room.
Once the tour was over, we trekked back down to where the car was and drove towards the Allianz Arena. To give a little back story, I visited Germany a couple of weeks after the FIFA World Cup 2014 took place and my favourite national football team since childhood is Brazil.
Safe to say, Brazil’s loss against Germany was still raw and so I wasn’t particularly thrilled to be in an arena plastered with the German team’s photos everywhere and being in the same vicinity where they trained. However, it was a lovely tour; we got to see the football pitch that matches took place in, the shower room and changing rooms, the stage where press conferences are held, and so much more! The rest of the days were spent in Aichach and/or exploring more of Munich’s gems that we’ve missed in our first three days.
Featured Image Credit: (ExperiencePlus.com Photo)
EYAS 