We both fell asleep around 10 p.m. but were both wide awake at 2:30 a.m. After checking on the cat, we both attempted to fall back asleep and slept in until 6 a.m.! We decided to get up then and go out and start exploring. Every time we’ve been in Munich before it has been rainy so we were excited to be able to see the sights of Munich in the sunshine. We walked to Marienplatz and there we stopped at a bakery and picked up two apple pastries for breakfast.

We walked all over the old part of Munich and saw many places we recognized from past visits, including the Frauenkirche. The streets were pretty empty because it was so early and a few vendors were beginning to set up for the day.

We wandered until just about 9 a.m. when we needed to pick up our rental car. We stopped by a grocery store first and got some much needed sunscreen.

We picked up our car around 9:30 a.m. This time we did not get a Ford! We got a VW Golf. The car is nice and zippy. Although Jacob didn’t get to go too fast on the autobahn today due to all of the construction.

Once we had our car, it was time to head back to the hotel to get our luggage. We were hoping to park in a garage nearby since the hotel doesn’t have a loading zone. We pulled over to figure out a plan, and next thing we knew we had two box trucks blocking us in. It was chaos. I got out of the car and asked one of them to stop so Jacob could pull out of the spot. Eventually, we did a few more circles and ended up in a parking garage owned by our hotel. Win!

We parked and headed up to our room. We gathered our items and then checked out. Since we were so quick, they did not charge us for parking. Another win!

Our hotel was nicely situated being right next to the main train station but that also means it is right in the middle of town. It was a little tricky maneuvering around the cars and many people on bikes and motorbikes, but Jacob did a good job and we made it out of the center of town with no problems.

Our next stop was Salzburg, Austria. We weren’t originally planning to stop here since we visited Salzburg in 2016. It was a rainy stop and we didn’t do much that first time. This time around, our friend Thomas was in Salzburg for a conference and since it was on our way to our next destination we decided to stop and meet up for lunch! Thomas who grew up in southeast Germany has been to Salzburg many times.

We first stopped for lunch at an outdoor cafe. I ordered the wiener schnitzel for which Jacob teased me about my poor pronunciation. Thomas suggested we order these lemon/coke drinks that are popular here. We each had one and they were delicious. Jacob ended up with a burger because they were out of the sausage he originally ordered, but he said the cow was local. So it was still an authentic experience.

After lunch, Thomas took us to the Fortress Hohensalzburg. We didn’t make it up there on our last journey. The castle sits above the town. Once you are up there, there are picturesque views of the city. Plus you can see parts of the original city wall.

You can either walk to the top or you can take a train. We decided to walk to the top and then take the train down. The walk uphill was a little brutal under the summer heat but added to the experience. This fortress was never conquered and after scaling that hill, you could understand why!

I love castles like this so it was really fun to walk around and imagine what it was like when this place was occupied. Thomas made sure to point out the hole where they dump the hot tar through when you entered the gates! After we finished touring the castle it was time to say goodbye to Thomas and hit the road again. We had a three hour drive to Bled, Slovenia. The drive was absolutely beautiful and I nearly dozed off many times. Jet lag is real folks. I am exhausted! Below are the views from our windows of our apartment for the next three days.

Before calling it a day, we walked to a grocery store and picked up some food. Some things are easy to find like butter and eggs and some things are hard to find like beef, when you have no idea how to read Slovenian. Google Translate helped but we still didn’t find everything we were looking for. We will try again tomorrow when the store is less busy.

Jacob commented that Bled feels a lot like Chelan. It is a small touristy town where the main attraction is the water. I am looking forward to walking around the lake tomorrow and the staff at the apartment gave us several great recommendations from cafes to points of interest. It should be a good relaxing few days!

We will be here for three nights, then we move on to Ljubljana which is the capitol of Slovenia. Tomorrow we are going to walk around Lake Bled. It should be a beautiful, calm day.

Until then!

Journey stats:

Jacob pretzel count: 2

Steps today: 24,233

Miles driven: 223