I ran errands in the München Altstadt (Munich Old City) before meeting Allan and traveling by train down into Österreich (Austria).
I ate breakfast at the München (Munich) Hilton hotel, which included some kind of overnight oats with granola and a berry, scrambled eggs, tomate mit kase (tomato with cheese), and a Kaiser roll with butter and himbeere (raspberry) jam (delicious!). Allan spent an unplanned overnight in Warsaw after missing his connecting flight and he was on his way out to sight see before flying to München in the afternoon.
I packed up at a leisurely pace and then checked out of the hotel and walked outside where it was surprisingly warm. I walked over to the S-Bahn station in the airport to take the train into the Altstadt and tried to purchase the ticket online – Apple Pay was declined, PayPal wouldn’t work, and even my Revolut card threw an error – but eventually the Revolut purchase succeeded. On the train, while passing across the scenic Bayern (Bavarian) countryside, I chatted with a couple of Brazilians who were traveling all around Deutschland for a month, one of whom is a German teacher (he helped me with my pronunciation of “höhenweg”). I ended up missing the München Ostbahnhof (Munich East train station) where I had planned to stash my backpack in a locker because I was distracted talking with the Brazilians. I got off the train at the Marienplatz station but decided to get back in the train in the opposite direction to return to Ost, where I dropped off my backpack in a locker.
München Altstadt
I hopped back on the train to Marienplatz (only 3 stations away) and popped up onto Kaufingerstraße. I walked over to the Santander bank on Reichenbachatraße to withdraw cash in € (for the huts) because they do not charge the high fees that the tourist ATMs impose. Then I walked over to Dallmayr Delikatessenhaus to pick up chocolate bars for the trail and a lunch snack – a roast beef sandwich.
I ate the sandwich (delicious) on a park bench under a large leafy tree that sheltered me from raindrops from a thundershower. Then went down into the Marienplatz station to get out of the rain (left my rain jacket in my backpack) and to use the WC. After eventually finding the WC and navigating it (ingress/egress seemed overly complex), I went back out to the supermarket to pick up some Hacker Pschorr beer for the train to Österreich. I returned to Ost, retrieved my backpack from the locker, and waited for Allan.
We decided we had just enough time to go into the Alstadt (old city) for a late lunch – to eat at the Augustiner am Dom (where we had lunch two years ago) where we took the waiter’s advice and had wurst mit sauerkraut und pretzel. He also brought two “beers” without asking which we wanted, but they were delicious! The rain started coming down again as we were leaving so we dodged tourists while walking briskly to get out of the rain. We returned to Ost and waited for our train to Wörgl.
After nearly getting onto the wrong train I got us onto the Österreichische Bundesbahnen (ÖBB, Austrian Federal Railways) Railjet 287 and to our 1st class seats. It was a beautiful ride down to Wörgl as der alpen (the alps) came into view. Our train was delayed departing München, however, and we arrived late into Wörgl and missed our connection to Mittersill, from which we were to connect to Matrei in Osttirol tonight. So we decided to go to Kitzbuhel instead because we could get there by 8:30 vs 10pm to Mittersill on next train. I had wanted to visit Kitzbuhel anyway as a potential base for day hiking in the future. The town was a little underwhelming with some building appearing to be vacant, but this is a winter ski town. We walked a ways through town to the Erika Boutiquehotel which was much nicer than I expected from frugal Allan (who made the reservation). The room was hot and stuffy but we got a breeze through the room by opening windows on both sides. We were told the restaurant was full and we couldn’t eat there, so we went into the bar instead. Had the Tirol cheese plate (mostly very mild) and I think what may have been the most delicious Kaiserschmarrn evarhhh!
Went back up to the room to unpack and take a shower. Saw a beautiful moonrise over a church on the hillside, and then went to bed with the windows open and a warm but comfortable temperature.