After our weekend skiing in France, the following Wednesday night we left for Munich. Jay was really excited to test how the German beer compared with the Belgian beer. I'm half joking, really we had so much fun our last visit to Germany so we knew Munich was going to be amazing. I was also very excited to visit the Munich office and spend time with my colleagues there as well as get to explore a new city.
This was our first flight within Europe and it was really easy. The flight was about an hour. When we arrived, Munich had just gotten a lot of snow so it was cold, but still beautiful. Our hotel was right near my office (Karlsplatz) and it was one of those art deco hotels, the hotel bar was booming all of the time - it reminded me of the scene at the Liberty Hotel in Boston.
The visit to the office went really well on Thursday and Friday and we were able to explore Munich the rest of the weekend. Friday night we started at the Hofbrauhaus which is Munich's famous beer hall. I had always wondered what this would be like, it was a lot of fun, good beer for Jay and great food for the both of us. I actually tried this mix of half beer and lemonade, a Radler (or shandy) and it was delightful! The Belgian beer might be stronger, but they don't serve it in liters, the liters in Germany get ya good!
Saturday we spent touring around Munich. My colleague suggested that instead of a touristy bus tour that we take a certain tram to see all the sites and them get off stops on the way back. After the tram ride, we hit up the English Garden which was beautiful but it looked like we would have had a lot more fun without all of the snow! Its hard to make use of the really cool beer gardens in the winter. We then walked through the rest of the garden back to the main part of town with all the shopping. Munich had tons of great shopping and also the best food market that I've seen yet in Europe called the Viktualienmarkt. From there I went on to do some shopping in Marienplatz and then we went back to the hotel to take a little nap and get ready for dinner. Jay's friend had recommended this really cool restaurant for dinner called Brenner Grill. It was one of the best meals I had a in a long time - if you visit Munich, definitely check it out. It was on the fancier side but not too pricey at all, definitely quite "the scene". I had the best salad and tuna entree in my life, the food was impeccable.
Sunday we woke up and headed out to the Olympic park. There, they were having a winter sports festival so we were able to watch people, ski, snowboard, ice climbing and sled. I got excited when we went into the big ice skating rink, I hadn't skated in forever. And news to me, Jay had never ice skated - I thought it would be a great challenge. Jay's now totally ready to try out for the Bruins - really though he kicked butt, he didn't fall at all and was on his own by the end of the hour. From there we went up to the Olympic tower to have a quick drink and snack in their rotating restaurant - the view would have been amazing but unfortunately it was a little overcast so we couldn't quite see all the way into the city. We then headed back for one last visit to the Hafbrauhous so Jay could try one more liter of beer :) and then made our way back to the airport to fly home.
After our Munich trip we had a few days back in Brussels and then it was time to fly out again to Milan. I was really excited for this trip, I just love Italy! I had heard that Milan wasn't beautiful and wasn't that great of a city, but I had the opposite reaction. For one, this is the warmest weather we've seen, it was high 50's the entire time and the sun was always shining! The office visit went really well and Jay and I were also able to take advantage of our new favorite "happy hour".
The Milanese celebrate happy hour by having "aperitivos". If you thought tapas were amazing in Spain, you haven't seen anything yet! Each restaurant and bar, from about 5pm to 9pm, hosted Aperitivos. This consisted of a cocktail/glass of wine, for about 5-10 euros and then either a bunch of appetizers brought to your table - or even better - a full on buffet (which most had). I could not believe how much food was served during this "happy hour" and it was all free. All you had to do was buy one drink! Aperitivo hour made it very hard to actually ever have dinner, lol but what was the need - everything was on the buffet! We were so busy eating that I didn't get to take any pics but here is what a typical Aperitivo buffet looks like.
Friday night we checked out the Navigli district which is the canal district of Milan. There were tons of cute bars and restaurants along the canal so we bar (aperitivo) hopped until it was finally time to get a proper Italian dinner while we still had room in the tummies after the aperitivos! Of course it was amazing, we had no complaints about the food in Italy whatsoever.
On Saturday we tried to see all of the "musts" for Milan. We started off at the Duomo and took the stairs up to the top. The view was amazing and the weather was so great we were able to be in short sleeves. I highly recommend this for anyone that goes to Milan. We then walked through the Gallerie and went to the famous Quadrilatero d'Oro shopping area. For me, this was a quick window shopping experience, it wouldn't be a little bit fun for me to drop that huge of a wad of money on clothes, but quite fun to see other people doing it :)
From there we had to hightail it over to the "Last Supper" which I thought was very worth the visit. We went on an English tour which was incredibly helpful, I learned a lot of new info about the painting. Leonardo was really trying to be a paint in the butt not painting a fresco and painting right on the wall, the work they've had to do to restore this painting is amazing, I'm just glad it is still there for us to see.
From there we went on to Dante Street and I had the best arancini ball of my life. We walked through and checked out the Castle, which was also quite beautiful. Then Jay made a quick trip back to the hotel and I did some shopping on Dante street, still great stuff, just not as expensive as the rest of Milan, I found some great deals with the "sales" that were going on. In Europe sales usually go on twice a year, July and January - luckily these sales made it a little bit into February as well. Usually everything is at least 1/2 off so you can find some good deals.
When Jay got back of course it was time to start "aperitivo hour" again. We then decided we would try out some wine bars in the La Brera neighborhood. The wine that we had that night was amazing, and it was so nice out that we could sit outside on the patios and people-watch, tons of fun in Milan! We then finished off at a great seafood restaurant and I had some amazing Lobster pasta!
The low point came when on Sunday we woke up early so that we could pick up our car rental at the train station to go and visit Lake Como and then later on that day we would drive ourselves to the airport. I was beyond excited about the trip to Lake Como, I had heard so many great things and it was going to be beautiful day. Unfortunately, Milan was not on the same game plan as me. The city had shut down the streets to drivers to halt the pollution for the day and to stop the smog. You would think that the visibility was an issue, really it was another sunshiney day, but I do have to respect that they are trying in some way to stop pollution in this city.
So yes a disappointment but that meant we had more time in Milan to explore. With our guards down, I did get into a little trouble buying a metro ticket. Some guy offered to help me and then took off with my change out to the machine. I knew better but I guess I was so tired, I was just hoping that I wouldn't be screwed. Lesson learned, never let your guard down and unfortunately don't trust anyone.
We did end up making it back into the center of town and we were able to rent bikes for the day. It was the nicest day yet, about 60 degrees, so we biked through the park and some other neighborhoods. We then stopped for a nice lunch at a cafe outside and took in the last sights of Milan before we had to hop back to the train station to get ourselves to the airport.
The next few weeks are going to be really busy. My friend Lisa is visiting us this week and we spent last weekend in Barcelona with her (pics to come). This weekend my entire family and my friend Mark will be coming to celebrate my Dad's 60th birthday which will be so much fun! We have a lot of cool things planned for their visit and we're so excited to end our time here in Belgium this way. Its hard to believe that we have less than a month left... time goes by so fast!
No comments:
Post a Comment