Jess's Brain Room

Saturday, July 5, 2025

2025-07-05 Munich, Therme Erding, Back to Perth

Our last night in Munich we had another lovely dinner at Koniglicher Hirschgarten (the beer garden next to where we stayed), and enjoyed the dinner entertainment by the adorable deer in the enclosure next door. The next day was our last day of holiday, and we spent the time between checking out and going to the airport at Therme Erding (the largest thermal spa in the world, even after the huge Aqua Dome). We played in the wave pool, went on some huge slides (our favourite one was the outdoor double tube one that had a couple of unexpected huge drops), and did a eucalyptus sauna infusion which was as intense as it sounds. No photos again because we were in the water the entire day! So happy we got to spend one more last day in the beautiful sunshine, because now we’re back in chilly Perth, trying to hold onto that holiday feeling. Unfortunately one thing we couldn't hold onto was the Pick Hungarian Salami which we lost during customs (turns out Hungary isn't cleared for foot and mouth disease, my fault completely for not looking it up properly), so upsetting, but I've (almost) let it go.

It’s been such an incredible trip, another Andrew special, packed with so much but also with moments of the relaxation we’d been desperately wanting.

Thursday, July 3, 2025

2025-07-03 Aqua Dome to Munich, Mercedes Benz Museum, Koniglicher Hirchgarten, Deutsches Museum, Glockenspiel, Hofbrauhouse, Augustiner Kelle

We martini glassed one more time at the Aqua Dome, it was so sad to say goodbye but we can't say that we didn't make the most of it; we spent every possible minute in the spas, and my skin still feels bloody awesome. We then got on the road to Munich, with a quick stop to admire the Neuschwanstein castle from a far, then stopped at Stuttgart for the Mercedes Benz museum. It’s a great museum housed over 9 levels, with too much to see in 2h. Our highlights were seeing the history of the first “car”, the popemobile, the Lost World car, and seeing the various versions of the 190E, the best Mercedes I’ve ever had the privilege to drive.

Dinner was at Koniglicher Hirchgarten, one of the giant beer gardens that happens (accidentally on purpose) to be 200m from our hotel. The 1L beer, sausages, radish salad, and live band all hit the spot, Prost!

This morning we started off with a run to explore Munich around where we’re staying. Andrew did ~9km while I did ~4km; we loved exploring a town this way. Andrew won the length (as always, he’s a machine), but I won the run complexity by crossing a bridge on the outside, because the gate was closed (last picture is after I’ve just made it).

Today we spent an incredible day at the insurmountable Deutsches Museum, and were blown away by everything we saw. We spent about 4h there and barely scratched the surface. Andrew’s favourite was the plane exhibit (I also gave my dad a call and he reminisced being here when I was about 4months old), while my favourite was the nuclear physics exhibit, with special mention to the FLIR heat cam, hip replacement exhibit (I desperately want that really smooth ball joint hip replacement), the oil split diff demonstration, and codes and cyphers exhibit. We were spent after the 4h, but we both agreed we could have spend a week there, there was so much to see.

Once we were both well and truly bamboozled, we decided to leave and grab a beer, but were lucky enough to see the Glockenspiel doing it’s thing on the way. Who knew a glockenspiel could be so entertaining! It went about 4x longer than we thought it would, and the highlight was everyone clapping every time there was a lull… then it kept having another act! This happened about 6 times, we loved it, it just kept on giving. We grabbed a beer and some sausages, mash, and sauerkraut at Hofbrauhouse, then another beer at Augustiner Keller. We’re just waiting out the rain, and will then go grab another beer and some food at Koniglicher Hirchgarten again.