The Griffin’s (from North Carolina), Private Tour with Scott Stephens.
A private tour with Scott Stephens was our first stop with our 16 year old granddaughter. What a way to start a “European Vacation”. Scott met us at the airport and escorted us by train to downtown Munich, dropped our luggage at the Hotel am Viktualienmarket (a block from the market). We set out on a walking tour heading towards Marienplatz and arriving in time to see the Glockenspiel. A wonderful afternoon seeing the sights of downtown Munich and finishing with a visit to a Beer Garden for beer, pretzels, oompah music, then staying on to have dinner in the beer garden – the beer gardens of Munich tend to make you want to just stay and enjoy…
Day 2 our granddaughter took an early morning run with Scott then we all headed out for a Weisswurst Breakfast along with Weissbeer, probably the earliest in the morning we have ever had beer, but in Munich do as the locals do! We had a little glitch in our afternoon plans as being our first day after arriving our granddaughter came down with a jet-lag headache, so plans were changed from a Dachau visit to another good walking tour of Munich. It was the weekend of Munich’s anniversary celebration; the streets of Munich were filled with vendor tents and music. We enjoyed this special time in Munich and returned in the evening with our granddaughter to enjoy the music and vendors.
Day 3, Scott planned a very special day, (being Sunday no shops are open in Munch) we took a train trip (about 1 hour of out town) to the beautiful area of Lake Tegern. From the train station in Tegernsee we hopped a bus for a 10 minute ride to the mountain are and proceeded to ride a gondola up the mountain to beautiful views everywhere, deciding on a a short hike to one of the many huts in the area (a small inn/café for folks hiking the trails), we came upon a memorial service for a fallen fraternity brother just at the end of the ceremony, we had the delight of watching the alpine horns players and an accordion player who played while a group of young men dressed in traditional lederhosen performed whip tricks. A superb lunch of spaetzl and another performance was enjoyed before heading down on the gondola.
Day 4, the “Castles” of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. During our train trip to Füssen Scott shared his extensive knowledge of King Ludwig II. Before heading back to Munich by train we stopped in Füssen and Ruchti’s Hotel and Restaurant - a small , quaint establishment owned by friends of Scott’s. We had the most delicious Schnitzel ever for dinner.
Day 5, Scott met us at our hotel, helped us with our luggage to the tram and made sure we were safely on the platform for our train to Nuremberg for the next part of our European journey.
We cannot tell you how much we enjoyed our few days with Scott, his knowledge of Bavaria and his unique style of making his guests feel comfortable were incredible, it was like traveling and touring with your “brother”. Thanks Scott for wonderful memories!