Munich is the final that I wanted to stretch out

Marienplatz

New Town Hall

The last big city of my trip was Munich. And, to be honest, by this point I was already a little tired of living by the principle of "today is another city," but at the same time I absolutely did not want the journey to end. Munich turned out to be a great finale. I walked along Marienplatz, looked at the New Town Hall, reached the Frauenkirche and just walked around the center without a special plan.

After a few days with train schedules, hotels, and attractions, I especially enjoyed not planning anything. I went into a cafe, ordered coffee, and just sat by the window, watching the street. Then I went for a walk again, reached the English Garden and finally felt that there was no need to rush anywhere. 

English Garden

In the evening, I returned to the hotel, packed my suitcase and looked at the ticket for the next train with some sadness. Do you know that feeling when the journey is already ending, and suddenly it seems to you that you have just got into the taste? That's how it was with me.

What I liked about traveling through Germany by train

After this trip, I realized that Germany is really great for railway travel. I didn't have to think about parking, gasoline, toll roads, or where to park my car in the city center.

Instead, I just came to the train station, found my train, put my suitcase down and settled down by the window. Sometimes I read, sometimes I looked at the landscape, sometimes I just drank coffee and did nothing – and this "doing nothing" turned out to be an unexpectedly pleasant part of the trip.

View from the Monopter

Of course, not everything was perfect. Somewhere I got a little confused with the platform, somewhere I walked for too long and then practically ran back to the station, and one day I got so carried away with shopping that I tried to put all this stuff in a suitcase all the way. But it is precisely from such trifles that a normal journey is formed. If everything goes perfectly, then sometimes there's not even anything to tell. And I also unexpectedly discovered a life hack for myself: when I start to get nervous, I just look at the photos, and the anxiety goes away. 

My route

Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

If you put the whole trip in one line, my route looked something like this:

Berlin → Hamburg → Cologne → Dresden → Nuremberg → Munich. I specifically chose cities with different personalities. Berlin gave me history and modernity, Hamburg gave me water and a port atmosphere, Cologne gave me the famous cathedral and the Rhine, Dresden gave me tranquility and beautiful architecture, Nuremberg gave me a medieval mood, and Munich was the perfect end to my trip.

Nuremberg

Speicherstadt in Hamburg

And the best part is that I didn't have to choose between "see Germany" and "relax." I rested on the train, and in the cities I became a tourist again. When I returned home, I had a huge number of photos on my phone, some completely unnecessary souvenirs were in my suitcase, and a new route was already forming in my head. Because after such a trip, I realized one thing: Germany by train is not just a convenient way to travel between cities. This is a separate type of travel, where the road also becomes part of the story.

And if I were asked now if I would repeat such a route, I would answer without hesitation: yes. But next time, I would put at least a couple of extra days between cities, because my main disadvantage as a traveler is that I constantly try to see more than is physically possible.

And then I wonder why I fall on my bed in the evening with my phone in my hand and say to myself, "That's it, we're not going anywhere tomorrow." And that's why I get up again in the morning and go to the train station.