Rachel Going Places

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A quick 30 minute train ride outside of Munich lies Augsburg, Germany. A quaint little town, it is already a popular destination frequented by many an international student studying here in Munich. My new friend, Lizzie, and I planned a little day trip to check it out for ourselves. We both have a pretty good schedule for our semester abroad; no classes on Fridays. So we woke up early Friday morning to catch a train to Augsburg for the day.

Thanks to the Deutschland Ticket, we have unlimited access to all regional trains in Germany, meaning we can take any train to any place within the country, for free (well minus the monthly subscription but that doesn’t count). So we hopped onto the DeutschBahn headed to Augsburg and arrived a little before 10:00 am. We walked out of the Augsburg Hauptbahnhof (Main Station) without a specific plan or direction to go in, but we figured a quick stop for a little pastry and coffee was a good place to start.

We found a local bakery for breakfast and opted for hot chocolate instead of coffee which was sooo good. Faced with an array of pastry choices, we decided to pick a few to share so we could try as many as possible. We chose a dubai chocolate and pistachio krapfen (krapfen are filled doughnuts popular in Bavaria around Lent), quark doughnut holes (quark is like German sour cream or greek yogurt), and a quark tart with fresh strawberries which was my favorite.

After breakfast, we leisurely made our way to the Schaezlerpalais, walking past some of the Augsburg sights like a local farmers market, the town hall, and Perlachturm. The farmer’s market presented some absolutely stunning strawberries. They weren’t from the Central Coast region of California which i hold so dear, but they did come from Italy, which I guess is an acceptable replacement.

The Schaezlerpalais was the home to many wealthy Augsburg residents and historical figures; like the famous German emperor, Maximillian I and even Marie Antoinette. Lizzie and I journeyed through the many rooms of the Schaezlerpalais which now houses a multitude of Baroque paintings. We were content just strolling through room by room until we made it to the ballroom. We opened the door expecting just another lengthy hallway of portraits, but literally gasped when we entered this stunning two-story ballroom. The ornate gilding and vibrant colors of this room were absolutely gorgeous. We had the whole room to ourselves and spent far too long just taking all of the beauty in.

It didn’t take us long to complete the Schaezlerpalais and we didn’t have any concrete plans after, so we spend a good amount of time afterwards just exploring the town. We made it down to the tranquil Lech River which flows through the village. No less than 3 different couples came up to me to ask for directions. This happens all the time in Munich too, I’m not sure what it is about me attracts all these lost souls, but not only do I not speak the local language, I’m not from these towns to know where anything is either. We made our way to the Fuggerei, the world’s oldest social housing project. For less than 1€ a month, needy Catholic Augsburgers can live here. All they need to do is recite a few prayers each day in front of the Fugger family, descendants of the original founder who built the complex in 1521. Unfortunately, tickets to visit the complex were a bit more expensive than the rent to live in the complex, so Lizzie and I settled for viewing the bright gold buildings from the outside.

We passed an antique shop and decided to stop in. It was absolutely adorable, vintage clutter surrounded us and a friendly store cat vocalized a friendly welcome to everyone who came in. We spent a good deal of time combing through old jewelry, postcards, and trinkets. Lizzie found a vintage souvenir spoon from the 1972 Olympic Games which took place in Munich. Since my student housing for the semester is in the Olympic Village, this was the perfect souvenir for my time in Munich.

After more wandering and taking in the newly budding spring botanicals, we went into the Augsburg Dom, or town cathedral. From the outside, it looks like two different eras of the church have collided. The eastern portion is in the 14th century Gothic style with it’s 11th century Romanesque predecessor meeting in from the west. The inside was absolutely incredible. It’s probably the one of best and more impressive churches I’ve visited in Europe. The stained glass is incredibly impressive and the details of the church are unlike any I’ve ever seen. A huge fresco of St. Christopher which probably spanned 3 stories tall was especially impressive.

Dusk was approaching and it was getting cooler outside so we began winding down our day in preparation for our evening train home. We passed some time going in and out of some shops but began getting hungry. It was definitely an early dinner, especially by European standards, but our pastries from the morning were long gone. We settled on an available döner shop, a trusty standard in any German town. Tired, we finished and headed back to the Hauptbahnhof for the journey back to Munich.

Augsburg was a cute little town, a good excuse to explore somewhere new without too much planning or commitment. I was expecting it to be more of a quaint village instead of the small city it is, but it was still nice to get out of the bigger city of Munich for a day. I also think we could have done everything in half a day, but it was nice to take things slow instead of bustling around. And it was nice to get out and explore another spot within Germany!

March 28, 2025