Munich is known for beer, ber gardens, sausages and Bayern Munich. We spent a couple of days here checking out the place.
Train in
As mentioned, we stayed in Holzkirchen(not to be confused with Hohenkirchen) which is at the South-West end of the city. The area is “regional” which means it’s outside of Munich city.
The train in was a beautiful experience. It was a 40 minute ride to Marienplatz, the center of the city and we passed by some beautiful places.
Sydney could learn a thing or two from Munich’s train network. For a population of 1.4 million, the city has 4-5 modes of transport which are incredibly efficient(its Germany!). We traveled the S-Bahn, U-Bahn and even the long distance trains. We bouht the City tour pass for 75 euros which lasted us 4 days and we never paid for a ticket there. It was a good deal for 2 people for 4 days.
Marienplatz and the old city
Marienplatz is the oldest part of Munich, being the city centre. One of thefirst things we noticed here was the Bread. Oh god, the bread, it’s everywhere. It smells amazing and it’s so cheap. This was before we even got out of the station.
The centre of Munich is Churches, and alot of them. They are incredibly beautiful. They may have looked better on a drizzly grey day but they were exquisite on a blue sunny day. Frauenkirche, Heiligeistekirche and St Peter’s Church were all incredible, with Frauenkirche being the symbol of Munich’s old skyline.
We saw the other newer parts of the old city around the Maximilian Strasse, the Residenz and Munchener Freuheit. It may be boring to others but it was beautiful to us. The area around the churches is all cobblestone and historic with a real European feel. Being there on a hot, sunny day gave us a glimpse of bars with tables outside and people drinking in the beer gardens.
Beer Gardens
We enjoyed our first Bavarian beers in Munich at a Beer Garden, right next to the frauenkirche. We didn’t know this a the time but the Augustiner Brewery where we drank is the last private brewery in Bavaria. It had amazing Helles(pale) and Dunkeles(dark) beers.
Our next time was outside the Residenz with the amazing company of Samarth and Sonnika. Over lots of topics we had the raddlers, lowenbrau weisbeer and dunkelers. As the sun set over Munich, the beers seemed to be the natural beverage to drink.
Finally, we had Weisbeer at a Monastery outside of Munich. Yes, a monastery! It was hot, Sunday and the beer garden was packed. We finally got a spot due to some nice German oldies who translated the menu for us as well. Thanks guys!
It wasn’t just the beer gardens which were awesome. It was the Bavarian(or German) attitude to alcohol. Everone drank beer at all times of day but no one had a fight. No one spewed and everyone had a good time. Prost!
Munich Museum and BMW Welt
We decided to avoid museums in this trip. They require a lot of walking, can be expensive and you are left overwhelmed. We made one exception for the Munich city museum. It gave a reasonable history of the city, it’s monarchs and how it represents Southern Germany.
In summary, Munich was established at the site of a monatery(the city’s name is related to the word monk). It was an insignificant market town until the Wittlesbachs dynasty decided to move here as Dukes and Kings for 5-600 years. It was home to Nazis and is now the home of BMW and other industries.
Well, we went to see the BMW Welt or the BMW factory plant. It was around 5-6 stations from Marienplazn on the U-Bahn and the entry was free. However, we realised that the plant is closed so decided to check out the BMWs, Rolls Royce and Mini cars on show. I almost convinced myself of buying an 80 euro umbrella due to its german quality but then decided against it.
Just to enjoy ourseles, we played some Xbox while there, proving to ourselves we still got it!
Final
It was a great couple of days in Munich. We even managed to eat well with bread shops everywhere. We wanted to experience the city and we certainly were not left let down by Munich.