Germany City Tour #2 - Munich

Sunday 15^th October

Today was travel day. Our departure from Hauptbahnhof was at 10:04, and as there didn’t seem to be a particularly obvious way to the station from our hotel, we gave ourselves plenty of time. Honestly, there seemed to be 10 different routes, all of them involving at least one change. Is a bus easier with suitcases instead of stairs down to the U-Bahn? In the event we took U8 to Gesundbrunnen and an express train to the central station. We had time to shop for some snacks and boarded our first class carriage on platform 2.

The first class upgrade only cost an extra £10 and it also gave us transport at either end of our journeys, so it was well worth it for convenience as much as cost. We had power, WiFi and a table for two, so I spent the journey writing up the diary for our Berlin adventures. We had to change trains at Erfurt – it was a bit confusing because the first train we were on actually went on to Munich but arrived later. We arrived at 14:40, managed to navigate through the roadworks (which became quite a feature of Munich) to the tram stop and took the tram to Sendlinger Tor. More roadworks here which made navigating to our hotel a bit tricky. My phone also seemed to struggle to locate me accurately which didn’t help!

Safely checked into Centro Hotel Mondial, we took a bit of time to settle in and unpack a little. The room was smaller and seemed very dated – it felt like we were back in the DDR museum! It did have a balcony Mia could smoke on though. We headed out around 5pm and went to Auer Dalt, a seasonal fair on Mariahilfplatz which only happens three times a year. As I said about the Festival of Lights, we often luck out on booking our holidays to coincide with events and we were quite excited about this. As it turned out, it wasn’t that impressive. We were also aware of putting our holiday spends on credit cards and not having a lot of cash, and most of the stalls were cash only. So instead of eating at the fair, we took a walk north where Apple Maps said there was a bunch of restaurants. Wirsthaus in der Au is where we ended up, one of many traditional Bavarian taverns in Munich, famous for its dumplings. We ordered big platters of duck and pork with big potato and flour dumplings and pickled red cabbage. Absolutely huge, absolutely delicious. Mia was beaten but I polished the lot off!

It was dark but still early when we left. We headed across the Isar and wandered to Marienplatz in the old town. Always nice to see places at night as well as by day, and I knew we’d be back here later in our visit! We took a few snaps - it was Sunday night and the town seemed fairly quiet but we found a bar for a final drink for the evening before heading back to the hotel.

Monday 16^th October

Our plan for today was to go to Dachau, the site of one of the biggest concentration camps of the Nazi regime, and then on to Nymphenburg Palace. Getting to Dachau was relatively easy by train and then a very busy bus. The day was clear and bright but cold. We expected to spend a couple of hours here but didn’t expect to stay as long as we did. Even though we’d read a lot about the advance of the Nazis into German culture and politics, every new site that we visited provided more context, more detail and more insight.

The majority of people who came through Dachau were assessed for their ability to work, then often sent to other camps for either work or extermination. While Dachau had a gas chamber, it was never used for mass extermination. It is estimated that over 188,000 people went through Dachau, and they have on record 41,500 deaths, either through murder or mistreatment.

Although I had been here previously, we absorbed almost every word in the exhibition that was displayed in the former processing building. It almost seemed disrespectful to not read every individual story that was laid before us. We couldn’t quite believe that we had been there three hours and hadn’t seen the rest of the site. We spent another hour walking though the grounds, seeing the reconstructed bunk rooms, the memorials and churches and finally the crematorium, before returning to the entrance and the bus back to the station.

It was gone 3pm and we were pretty hungry so we grabbed a McDonalds as we waited for the delayed train back towards Munich. Apple Maps was proving invaluable for public transport (whatever did we do before smartphones?!) and after a bit of investigation I found that we could walk through the Nymphenburg Palace Park free of charge. We could also access it from a station at the back of the park, which made far more sense than getting trains and buses to the front, then walking back on ourselves!

Once in the park I followed the SatNav on paths towards Große Kaskade, a huge waterfall in the middle of the park. There was a surprisingly friendly heron along with gaggles of geese enjoying the autumn sunshine. We could see the palace at the end of the Schloßgartenkanal (actually not the end, the canal splits around the palace and continues towards Munich). It took us nearly 30 minutes (albeit at a gentle pace) to reach the palace, trying to snap a photo of what I think was a couple of jays!

Nymphenburg Palace seemed big enough from behind, but from the front it seemed to curve around forever! I’m not sure where the palace ended and where “normal buildings” began! We had started the day with half a mind to go inside, but our lengthy Dachau visit had meant it was closed by the time we got there and we didn’t feel like we’d hugely missed out. Walking away from the palace along the canal we found a tram line that could take us straight back to our hotel. I decided that a bath was in order to soak my aching body and feet (still not fully recovered from my charity canal walk a couple of weeks ago!)

I had been recommended a restaurant very close to the hotel by my friend Simon and the original plan was to go here for dinner. There was a queue outside and it was cash only so we decided to give it a miss for now and instead ended up in a Vietnamese restaurant. I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten Vietnamese cuisine before, but Mia had been on holiday there this year and, as much as there were plenty of Bavarian specialities I wanted to try, this was nearby, something different, and also did nice sounding cocktails. They produced their own ginger drink which I had mixed with gin – it had lots of ginger chunks in the bottom and was delicious! The restaurant was busy on a Monday night, it was a cool place to eat and we enjoyed the meal, then to bed after our long and emotional day.

Tuesday 17^th October

Today was our proper Munich sightseeing day. Our brief visit to the Old Town on Sunday night made it clear that transport wasn’t required, so I set Apple Maps to display ‘Landmarks’ and we zig-zagged our way through the city towards Marienplatz. Walking through Sendlinger Tor, the southern gate of Munich and taking pictures of pretty buildings and the numerous fountains along the way (Germans like their water fountains!), we came across Viktualienmarkt. This was far more interesting that Auer Dalt, and I envied the locals for whom this was their local food market.

Our aim was to get to Marienplatz in time for the 11am performance of the Glockenspiel in the town hall. The 32 life size figures re-enact stories from the 16^th century alongside 43 bells (which, I’ll be honest, sounded like they were in desperate need of tuning!)

Munich’s Cathedral was far more peaceful. Very much dedicated to Mary, the patron saint of Bavaria, there was a feminine quality to the bright, clean cathedral. I don’t consider myself a Christian but I love cathedrals and churches and I even felt compelled to light a candle.

Our walk took us past the Opera House and National Theatre, to Odeonsplatz where we visited the Theatine Church of St Cajetan. Bright yellow from the outside, but cool and white and very intricately carved on the inside, this is now a Dominican church. We walked through the grounds of Residenz – again, we had considered going in but decided to save our pennies and just view from outside – towards the Englische Garten.

This is a massive park that runs all the way to the outskirts of Munich. As we approached, we saw surfers using the artificial waves that flow into the park’s waterways to practice their skills. The man that we clocked disembarking at Munich train station with a surfboard now made sense! Only proficient surfers are allowed to surf these waves and I can imagine they could be quite dangerous.

We were peckish so stopped partway up the park at Konig 43 for apple strudel and coffee / Prosecco. Back into the park to Chinesischer Turm which gave us a good view of the city. Then back through the park and through the town, to take in more sights and buy some souvenirs. We stopped at the famous Hofbrauhaus, the most famous of the Bavarian beer halls. There had been some debate as to whether we should go there, but as my friend Mark had said, if you’re tourists, go to the tourist places. The reviews of rudeness from the waiting staff were unfounded – I suspect going at a relatively quiet time of 4pm meant we were less likely to be dismissed as just tourists. I enjoyed a beer and a massive pretzel.

Another church as we headed back to the hotel, the Holy Ghost which was closed for Mass when we had walked past it previously. I was quite intrigued by a rather camp painting of Jesus, and a candle with nails stabbed through hearts. Using my phone for photos and navigation in the cold had taken its toll on my battery so the return to the hotel was as much to recharge my phone as ourselves!

We made sure we’d grabbed some cash to go to Andy’s Krablergarten tonight. The queue we saw yesterday indicated that it might just be worth waiting for. There was less of a wait tonight and we were indeed serves the most massive schnitzel and fries! It felt like being in a Man Vs Food episode and I was actually beaten this time!

We fancied staying out for another drink and ended up in an Italian fish restaurant right opposite our hotel. They were very genial hosts and rather generous with their gin and vodka! We enjoyed talking to them about how to order the bill in various European languages and the joys of cashing up at the end of the night. It was probably the latest (and drunkest) night of the holiday so far – good thing we get to rest on the train tomorrow…