Munich is for Drinking (and eating)

May 15-19, 2014

Given our relaxing and music-infused experience in Vienna, we were sad to leave. Again, it poured rain on our travel day so we skipped Salzburg but left it open as a possible day trip from Munich.

Our arrival in Munich was sadly underwhelming. While our hotel (Eurostars Book Hotel) was nice enough inside, the neighborhood was horrific, especially after the leafy green streets of Vienna. All around the central train station (Hauptbahnhof, which Joe and I called Hop-on-Hop-off), there is nothing but hotels, casinos, and sex shops. It feels a little like Las Vegas but without the glitzy glam. If the hotel hadn't already been booked, we may have just turned around and headed back to Austria.

The next day we headed further in Munich to join a city bike tour in Marienplatz. Mike's Bike Tours is the most popular in Munich and it deserves the distinction. (The city tour is the #3 highest rated activity in Munich on TripAdvisor.) Despite the cold and drizzly weather, this tour - and our awesome guide Chris - gets the credit for turning us around on Munich. In the summer, Mike's runs tours in the morning (11:30) and the afternoon (4:00), which was perfect for us.

Our original impression that Munich was dirty and run-down (the same impression I think people who come for Oktoberfest may walk away with) couldn't have been more wrong. The city was beautiful! There were so many green spaces and relaxing, open parks. I can only imagine how nice it would be to spend summer days laying out in the Englischer Garten, drinking and socializing in the biergartens and riding along the Isar river.

Englischer Garten, our favorite part of the tour, reminded us a lot of Hampstead Heath. We made a drinking stop at Chinesischer Turm, a Chinese-style pagoda and biergarten in the park. The tour also included historical sites, of course, but I didn't get many good pictures. (Still, I have since been planning a France-Germany-Austria trip for high schoolers specifically because I want to take them on this bike tour.)

Charlie and our guide's turtle friend, Gustavo

Mike's Bikes operates in Amsterdam as well, and would be worth looking up in either city. They also have run Bus Bavaria, which guides the coolest Neuschwanstein Castle tour I could find (though we couldn't go with them this time, I would definitely want to work with them if I come back with students). Bus Bavaria is also in the Top 10 activities on Tripadvisor - this is a truly great company!

After our 4+ hours of biking around Munich and freezing our fingers it was time for beer. We headed over to Hofbräuhaus at about 8:30 pm and couldn't find a single open spot to sit in the multi-room restaurant. It was a Friday after all, so we left, discovered delicious Latte Macchiatos, and returned about an hour later. We stayed until we were kicked out at closing, enjoying the boisterous atmosphere, beer, and community seating. (We first sat with a group of Brazilian tourists and then ran into some of our fellow bikers from the afternoon tour.)

Our waitress was particularly entertaining as she wasted no time dealing with tourists. If you weren't ready to order when she arrived, she'd leave before you could finish saying "Uhhh" and instead of politely setting each different brew in front of the appropriate customer, she just plunked all of the drinks for the table in the middle and expected us to figure it out. We loved her no-nonsense, German efficiency. 

This was taken on Monday afternoon when the restaurant was effectively empty. 

Even though rain was predicted for our entire visit, we got lucky (again) and actually had some sunny days. 

Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall) in Marienplatz

The famous Glockenspiel on Neues Rathaus.
(No, we did not wait around to see it do its dance.)

We visited many brewhouses and restaurants as the main goal of our visit to Munich was to drink beer (Joe) and eat German food (Sarah). We'd recommend ordering with moderation so that you can pack four or five different food/drink stops into a day. For example, it's worth a stop at Weisses Bräuhaus on Tal (just beyond the Old Town Hall from Marienplatz, across the street from Paulaner im Tal) for a pint of Augustiner Helles and a bowl of pretzel soup. From there you're just steps away from Hofbräuhaus, Augustiner am Platzl, Paulaner (of course), the Viktualienmarkt (with its biergarten), and Cafe Rischart (which is all over the place but the one that looks down on Viktualienmarkt has the deliciously tempting ice cream sundaes).

Charlie & Bert with the Munich lion (near Mike's Bike Tour office)

a statue of Juliet with an apparently lucky right breast (under the clock at Old Town House in Marienplatz)

In all three countries on our trip we saw an abundance of asparagus of both the white and green varieties. In Vienna and Munich, many of the restaurants we visited had seasonal asparagus menus! Since Joe and I both love asparagus, we found these special offerings very welcoming.

fresh asparagus!

In the afternoon on our second day we wandered through Viktualienmarkt, the outdoor farmer's market just beyond Marienplatz.

some of the largest leeks, beets, spring onions, and radishes I've ever seen (and then mini artichokes)

Viktualienmarkt biergarten (on a cold day!)

Saturday night we headed to Kilian's to watch the Bayern Munich v Dortmund game. Ironically, we ended up in an Irish bar surrounded by Aussies and Brits, many of whom were there for the Arsenal v Hull City game that came on before. There we had a great time hanging out with some people we met (a Brit who is from the exact area in London where we live now and an Aussie couple we hope to visit with again on their travels later). Then we grabbed a quick dinner at Guido al Duomo next door before trying to get to bed "early" for a big tour day on Sunday.

Whenever we have four nights in one place I like to get out of the city at least once to see something more rural. Living in London, even our green area of Highgate, means we don't see a lot of rolling hills or snow-capped mountains. We took the tour to Neuschwanstein Castle because my Uncle Bob recommended it, but the day would have been worth it even if we hadn't gone inside the castle because the drive through the countryside was so beautiful.

First we stopped at Linderhof, a sort of miniature palace in the mountains. This was King Ludwig II's tribute to French design and was modeled after Versailles. Ludwig II is often referred to as the fairy-tale king because he spent so much of his time and money building castles and funding the arts, particularly the operas of Richard Wagner.

 short walk from the bus to the palace

I liked the sculptures on the right side especially. They seemed more sassy.

After Linderhof we drove on to Hohenschwangau, a small village at the base of one of the lower Bavarian Alps where Ludwig II built his personal refuge, Neuschwanstein Castle. From the village there are several options for getting up to the castle (bus, horse-drawn carriage), but we would recommend walking/hiking without hesitation because that is the only way to take in the gorgeous scenery.

A view of Alpsee and the Bavarian Alps about a third of the way up to the castle

For some reason our photographer thought we wanted Hohenschwangau castle in the background, not the infinitely more beautiful lake and mountains that ended up directly behind our bodies. 

Walking is also the only way to reach the Marien bridge above the castle and get the views looking down on it with the valley behind. There are also several other trails around the castle that we would have loved to explore if we'd had more time. (For this reason I would recommend Bus Bavaria's tour; they spend the whole day at Neuschwanstein, biking, picnicking, and - if you are up for it - paragliding.)

Neuschwanstein, one of the many European castles that claims to be the inspiration for 

the Disney castle, and the alternate view from the castle back to the bridge.

enjoying every moment of the forest climb down from the castle

An iphone pic through the tinted bus windows and it's still gorgeous

Our last day was 70 degrees and gorgeous. We had one major stop left on our list: the Deutsches Museum of Science and Technology. We had crossed the Isar River during our bike tour but it was so much prettier in the sunlight. This picture doesn't do it justice - the river shimmered emerald green.

Joe and I always love a good science museum, but the astronomy exhibits in this one are particularly good. One was a 3D model of the Orion constellation that helped put in perspective that even though we may see the three stars of Orion's belt as even and in a straight line, they are actually at different distances away from us and seem unrelated if viewed from a different perspective. We followed a sign to an "observatory" area and expected a viewing platform like the ones we reach when climbing church towers but we were shocked to find ourselves in the museum's solar observation center where scientists use this telescope to monitor sun spots. The staff member on duty even opened the dome for us so we could take a look. So cool! (They also do night-time visits for people who want to use the telescope.)

Munich totally won us over. Joe drank lots of good beer and we enjoyed eating German food at every turn. (Soft pretzels, mustard, sausages? Saurkraut and red cabbage? Yeah, I'm sold.) Despite our original impressions of the city, we were sad to leave. Munich was a success!

5/8 of these are in Munich and there were more