Sunday, October 12, 2008

München

München, also named Munich in English. Aside from being the beer capital of the world, it also saw some of the very key moments in world history. At the same time, it is also only a small city in the south of Germany & very accessible on foot if you know where to 'live'.

Here are the points for München:

1 point goes to the Misukoshi (三越). It was tiny (3 levels of 1/2 floors) & very well hidden (on Platzl 2). My main reason for finding it was that the 1 in HK had closed, but when I finally found it I was grossly disappointed.

2 points go to the Ostbahnhof. It was small & unremarkable. Not a very good first impression of München after I travelled from the picturesque Salzburg. The Haputbahnhof was also a bit disorganised, contrary to the stereotypical German precisions. Maybe everyone was still recovering from Oktoberfest which finished the weekend prior.

3 points go to the tourist information centre at Marienplatz. The first time I went there (Saturday lunch-time-ish, then again a couple of hours later) there were at least 30 people queuing outside its doors. By the time I finally got in (I went back the following morning for the Free Tour, incidentally NOT offered nor advertised by the tourist information) there was hardly any good information to be taken from them. Mostly flyers of local exhibitions, with no free map in sight.

4 points go to the weißwürste (white sausage). As many people would know by now, I'm a fan of the sausage. I've bought many different types of sausages at home, as well as had others (thanks Nat!) bought special, German sausages for me from The Shire. Unfortunately, the weißwürste that I had in München was only ordinary. The sweet mustard that accompanied the würste, however, was excellent!

5 points go to the Hofbraühaus. Yes, this might sound very un-Australian dissing a drinking pithole, and such an important one too. But when I was in there (mid-afternoon, not even 4) it was choc-filled with people/drinkers. I tried to escape the people (and with European translation: smoke) filled room to go out to the back courtyard it was even smokier!! I ended up drinking in another biergarten. No Hofbraü, but still a local beer (Paulaner. I thought it said Paul Anker for some reasons, and that was BEFORE I started drinking).

6 points go to the Viktualienmarkt. One of München's many drinking holes, it was also interspersed with fresh food stalls and sellers of other small things like fresh flowers & souvenirs. This was where I ended up consuming my weißwürste and Paul Anker, though I found out from my tour guide later that the markt do charge about twice as much as other places (read: tourist trap). In reality, it was a little pricier than other cafes and stuff but nowhere near twice as much as far as the food goes. At least you can get everything in the one place.

7 points go to Hofgarten and the Bayerische Staatskanzlei (State Chancellory). The Hofgarten was picturesque little garden just to the north of city centre and right at the end of it was the very high-tech looking State Chancellory. In the Hofgarten you could also find a memorial to the victims of WWII as well as one of München's several memorials to the weiße rose.

8 points go to Dallmayer delicatessen. Some of the guide books would direct you to this delicatessen on Dienerstraße off Marienplatz. It is one of the up-scale delicatessen in town but it is very large and sells pretty much anything edible - from fresh fruit, baked goods, jams & confectionary, to chocolate, coffee beans, tea, smoked meat... ... There are of course other things like the Dallmayer teddy (at 45 euros a pop for 1 the size of my palm) and a cafe/bistro up on level 1.

9 points go to Marienplatz, but especially the glockenspiele on the Neue Rathaus (New Town Hall). After seeing the rather unremarkable one in Praha, this was most certainly a breath of fresh air. The show goes on ar approximately 11am, 12noon and 5pm everyday. I say approximately because my guide told me that it is not an automated show buy someone is actually paid to climb up the stairs at 11, 12 and 5 everyday to press the button which starts the show. One day last year there were no shows because the guy was sick! So much for German punctuality. The show itself, however, is fairly long. Music plays for about 5 minutes before the movable parts start moving. That goes on for another 5 minutes before the show is ended with yet another 5 minutes of bell dingings. Pick a good spot & sit tight I'd say.

10 points go to the Ludwig-Maximillian Universitat. This university's significance lies mostly in the role it played in the Resistance to the Third Reich during WWII. This resistance movement, known as the weiße rose, is now proudly remembered in the form of 2 indoor memorials (one of all the weiße rose members (left forground) while the other was of Sophie Scholl (right background), one on the front entrance that resembled the anti-Nazi pamphlets that the weiße rose members distributed and eventually executed for, as well as a room dedicated to the weiße rose movement (open, however, only during weekdays). There is also a separate memorial in the Hofgarten while the grave sites of Sophie, Hans Scholl and Christophe Prosbt are also noted in the Perlach-am-Friedhof a little outside of main town.

And finally, 12 points go to the new europe Free Tour. Well, ok, it's not really free. There are no sign up fees or ticket prices, true, but you are 'reminded' to tip appropriately at the end of the walking tour as the guide only works freelance. Anything from coins to small notes would suffice. Their guides, however, are very entertaining & energetic but most of all informative. They can pretty much answer anything, most of which are native English speakers (or Spanish if you want to take the Spanish tour) now living in München. My guide, for example, was a small Scotsman (not a leprechaun, those are Irish) with a Münchener fiance. The tour lasts for about 3 hours and take you to all the major (and some minor or lesser known) sites of München. The guides would also be able to tell you lesser known facts of the area/building/whatever you happen to be seeing.

Travelling north to the regional town of Bremen next.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am guessing that you visited Munich around Good Friday? Reason since other than maintenance work done to the glockenspiel, as it turned 100 years old in 2008, the glockenspiel goes off every day other than Good Friday, when none of the bells sound in the city. As for the 5pm show, that is only between April and October.
pS. Did you see the bird hoot at the end? :-)