Munich: no expectations.

Munich is quirky, standard, Bavarian, snowing and beer-soaked.

Munich from the top of Alte Peter.

A lot of cities in Europe suffer from expectations, you’ve seen them in film, and about them in books, heard about them from endless bouts of travel talk, sometimes  the city rises to the occasion, sometimes it does not. So how lovely to come to a large European city where I had no expectations about what to do, see or even what it is like beyond some knowledge of a little beer festival that runs every late September and early October. This was a really great thing. I wandered the streets, hung out in the beer halls and gardens, ate at the market, went to galleries, visited churches, I went window shopping, ate a lot of pork, watched the underwhelming glockenspiel show, I even debated the existence of God with a local. I didn’t feel rushed, I didn’t feel obliged to see everything, I just existed. I don’t think I have super-strong feelings either way about Munich, but I did have a nice time.

The city gates.

Beer halls can be found packed out at all times of the day and night in Munich, complete with raucous men in lederhosen who offer themselves for photos with tourists. The Viktualienmarkt is filled to bursting. People crowd here on their lunch-break to enjoy Bavarian food (pork, pork and bretzels), fresh produce and a very peculiar tasting honey wine (if they don’t feel like another beer). It would be remiss of me not to mention how much the people of Munich love their beer. The beer purity law of 1516 is still taken very seriously and the 6 best breweries in Munich uphold the rules from the 16th century. Restaurants and Beer Halls bear the name of the 6 (it sounds like a secret society doesn’t it?), I went to at least 3 places named Augustiner and walked past a dozen more. After a rigorous testing process, I have to say the Augunstiner was my favourite. I went to the famous Hofbrauhaus which was insanely busy, but the beer wasn’t as good. Some say that the lack of preservatives in this beer means you don’t get hung-over from Munich beer, I would beg to differ.

Inside the Hofbrauhaus.

All throughout this trip I have aimed to improve my skills in languages other than English. Something that is quite difficult in a place like Europe where the vast majority of people I have encountered speak beautiful English. It’s a shame, in many places I haven’t even had to try. Which makes me feel both incredibly lucky and guilty at the same time. Nevertheless, I have had an aim to have a whole conversation with someone in their native tongue. I have the most vocabulary in Italian, French and Spanish, and even then it’s not that much. I failed in Italy because many people would hear my accent and speak back to me in English, In Spain and France it was the same story, although more of the French were willing to hear me out. My German has been improving. One day I almost got through a whole order of a bretzel and a bratwurst before coming undone on the numbers in the price. So close, yet so far. I also went to order breakfast from a bakery. The guy behind the counter complimented my order and asked if I spoke German. He was lovely, but it foiled me! He then very kindly gave me a quick pronunciation lesson on some of the wares in his bakery, much to the annoyance of the man in the queue behind me. Unfortunately, not all of the people I encountered were so obliging. The abrupt and forward nature of many people I met was a bit of a culture shock. I don’t know if I’m just used to Australian politeness, but there were a fair few Munich residents I encountered who were down-right rude. One girl scoffed and rolled her eyes at me when I asked if she spoke English in German, as if my attempts to be polite were a waste of her time. A man found my walking too slow and shoved me out of his way, huffing and puffing loudly as he stormed off into the distance.

Dog parking.

Munich has beautiful parks and gardens, I spent a whole afternoon wandering through the English Garden. Munich’s biggest green space. Everyone is happy to tell you that it is double the size of New York’s central park. In one section of the garden I saw a man playing the cello in the gazebo. He played songs from musical theatre and people were enraptured by his performance. Even on my last few Euros I made sure I left him some money. He was amazing; if I had any troubles, he would make me forget them. A little up from the cellist was one of the strangest things I have seen in a while. Germany has a coast, but it’s not anywhere near Munich and in addition to that, the port of Hamburg is not really a surf beach; but no matter. Munich’s surfing community has decided it will hit the waves of the stream that runs through the park. We saw a group of about 8 taking turns to ride the wave created by the overflow under a tunnel . There was an old master there, teaching a new protege a few tricks, a couple of women showing some amazing strength to surf against the torrent of water that spills out from under the bridge. We stood there for ages watching them take turns, wipe out and get up to do it all again. So wacky. A walk further into the park revealed beautiful scenery, walkers, runners, lovers and of course, a beer garden to enjoy a radler (beer and lemonade) under an Asian inspired pagoda. I was told a few locals like to nude up in this park, luckily, I didn’t encounter any. Maybe it was a bit too cold for them.

Hanging 10 on the river.

I had 4 days in Munich, which meant I was able to take the 2 hour train ride out to visit Neuschwanstein Castle. The castle is allegedly Walt Disney’s inspiration for Cinderella’s castle and the famous Disney logo. Although I have to say, I think there are 3 or 4 castles around Europe who lay claim to this. The place looks utterly romantic. It’s perched on top of a mountain with even more snow-capped mountains towering all around it. Unfortunately, the guy who built it, King Ludwig II was a recluse who had an obsession with Wagner and swans and was declared insane on 3 separate occasions. So not even remotely romantic. After jumping of the train and climbing up the bike path, the most wonderful thing happened. It started to snow. It wasn’t cold enough for it to stay snow for long, but when it fell from the sky I felt like Winona Rider in Edward Scissorhands. It was magic. Being an Australian, snow doesn’t really happen that often. Even our ski fields have to be topped up with artificial snow, but here, in beautiful Bavaria at the end of October, the snow was falling. After the hike up we walked to a bridge that stretches over a 90 meter gorge, some of the wood shifted under my feet, so I didn’t spend too long. It offered an intense game of dodge the umbrella and a more impressive and beautiful view of the castle. The tour of the castle was short, but we saw ballrooms, bedrooms and even a grotto that was created to look like an actual cave in the middle of the house. Ludwig decorated the place with murals of myths, legends and Wagner operas. I loved the inside, it’s not very big because Ludwig died (under very mysterious circumstances) while the castle was being completed. The paintings and the decorations were elegant and beautiful. The decorations in this castle were probably my favourite (although I do hate to play favourites) in Europe as I found palaces like Versailles very over-the-top. After the walk down I was soaked in melted snow. But this was not a problem because I had actually been in the snow while it was falling, I let snowflakes fall on my tongue, I threw a snowball (well, a clump of ice) and I loved every minute of it.

Neuschwanstein Castle from Mary’s bridge.

Munich is the last real stop on my Eurotour (I only get one night in Paris on my way out), so I made sure my last day as a tourist was the most touristy of all the days. I created my own, ultimate European day. It started with a walk down the main street Nuehauserstrasse to people watch and look at fashion I couldn’t afford, I went to eat lunch in the park where I encountered two guys implementing a survey, which is classic Europe. I have done so many surveys on this trip, most of them are about tourism. When they asked me the first question I knew what I was in for “Do you believe in God?”. From there we had a 1 and half hour debate about God’s existence, atheism, Christianity, sin, marriage equality, mental health, chlorophyll and many other topics. The best part is I think it only cemented our own beliefs and when we both walked away we were probably feeling the other was a bit of a poor fool. The conversation was mostly respectful, but all interesting. I have Catholic and Christian friends, but we never discuss their beliefs, much like we don’t discuss who we vote for (although I guess we all know). I loved talking to him, I certainly didn’t agree with the dogma, but I respect his right to think what he wants. But I digress, after my theological discussion, I met a friend at the Neue Pinokothek gallery; because what would an ultimate European day be without a visit to a gallery. There are 3 Pinakotheks, an old, a new and a modern. I went to the new, which house art from Monet, Degas, Renoit, Pissaro and many others from the late 18th to early 20th century, including one of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. It was a great collection. In a wonderful serendipitous moment, the temporary exhibition was about artistic interpretations of Venice, which for those of you playing along at home, was my very first stop. Looking at all of those photos and paintings of the city made me think about how far I have come on this trip and all the amazing things I have seen. I am very lucky. From there it was a stop for coffee and cake (of course) and then off to climb the bell tower ‘Alter Peter’. I cannot tell you how many bell-towers I have climbed in the last 7 months, but even on this grey, miserable day, I really enjoyed the view. When we climbed, down below the Glockenspiel (a clock with chimes, jousting soldiers and dancing Coopers) was going off to the adoring crowd and then when we started to ascend, the bells started to go off. I could see them through a small window on the stairs. Then I finished it off with some beers and pork knuckle with lovely folk I met in Prague. So European.

Marienplatz.

Having no plans and no expectations was the best plan I could have had in Munich. As I said, I don’t think I loved the place, but it certainly kept me entertained with its quirkiness.