Germany: Munich

A vacation to Germany is not complete without the obligatory tour of Munich (München), the capital of Bavaria.  To many Americans, just the mention of Munich conjures up images of beer, pretzels, bratwurst, and of course Oktoberfest, the beer drinker’s paradise.

Touristy shops abound in Munich, selling all of kinds of beer drinking paraphernalia.

We saw this display at a local department store. There were racks of traditional Bavarian costumes so that locals and visitors alike could dress up, presumably for Oktoberfest.

The must see on every beer drinker’s itinerary – the Hofbrauhaus!

Of course, Munich is much more than just Oktoberfest. Among other things, it was the center of the German counter reformation, a victim of the Bubonic plague, home to many of the most famous composers of all time, and a stronghold for Nazis during WWII. It is well known that much of the city was heavily bombed during WWII and the people chose to have the old city rebuilt as it was before the war. Today, Munich is politically liberal within the largely conservative state of Bavaria.

We began our tour of Munich at Karlsplatz, where we strolled under the Karlstor and into the pedestrian friendly old city center.

Karlstor

This is the view inside the pedestrian only zone looking back at Karlstor after passing through.

We were able to see the domes of the Frauenkirche.

After strolling down the Neuhausen Strasse, we headed to the Viktualienmarkt for lunch. The Viktualienmarkt is a farmer’s market that has gone gourmet. Stalls selling honey, cheese, flowers, herbs, and other victuals/foodstuffs are surrounded by dozens of bratwurst stands and ready seating.

Huge wheels of cheese.

I think this stand sells herbs.

All kinds of flowers for the back garden.

The Maypole of Munich.

We decided to eat lunch at this bratwurst stand (see below).  While my sister and I saved some seats at a long table, the men stood in line to buy our food.  We had some delicious bratwurst and fried potatoes accompanied by locally brewed apple soda.  While we were eating, we chatted with some friendly locals who were sharing our table.  This is very normal in Germany, especially in Munich, which is known for its friendly citizens.

Bratwurst for lunch!

After lunch, we walked over to the famous Marienplatz. Like many old city centers, Marienplatz has a famous glockenspiel in the Rathaus. The architecture here was beautiful!

In the Marienplatz, with a view of the Rathaus Glockenspiel and the Marian Column.

A tavern near the Marienplatz

Near the Rathaus in Marienplatz is Alois Dallmayr, the most famous delicatessen and food hall in Germany. This upscale food haven has supplied royal courts throughout Europe and inspired many like concepts across the world.  Seeing these displays reminded me of the deli inside Whole Foods in the US and the food halls in the basement of Japanese department stores such as Isetan.

Alois Dallmayr, a royal purveyor of foodstuffs.

Part of the elaborate window display.

There’s a bakery.

The freshly ground gourmet coffee section.

This was the most gourmet supermarket I’ve ever seen and heaven for foodies.

After our walk, we decided that we deserved a reward so we made our next stop the Hofbrauhaus. The mecca of beer drinkers everywhere, be forewarned that this is on every tourist’s itinerary.

Once we entered the Hofbrauhaus, we wandered about looking for the actual beer hall since this place was HUGE! We found some stairs and went up to see what was upstairs.

The large gothic stone stairs.

The painted ceiling on top of the stairwell features was very Bavarian, with the flags and the pretzels and the beer wench.

We found this private beer hall reminiscent of being inside a Viking ship.

After we went back downstairs, we went towards the noise and finally found the beer hall. Surprisingly there were not too many people there.

That’s because everyone was out in the beer garden! We grabbed a table and sat down to enjoy.

The Hofbrauhaus is so patriotic, even the fountain in the beer garden has the Munich shield on it.

You can request an English menu, although they will probably just automatically give it to you.

Thankfully for me, there was a section in the menu for non-alcoholics.

After finishing up at the Hofbrauhaus, we headed over to the Residenz, the former royal palace of the Bavarian kings. It had started raining so we only looked at this area briefly.

Right outside the Residenz were these streets and this monument.

We had planned to go to the English Garden at this time, but it was pouring rain so we decided to skip it this time around. If you do plan to go to the English Garden, the Chinese pagoda was highly recommended to us and the beer garden.

Although Munich can be classified as a must-see because of its place in Bavarian history and culture, in many ways it felt like any other European big city. We saw high end shopping streets, expensive gourmet food stores, large palaces and grand monuments, and other places that make the city very cosmopolitan and a great place to live and work but not necessarily the best place to really experience the German way of life. Despite this thought, however, we still very much enjoyed our time in Munich and recommend it to all visitors to Germany.

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