Munich



Town hall - Rathaus

Munich is one of the world's most desirable cities to live in according to some polls. It really shouldn't be allowed to have one of the best football teams as well, that is really unfair! It got fourth place in the Mercer livability rankings in 2011 and 2012. It was also ranked as the world's most livable city with the highest quality of life in the 'Monocle.' I had never heard of the Monocle, it sounds like a posh magazine for posh type people, you know the types that would have worn monocles if we lived in the 1930s. In fact it is a global affairs and lifestyle magazine, radio station, website and media brand. Well there you go.

I had the pleasure of landing at Munich Airport on the way to skiing in Austria, Munich being the cheapest way to get to the Zillertal ski region in comparison with Innsbruck or Salzburg. You can get the local train from the airport to the city Ostbahnhof, a fair old way and packed with commuters in the late afternoon as it trawled through the suburban hinterland of Munich. From the Ostbahnhof you can catch an ICE right up into the Tyrol. This means arriving in the Austrian Alps in serious style in a German high speed train smoothie.

I returned to Munich a week later with some of my ski pals and had the pleasure of strolling around the city centre for much of the day. I am jumping the gun a bit here, but you have to go to the Viktualmarkt, an elegant open space in the heart of the city surrounded by mature architecture and sporting quaint old refreshment kiosks, drinking areas and cafes with a distinct nineteenth century feel. Here three of us pushed our way through those thick sheets of plastic that act as 'doorways' into a sheltered rather glorified conservatory where you can eat a classic German lunch, exactly what we wanted to do before returning home, big succulent sausages, sauerkraut and potatoes washed down with a large beer. You have to do it!



Victualienmarkt - beer to your heart's content!

 

Munich Hauptbahnhof is a major hub on the very impressive German rail network and I had passed through just last summer early in the morning bound for Cologne and then home to Blighty. You can leave your luggage here for the day, nip into the tourist office just outside, grab a map and summary of the top ten sights, and then strike into the heart of the city. I noticed in the office that there were tours advertised to Dachau, the infamous Nazi concentration camp.

 



Hauptbahnhof - photo for rail geeks



 

It's a dead straight walk in to town from the station, down Shutzen strasse, crossing a major thoroughfare about half way along, then picking up Neuhauser. Then you enter the old city, walking down Neuhauser, and soon get to the cathedral, the Frauenkirche, or Church of our Lady, with its onion domed towers. We circled most of the building before finding the way in. It's only a short further walk to the centre of the action, Marienplatz.

 



Typically European, Munich old city has its share of fine walking streets which swathe through to the Marienplatz central square with its classic German 'Rathaus,' a medieval looking behemoth with intricate stonework and dinky theme clock (bells, figures and chimes). The great thing about Munich is that you can do the city centre in a day on foot. It's easy to get around and you can even wander off the beaten track to somewhere like the English Garden.

There are some pretty impressive palatial avenues slicing through the city centre and one such is Brennerstrasse, described in the city guide as 'Munich's first splendid boulevard.' It runs right into Konigsplatz Square with its classical buildings and museums, worth a jolly jaunt if you are striding through the city.

Konigsplatz - see what I mean!

There is a large palace area with gardens as well joined onto the city centre which you can promenade around in the late afternoon/early evening. This is the Royal Residence, the largest residential palace in Germany and the seat of the Bavarian rulers for 400 years. The Bavarian State Opera is next to the palace. I sort of dipped in and out of this area quickly as I had an appointment at the airport via an essential stop at Starbucks, but could see the appeal for a promenading couple, a promenading anything for that matter. Given some blazing summer evening it would be a great area to stroll absolutely aimlessly before sipping an outdoor coffee.

I also found myself wandering down to the English garden, which is rather more than a garden, more a gigantic slice of countryside plonked onto the edge of the city centre, Munich's own Hyde Park or Regents Park. It's 922 acres and one of the largest urban parks in the world. I thought it was rather more tidy than the Tiergarten in Berlin, a smooth shaven chin of a park as opposed to an untidy stubble of a park. And very pleasant it was as well, with streams and lakeland, dashes of woodland, extensive path network and wide green spaces.



The English Garden - more like a fully fledged shire

 

 

Cyclists plied up and down the paths by the bucketload (I guess you wouldn't see many Germans going off the paths), and even a few horse-riders. I passed a crowd of English who had perhaps come over for the Manchester United match. I did a massive circle of the park, running out of time to visit some sort of classical folly on a hill, and headed back to the centre. It was only when I returned to the UK that an article almost immediately appeared in the Daily Telegraph on German nudism. The English Garden in Munich is a prime spot for displaying your nakedness to the world, at least when the weather is on your side. I spotted no such thing when I was there! But it had been drizzling for most of the day.