Munich

I've done a "travel guide" before, but hey here goes. I'd like to tell you about my favourite city perhaps anywhere: Munich.  I'm off there again on 1 January and it's the single city I probably visit most outside the UK.

First Experiences: Munich is Shite!

The first time I visited Munich I thought it was absolutely shit.  I'd been inter-railing with my friend Nick in the summer of 1990: we were 19. After a full four weeks travelling around, three days in post-revolution Bucharest with nothing to buy except watermelons, bread and clothes pegs (the latter aren't that edible) had left us in quite a state.  We caught the Istanbul Express from Belgrade to Munich overnight and slept in the corridor. I remember people stepping over my head, smoking all night long, and had the delights of waking up with the side of my face stuck to the floor as I'd rolled off my camping mat.

We got off at Munich Hauptbahnhof, put our least stinking clothes on, washed up a bit, and bought as much food as we could afford from a department store supermarket.  I remember what then happened so clearly: I even know the place we were sitting devouring our rolls with processed sliced cheese, when an old man came up.  He asked in German where we were from.  I assumed he was begging and trying to get some food from us.  I wasn't concentrating (there's a distinction between "kommen von" and "kommen aus" in German) and answered that we came from "Romania".

The lovely old Bavarian clearly thought we were starving Eastern Europeans and offered us the groceries he'd just bought.  I was mortified and swiftly explained we'd *come* from Romania, but were English and had plenty of Deutsche Mark to buy ourselves some more processed cheese if we wanted it!  Bless him, I felt awful for the way I'd dismissed this kindly generous guy out of hand.

The rest of the day was spent wandering round the main shopping street, missing all the sights, and catching a night train on to Paris.  We probably bought some more rolls and cheese to fortify us through the night.  That was Munich.

Munich: Let's Try Again

I then returned with a group of young Americans whom I was leading around Europe.  We had a coach tour of the city with a local guide.  I couldn't believe what I was seeing: we literally had missed everything.  The city was beautiful: full of stunning architecture, beautiful green spaces, art galleries, history, markets and restaurants.  It is classy as anything.  The Munich people love to say it is an Italian city north of the Alps.  Frankly, that's crap.  I know Italy, and love Italy, and whilst elements of the Ludwigstrasse definitely have echos of Florence (quite deliberately) this is very much a German city in terms of architecture, cleanliness and "Ordnung".

The Italianate "Ludwigstrasse" with Alps behind

The people of the city may also be referring to the "laid back" attitude in the city.  Again *ahem*.  It is a little more chilled than say Hamburg, but far less so than scrappy-anything-goes Berlin.  It is an efficient, clean, polished city of 1.4 million people with an incredibly high local GDP.  Yes, people guzzle Bier and will happily sit round being sociable after work, but a city this wealthy did not come from a lot of hard work.  Get on the U-Bahn at 7am and you'll see everyone on their way to work at Siemens, BMW, the publishing houses (it's second only to New York in terms of numbers), or the many insurance and reinsurance companies.

Schickie Mickies

The city is not just wealthy, it is by any standards a very egalitarian city.  The unemployment level is around 4% and everyone seems well off.  You see yuppies in their BMW cabrios (the so called "Schickie Mickies") everywhere and well dressed students (over 100,000 young Germans study here for €500 a semester fees) but remarkably few homeless.   The city has been ruled by a Social Democrat/ Green Coalition for years.  Massive amounts are invested in excellent, reliable public transport: fab retro teak lined subway trains from the late 60s and their gleaming brand new air-conditioned designer counterparts.  You can ride 8km from one side of the city to the other, without touching a road once, on the network of cycle paths. And yes, both young and old people DO wear Lederhosen and Dirndls not for fancy dress (more later).

Oh, ze Lederhosen. Mein Gott.

You just get the sense of a very cohesive, comfortable, well off group of inhabitants.  There are stacks of art galleries (the Alte Pinakothek is magnificent), 4 symphony orchestras, loads of museums - it is an extremely cultural city.  Munich is supremely bourgeois, but in a sharp, trendy, "right on" way.  The city is hugely gay-friendly, has almost 25% non-German population and its Jewish population is apparently back up to 1933 levels.  The newly opened main synagogue in the centre of town is a testament to this: the six smaller ones were packed to overflowing, so a magnificent new one was opened on 9 November 2006. 

The New Munich Synagogue

You also feel you're in a young city: there are so many youthful faces everywhere.  The city is very liberal: in the summer people go to the city park (the "English Garden") and strip off over lunchtime and nude sunbathe.  It's not pervy or weird: you'll see a mother having her picnic with her kids and a young couple nude sunbathing right next door.  You'll also see the SURFERS all year round just close by.  These dudes (and dudesses) can be seen all year round (wet suits in winter) surfing on some serious waves close to the US Consulate.  The story goes that a GI from Hawaii stationed here after WW2 discovered the spot, but that is of course probably utter rubbish.  In any case, I highly recommend stopping here, at the entrance to the English Garden and watching them do their stuff.

Bavarian Surfer Boys (*Skreeeem*)

The English Garden of course also houses Bier Gardens: they are all over the city and provide a "sitting room" for people with apartments to go and meet and be sociable.  Apparently the average Bavarian drinks 46.5 gallons of beer per year.  It is called "liquid bread" and covered by the oldest food purity law in the world.  It is fooking lovely.  Just watch the Wheat Beer: it packs a headache and hangover like none other.  I'll only ever have one and then move to the regular Light or Dark Beer.

There are six big Munich breweries, all located within the city limits, as they have to be to take part in the Oktoberfest.  In 1810 the Crown Prince got married and they had a huge party to celebrate.  The people of Munich liked it so much they did it again in 1811 and have been doing so (with a couple of war related/ hyper inflation related interruptions) ever since.  It begins in late September (one year it snowed in October, so they moved it forward), lasts 16 days and is the world's biggest beer drinking festival.  The atmosphere is amazing: the whole city stops for 16 days as over 6 million visitors come to join in, visit the massive beer tents, drink several million pints of beer, and have fun.

An outstanding Bavarian Balcony

People are merry, but not obnoxiously drunk.  There are crazily fast fairground rides too - just what you want after drinking a few litre glasses of beer.  I've been once: the gay tent was *incredible* - drunken Bavarian boys in Lederhosen up on the tables at 10am, with their shirts open, wearing cute little neckerchiefs, singing and locking arms.  Wow. Just, erm, wow.  If you want to go to Oktoberfest, be aware hotel prices are literally doubled and rooms sell out 6 months in advance.  Ideally you should book no later than now (December 2011) for October 2012.  The Oktoberfest brings a staggering €830 million into the local economy.

Munich of course has not always been the cosmopolitan fun place it now is.  I read a description of the city in the winter of 1933 by that outstanding and sadly recently deceased travel writer, Patrick Leigh Fermor that sent shudders down my spine.  It was the City of the Nazis: the "Brown City" (as opposed to the socialist stronghold of Berlin, the "Red City").  When Hitler arrived from Vienna he declared "Finally, a German City!".  Vienna was much too international for his tastes.  The old main synagogue in Munich was destroyed in June 1938, 5 months before the other German cities "did their bit".  There are traces of the Nazi past all over the place: amazing fascist buildings that mysteriously all missed the Allied carpet bombing raids (6600 civilians died here, as opposed to 568 in Coventry).  Around 75% of the city was destroyed, but the main buildings were later beautifully reconstructed, unlike in other German cities.

"Führerbau": where Chamberlain signed Munich Agreement

I could write on and on about the history of the place, before, during and after the Nazi period (the 1972 Olympics are fascinating: private sponsorship was *banned* and the city and state paid for everything) but I think I'd probably send you to sleep :(  If you're into this stuff though, the city is a treasure trove of places to look up and is steeped in history.

Some Top Tips

Okay now it's time for some top tips of places to go if this has whetted your appetite to visit.  My favourite hotel is a gorgeous little designer boutique place close to the historic area around the Hofbräuhaus.  It is called Hotel Cortiina and is just loooooovely (click for link).  It runs in at about €250 a night, so is not exactly cheap... if you want somewhere stylish, cheaper, and a little further out but in a beautiful quiet street, try Motel One (Deutsches Museum).  It's around €85 for a double room, has an über-trendy bar and is still a design hotel despite the name.

My top meal recommendations are Sunday brunch at the Park Café (a former SS hangout and now mega trendy contemporary beer hall and jazz venue close to the Hauptbahnhof - the type of place the girls from Sex and the City would come to)... and a high end pizza restaurant called Riva Tal.  The staff are just erm... well very decorative... and the food is literally better than any pizza I've ever had in Italy.  If you really want to eat hearty Bavarian crap, there's plenty of it, and I guess I should recommend Weisswurst (apparently delicious white veal sausage, eaten only ever before 12 noon) - but as a veggie I'm just not going to. So suck it up.

In terms of sightseeing, the thing about Munich is it's quite small: 1.4 million inhabitants is not a lot and there aren't hundreds of big "sights" to see as in Paris or London.  I love it precisely because the centre is so walkable.   I can just stroll about, eat, drink, soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the place. I do enjoy the Residenz (the former Royal Bavarian Winter Palace in the centre of town), the Olympic Park is well worth a visit out to on the U-Bahn, and while you're there most definitely go to BMW World.  It is free and even if you're not into cars, the architecture will blow you mind.  It apparently cost half a billion Euro to build and they have old and new BMW cars and motorbikes to play about with.

BMW World with Olympic Tower/ Park behind

Make sure you also visit the Viktualienmarkt (the main food and flower market) and Dallmayr, a grocery store that is smaller, but I think a lot classier than the Harrod's Food Hall.  Maximilianstrasse has the best shopping in town, along with the department store Oberpollinger which can give Harvey Nicks, a run for its money, dahling.  Check out the Veuve Cliquot bar there.  A totally zany recommendation is Wiesn Tracht which is run by a mad old Bavarian queen, his cohort of gorgeous girls, and sells Lederhosen and Dirndls.  They will serve you champagne free of charge if you hang round long enough admiring the checked shirts.  I go here *every* time I'm in Munich and buy something :)

The *actual* staff of Wiesn Tracht

Rounding Up

Okay, so I hope I've given you a litte taste of Munich?  I've done a lot of travel. I adore it. I've been to a total of 63 countries around the world on 5 continents on my own travels.  I've taken my groups of Americans to 178 towns & cities in 18 countries across Europe (yup, I keep an OCD style list).

I'm often asked what my favourite place is.  It's really hard to answer: doesn't it depend what for?  Of course I have places I love for nature, for beauty, for excitement, for relaxation...  But of cities where I would chose to spend a weekend or even a week - or where I would consider having an apartment - three stand out for me: Amsterdam, Zurich and Munich.  Of these three (I've lived in the first two) Munich is my all-time favourite.

If you haven't been, Oscar says you don't know what you're missing out on.  Even *he* has been to Munich with me.

@LassieOscar on tour in Bavaria