Whirlwind tour of Munich

Munich deserves more time than we had to spend there.  For those of you who have been, you’ll know that we were able to see quite a bit, but perhaps not experience it to the fullest.  Our guide Monika helped us make the most of it as well as the great public transportation -- we rode on the subway, bus, and streetcar during our day.

Glockenspiel

We started in Marienplatz, the main public square in Munich.  The square is dominated by the New Town Hall (built between 1867 and 1908), an imposing neo-Gothic building that is an entire side of the square.  The clock tower contains a glockenspiel that chimes the hour.  At certain hours, there are figurines that move as part of the chiming of the hour.  The four parts of the chiming are the wedding procession, the joust, the coopers’ dance, and the rooster crowing.  We were able to see this with many hundreds of our closest friends crowding the square at 11:00am.

We walked through the Viktualienmarkt, Munich’s open air market and beer garden.  The market was filled with over a hundred vendors with incredibly fresh produce, meat, and flowers.  This market occurs every day but Sunday -- how nice it would be to have this at home.

Opera House

We strolled by numerous churches -- all Catholic -- saw the Opera House, and the Residenz.  The Residenz was formally a palace of the royal Wittelsbach family, who ruled Bavaria for centuries before becoming part of a unified Germany.  The Residenz is now a museum, but we didn’t have time to tour.

No stop to Munich would be complete without a visit to the Hofbrau Haus, the largest beer garden in Munich.  Complete with traditional band playing oompah music, people flock here for food and Hofbrau beer.  Hofbrau is one of seven breweries in Munich (the others are Augustinerbrau, Munchner Bier, Hacker-Pschorr Brau, Lowenbrau, Paulanerbrau, and Spatenbrau).  We didn’t eat at the Hofbrau Haus, instead we went to Augustiner Beer Hall.  So far on this trip, I’ve tried beer from three of the seven Munich breweries.  I won't make it to all seven, but it's been fun sampling.