Germany 2022- Munich

We spent two nights in Munich. We stayed at the B&B Hotel Munchen-Hbf which is about 1.5 km walk from the train station and less than 2 km from the old city so we walked everywhere. The rooms are basic but clean and the breakfast is a buffet of all the things you expect from a German breakfast: Buns, cheese, sliced meats, jam, cereal and yogurt. They seemed very busy when we were there. One woman was trying to keep everything filled up and they were running out of everything, but it was a Sunday when everything else was closed so maybe it was extra busy. We went for a walk the first night and discovered St Peter’s church right at the end of the street.

We also stumbled across what will be Oktoberfest 10 days from now. They were busy setting-up. We scheduled this trip to avoid being in Munich for Octoberfest. We were there 20 years ago and what I recall most is people peeing everywhere. Somehow the organizers missed the idea that if x people drink y beers each, you need z toilets and the number of toilets available was much less than z.

The streets were not too busy until we arrived in the Altstadt (old city). Once there we found tourists everywhere.

Even though it was almost completely rebuilt after WW II the old city is very scenic with lovely old buildings everywhere and some beautiful churches. Most churches are open to the public, so you can take a peek inside.

We stopped at a Vodafone store (a local mobile phone company) to try and buy a SIM card they told us they were sold out? We tried again on Sunday, but almost nothing is open on Sundays in Germany. It was like that 20 years ago, but we were surprised to see that it has not changed. We gathered with the crowds in Marienplatz to see watch the famous Rathaus-Glockenspiel knight show which you can see at 11, 12 and 5.

We went into most of the bigger churches, and we just wandered and enjoyed.

On Sunday we had signed up for the Munich Run for Life. It’s a causal 5.5k and 10k run through the English Garden. There was no timing provided but we got T-shirts and snacks including coffee and cake before the run! They also had fee condoms at check in just in case.

Germans are much more open about sex. The local sex store had various electric devices on display in the windows and we found a park sign which has what I suppose is the international symbol for no sex.

We were given wrist bands, but we were also told we had to wear our shirts for the run. This turned out to be a good idea. The course was well marked but we ran along a mixed-use path which was not closed so there were other people out for a walk or cycle. In general, once they saw hordes of people coming their way in white shirts they moved to the side and cheered us on. It was fun and a great way to tour the English Gardens.

We walked from the old city to the start and along the way we discovered Munich’s favourite surfing spot, the Eisbachwelle, It’s a year round standing wave on the edge of the English Garden between the Haus der Kunst (house of art) and the Bavarian National Museum. There was a line of people in wetsuits taking turns surfing the wave. Some of them were pretty good.

After the run our plan was to go back to the hotel and change, but when we arrived on Ludwig Strasse we found a big street party. There were bands, beer gardens, food stalls and booths.

It was more of a local party than a tourist thing. Lots of families and booths about local companies and political parties. We even found a booth with free cigarette samples. The German attitude to alcohol is much more relaxed than it is in Canada. People walk around casually drinking beer right out of the bottle. This fest also had several cocktail trucks. They had big bowls of various cocktails which you drank from a large plastic wine glass. The winter equivalent is “gluewine” which you drink from a coffee mug. The fest was probably 2-3 km long.

Germany is very family friendly and there were lots of things for kids to do between the beer and cocktails!

We spent most of the afternoon there. Stopped to look inside two or three more churches and headed back to our hotel.

On our last day in Munich, we had arranged to rent a car to drive to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. We walked through the old city to the car rental agency and discovered the Victuals Market on the edge of the old city. Touristy but still quite nice.

We arrived at the car rental agency only to discover they were closed from noon to one for lunch. Very German and we should have known that! We also managed to get a SIM Card 18 Euros for 6G of data and a phone number good for 5 weeks! I wonder how much it costs to roam to Canada? Maybe I will cancel my Bell plan! We had a pretzel in the market and waited for Budget to open so we could continue on to our next destination.