Short weekend getaway to Munich

My hubby teaches in Munich once in a while. Although I really like Munich, I have not joined him very often because the city is not cheap and one does not necessarily have to spend the additional money earned on a Saturday, on a hotel room for an additional night.

Two weekends ago, however, I decided to tag along because we felt that we both needed to be away. Away from Stuttgart. Away from work. Away from walking around in our apartment and taking mental notes of what still has to be done.

This is not my first trip to Munich. I think it could well be my 3rd.

I know that I tend to rave about Munich but really, I think I'm pretty happy just visiting the city whenever we want to, because I'm quite settled in Stuttgart. I've got my friends, my church and I know how to get the things I need around here.

Job-wise, I could easily relocate to Munich because there are 4 branches of my school there. However, hubby's job is not based anywhere close to Munich, so Stuttgart is still going to be my home base.

Yeah, the hustle and bustle, the massive throngs of people flooding the streets and the big city feel is something that I still miss and pine for (sometimes).

Perhaps the initial awe of the city has worn off, but I have begun to notice some not so pleasant traits of the "Müncheners" - as they call them here. Politeness is certainly not their forte and this has been confirmed by both personal experience and by the opinions of other Germans about their Bayerish fellow countrymen.

The number of good-looking, slim women with mega long and gorgeous legs, who knowingly flaunted them in their hot pants was astounding! I suppose part of the reason could be attributed to the warm weather after a week of gloomy and cold temperatures.

Munich could easily be the New York of Germany. Fashion. Food. Culture. Nature. New York was the one place in the U.S. that I remembered thinking to myself, "Wow, the girls are pretty hot here". hah.

Still, Munich is very beautiful and we took advantage of the gorgeous weather to snap away....

Love self-taken portrait shots!

Some gorgeous summer flowers 

 

Beautiful building along the main shopping street

Some artist painting his own impression of the city centre in Munich

All the expensive boutiques lining the street

Oh man, one should see all the cars that drive down the expensive shopping streets. It is indeed a show-off place

In front of the historical City Hall with the musical Glockenspiel

Different sights in Munich

Cocktails...holiday is a time when both of us can drink cocktails together. Usually the driver would have to forego his share of this indulgence

A trip to Munich won't be complete without a visit to the Beer Garden... Met up with my fellow Singaporean and her German hubby. That's why Munich does feel like a home away from home cos I have friends there. :)

Munich part 4 - English Garden

I Munich part 4
Left: That´s surfers doing their thing in the Eisbach (Ice lake) as it is a river that comes straight from the Alps. Watching them, I felt inspired to learn how to surf myself. :)

One of the best parts of Munich must be the English Garden. It´s the 7th largest Metropolitan park in the world and is even larger than Central Park In N.Y. Once the private hunting grounds of the king and training grounds for the Bavarian army, it was dedicated to the citizens of Munich in 1789 in a response to the French Revolution - to keep the people happy and hopefully decrease the likelihood of revolt. The entire garden spans 5.5 km long and 1 km wide - about 370 hectares (1,000 acres) and has 4 beer gardens!

Typical Bayerish food- pretzels and spare ribs at the beer garden. The tower is called "Chinese tower" because it looks like a pagoda. Live German folk music is played from this tower, which creates a very relaxed, casual atmosphere. I simply enjoy being at the beer garden - the sun is shining, the air is fresh and there´s so many people enjoying time and life together....
Lovey dovey picture in the garden

This is where the river runs through the entire park. People laze around the grass, read a book, play games and nudity is allowed too. We were warned in advance so that nobody falls off the bike from shock. Except for one naked guy, whom we saw from the back, we didn´t see any other public display of the human anatomy.

One of the many statues that adorned the sides of the river.

(Left: The gold figure on the top of the tower is the Friedensengel - the Peace Angel)

Bottom: We got to know some Americans - a father travelling with his two teenage sons, around the same age as my brothers. We went out for drinks with them and boy, they were downing 1-litre mugs of beer!

I find it really heartwarming that although the Dad is not physically with his sons all the time, they still make the effort to meet up and spend some time together.

Top: Notice that funny-looking utensil? That´s a "spork"- fork + spoon. How cool is that? One of the guys brought it and since I´d never seen any of those, I´m immortalising it in my blog!

A very interesting "person" I met along the streets of Munich.

Munich part 3 - Mike Bike Tours

I Munich part 3.
We read about "Mike Tours" in one of the brochures from our hotel and decided to explore the city by bike, since Munich is one of the most bike-friendly cities in Germany.
Bottom: That´s the Theatinerkirche (a church) commissioned by Ferdinand Maria for the birth of his son, Max II Emanuel.

That was such a great idea because we managed to go for a 4-hr guided tour with stops at many attractions to take photos, had a great guide who was a native English speaker from Ireland and find out more about the history of Munich.

Speaking of history, here´s 2 questions for you:-

1) How did the famous October festival start?
2) How did the culture of beer drinking in Bayern start?
Shall post the answers in the next entry.

They advertised themselves as the "No. 1 Thing to do in Munich" at tripadvisor.com. However, I wouldn´t 100% agree with that. We were told a lot about the history but honestly, I can´t remember much of it. Plus the group was fairly big, about 20 people so its difficult to hear what the guide was saying sometimes. Nevertheless, I think I know more about Munich now than the average person.

That´s us on our bike in front of the Königsplatz (King´s place) and Maximilian statue- the first King of Bavaria. He has one of the richest streets in Germany named after him.

That´s the main entrance of the Nymphenburg Palace. Its visited by an average of 300,000 tourists annually and was a gift from Prince Ferdinand Maria to his wife in 1664, upon the birth of their son, Max Emmanuel. King Ludwig II (the one who built the Cinderella Castle, Neuschwanstein), was also born in this place and the entire 200 hectare gardens were modelled after those of Versailles - information courtesy of Mike Bike tour pamphlet.

Snapshots of the castle grounds from the inside
My baby looks grumpy here, but he says its because of the glaring sun...I suspect its because of my fussy-ness whenever I take photos...poor guy has to re-take photos a million times until I´m satisfied....

Myself in front of the National Theatre, built under the order of King Maximilian, the great-grandfather of King Ludwig II.

That´s the interior of the Residence of the Wittelsbach family, built between 1570 and 1850. Its unique because many of the exterior "structures"of the building were actually painted instead of being constructed.

In front of the Feldherrenhalle (Odeonsplatz), the site where the Beer Hall Putsch led by Adolf Hitler happened. He rallied people to follow him in the midst of high inflation and unemployment rates.

That´s the statue under the huge arch. The guy holding the flag represents Germany and the lady on the left represents Bayern. Her body is turned away from him subtly, which represents the typical behaviour of the people from Bayern to the rest of Germany. Bayerish people think of themselves as being independent from Germany as they are very proud of their own heritage, dialect and culture.

Munich part 2 - Meet up with the Gerstbergers

I Munich part 2.

We met up with Shirlene and her hubby Nils in Munich. Shirlene, a fellow Singaporean, moved to Munich a year ago with her hubby, who is also originally from Stuttgart.

They have such a superb cosy apartment in a fantastic neighbourhood only 15mins to the main city centre on foot. Its such a home-away-from-home when one visits a city where one knows somebody who lives there.

That´s why we would like to visit more places where we know people who live there. Give us some time k? So far, I have friends in London, France, Italy, Norway and Spain. I guess if we´re staying here for good, we´d have the rest of our lives to visit these places!

With the Gerstbergers

We had our first dinner at this Bayerish restaurant, Augustine, recommended by Nils. It served local specialities like sausage-overdose and pork tenderloins with potatoes. Yummy! Actually what most people think is "typical German food" really is "typical food from Bayern"

Reasons why I love Munich.... I think that´s the Parliament house...

The front of the shopping area

Some of random sights in Munich. Top left is the roof of the famous "Hofbräuhaus" which interior looks like that of the world-famous October festival. Maximilian street is one of the richest streets in Europe, with all the branded stores lining both sides of the street.

Munich part 1 - Holiday Inn Hotel

Ok, I know that my blog has been collecting dust. I´m working on resuscitating it!

I Munich part 1.We came back from Munich late Monday and have been trying to balance work, catch up with our household chores, unpacking etc.

As for now, Stephan is back in Munich again (to teach) and will only be home tomorrow at 8pm. We´ve got to re-think this whole teaching in Munich thing because unless I go with him, our weekend is basically ruined since Munich is afterall a good 2.5hrs away one direction.

Well, in short Munich is such a dream city! Everybody has been telling me that Munich is a snobbish city - very superficial where people only care about outward appearances. I didn´t realize that though - perhaps Singapore is not much different, being a shopping paradise itself.

On the contrary, I actually felt very much at home in Munich.

Its huge - 1.2 million inhabitants, bigger than Stuttgart´s 600,000 but still smaller than Singapore´s 4.5 million.

The thing I liked about Munich is its urban, cosmopolitan flair. I told hubby that our visit to Munich has changed my mindset about Germany. Munich is the first big German city that I´ve visited and before that my impression of Germany was only from Stuttgart. Hence I always had a narrow mentality that Germany consisted of small, boring cities.

However, Munich is awesome! I can´t wait to visit other big German cities now, like Berlin, Hamburg etc.There are a lot of tourists so one doesn´t feel like a foreigner, the old city eludes this charm that transcends time - the city is more than 800 years old and was even an Olympic city a while ago, plus English is heard very often along the streets (which makes me feel even more at home there).

Our room on the 11th floor. Very comfy with a great view. We paid 170€ for 2 nights for a 4* hotel. Sounds pricey but its actually reasonable for Munich´s standards.
 

Great view of the city from our hotel room

First time seeing a mini bar like this where things are not allowed to be taken out and replaced later, since there is a sensor that automatically charges it to your account. How smart!

Notice that every item has a sensored surface? Is this German technology or is it actually like that in most hotels nowadays?

The superb breakfast area. We had "free" breakfast because we booked our room with no-refund for cancellation. And boy, tripadvisor advised us correctly! The breakfast here is superb! Way better than what you would expect from a 4* hotel - it´s easily a 5* breakfast. That was definitely a highlight of our day.

Our typical breakfast selection. There was a whole range of fruits, yoghurt, juices as well.

Our first breakfast together in Munich - ahh the comforts of having breakfast ready for you! I´m actually a breakfast person even though I´d prefer to sleep in anytime. Sometimes we´d have breakfast during lunchtime! haha.

A preview of the photos to come. That´s the old city hall.
 

That´s the "Glockenspiel" which plays music and the figurines dance at certain times of the day

I still have lots of photos to sort out. So look out for more blog entries on Munich!