Munich

After the Romantic Road, we were ready to immerse ourselves in the big city action of Munich and Berlin. Dresden was chosen as a half-way stop between Munich and Berlin and it also came highly recommended by a friend studying in Germany.

Here are the highlights of Munich:


Walking tour
I like to join a walking tour to get myself oriented in a big city. It is informative and best of all, the important sites and buildings get pointed out to you and so it saves you the trouble of poring through maps and guidebooks trying to figure things out. We joined the Sandemann's walking tour, which I have used in London and Edinburgh before. They work on a tips-only basis so the walking tour is basically free and you tip them only if you think they've done well at the end of the walk. Some of the important sights in Munich:

The Glockenspiel at Marienplatz with a tiny performance at 11am everyday. This is also the starting point of our walking tour.

The musical "performance" lasts for about 10-15 minutes.

More of Marienplatz, the heart of Munich.

Viktualienmarkt, an open food market and square. There is no table service at the cafes here so you basically buy your food/drinks and take it to the common tables outside for consumption. The cafe we bought from took a deposit from us for our coffee cups - to "force" people to return the cups I suppose. We weren't sure if this treatment was accorded to tourists only or everyone.

The white asparagus was in season! I still prefer the crunchier green ones :)

The Hofbrauhaus, a beer hall in the centre of Munich, which is not shown in the picture below (it was actually behind me as I took this pic). Our guide shared interesting stories about this beer hall, for e.g. there is a vomitorium (a sink specially for vomitting into) in the male toilet but not the female toilet.

The Residenz Royal Palace.

Theatiner Kirche. Our guide said the people of Munich hate this building because of its colour and showed us how the yellow was inconsistent in shades on different parts of the building. I thought overall the building looked quite majestic but it did stick out like a sore thumb.

Our guide Virginia.

Champions league finals 2012
Munich was very crowded when we were visiting due to the UEFA Champions League finals which took place on 19 May 2012. The final match was between Chelsea and home team Bayern Munich. So it was no wonder that on the day of the match, Munich was alive with a buzz that excited even non-fans such as me! We hung out at a pub near our hotel to catch the match on TV. Alas, home team Bayern lost!

The sea of red at Marienplatz

They looked like they were about to kiss next!

More reds

The blues...

Awesome German cuisine
It wasn't until the end of the trip that I was able to conclude that Munich has the best food that Germany has to offer, both in terms of quality and atmosphere. Our hotel receptionist Florian recommended us to 3 restaurants / beer garden - Altes Hackerhaus, Augustiner and the 3rd I can't remember but it wasn't as good as the other two and pricier.

Altes win hands down for food and value - in fact, we went back a 2nd time just to have desserts and beer.  Augustiner is a beer hall which made for a fun and rowdy experience!

From top left, clockwise: SY and I enjoying our beer, sausage galore, obatzda (a Bavarian cheese dish), best beer Augustiner, white fat sausages + pretzel, pork knuckle, cream puff with whipped cream and strawberries, the cosy Alte Hackerhaus which we visited twice, cheese strudel with custard cream, white asparagus salad.