When you ask me to remember Munich - or, as the Germans spell it, München - several years down the road, two images will pop into my mind: a one-liter glass of beer and a BMW. Normally the association of those two things would be considered pernicious, not to mention illegal, but ironically, those seem to be the two greatest points of pride for the residents of that city. And rightly so! Munich is home to both a BMW automotive assembly plant and the Hofbräuhaus - the largest beer hall in the world. Those were two of my favorite parts of our three nights in Munich, but I suppose I'll start over chronologically and tell you more about them in due course.
Our first morning we decided to head to the former Nazi concentration camp, now museum and memorial site, at Dachau. It was only a fifteen-minute ride away on the S Bahn, and on the train, we met a traveler from New Zealand named Bevan. He was quite a friendly guy, also heading to Dachau, and traveling alone, so Hannah and I let him tag along with us when we visited the concentration camp. As we walked around, he told us a lot about New Zealand and what it was like to live there, and I think he convinced Hannah and I that we want to visit that country too! Hopefully we get the chance to some day.
It was really incredible to walk through the concentration camp, imagining it as it was during WWII. Apparently Dachau was the only camp to exist for all twelve years of the Nazi regime, and it was also considered the be a "model" camp on which others were based; so, as you can imagine, the conditions there were dreadful. We got to walk through the partially reconstructed barracks, the jailhouse, even the crematoriums and a gas chamber disguised as a shower room. It was all really interesting, but equally sobering to imagine the horrors people faced when they lived - and died - there.
We were at Dachau until almost 3 pm, but with the remainder of the afternoon, we decided to visit the BMW museum that's attached to the assembly plant. Unfortunately touring the assembly plant is so popular that you have to book it at least nine months in advance, which Hannah and I didn't do. I really regret it, but with any luck, I'll be able to come back to Munich some day and finally experience it!
The museum alone was fantastic. It shows how their cars, motorcycles, and aircraft engines have developed over the past 90 years, and displays a lot of really sweet vehicles along the way. Though I wouldn't call myself a "car guy," it was still really cool to visit as a mechanical engineering student. I wish they'd went into more detail on their actual engineering developments, but I suppose I'd probably need to tour the assembly plant for that sort of thing. So, to reiterate in the words of a destructive, macho robot from the future: I'll be back!
Hannah makes a nice car model, doesn't she?
After that, we went to the world famous Hofbräuhaus for dinner. The pronunciation of that word is still a subject of debate between Hannah and me. She thinks it's "hoff-bruh-house," I think it's "hoff-brow-house," and our tour guide from the second day pronounces it "hoff-broi-house." Regardless of how you pronounce it, there's no debating the fact that it serves HUGE beers. When I originally heard it was the largest beer hall in the world, I took that to mean that it was the largest hall that served beer. After visiting it, however, I think it means it's the hall that serves the largest beers in the world. We're talking one-liter glasses large enough for your shih tzu to drown in. As daunting as that sounded to two alcohol novices, we each ordered one of those ginormous beers. I finished mine, and Hannah gave hers a noble effort! Actually, who am I kidding, there's nothing noble about a one-liter glass of beer! To add to the picture, the hall itself has live music in the form of a brass band that plays the sort of thing you picture drunken Germans swaying and waving their beers to. Though the food itself wasn't anything spectacular, it was definitely a memorable and enjoyable experience!
The next morning we went on another Sandeman tour (the same company from our awesome tour in Berlin). True to the form of the first, this was another humorous and informative tour that took us to a handful of key historic points in Munich. We saw the figurines move in the glockenspiel at Neues Rathaus, heard some interesting back stories about Peterskirche, learned about authentic Bavarian clothing styles, and also visited Residen München, Viktualienmarkt, Hofbräuhaus, the Bavarian Opera House, and a few other places. Best of all, it was free except for our tip to the tour guide! Future Europe travelers, take note: Sandeman's free walking tours are a must! It makes everything a lot more meaningful when you can hear about the significance of everything you see from a resident of the city who speaks your own language.
That afternoon we spent a couple hours in the Englischer Garten, which is just a large, pretty park near the center of the city. Through the center of the garden runs a small river, and where it enters the garden, you can find people literally surfing on the turbulence created by some well-placed barriers under the water! We had a nice time strolling through the rich green scenery, just chatting and enjoying the cloudy, cool weather. Afterward we went back to Viktualienmarkt and had a delicious falafel pita for dinner. Then the clouds finally opened up, so we headed back to the hostel to keep dry and relax for the rest of the evening.
We capped off our stay in Munich the next morning with a trip to Nymphenburg Palace, which was the home to the Royal Family that ruled Germany for about 800 years until the start of the First World War. Though large, it was rather plain from the outside; but inside, it was quite ornate and interesting, so we spent about an hour walking through the rooms. The most interesting was a room that contained thirty-some portraits of different women, all of whom were mistresses to King Ludwig I. The King would go out in the town "collecting beauty," meaning he'd pick a pretty girl and take her back to his palace to "paint her portrait." Yeah. Yuck.
The backyard of the palace is a giant garden, so we spent another hour roaming through it until it was time to head back to catch our train to Salzburg.
And just like that, our week in Germany was over! It went by quite quickly, and I have to say, I don't think I gained as much weight as I thought I would. This is largely due to the fact that the pretzels here were completely underwhelming. Turns out Wetzel's Pretzels is not representative of an authentic German pretzel; the real things are nowhere near as soft, buttery, and salty. I know - tragic. But the beer was great, and all the sausage I had was outstanding, so still a successful seven days from a culinary perspective!
I'm not sure what food Austria is known for, but I'm determined to find that out in the next 48 hours. I'll keep you posted.
... Also, I promise I'm not THAT focused on food here in Europe. Though it seems to be 90% of what I talk about, it's really only about 85% of a country's culture. So I'm only slightly inflating its significance. Right?
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