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I had been to Germany many times, all on business. And that’s not counting the number of times I connected through Frankfurt. I never seriously considered traveling here as a tourist. The whole German Teutonic thing just didn’t do it for me. As for the food, I am not fond of boiled meat served with mushy potatoes and soggy vegetables. True, I love beer, but I prefer wine. If I had my European druthers, I’d pick Italy over Germany in a heartbeat.
Still, I had heard some great things about Munich and Berlin. I vividly recall sitting in a bar in Bangkok a couple years ago with some friends of mine. We were joined by Alan. I don’t recall his real name, but he was a friend of Richard Gere’s. But that’s not the real Richard Gere either. My friend has a startling resemblance to Mayo from the movie Officer and a Gentleman. Needless to say, he enjoys playing it up in the bars so we dubbed him after the actor. Everybody he meets knows he isn’t the real actor, but many still stare and do a double take.
Anyway, Alan was a friend of Mayo’s. As I said, I don’t recall Alan’s real name, but he was annoying in an ADHD/Rainman kind of way. He also had a cell phone earpiece in one ear the whole time we were talking, so my other friend called him “Secret Agent”, especially when he refused to talk directly about his job, other than to say he had worked on many political campaigns but couldn’t divulge which ones.
I thought he was more of an eccentric clueless goof who couldn’t stay on topic, so I started calling him Alan, after the character in Hangover. Alan didn’t get the reference, and kept correcting me as to his name. But everyone else got it immediately and couldn’t stop laughing. Yes, I can be a bit of an ass sometimes. We were all extra careful not to let him “Roofie” us.
Anyway, we started talking about great tourist destinations in the world. For some reason, Alan could not stop raving about Germany. He became very animated, almost agitated, as he spoke of the glories of Germany.
I was dubious. Since then, several other friends of mine encouraged me to visit, but I resisted until now. I am travelling on a One World around-the-world ticket, and Air Berlin is the One World partner with the best intra-Europe travel options. British Air also has routing, but their add-on fees make them uneconomical. With Air Berlin ticketing, it made sense to spend some time in Germany.
I came to Germany with Alan’s comments in mind, but not much more than that. I did a quick survey on the web, but that’s about it. So I headed for Munich with little in the way of knowledge or expectations.
When I got to the Warsaw airport for departure, security was totally crazy. President Obama was in town. The guard patted me down very thoroughly, in the way that I wish my high school girlfriends had. I felt like he should have at least asked me my name first.
Air Berlin didn’t have a direct flight from Warsaw to Munich; I would connect through Berlin. It was a published, but tight connection, and Obama threatened to mess up my flight. Sure enough, I departed 30 minutes late.
When I arrived in Munich, I ran to my connection and arrived with 8 minutes to spare. Whew. The stupid gate attendant, however, wouldn’t let me in. I could tell she was wavering, but then for some reason she decided to close the gate. Soon, several other Warsaw passengers arrived and none of us were pleased. We could still see the other passengers on the gateway. But Germans are a stubborn people. Don’t forget, they attacked Russia in the winter twice. There was no changing this woman’s mind.
Now stranded at the airport for a couple hours, I went to Burger King where I had the burger meal for $10, including the extra cost for ketchup. Welcome to Germany, the great travel destination. So far, Alan seemed like a big fat liar. One thing for sure, cheap meals were now over for the rest of my trip.
I boarded my new connecting flight to Munich, but they made me check my bag this time. Air Berlin used a narrow propeller plane on this flight, so I guess my roll on wouldn’t have fit in the overhead.
At least the German baggage handling is efficient. I got my luggage on the other side fairly promptly. One thing did drive me a little nuts. This plane closed the gate early as well, but then took another 15 minutes or so for all the passengers to board and be seated on the plane. Grrrr. Why didn’t that lady let me on my original flight?
When I arrived in Munich, I purchased an S-bahn train ticket into central Munich from a kiosk. I thought these tickets needed to be validated before boarding, but the stamping machines at the entrance kept rejecting it. Some other travelers were having the same issues. I knew that some tickets came prevalidated, and hoped that this was one of them so just went through and got on the S1 train. For some reason, I thought I couldn’t take the earlier (and shorter routing) S8 train, so I unintentionally again lengthened my journey a bit more.
Ultimately, I lost almost the entire day to traveling. I didn’t end up at my hotel until close to 6pm, whereas I originally expected to be there by 2:30pm at the latest. A bit aggravating to be sure.
Pension Lindner is a different kind of hotel. Run by a charming lady whom I had corresponded with during the booking process, the pension is very centrally located. It’s only a five minute walk to Marionplatz, the main square of Munich’s Old Town. The pension also serves one of the best hotel breakfasts.
Other than that, however, my single room was extremely small and very basic, with a shared bathroom out in the common hallway. In resembled more a small single room in a hostel in a nondescript building. Since Marion was the only staff and she was often not around, there wasn’t anyone really to help navigate the city as well. At E60 per night (trade fair price), the hotel was a bit overpriced, but the location couldn’t be beat.
I decided to just do some random roaming around the main square Marionplatz for the evening. Munich’s Old Town is filled with pedestrian only zones, and I had fun just rambling about. I ended up venturing farther than I thought, as pretty sights captivated me. With beer gardens and classic buildings everywhere, Munich was starting to grow on me.
For dinner, I picked a traditional Bavarian place with a high TA rating. I ordered the “meatloaf”, but it was more like a chunk of bologna. The meal wasn’t bad. In fact, it was sort of what I expected. As I said, German food doesn’t rank that high on my culinary hit list. Dining outside in a small corner square was quite nice though. It started getting a bit chilly as the night went on, so I didn’t linger at the table after my meal. Still, I felt like I was getting settled into this new city.
After dinner, I roamed around a bit more. Street performers were out in full force, and one particular band was really rocking the crowd with their renditions of pop songs, ranging from Barbie Girl to Michael Jackson’s greatest hits. They encouraged the crowd to participate, and the audience enthusiastically complied, particularly a student group from Spain. I killed a lot of time just watching various street performers.
Many beer gardens and beer clubs were still going strong. Germans really love beer! The most famous one is Hofbrauhaus, so I stopped by there. The place rocked with a riotous atmosphere, as drunken crowds sang along to the Oompa Loopma land. Since a fair number of them were clearly foreigners, knowing the lyrics was not a prerequisite for joining in. It felt a bit touristy, but people were clearly having fun.
Groups of people had taken over the communal tables, and I didn’t see seating area that was good for a solo traveler. I was in the mood for a cocktail rather than beer anyway, so I went across the street to the Hard Rock Café, where I had noticed a folk duo playing.
I sat down and waited for a waiter to come by to take my order, but no one ever came. I hung around listening to the music for about 40 minutes, but then started getting tired so I headed back to the pension. My first day in Germany had started out with a late, down note arrival, but I still considered it a good day.
The next morning I was off to an early start. As I mentioned, the pension’s breakfast was really good. I ate my fill because I wasn’t sure whether I would have time for lunch. I had planned a full day, beginning with a walking tour I had found on line. The walking tour suggested starting at karlsplatz, a big square at the edge of Old Town.
The tour itself wasn’t that great, but it was a really nice day to walk around, and I was able to put name and history to many of the buildings I came across.
The Michael Jackson tribute was a complete surprise, and I'm sure had nothing to do with the statue.
Munich’s version of Central Park is their huge English Gardens. I had heard one dubious rumor about the place. Apparently, people (well, mostly old men) walk around in the buff in many parts of the park. Other rumors suggested they were either exhibitionists or trolling for a homosexual hook up. I had never thought Germans as being hypersexed; I actually thought they were prudes. I don’t know why I had such a conservative view of them, but clearly I was wrong.
The English Garden is actually quite nice. At the entrance, storm drains flow under a bridge and feed small streams that flow through the park. Adventurous surfers need not be frustrated in land-locked Munich. They use these drains to practice. It reminded me of those water parks where you can boogie board. I never expected to encounter surfers blasting around in Munich, but here they were.
I strolled the park enjoying the beautiful day. The park itself is nothing special. Lots of open space, but I didn’t run across any interesting botanical gardens or sculptured greens or anything like that. There were one or two interesting architectural displays, but nothing that really stood out.
What did stand out were the naked guys wandering around. There was an occasional topless woman, but for the most part, the nudists were retired guys who showed no shyness about scratching their privates or “pointing” to other people. It was really funny, but the novelty effect wore off quickly.
I headed back to the main square. I found a Thai Place that was inside a shopping mall, but had outdoor sitting space. I know that doesn’t make much sense, but many of these shopping malls have open air gardens. Now that I think of it, this actually does make a lot of sense and more malls should do the same. I ordered some red curry, ate and rested my tired feet. The curry was nothing special, but it was a welcome change of pace.
Many people believe that Munich’s museums are underrated. The crown jewel among the museums is Alte Pinakothek. I walked over and inquired about tickets. The price seemed OK so I bought one. Only after she made the sale did the staff inform me that about half the museum was closed for renovation. What?? Well, at least they had a free audio guide. I walked around, and the whole thing didn’t take that long. Those fans of Munich museums are dead wrong. At least base on this single experience, Munich has crappy museums.
As the day wound down, I walked by the main train station. I had thought about doing a day trip to Salzburg, Austria at some point, but had received a lot of conflicting info. I also debated whether to do a group tour, and one of the more reputable companies has an office inside this main train station. I went to the tour desk and got info, but then decided to nix it. The group tour seemed too restrictive. I decided just to buy my own train ticket, hoping to pay E19 each way which is the most discounted fare. The kiosks were a bit confusing, so I went to the “Foreigner Help Desk.”
There, I met a helpful a German, surprise! I knew about the Bayern Ticket, which offers unlimited travel on various regional public transport. But this ticket is really set up for groups of people (very economical for groups of 5; so-so for solo travelers), and can’t be used until 9am at the earliest. This meant that the earliest I could depart for Salzburg was about 10am. I wanted to leave an hour or two earlier.
In any case, the helpful staff showed me how by paying E2.60 more, I could catch the 8:55 am regional train. Moreover, I wouldn’t need to buy a return ticket. So for a total of about E29, I was all set for my later trip to Salzburg, with flexibility on my return since the ticket was open ended. Awesome.
Now it was time for dinner. I wasn’t in the mood for Bavarian food, but there are lots of choices within Old Town so I wandered about. One of my culinary rules is “Avoid All You Can Eat Sushi” joints. The quality of the fish is likely to suck. Even if one avoids food poisoning, one will almost surely regret the taste.
Well, I broke this rule. I came across Tokyo that offered all you can eat sushi for E13. It was a small place with less than a dozen seats run by Chinese staff. They had a little conveyer system of small plates going around the seats. I looked at the plates. The raw fish itself didn’t look that great. The color was a bit dull and they had cut the fish willy nilly. However, most of the plates were not raw fish but izakaya type food, like Japanese salad and grilled asparagus and spring rolls. I thought why not?
The food was barely passable. Is it a good thing or bad thing that I ate “all I could eat” anyway? One of my problems with these kinds of places is I will eat until I can’t any more. I take the “all you can eat” promise quite literally, rather than stopping when I should. Thankfully, my stomach felt fine afterwards so no real harm. Still, why do I keep breaking my own culinary rules?
Rain began to fall as the evening passed. The Hard Rock Café didn’t have any music today. In fact, it seems that I had gotten lucky the night before. The waiter said they have live music only 2-3 times per month so I left. Earlier I had found on line a jazz place not too far away, Jazzbar Vogler. Despite the increasing rain, I walked over as I really wanted to listen to live music.
The place was about half full, mostly consisting of Asian tourists. The performer for the night was a piano player who kinda looked like Gerry Garcia. I kept expecting him to breakout into Grateful Dead at any moment, but he stuck to the classics like Cole Porter. The bar’s cocktails weren’t cheap, but they only charge a nominal E2 cover. I had a decent evening of live music and bourbon for about E20.
The rain had stopped by the next morning. I got a late start as I was fatigued. All this walking around was definitely good exercise. Having covered a lot of the Old Town already, I wanted to venture out to the Olympic Park Area. The Munich Olympics were a tragedy given the act of terrorism, but remain historically important. Also the BMW Museum as well as the BMW factory are just next door.
I was unsure exactly what kind of metro ticket I needed since I couldn’t decipher the zone based pricing. The kiosk info was worthless. I was about to buy the expensive ticket, but decided to see if I could find a help desk. I managed to find an agent who spoke English, and she assured me that I only needed the most basic metro day pass. Yay! I saved some money.
I first went to the BMW Factory. The reception area resembles more of a large auto dealership, other than the fact that a motorcycle stunt guy was zooming around indoors.
I checked out some of the cars, and started thinking how much more luxurious the current generation of convertibles are than my almost 20 year old rag top. It was fun checking out the car and motorcycle models. When I went to buy tickets for the factory tour, the only open spots were in the afternoon. I have seen enough automobile plants in my (different) life, so I didn’t want to wait. Instead, I headed directly next door to the BMW Museum.
I think most guys (yes, I am being sexist) will enjoy the BMW Museum. It has a lot of historical information, with many vintage cars and motorcycles on display. I had forgotten that BMW now owns Rolls Royce, but frankly, that part of the museum was kind of boring.
Afterwards, I wandered over to Olympic Park. The park itself is nice but not great. The highlight is the park peak with good views of the city below. Overall, I found Olympic Park a bit disappointing, especially since many of the arenas looked poorly maintained.
Heading back on the metro, I got off a couple stops earlier at University. I don’t know much about the university, but I liked the area as it reminded me of the NYU neighborhood. Students were out enjoying the nice day and they filled the many cafes, bars and restaurants. I had two possible restaurants for lunch in the area, but both were closed for different reasons. Argh. Totally randomly, I found myself in front of a Korean restaurant. I hadn’t had that cuisine in a while, so I ordered the denjang jigae for E6. The food was fine, but felt kind of skimpy as they don’t include any side dishes. In fact, the side dishes are quite expensive compared to the entrees.
I walked around a bit more, and came across a historical café. Konditorei Schneller 1884. The staff was bored and unhelpful, but the cakes looked pretty good so I treated myself to dessert and a cappuccino. I enjoyed sitting outdoors munching on the good cake, except for the pair of students next to me. They spoke in English, oblivious in their private conversation that everyone seated nearby is probably educated enough to understand what they were saying.
The young lady may not even have been a student. She was clearly an American princess, however, who was in Munich spending Daddy’s money while trying to be a movie star. She was currently working on a set as an “extra.” She had a vague resemblance to Reese Weatherspoon. She kept complaining how hard it was to move up from just being an “extra”, and how her boss didn’t pay enough attention to her despite her training and obvious talent. Her Italian, at least based on his accent, friend listened attentively. He was sympathetic, and gave incredibly sage advice like “Oh, that sucks”, “Try to linger longer when they are shooting you”, and my favorite one which made me almost cough up my cake: “You are too beautiful not to be a star soon.”
I gathered from their body posture that there was a romantic link between the two, but while he was very focused on her, she was more focused on complaining. He tried to change the subject a couple times to their evening plans, and she would mutter something and then go back to complaining. I bounced back from being amused to annoyed to amused by their conversation. Who knows, maybe she will end up being a star someday, although Munich never struck me as the place to begin a movie career.
The sun was now beginning to set, cooling the weather. I walked around a bit before heading to Asam Church, which is a tourist site I had not yet seen. I hopped on the metro as I was getting tired (and I had a day metro pass anyway). The church is different than most historic German churches, in that it is more art deco than Gothic. The priest was just wrapping up the 5 pm mass, so I stayed a bit and then took some photos before leaving.
I looked at the map, debating whether to walk or take the metro back to my hotel. I was really tired, but the main square didn’t seem that far away and I would need to walk in the opposite direction to get on the metro. As I trudged toward the square, I noticed a familiar building a few minutes later. Wait a minute, isn’t this the cross street with my hotel? Yep. My hotel was in fact quite close to the church. If someone else had been reading the map, I would ridicule them relentlessly.
I had wanted to get a work out in today, as it had been awhile since anything other than my feet got exercise. I was too tired, however, so chose to watch Youtube instead. I just vegged out for awhile. I might have even dozed briefly.
It was very late when I headed out for dinner. I knew that the jazz joint from the prior night had a limited menu, so walked over there for some food and music. As I left my hotel, however, I noticed some great music coming from the mall across the street. I walked over, and discovered a different live music bar. The place was absolutely packed and the lounge singer was terrific. I couldn’t find an empty seat, however, and it appeared that most of the people there knew each other. I then noticed that almost all of the guests were women. I think I counted three men in a crowd of 60? It didn’t seem like a closed party, but maybe I had crashed a lesbian event or something. I debated staying, but decided to stick to my original plan and headed over to Vogler Jazz.
When I arrived, I ordered the spaghetinni with basil tomato sauce. The good news was that they use really good olive oil. The bad news: the sauce was pretty mediocre, as was the duo performing that evening. I left early and went back to my hotel. I felt tired from all that walking and was leaving for Salzburg in the morning. I fell asleep immediately.
I spent the next entire day in Salzburg and really enjoyed the Austrian town. (See separate blog entry.) It was very late by the time I returned to Munich, but I noticed I had received an email about possible credit card fraud on my account. I called my card company and they cancelled my card after discussion. I wasn’t too concerned so long as it doesn’t happen again since this was my “backup” card for the trip. I went right to bed afterwards.
On my final morning, I enjoyed my breakfast and then immediately headed for the airport to catch my flight to Berlin.
My stay in Munich had gone by like a whirlwind. I liked the city quite a bit. Munich’s combination of traditional Bavarian culture and approachable historic Old Town worked for me, especially because it still maintained the feel of a modern city. I didn’t find the city “fun” per se, contrary to Alan’s praise. For example, the nightlife, at least in the Old Town area, was fairly tame, limited and somewhat tourist oriented. So Alan may have been wrong in some respects, but I still really enjoyed my stay here. I looked forward to exploring more of Germany in Berlin.
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Photos here: https://plus.google.com/photos/116304646499310395693/albums/6029611753864549265?authkey=CP3Qn9yHiaLCuwE
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