Twenty reasons to visit Munich

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This was published 11 years ago

Twenty reasons to visit Munich

By David Whitley
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1 Englischer Garten

A contender for the title of the world's greatest urban green space, Munich's primary natural lung is way bigger than Central Park in New York. The name comes from its British designer, Sir Benjamin Thompson, and it feels like the sort of place where royals should be wandering around on horseback, shooting deer. Walking, cycling and riding trails are part of the mix, as are the riverside stretches of pebbly "beach". There's also an impressive Chinese-style tower with a giant beer garden next to it. But the real quirk is that nude sunbathing is permitted in some parts of the park.

2 Christkindlmarkt

The River Isar.

The River Isar.Credit: Getty Images

You can find Christmas markets all over Europe but Munich's Christkindlmarkt is one of the biggest and most atmospheric. From the end of November to Christmas Eve, the stalls sprawl from Marienplatz to a number of surrounding streets. It's as much about the live music, people in costume, wandering Santas and cutely dressed mangers as it is the shopping. Throw in a giant Christmas tree lit up by 2500 candles and any humbuggery doesn't stand a chance of lasting more than a few seconds.

3 Oompah band rafting

An equally odd water-borne experience is log rafting and this is one that just about anyone can take part in. The rafts make their way downstream from Wolfratshausen near the source of the Isar. They meander down towards Munich with a group of beer-swilling tourists and a traditional Bavarian oompah band on board. It's all class, obviously. isarflossfahrten.biz.

Deutsches Museum.

Deutsches Museum.Credit: Getty Images

4 River surfing

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At the south-eastern tip of the Englischer Garten, a fast-flowing channel branching from the Isar River creates a series of rapids and one constant wave. Even in winter you'll find wetsuit-clad surfers tackling the Eisbach wave and they're even campaigning to have river surfing made an Olympic sport. You'll have to bring your own board if you want a go — and it's for experienced danger-baiters only — but it's a tremendous oddity to watch.

5 The Residenz

Nymphenburg Palace.

Nymphenburg Palace.Credit: Getty Images

The official home of Bavaria's kings, dukes and electors for hundreds of years sits supreme in the city centre. Just about every room offers bedazzlement but there are two clear highlights. The Antiquarium is the largest Renaissance hall north of the Alps, with hundreds of classical statues set to an extraordinary symphony of frescoes that take up every smidgen of wall and ceiling space. The Ancestral Gallery is a long corridor of Wittelsbach family portraits but it's the blizzard of gilding across the walls and ceiling that make it an in-your-face rococo masterpiece.

www.residenz-muenchen.de.

6 Hitler walking tours

Neuschwanstein Castle.

Neuschwanstein Castle.Credit: Getty Images

It might seem thoroughly macabre but Munich Walk Tours offers the chance to get to know the sites linked to the rise of the Nazi party in Munich. It features both the obvious — Nazi headquarters and the route of the failed Beer Hall Putsch — and the personal — the spots Hitler painted as a struggling artist and the studio where he met Eva Braun. The tour is rich in context and attempts to explain how one of the darkest periods in human history came to be. Take the five-hour monster version if you can — it's gripping throughout and includes more of the smaller detail that shows why it happened in Munich rather than elsewhere.

munichwalktours.de.

7 Dachau

Munich was where national socialism took off and nearby Dachau was turned into the first Nazi concentration camp. Most of the camp was destroyed following World War II but a walk through the museum built on the site remains an utterly chilling experience. More than 40,000 people died here. The photographs of those detained are agonisingly sobering, while the execution yards and torture bunkers still hold a chilling power.

kz-gedenkstaette-dachau.de.

8 Alois Dallmayr

This daddy of all delis has loyal customers from all over the continent — it ranks up there with Fortnum & Mason in London. For the casually peckish, there are venison goulashes, exquisite salads and daintily presented cakes to tuck into but just an amble through the shop should make you very hungry indeed. The fine-dining restaurant upstairs is widely regarded as the best in Munich. dallmayr.com.

9 Deutsches Museum

Every big city seems to have its own interactive science museum but the young interlopers elsewhere have nothing on this behemoth. The Deutsches Museum is a giant geek paradise of miniature gas refineries, offshore oil platform dioramas, refractor telescopes and electricity-generating bikes. It has a fusty 1980s school science TV program feel in places but since it sprawls for 47,000 square metres, this is forgivable. It's great for a rainy week, let alone a rainy day — going through and pressing every button would probably take an eternity.

deutsches-museum.de.

10 Alte Pinakothek

Unquestionably one of Europe's great art museums, the Alte Pinakothek is jammed full of the big names. Rembrandt, Leonardo, Raphael, Titian and El Greco all feature but the huge Rubens collection is the highlight. His Last Judgment is more than six metres tall and is one of the largest paintings ever committed to canvas — the museum was designed around it. It's next to his Lion Hunt, a masterpiece of action scene painting. pinakothek.de.

11 Modern art

The Alte Pinakothek concentrates on the classics but the nearby Pinakothek der Moderne concentrates on more recent work. Francis Bacon, Magritte, Klee and Picasso are out in strength. Next to it is the Museum Brandhorst, an artwork in itself. It's covered in thousands of coloured ceramic rods, making it look as though someone has shaken a giant tub of hundreds and thousands over the building. The Andy Warhol and Cy Twombly collections inside are the stars.

museum-brandhorst.de.

12 Oktoberfest

For all the city's cultural attractions, the first thing that tends to spring to mind when someone says "Munich" is people sitting in tents, drinking beer. Held from late September to early October every year, the event theoretically commemorates the marriage of Prince Ludwig in 1810 but it's really a great excuse to sit at wooden tables and pour giant glasses of beer down your neck. The festival is held at the Theresienwiese fairgrounds and bands and rides attempt to distract you from developing an almighty beer gut. oktoberfest.de.

13 Beer halls

While the volume of beer consumed during Oktoberfest is phenomenal, it would be a mistake to think Munich is dry for the rest of the year. The city's beer halls all have slight differences but long, communal benches and hearty, pig-focused cuisine are the norm. The Hofbrauhaus is the most famous — and touristy — of the beer halls. It's spectacular and has the live oompah bands but local favourites such as the Paulaner Brauhaus feel more laid-back and authentic.

www.hofbraeuhaus.de, paulanerbraeuhaus.com.

14 Weisswurst

In Bavaria, beer goes with weisswurst. These special white sausages are made with veal, seasoning, miscellaneous offal and, quite possibly, unicorn hooves. It's probably best not to question what's inside this often dubious local delicacy — just dunk it in the mustard, chomp away and wash it down. The Donisl beer hall and its takeaway counter make much tastier weisswurst than most. bayerischer-donisl.de.

15 Clamber all over the Olympic stadium

The stadium built for the 1972 Olympics still stands up as a genuinely striking piece of architecture. The roof — made out of acrylic glass to resemble the Bavarian Alps — is the star, though. It's possible to get up on top of it, safely secured in a similar way to the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb. If the roof climb seems a bit tame, it's possible to up the stakes a bit by flying 200 metres across the stadium on a flying fox or abseiling down from the top. olympiapark.de.

16 Bond with the Beemers

Next to Olympiapark is BMW's global headquarters and car fans can get their fix in three forms. The architecturally striking BMW Welt is a chance to look at the cars and explore the technology they use, while the BMW Museum goes into the firm's history. Perhaps most exciting are the tours of the factory, where visitors can see the Beemers in various stages of undress before they're ready for the road.

bmw-welt.com.

17 Schloss Nymphenburg

It's the summer palace that's the most famous, however. The rooms inside Schloss Nymphenburg seem relatively toned down when compared with those at the Residenz, although the Great Hall is, nonetheless, quite the showpiece. What really makes Schloss Nymphenburg awe-inspiring are the gardens surrounding it, the canal running up to it and beyond and the sheer domineering sprawl of the land afforded to it. Everything is designed to make the average house look pitifully, whimperingly insignificant.

www.schloss-nymphenburg.de.

18 Maximilianstrasse

Christkindlmarkt is amateur hour in comparison with Maximilianstrasse. Unquestionably one of the world's truly prestigious shopping strips, it's probably quicker to list the top-rank designer labels that aren't there. But among the glimmering price tags of Dior, Gucci, Chanel and Jimmy Choo are excellent private art galleries — duck down the alleys, into the courtyards and upstairs to find them between raids on your credit card.

19 Jugendstil architecture

Jugendstil, the German slant on the art nouveau movement, was born in Munich and the Schwabing district has plenty of fine examples of jugendstil architecture. The side streets off Leopoldstrasse between the Munchner Freiheit and Giselastrasse tube stations are a happy hunting ground. Villa Stuck is a museum devoted to the movement.

www.villastuck.de.

20 Neuschwanstein Castle

The most popular day trip option from Munich is to the archetypal fairytale castle that allegedly inspired Walt Disney. Built at the behest of "Mad" King Ludwig II, it's instantly recognisable from the outside. The interiors were only ever partly finished but the rooms that were completed are absurdly indulgent. Neuschwanstein is the interior-design equivalent of Wagnerian opera at its most overblown. muenchen.de.

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