Deutschland

Hello, my loyal readers. It's been a while since we last talked; or at least since I talked at you and you all decided not to leave any comments or questions about my journeys (hint hint). I still have to update everyone about the last leg of spring break, which was a few days in Barcelona at the end of February. Since then I spent a weekend in Metz getting my life back in order, and I spent last weekend enjoying the beer capital of the world: Munich! Since that trip is fresh on my mind, the post about Barcelona will just have to wait until some other time.

The trip to Munich, like many other train journeys I've been on while in Europe, was relaxing and stress-free. It took about six hours to get from Metz to Munich taking both local and high speed rail on the way. When we first checked into our hostel, we realized that it was attached to a restaurant/bar called Sinan's! Of course I got a picture with it. At this point it was around 11pm, and we had to sample some of the local beer.

We walked through the snow about 20 minutes to the city center and saw a place called Schneider & Son that looked promising. It was a traditional beer hall/brewery, and we had no idea what to do when we walked in there. We sat down at a table and soon enough a LARGE German woman wearing a traditional dress came over and asked what we wanted. Of course we had no idea, so we just said "Zwei bier, bitte" (2 beers please). She gave us their Weissbier, which is what the place was known for. This beer--my first taste of beer in Munich--was by far one of the greatest beers I've ever had, and I usually don't even like Hefeweizens! Soon enough we made friends with the guys at the table next to us, who were friendly locals and gave us some great advice on things to see during our stay in Munich.

Schneider Weisse. Look at that color!

Soon after, we all made friends with a VERY old, very traditional Bavarian man who was obviously drunk. This guy was decked out in the lederhosen, tall socks, suspenders, and the tophat. I think he realized that we spoke only a little bit of German, but that didn't stop him from talking to us--almost nonstop--for the better part of an hour. The local guys were translating a little bit here and there until he got mad and told them to stop, but from what I remember, I think he was giving us words of wisdom about how to live our lives, combined with some political banter. I asked to get a picture with him, and according to the other guys, he told me "No, pictures are shit. It's what is in your memory that really matters." I thought about what he said, and looking back on it, I'm glad that I never took a picture with him. He is someone that I'll remember for a long time and it is probably best that a picture doesn't tamper or change my perception of him. Because of him, I ended up not taking many pictures in Munich. But I do have a lot of great memories!

The next morning, we did a free walking tour of the city. Not only did we see a lot of the historic buildings and landmarks, but we also got to learn so much more than we would have if we had just aimlessly walked around all day. We spent a lot of time talking about Hitler and the Nazi party, which was basically created in Munich. We saw the building where Hitler and his colleagues met and decided to form their movement, and we walked through the streets where thousands of Jews were dragged from their homes and sent to concentration camps on a night in 1938 called Krystallnacht.
Marienplatz: The very center of Munich.



Since Munich was the base of the Nazi party during World War II, it was almost completely destroyed in the war. But the people of Munich knew what was coming, and before the bombings started, they went to each and every historic building in town and took pictures of all of the architectural features. After the war, they decided to rebuild the city back to its original historic charm instead of creating a modern looking city. Because of this, it almost feels like you're going back in time in some parts of the city. The architecture, although mostly a replica of the original, is really beautiful and well done.

An example of a building rebuilt after the war--Old city hall.

Just outside of the Hofbrauhaus.

The towers of the Frauenkirche were used as position markers by the Allied bombers during the war, so they were almost the only things not damaged in WWII.


Some other things that we did: Friday evening we decided to take part in Starkbierzeit, which is a two week long beer festival that's focused on the STRONG beers (at least 8% alcohol). We went to the Paulaner brewery and enjoyed it mostly for the beer, and also for the people watching. Starkbierzeit is mostly a local festival that tourists don't take part in, so I think we kind of stood out in the beer hall full of Bavarians, but it was a great experience. The outfits were great, the live traditional brass band was great, and the beer was STRONG.

Paulaner am Nockerberg for Starkbierzeit. It's hard to tell how huge and crowded this place was from pictures.


Saturday we were all over the place--we started out going over to the BMW headquarters and a showroom/attraction called BMW Welt. For a car person like myself, it was like heaven. My favorite part was the lineup of engines, each one attached to a small computer screen with sound clips of the motor and videos of the cars that used each respective motor. Also the architecture of the building itself was very unique. After that we checked out the Olympic Park, which was built for the 1972 summer Olympics in Munich. Then it was on to Allianz Arena, the home of Bayern Munich, and back into town to catch the soccer game at a bar with some locals. Bayern Munich won, but it was a pretty close game. After watching the game and making some new German friends, it was back to Metz on Saturday night. What a great city.

BMW Headquarters

Olympic Park

Allianz Arena a couple hours before a Bayern Munich football game.

The first semi-urban industrial scale wind turbine I've ever seen. This thing was ENORMOUS--it dwarfs the hill that it sits on, which is probably about 200 ft tall. It was pretty close to the soccer stadium.

Things in Munich:

Easy Palace Hostel - About a 20 minute walk from downtown, close to the train station and a metro station. We paid 12 euros a night and it was pretty clean and the staff was friendly. No free breakfast though.

Bars/Breweries

G Schneider & Sohn - The home of the greatest Hefeweizen in the world. It's a lively atmosphere and the first beer we had in Munich. Definitely recommend it.

Hofbrauhaus - This is probably painful for all you Pittsburghers, but this place was AWFUL! We never actually got a beer here even though we tried twice. It was packed full of tourists and not worth the time and effort.

Augustiner - Just across the street from the Hofbrauhaus. This is the place to go--amazing pretzels and great beer. A lot more laid-back than the Hofbrauhaus. It's more of a restaurant than beer hall.

Paulaner am Nockherberg - The place we went for Starkbierzeit. This place is absolutely enormous, packed full of locals sitting at long tables with traditional German music. This is the place to go in Munich.

Leave me some comments! It'll give me inspiration to update this thing more often.