Two Days in Munich
The Noonans like to begin with a walking tour in each new city we visit. The tours help to orient us in a new place. They give us a crash course in that city’s history, architecture, culture, economy, etc. They even help us finalize our itineraries, as we have often returned to visit specific places we learned about from our guides.
On our trip, we have had some outstanding walking tours, like the ones with Eunice in Singapore and Miu in Tokyo. We’ve had some comical tours; Paylin in Chaing Mai and Franc from “Father of the Bride” in Santiago immediately come to mind. And, unfortunately, we have had some less-than-stellar walking tours.
The Munich walking tour happened to be one of them.
Our guide was a soft-spoken Italian woman, trying her best to wrangle 30+ people through crowded spaces. She did not have a microphone nor did we have earpieces, so we were lucky if we could get close enough to her to hear every other word she said, in English, about German places, with an Italian accent. It also happened to be an unpredictably cold day, with gray skies, scattered raindrops, and temperatures hovering around 45 degrees.
We met at Marienplatz, where we saw Fischbrunnen and the famous glockenspiel on town hall. We visited the Church of Our Lady and heard about the devil’s deal with the architect. We followed along with the group for 90 minutes — the halfway point — and then decided to bail. We were cold, we were struggling to stay engaged, and we were hungry.
We walked to Hofbräuhaus, easily one of the most famous in bräuhauses in Munich, that famously does not take lunch reservations. As we weaved our way through the massive space looking for a table with all the other hopefuls, we enjoyed its gorgeous architecture, beautiful murals, and live music. Shockingly, there were no seats to be had.
Later, I read that “the atmosphere at Hofbräuhaus is one of a kind but the beer served there is average and the food is sub-par. Plus, its legendary reputation means that tourists far outnumber the locals.” Perhaps it was for the best that we just had a look without sitting, because when we went just across the street to Augustiner am Platzl, we were invited to sit at a large table in a cozy room, where we enjoyed a delicious meal with beers as big as our faces.
While our first day in Munich was a bit of a bust, our second day was delightful and unstructured. The sun was shining as we wandered around the Residenz, through the Hofgarten and then the park, into the Biergarten at Haufbräukeller.
I would have liked to learn more about München during our two days here. So ist das Leben! But now I suppose I have a reason to return…