Three Days in Munich

The view over Munich's Marienplatz from Peterskirche tower.  The twin towers of the Frauenkirche can be seen on the left and the Neues Rathaus is on the right-hand side of the photo.

My latest weekend trip took me to Munich, Germany (München).  München, which is located in one of the southern states of Germany known as Bavaria, is a little further from Groningen than my other recent weekend trips.  It takes about 8.5 to 9 hours to get there by train, but the scenery on the way, which alternates between farmland, rolling hills, and woodlands, is absolutely lovely.

I spent most of Friday and Tuesday traveling to and from München, with 3 full days in between to explore the city with my husband, my sister, and my sister's boyfriend.  Three days was enough for just a brief overview of what München has to offer, and I plan to return to see some of the places that I was unable to explore on my first visit.

My little group started our first day in München with a self-guided walking tour of the main sights within the Altstadt area. We started out at the Marienplatz, exploring the main square surrounded by many of München's most famous sights.  In front of the Neues Rathaus (City Hall), we were able to enjoy a performance of the city hall's glockenspiel, which appears to depict a festival and the triumph of a Bavarian knight over an enemy.  Here's a short video that I took during the glockenspiel performance (pardon the shakiness and blurring - this is what happens when I attempt to record video with a low resolution camera):

After taking in the glockenspiel performance, we visited the Frauenkirche, Peterskirche, and Heiliggeist Kirche. We climbed the tower of the Peterskirche for a spectacular aerial view of München. It was a crowded climb up the narrow steps to the top of the tower, but it was worth it.

Frauenkirche and its twin towers,
one of which was covered for renovation.

Interior of Frauenkirche.

After lunch, we took a break at the Hofbräuhaus, where we found Polka music, locals dressed in traditional Bavarian clothing, and giant 1 Liter mugs of beer. We also strolled around the Viktualienmarkt - an open air market and a great place to pick up food for a picnic lunch.

The dining hall upstairs at the Hofbräuhaus has displays about the history of this famous beer hall.

Starkbier (strong beer) from the Hofbräuhaus.  Our visit to München conincided with the annual starkbier festival, so we sampled some of the strong beers from the various beer halls and biergartens.

Later, we had an excellent vegan dinner at Max Pett, which is an all-vegetarian restaurant located within walking distance from the Marienplatz. My husband and I actually ate dinner at Max Pett on 3 of our evenings in München because the food was so good, and my sister and her boyfriend joined us on our 3rd visit after hearing about how impressed we were with the restaurant. Dinners at Max Pett included vegetarian versions of Bavarian schnitzel and kaiserschmarrn, as well as gulasch and chocolate mousse. Speaking of food, I also found excellent vegan lunch options at Royal Kebabhaus (vegan döner), Tushita Teehaus (vegan savory and sweet pastries), and Café Ignaz (buffet with vegan selections and several vegan pies).

Photos of Max Pett's yummy gulasch, chocolate mousse, and kaiserschmarrn:

We concluded our first day in München with a trip to the Augustiner-Keller biergarten, located northwest of the main train station.  It was a bit of a hike on foot, and I'd probably take one of München's numerous trams if I were to do it over.  Augustiner Keller was huge, crowded, and a little bit rowdier than the other places we visited in München during our trip, but it was a lot of fun.  There was a live band playing in the back of the beer hall, but we opted to sit out front and enjoy a slightly more peaceful scene with Augustiner's strong beer known as "Maximator."

Augustiner-Keller biergarten at night.

We spent our second day in München visiting the Alte Pinakothek and the Neue Pinakothek in the morning, and the Englischer garden and its biergartens in the afternoon. 

The Alte Pinakothek is an art museum housing a collection of European paintings dating from the 14th to 18th centuries, while the Neue Pinakothek houses paintings and a few sculptures from the 19th century.

Alte Pinakothek

We visited the art museums on a Sunday, when both of the museums offer discounted admission, so we were able to view their impressive collections for only a few euros!

Neue Pinakothek

After getting our fill of art history, we headed to the Englischer Garten, a massive city park that is home to 4 biergartens and lots of open spaces, trees, and sunbathing people.

The Englischer Garten

Monopteros at the Englischer Garten

Chinesischer Turm biergarten in the Englischer Garten

The view from the Seehaus biergarten in the Englischer Garten, and a glass of radler (a refreshing mixture of beer and lemonade).

 Osterwaldgarten (above) and Spaten Bräu's strong beer, known as "Optimator" (below).

On our third day in München, we visited more of the beautiful churches and other sights around the Altstadt, and then spent the remainder of the day at Schloss Nymphenburg (Nymphenburg Palace and grounds).

Theatinerkirche (above) and interior (below)

Asam Kirche (above) and interior (below)

Cafe Luitpold

Sendlinger Tor

Vegan Döner at Royal Kebabhaus. The vegan döner is absolutely amazing,
and this restaurant is definitely worth a visit for lunch. 
It's just outside of the Hauptbahnhof (train station).

Nymphenburg Palace and grounds:

Above: the resident swans with Nymphenburg Palace in the background.

 Below: the great hall at Nymphenburg Palace and a painting on the hall ceiling.

 Below: more photos from our stroll around the Nymphenburg Palace grounds.

As you can see, the Nymphenburg Palace is stunning, and we could have spent all day wandering the expansive grounds.  With our tight schedule, we spent about 3 hours there, which was enough to cover the interior of the main palace building and about one quarter of the palace grounds.  It was a very relaxing way to end our trip to München.