October: After the Fest
One last night at the Wiesn
The locals call the Oktoberfest d'Wiesn, I guess because it's held at Theresienwiese (the field or meadow of Therese). The original "Oktoberfest" occurred in Munich, on October 12, 1810: For the commemoration of their marriage, Crown Prince Ludwig (later King Ludwig I) and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen (namesake of the Theresienwiese festival grounds) organized a great horse race (the marriage took place on October 12; the horse race on October 17 — therefore, there are different dates named as being the first Oktoberfest). You got to say she did well, nearly 200 years on no one forgets their Wedding Anniversary! Enough of the history but there's a lot more on Wikipedia.
Went back to the doctor eight days after the Hand and Stein incident to have to stitches. All came out fine but my wrist is still buggered and the little finger hurts like hell. Still not going to stop me heading down to the Fest again. Ollie was over from England so Paul and I took him down for some beer and chicken. Fun night, ended up singing along and banging our steins on the table in the Augustiner tent.
11th October - Olympic Park
Another beautiful day in paradise so I decided to head up to Olympic Park to tick-off another one of the sights in my Munich Top Ten book. All I can say is if London 2012 leaves Stratford looking like this then some good will have come of the Olympics. In fact it's quite like the plans I've seen for the East End. A big park loads of open space, an artificial lake, contoured hills and some amazing stadiums and it's all still looking as good as new and used by 1000s of Müncheners everyday. The whole area is over-looked by the Communications Tower which gives a great view over the park, over Munich (where the only high-rise buildings are churches) and to The Alps on a very clear day and the Föhn Wind is blowing which apparently means you can see a lot further than normal. The föhn wind it is said also causes head-aches and is a great excuse for hangovers.
12th October - Freising
Another beautiful day so I decided to hop on the S-Bahn to the ancient town of Freising. It became a religious centre in 764 and it received its City Charter in 996. The Cathedral was built in 1159 and the Catholic Church ruled the City until 1803. I was talking to someone last week and they said that it is still very religious and is the only town in Germany without a sex shop. I suggested that there was a gap in the market. This weekend there was a market which meant the centre was closed to traffic, all the shops were open (on a Sunday!) and there were stalls along the streets. The air was thick with the smell of frying sausages so it would've been rude not to try a few. They're good.
Walked up to the Cathedral which looks pretty ordinary from the outside but inside it is very impressive. The walls, the ceiling even the alter beautifully painted. The alter was painted by Rubens although the original is now in a museum. It's nice but it highlights the hypocritical nature of the Catholic Church. If it wants to do good how about putting its money to work rather than keeping such palaces.
You may be wondering why the picture of the bear. Well they're everywhere in Freising, It's like Cow Parade with bears. All brightly painted and all in the same pose. Marvellous.
19th October - Neuschwanstein Castle
Another great day in paradise so I decided to head down into a Fairy Tale to see the most famous castle in the world. It was used as the template for the Disney Logo and in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, it definitely looks impressive. Neuschwanstein is one of three castles whose construction was started by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, nicknamed 'Mad King Ludwig'. He preferred the arts to politics and was a good friend and huge fan of Wagner's - and there are references throughout Neuschwanstein castle. Neuschwanstein was built for Ludwig as a retreat from public life which is quite ironic as it now gets more tourists than anywhere else in Germany. Ludwig died in suspicious circumstances before it was finished and the 14 rooms that were finished were opened up to the public.
More history etc on Wikipedia.
The castle is 2 hours from Munich by train near Füssen. A short bus journey and there it is up amongst the mountains standing proud surrounded by trees and shear cliffs. It looks great but I'm sure if we could go up to the rocks above it would look even better.
The location is great, the views in all directions are great but the tour around the interior of the castle was a big disappointment. I'm glad I went with a tour meaning we had pre-booked tickets. If I'd waited 3 hours to get in I would not have been happy. Don't get me wrong the interior is impressive but the tours leave every 5 mins and we are rushed through. The walls of all the rooms are covered in painting depicting myths, legends and fairy tales but there is no time to get more than a glimpse of them. Chandeliers, ornate carving amazing mosaic floors. I guess it's another tourist site spoilt by weight of numbers.
But anyway, I have a great day. It's so good to be living so close to the Alps. There is no better place to be on a fresh Autumn day.
1st November - Nymphenburg Schloss
Decided to take a well deserved weekend off work. I worked all last weekend and definitely wasn't going to do two in a row no matter what they're paying me. The weather was good so decided to go for a wander around the Nymphenburg Schloss gardens. More details on Wikipedia. The house and gardens dominate the West side of any map of Munich. Symmetrical design, long canal leading up and through the massive gardens at the back. The palace itself is massive and it's in a Baroque style (whatever that is). The scale really is unbelievable, how could they ever have used half the rooms. The gardens are great too. Canals and fountains, statues and lawns. It has an English country home feel, oak trees and copsey woodland. Like a scene out of Brideshead Revisited.
2nd November - Getting out of Munich with the Bayern Ticket.
The German train system is great, I guess that's not going to come as a surprise to anyone reading this. In Munich we have the U-Bahn (underground), S-Bahn (sub-urban trains) and Deutsche Bahn (proper trains). Everything runs pretty much on time right down to the U-Bahn. At my local stop it's every 10 minutes on the 7, 17, 27, ... More often at peak times. It's cheap too. My monthly ticket for the whole of Rings 1-3 which includes the whole U-Bahn system only costs €50.40. €10.00 for the whole S-Bahn and U-Bahn all day.
But the best value is a €21.00 Bayern Ticket. This gives you use of all public transport in the whole of Bavaria for the whole day. Even better value €27.00 for a partner ticket, up to 5 people travelling together for the full day. Considering this is an area bigger than the South East and the Midlands put together it really is great.
Today the plan was to do a loop around the area north of Munich. The weather in Munich was great so I headed out with my cameras for a day of chocolate box towns and great views over the Danube. But 20 minutes out we hit fog which didn't lift all day as you can see from the photos. First stop was Inglostadt, The Home of Audi. But I was there to see the Old Town. Cobbled streets, The typical Bavarian houses, brightly painted, gable ends facing forwards and windows right up to the top. It didn't disappoint but I wouldn't go on a Sunday again. The whole place was dead. Walking back to the station I crossed the bridge over the Danube. As you can see in the picture above it's wide. Surprisingly wide considering how much further it has to go before it reaches the sea.
Next Neuburg an der Donau (picture on the right). The Altstadt is smaller than Ingostadt but even more picturesque. It's on a hill in the bend of the Danuabe not that I could see it. After a quick wander around I decided to call it a day on the sight-seeing. Time for lunch at a place where my guide book says the Traditional Bavarian Fare is heavier than the solid wood furnishings!
Country vegetable soup with a bacon dumpling to start. Then a gorgeously unhealthy main course. You won't find this on a Jamie Oliver school lunch list. A pork knuckle and a quarter of roasted duck both with the fat left on, nice and crunchy. Served with a potato dumpling and a large ball of sage and onion stuffing. I washed this down with a half litre of Helles. No wonder the German are all big boned ;-)
Earlier this week the sky was clear and the wind was of the right type and in the right direction. Until now I've not seen the Alps from Munich, but today I went up to the top floor and there they were. Where did they come from, I'm sure they weren't there the day before. Amazing to think that they had been in hiding all this time.
15th, 16th November - A touristy weekend in Munich
A friend over from England and lazy, touristy wander around town. Down through Koningsplatz, the former home of the Nazi Party in Munich, the scene of huge rallies. From there on to Odeonsplatz for a quick look at The Residenz. Through Maiensplatz to Alter Peter (St Peter's Church). The sun was out so we climbed the tower for a view over Munich. Despite the sun being out it was a bit hazy and the Alps nowhere to be seen. But we did get a great view of the iconic view of Munich, the Frauenkirche, with its onion domed towers it really stands out in the low rise city. The climb up the Alter Peter tower is via a single narrow staircase, very stop go allowing people going in the other direction to pass. The builders obviously didn't envisage 1000s of tourists climbing to the top each day.
From there on to the Viktualienmarkt, a sort of Borough Market but more spacious, less crowded and much more laid back. Lunchtime, time for a huge hunk of pork in a bread roll. Get a beer from the open-air bar and lunch is sorted. It's so civilised, buy food from which ever type from which ever place you want, pick up a beer and sit down at the rows of bench tables. My kinda lunch.
The other highlight of the weekend was a trip up to BMW World. A massive complex comprising of BMW Welt which is a giant BMW showroom. A huge futuristic building containing every type of BMW currently in production. There's also a working factory where you can do a tour but unfortunately only on weekday. We wanted to see the BMW museum and I am glad we did. Another great building with walkways going this way and that. It takes you through BMW from a 1919 aircraft manufacturer through motorbikes and cars. The engineering, its place in history, racing cars to concept cars. A real multimedia experience wrapped around 100s of historic cars and bikes. Below left a room showing 6 generations of the top of the range BMW luxury cars. Below right the BMW Isetta which they claim to be an iconic consumer car of the 50s and 60s. They sold 160,000 of those! Many people's first car. Its basically an enclosed motorbike powered by a one-cylinder, four-stroke, 247cc engine . The whole front of the car is the door to which the steering wheel is attached. To me a piece of engineering far outshining the Formula 1 cars and superbikes.
22nd, 23rd, 24th November - Zurich
Had to be down in Zurich on Monday so decided to come down early for a look around. Woke up Saturday morning with an inch or so of snow covering Munich. The first of many such mornings to come I expect. But this morning I got to see it from the air. Southern Bavaria looked great covered in snow, pity The Alps were covered in cloud.
We were told to expect turbulence over the Alps and they weren't joking, I think we caught the top of a mountain at one stage. The landing in Zurich reminded me of Die Hard 2! Some snow on the ground and a lot in the air, no sign of any terrorists though.
Zurich is quite small, has some nice old cobbled streets, lots of trams, has a big lake and is very expensive that's about all you need to know. Saturday had a nice to walk around looking in the windows of the expensive, more expensive and most expensive shops. I limited my actual shopping to a pretzel and gluhwein from some Christmas Market huts on one of the main streets. It snowed on and off all day but unfortunately none of it settled, I think Zurich would've looked great under an inch of snow. In the evening decided to checkout the Zeughauskellar Restaurant. Serves traditional Swiss food in the old Armoury building. Dining surrounded by weapons from medieval pikes to a 20mm gun from 1953. I had the mixed sausages with rosti potato and onion. This place is supposed to specialise in sausages but as with the places in Munich they were OK but give me a selection of gourmet sausages from back home anytime. The rosti was very good though. Tried the local light and dark beers, pretty much like Munich beers.
Sunday, 2 inches of snow on my windowsill and a clear blue sky. Wandered around a closed Zurich. I'm really missing Sunday opening. After lunch I took a trip on the lake. Some serious money here. Can't even begin to to think how much a big house right on the lake with private mooring would cost. Clear blue skies equals cold, on a boat on a lake equals very cold. Thought my fingers were going to fall off whilst taking photos. Zurich is at the north end of the lake where a couple of rivers flow in and hills rise either side. To the south lie The Alps. Got a great view from the boat, I love the sight of snow covered mountains.
Later on a couple of hours watching Sunderland West Ham. A one dimensional Sunderland (knock it long to the big man) repelled by Upson and Collins. Reminded me how bad bars are when they allow smoking. Watching the game though a haze and my clothes stinking for the rest of the evening.
December: Christmas Markets
December and Munich becomes Christmas Town. Every square and open space becomes a Christmas market and this being Munich every market means alcohol and food in abundance. Glühwein is the order of the day, the whole town has an aroma of hot spiced wine. There's standard Glühwein, Feuerzangenbowle with rum and extra sugar added, cherry punch, heisse caipi (a hot caipirinha) and much more. The stalls sell Christmas decorations, arts and crafts, pictures, cards and obviously the Lebkuchen Hearts, the gingerbread hearts with mottos written on then in icing. Every event they seem to produce them and there always seems to be hundreds of people walking around wearing them around their necks.
Glühwein is the order of the day, the whole town has an aroma of hot spiced wine. There's standard Glühwein, Feuerzangenbowle with rum and extra sugar added, cherry punch, heisse caipi (a hot caipirinha) and much more. The stalls sell Christmas decorations, arts and crafts, pictures, cards and obviously the Lebkuchen Hearts (left), the gingerbread hearts with mottos written on then in icing. Every event they seem to produce them and there always seems to be hundreds of people walking around wearing them around their necks.
Mum and Dad to visit in December and had a great time in this great city. Of course I had to take them to the Hofbräuhaus.
