Not the Oktoberfest
Trip Start
Jul 01, 2007
1
22
29
Trip End
Nov 25, 2007
Munich,
Germany
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
We are staying at the Creatif Hotel Elephant, which bills itself as an 'art hotel', which in this case means painting the walls a bit more colourfully and charging extra - I'm being a bit too hard on it as it is quite a pleasant place to stay, although a bit expensive for what it provides.
We catch the tram to the outskirts of the city to see Schloss Nymphenburg (castle), the summer residence of the Wittelsbach family, rulers of Bavaria for many hundreds of years (until 1918). The castle has room after room of magnificent baroque decoration and is set in a beautiful parkland, which also houses smaller castles in the grounds.
Nymphenburg castle
We catch the tram back into the centre and visit the Munich Residence, the complex of buildings from which the Wittelsbachs ruled. The Residenz is also magnificent - a wonderland of rooms of different colours, decorating styles, etc and there is also a Treasury, displaying crowns, statues, religious objects, and domestic utensils in gold, silver, precious and non-precious stones, etc. Much of it is heavy and over-ornate but there are pieces of real beauty. It's almost too much for the senses to take in.In the evening we meet a lady who decides she's going to be our tour guide and takes us around to some of her favourite places and places of historical interest - we go to the plaza where Hitler gave his first speeches in the early 1920's, the Hofbrauhaus, the oldest restaurant in Munich, "Hundskugel" (Dogs Balls), founded in the early 1400's, etc. After, we eat dinner at an excellent vegan restaurant.
The next morning we take the tram to the Olympic Village, where the tragic 1972 Olympic Games were held (11 Israeli athletes and a German policeman were killed by the Black September terrorist group). The architecture of the Olympic Village has stood the test of time remarkably well and it would not feel out of place to hold them there now. Alice has been dying to go for a swim for quite a while so she does umpteen laps and looks quite the professional with her bathers, swimming cap and goggles, while I wear my very skimpy new bathers I bought in Trieste (I should have got a size larger as they are like a second skin and barely cover the vitals) and do 2 or 3 laps
Gardens at Nymphenburg
.After this badly needed excercise (Alice is still accusing me of making her drunk and fat) we go off to the so-called English Park, for a bit of a walkathon, and also to see if we can find some naked men (according to the guide book they sun themselves in some secluded pavilion). The park is vast (according to one of the attendants it's the largest urban park in the world) and neither of us has the courage to ask an attendant 'where do the naked men hang out' so we decide to just go for a long stroll. No sooner have we entered the park, however, than our first naked man appears, insouciantly sunning himself on the grass. We look around - there are naked men everywhere - sitting, standing up, strolling around, sleeping, most of them with bicycles. All this in a public park only a km or 2 from the city centre in broad daylight. So we push on and walk several kms around the park, which is a mixture of open parkland and forest, and a few buildings such as a Chinese pagoda and a Romanesque rotunda. There is a crowded beer garden near the Chinese pavilion and I decide to join the happy throng.
This is Alice's last day before returning to Melbourne, and she has saved it up to go shopping on the last afternoon, so off she goes and we will meet up again in the evening for dinner.
I order a half litre of weissbier, a plate of fried potato, sausage and small pieces of pork, some bread and lightly pickled cabbage, and settle in to eat and people-watch
Interior Nymphenburg
.I can tell you this with no fear of contradiction - Munich people love their wurst and beer - there are happy red-faced men and women everywhere of all ages and sizes busily tucking in. One little old lady looks to be in her late 80's and she's probably less than 1.5 metres tall. I see her order a litre of beer and retire to a seat by herself, then she opens a lunchbox she has brought along and eats her lunch. Compared to her the litre of beer looks enormous but she seems to have the strength to lift it easily and she drinks with gusto.
I have eaten too much and my stomach is groaning so I go and lie down near the river and have about an hour's sleep. I have taken my shirt off (how's that for sitting on the fence) and am surrounded by both dressed and naked men (and one woman), families, lovers, etc. It's sunny and peaceful and there are hundreds of people enjoying the park. I wonder how they get time off work, as unlike me (at present) I expect the locals have to make a living.
After this little reverie I wander back into town, and with every best intention go to the outdoor market to have a freshly squeezed fruit juice. However I see all these happy red-faced people sitting in the beer garden near the market with jugs of beer, so I rationalise the situation (when in Munich do as the Munichites do, or is it Munchkins - what is the right word?) and have another half pint, followed by a fruit juice, then I see happy hour at an outdoor bar for Sekt (German sparkling wine) so make an excuse to have that too (this is my last day in Germany and it's half price), followed by one more juice to make me feel virtuous
Ceiling Nymphenburg
.I also have some final shopping to do - I have decided to buy some German underpants and socks (I have become the Imelda Marcos of underpants and socks and have about 30 pairs of each, some brought from Australia, but others bought in various countries while travelling) and a cardigan, plus I have to buy my train ticket to Bolzano in Italy, go back to the hotel and have a shower and get changed, etc then I get lost trying to take a shortcut and have to run 2kms to meet Alice at the clocktower in town at the appointed time for the 'last supper', which we have at the vegan restaurant again (my body can't cope with any more sausage and schweinflesch).
The time in Munich has been short but it's been really enjoyable. Munich is a nice size and the people seem to be jolly and really enjoy themselves - our waiter at the vegan restaurant is from South Africa and has been living in Munich for several years and says it's the best city in Europe, and says some people call it the northernmost Italian city.
So, next morning the time has come to part after 6 weeks of train travel, swimming and sunbathing, truffle eating, wedding, cave exploring, etc. We get to the station and Alice sees her train and jumps on and we barely have time to say goodbye.
I go back to the hotel and sleep a bit more, get up and shower, have breakfast and catch my train across the Alps to Bolzano.
