A day in Munich

A day in Munich

Hello, hello! Today it is Germany's turn, specifically the city of Munich. I visited this city when I went back to Salzburg. Salzburg airport is not very good and thus, there are not many connections, so I flew towards Munich and then took a train for three hours towards Salzburg. To go back to Spain, a train from Salzburg to Munich. As Munich airport is really near to the city centre, I couldn't miss out on the opportunity to discover a new city. Also, I don't know Germany very well, I have only been to Hamburg and Dresden, so it is one city more to add to the list.

Even though I only spent a day here, it was genuinely the first time that I had visited a city on my own. It has its advantages and disadvantages but I believe that I would like to do a long trip on my own one day. Obviously, it is a lot easier to plan, you decide your own pace, and all the time that you have there you can dedicate just to yourself. It is different. Visiting on its own also has its bittersweet moments. I will never forget how strange it was for me to eat in a restaurant at the side of Marienplatz on my own. At that moment I could only share my thoughts with myself, which isn't anything bad, but it definitely was weird. And on top, that day I had to sleep in the airport because my flight left at 6 in the morning, if I don't remember wrongly. To sleep, I laid down on one of the sofas that was in a cafe, closed during these night-time hours, and I slept whilst holding onto all of my suitcases, just in case. I slept and at the same time I didn't sleep, because I kept waking up at every moment. These moments of tiredness are when you need a travel partner.

And of course, I will make the most of saying that Munich airport was considered one of the best airports in the world, ranked number 8. The truth is that it is quite big and there are lots of facilities, cafes, restaurants, shops. The train connections are also really good and they even have showers and a sleeping area. They are a kind of cabin where you pay and you have access to a bed. They are really good if you want to spend a night in the airport, honestly. It is perfect for those times where you only have to spend like 6 hours there and therefore, it isn't worth reserving a hotel room as between going to the hotel leaving your things, sleeping, you wake up, get ready and return to the airport, at the end you have slept for a maximum of three hours so it doesn't work out financially. In this case, these cabins for sleeping in are really useful. I didn't use them because when I got there they were already all full, so I had to sleep on a sofa which was behind the table of the restaurant. Experiences.

And my star-studded recommendation of today, which is applicable to trips in general, is the website Sleeping in Airports. It is really useful. I always give it a look before going to an airport. It has really useful information about each airport. It organises all the airports by continents and by alphabetical order and it tells you everything that you need to know about each airport: services, if there is free wifi or not, places to charge your phone, cash machines, hotels, if the airport has options for sleeping in it, expectations, opinions of other travellers and so much information about the transport options which connect the airport with the city. It is really useful and I would have been in love to have discovered this before.

Now going onto the actual subject, as I haven't stopped talking, Munich is not a very big city, I had a day to see to and it was sufficient to see all the main attractions. Obviously you cant get a feel for it, you don't know what the day to day life is like and it is more difficult to capture its essence, but hey, it's better than nothing. Later I am going to quickly tell you everything that I saw and what I liked the most:

1. Marienplatz.

The best thing about Munich is Marienplatz, I'm telling you now. It is the most famous square in the whole city. It is full of people, there is so much atmosphere and it is beautiful. The town hall is what makes it so characteristic, which really reminds me of the Vienna Rathaus or the one in Brussels, since all of them have a similar structure and the decoration is very similar, in a gothic style.

2. Glockenspiel.

Just here, it is interesting to see the tower bells, which in German are ‘glockenspiel’. For me it is a small theatre, like a puppet show, full of figures who move to the rhythm of the movement. These really funny figures represent a wedding and also a dance which was celebrated when the plague epidemic ended. In fact, this square is where the tower bells received the name of MarienPlatz, because the virgin Mary, who they had to thank because the plague had finally ended. In fact, in the middle of the square, in front of the town hall, there is a gold statue which represents her.

3. The old town hall.

Near to here is the old Town Hall of Munich. It is a very different building to the New Town Hall. For me, it has an original shape, and is white, which looks like a church at first glance. As I told you, its architecture and design stand out and contrast with the rest of the buildings in MarienPlatz and in part, this is what makes this square so special. We could say that this building has a bit of a sad and dark past as it was just here when during the Nazi regime, Hitler and Goebbels decided to attack the Jewish population by taking all of its belongings, including the synagogues. This attack is known as the Night of Broken Glass as all of the glass from the shop windows were completely destroyed on the ground. Like this, lots of buildings in the city of Munich have a dark past, such as the Odeonsplatz square. where everyone had to do the Nazi salute to go through, or also Karlstor, the "portal" that Hitler crossed for the first time when he was named chancellor of Germany. My Austrian friend told me that they have tours where they explain all of the traces of Nazi Germany in this city.

4. Peterskirche.

You will get the best view of the town hall from Peterskirche, St Peter's Church. With my student card, it didn't cost me much to enter, just 1. 50 euros if I remember rightly. The route to the highest tour was quite enjoyable, despite there being a lot of stairs. When you get right to the top, you can contemplate the soul of the city of Munich from the top. You have the town hall in front of you, and from here you can take the best photos. To sum up, it is the most typical and representational thing of Munich so I think that you have to go up it no matter what.

5. The English Garden.

The English Garden or Englischer Garten. As its name implies, it is a garden, a park with features in the style of an English garden. It is not just a garden to relax in, sunbathe, have a picnic, run under the shade of the trees; for me it was the authentic representation of a lot of concepts that I had learnt in university about the English garden. When I read The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe, the gardens that were in the scenery of the book were in this style. It has nothing to do with the French garden, where everything is well trimmed and pruned, hedges make geometric shapes, arabesques. The avenues in the French garden are very wide, where floats can pass through (think of Versaille for example). There is nature, but the key is that you don't give in to it. On the other hand, the English garden, despite that it is worked on, however it is artificial and wants to provoke emotions for whoever is looking at it. The English garden should make you feel something. However, this garden in Munich doesn't follow any rules, nor do the trees form perfect geometrical shapes, it is a far more wild style. It is a garden with a really big terrain that gives the feeling of size and freedom. When walking through here, two buildings caught my attention. The first was a Greek temple which is located at the highest point, like on a hill so you can see it perfectly. And in second place, there was a Japanese tea house that really caught my attention.

6. Surfing.

Inside the English garden, you can go surfing. How? Surfing? Yes, exactly this. The river Eisbach passes through the garden, which has quite a strong current; and as well as being able to go for a dip in the calmer areas, there are two places where quite big waves are formed. It is really interesting to see because they are lots of surfers dressed in wetsuits queuing up to throw themselves into the river and catch some waves. It isn't very wide so there is only space for one at a time. The key is to throw yourself in and hold out for as long as you can. I stayed for a decent amount of time watching how they were doing, and most people lasted for about 5 seconds on top of the board before falling. It is perfect because then you don't have to wait for too long. When someone stays for more than 10 seconds on the waves, going from one side to the other, everyone claps. It is a young and cool atmosphere and it makes you want to grab a board and have a go yourself.

7. Viktualienmarkt.

Walking through the famous Viktualienmarkt. Very near to Marienplatz, you can go through this market which mainly offers agricultural products. All the stalls are covered with striped awnings, giving it a certain uniformity. In addition to fruit, vegetables, legumes, meats, mushrooms, you can also buy bunches of flowers, honey, olives, pre-cooked food or a pretzel, if you fancy one.

8. A stroll.

Basically, walking through the streets of Munich without a fixed route is a good idea. There are lots of buildings that despite not being emblematic, have their own charm.

And that is the post for today! As a way of conclusion, Munich is a chilled city where you can spend a nice day. I hope that you have liked my recommendations and the photos, which I took from my photo and thus I have to say sorry for the quality. but this was all I had at the time. Finally, I returned to Munich train station, put my suitcase in the luggage holder and went to the airport to get my return flight. A bit of a different day before going home.

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