The last day and a half of this trip, Tuesday evening and all of Wednesday, I was exploring Stuttgart, being a tourist in what used to be my own city. Thursday morning started off with me boarding an ICE train at Stuttgart's main station, bound for Munich, to see the biggest city in Germany that I hadn't visited while living in that country.
I'd been to Munich twice before, but neither trip felt like really experiencing the city. The first time was almost nine years earlier in 2013, when I and a friend in San Antonio visited for Oktoberfest during a multi-city Eurotrip. So all we saw of Munich was the train station, our hotel, the Theresienwiese where Oktoberfest happens, and the U-Bahn subway lines between those places.
The second trip was on October 27, 2018, just over a week after I'd moved to Germany, in which I did this day trip with a large group. In the morning we did a tour of the historic city center on bikes, operated by a company run by a couple of expat Americans. After that most of us got lunch and beer at the historic Hofbräuhaus beer hall, then I walked around bar hopping and souvenir shopping for another two hours or so before getting back into the van which brought us all back to Stuttgart. The weather was extremely cold that day, and my feet actually went numb during the bike riding.
Neither of those two trips really felt like enough. During the two years I lived in Germany, I visited Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin, and Dortmund, feeling like I'd really experienced those cities. I'd wanted to do a similar trip to Munich, but just kept putting it off because it was so close. The weekend after I got back from my long trip to the Ruhr Area, Denmark, and Sweden in September 2020, I was supposed to spend the weekend in Munich with some work friends, but I wound up getting quarantined for two weeks and pretty soon Covid transmission spiked and the second wave of lockdowns started. Munich would have to wait indefinitely from then...
Thursday, May 19, 2022
It should have taken just over two hours for ICE 591 to travel from Stuttgart to Munich. However, it ran into some construction on the tracks and got stuck for awhile, so I stepped out sometime just after noon instead of 11:27 as originally scheduled.
The first thing I noticed in Munich's station was all the signage directed at Ukrainians. This was three months into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and so cities all over Europe were taking in refugees.
There were similar signs in Stuttgart's station as well.
I had to wait for a certain time to check into the hostel where I was staying, Wombat's Hostel. So I did a little bouncing around the city center. First I went to the main public transit hub, the Marienplatz U/S-Bahn station and bought a day pass for the regional transit system. Then I boarded an U-Bahn train--which in Munich is a subway, unlike Stuttgart where it's a light rail--to ride it wherever it would take me. At Odeonsplatz I stepped out.
This is Odeonsplatz, which I saw once before during that aforementioned bike tour in 2018. Up ahead is Feldherrnhalle (Field Marshal's Hall) which displays statues commemorating past Bavarian army victories in the Thirty Years' War, Napoleonic Wars, and Franco-Prussian War. It was also, in 1922, the site of a gun battle between Nazis and Bavarian State Police which ended the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler's failed coup attempt. The building on the right, I remember from my last visit; it's Theatinerkirche (Theatine Church). It was built by Prince-Elector Ferdinand starting 1662 in honor of the birth of his first son and heir to the Bavarian throne, Max Emanuel, who was born after Ferdinand had a slew of daughters. Neither Ferdinand or Max lived to see the church finally get completed.
Now we're back in Marienplatz looking at what's probably Munich's most famous building, the New City Hall (Neues Rathaus). It's not only the city hall; this building's main attraction is the "Glockenspiel" in the tower, even though it's a set of bells and not an actual glockenspiel. Every day at 11am, 12pm, and during the summer 5pm the bells play a long tune while all the figures move around in an intricate choreographed dance. At this point in the trip I didn't see the show; that would have to wait for the next day.
After some more walking around, dragging my rollaround suitcase, peering at various historic buildings, I found my way back to Wombat's Hostel and checked into the place. I think it's part of an Australia-based chain. The place looked really clean and well-run. They had breakfast I didn't need to reserve in advance, unlike the place I stayed at in Stuttgart, and various events happening in the evenings which I'll return to later. Right now I just dropped my luggage off in the locker in my room so I could go back out into Munich.
Before any more city exploration, I had to do some grocery shopping, and I had earlier seen a Lidl just down the street from the hostel. Here I was going to get not only stuff to take back home, but also some fresh fruit to eat during the next couple days.
First I had to get me some of these: Abate Fetel pears! When I lived in Stuttgart, I used to eat one of these every day. In the States I've only seen them very rarely, and even then only in organic stores like Whole Foods.
Among other things, I also got some Jacobs Gold instant coffee, because I wanted to bring back some kind of Jacobs coffee that wasn't the Krönung variety. Also I got a Lidl grocery bag.
After dropping off my groceries back at the hostel, and enjoying one of those pears, I went back out into the city. One place I really wanted to see was the Maximilianeum, the building which houses the Bavarian State Parliament, which thus makes it the Bavarian Landtagshaus. Back when I lived in Germany, I wanted to take a picture of the Landtagshaus of every state in Germany, because these buildings are the German equivalent of the state capitols in the US, which I've also been on a mission to take pictures of. An U-Bahn took me to the Max-Weber-Platz station, from which the Maximilianeum was a short walk.
Here it is, the meeting hall of Bavaria's State Parliament, in the middle of a big park on the east bank of the river Isar. It was built on the orders of Bavarian King Maximilian II in 1857-1874. In its first several decades it was the site of various schools until 1949 when the Bavarian State Parliament moved in. This is the ninth Landtagshaus I've seen, out of 16; the others were Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamburg, Berlin, Brandenburg, and Schleswig-Holstein.
I then walked west on Maximiliansbrücke--that is, Maximilian's Bridge--over the river Isar. Moving further west on Maximilianstraße, I passed this statue of the king whose name graces the Landtagshaus, the bridge, and the street.
Walking further west down the street I spotted something unusual at the entrances to the pedestrian tunnel under an intersection...
This is at the intersection of Maximilianstraße and Karl-Scharnagl-Ring. If you want to cross the streets in any direction, there's this underground space, not uncommon in German cities, with entrances on each corner. But what caught my eye is how at each entrance, there was a non-functional escalator which had vegetation planted on it. That was something I found interesting, because it was even more unusual than all the art exhibitions in the underground space which I ridiculously didn't even think to take a picture of.
Next I had a coffee somewhere as I made my way back to the center of the city. Then I found a place for dinner. One mission I had was to visit beer halls or Biergartens owned by all six big Munich breweries that make the beer for Oktoberfest. On Marienplatz I thought I'd found one, though it really wasn't.
The Donisl restaurant had the Hacker-Pschorr logo prominently displayed next to the restaurant's name. I'm pretty sure it's not the Hacker beer hall, in fact I don't think they even own it. It was an OK restaurant though, even though the service was frustratingly slow. I ordered a half-liter of Hacker-Pschorr Münchner Hell along with a salmon salad. It took them something like half an hour to bring me the salad. By then I'd already finished the beer. I wanted to order another one when the waiter finally brought the food, but he immediately walked off before I could say a word. Whatever...the food and the beer were still good though.
After spending way too much time sitting at the Hacker restaurant, I set off in search of an Augustiner Biergarten. This historic brewery owns several Biergartens all over the city. Six months later I can't remember which one I stopped at; it was probably either Augustiner Stammhaus or Augustiner-Keller. Here I got a full liter Maßkrug.
Of Munich's big six, Augustiner is the only one I haven't seen sold in the States yet, although I have found it in Mexico. I've also got to point this out: the big one-liter glass mug you see here is called a Maßkrug or just Maß--don't forget the ß is pronounced like an S--and not a stein. I've been to too many American Oktoberfests where they get those mixed up. Steins are ceramic and usually have elaborate paintings on them and pointy metal lids. If it's a liter and it's glass, it's a Maß.
Finally I had one more stop to make. In almost every city I visit, I try to make it to an Irish pub. There was one I found on Apple Maps, called Killians, right next to the historic Frauenkirche, but when I got there I discovered that right next to it was Ned Kelly's Australian Bar. Now, there's a kind of establishment I've never been to! So of course I had to step inside this place instead of the Irish pub.
Ned Kelly's went out of its way to look "Australian" with all the pictures and souvenirs all over the walls. It wasn't very authentic, though. The first thing I noticed is that one of the beers on tap was Fosters. Now, I've never been to Australia, but I've been told by people who have that not many Australians actually drink Fosters, and that the most drunk beer there is called Victoria Bitter.
Everyone working behind the bar was Irish. I think this place was owned and operated by the same people who ran the Irish pub next door. Even though it was a long shot, I asked one of the Irish bartenders if they had any Victoria Bitter, and she said they didn't. They used to, she said, but not anymore because no one was drinking it. She also said that there used to be Australians actually working there, but they'd all long since moved on with their lives.
So, I had a Fosters. Maybe it's not what you'd find in a real pub in Australia, but I think it's a pretty good beer. After that I had something I can't get back in the States, Guinness Hop House Lager.
Ned Kelly's also had karaoke going on that night. I walked up there next to the stage and asked to be put in the queue. The song I asked to sing was Bush's "Comedown," partially because anything by Bush is comfortably in my vocal range and I like putting on an accent, and mostly because it was the first thing that popped into my mind.
Back at the bar, waiting for my name to be called, I drank not one but two Irish coffees. Since this place was really just an Irish pub dressed up like something else, they made them right. While sipping these drinks I noticed that most of the people singing karaoke were Italian tourists, singing Italian songs I'd never heard before.
Finally it was my time to sing, and I walked up on the stage and took the microphone. Love and hate, get it wrong, she cut me right back down to size... I think I sounded good, but after everything I drank, who knows.
After this I was really done for the night, so I went back to the hostel to get some sleep and recharge for what was going to be my only full day in this city. Of course I was still a bit intoxicated from everything I drank at Ned Kelly's, with the song I'd sung still echoing through my head.
Why did you, why did you, why did you, why did you...this cloud...this cloud...this cloud...
Stuttgart/Munich Trip:
