What's so great about Munich?

What's so great about Munich?

That was a question I never asked.  I just went, assuming it would be amazing.


After a painless 4-hour train ride, I arrived at the Wombats City Hostel in Munich.  By far the biggest hostel I've been to, I checked in, washed up, and hurried downstairs just before 8 to catch the end of happy hour at the bar (2 euro for 1/2 Litre, 5 euro for 1.5 Litre).  I was sick and tired, so I only had a half litre while talking to fellow hostellers and went to bed ere long.

I woke up bright and early, hoping to buy some badly-needed shoes.  There were two problems with that plan: downtown Munich is expensive for shoes, and stores don't open until 10.  Feeling intelligent, I walked around and hoped that I wouldn't be retracing my steps too much on the 11:00 walking tour.

Kicking off the morning in style

Some palace thing.  

This looks french.  

I found myself at a rather interesting Mercedes Dealership.  More of a design showcase than anything, which was fine with me.

Rote Sau (Red Pig) replica.  I want one so bad.  

SLS Amg F1 Pace Car

The 4-hour OzTour Munich walking tour was awesome - the whole tour was centred around "getting you local."  This meant learning the best places to eat, getting an idea of the history of Munich and Bavaria, and learning what it means to be a Bavarian - they're not the same as Germans.

Half-watching the Glockenspiel at Marienplatz

Walking through the markets eating our sausages and drinking beer

Inside the Hofbrauhaus.  Beer here is 2 Euros more expensive than other beer halls, and served with a healthy dose of tourism.  It caters to what people want to see from Munich, not necessarily what Munich traditionally is.  We walked through.  

The regulars get their own clay mug for private use

Q: Why are there flags waving in the wind in that pattern on the roof?
A: They hide swastikas

Because we were a small group and Ozzie liked us, we went to the Surfer's Wave and English Gardens after the tour, where we drank beers and I ate a giant Pork Knuckle.

City Surfers

Chinesischer Turm (Chinese Tower) Beer Garden in the English Gardens

For whatever reason, I forgot to take pictures of all the people I hung out with this weekend.  I'm disappointed in myself.


Anyway, we got back to the hostel by 7:15, which left enough time to shower and buy cheap beer at the bar.  I talked around for a while, played some pool, and had another one of those "it's a small world after all" experiences.  I was talking to this fellah Terry Sween from Minnesota, and school got brought up.  I mentioned I go to UBC, and he said he knew someone there.  Then came the obligatory name drop, which always results in a "no, sorry," "oh, ok"and a change of topic.  This time, the name was Sam Schwartz.  Turns out Terry has known him for a long long time, and thus commenced a lot of random toasts to Sam as the night went on.

We ended up talking to some Irish guys, Australian girls, and another American.  Next thing we know, we're on a train off to a giant club district.  We caught another happy hour at the first club we went to - 11er.  This place was no fun, so once we had our cheap drinks we went to the biggest place we could find.  Once inside, Terry felt some need to buy Champagne, so he bought some [surprisingly] reasonably priced bottle service.  Our group danced for a few hours, with the drunker ones making hilarious fools of themselves on the conveniently placed platforms.  Apparently shuffling isn't easy in 4" heels, as proved by the Aussies.  Commendable effort though, and no broken ankles.

No clue what this place was called

The Crew

Top-notch Dancing towering over some movemaking

I woke up in the morning and stuffed myself at the all-you-can-eat breakfast, intending to skip lunch.  I ran into the Irish guys while getting my food, and we reminisced about the hilarity that was Saturday night.  Moderately hung over, I got on the train to Dachau for a sombre chunk of day.

"Work Makes You Free"

Foundations of the concentration camp blocks

I don't really feel like chronicling that in detail.

After Dachau, I went to the BMW museum for some cheering up.  

This looks promising..

This display was mesmerizing.  Not my video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVhVClFMg6Y

Clay 1-series

M1 Hommage

Racers of Various Eras

Love the architecture here

Angel eyes of the new 6-series

Utterly exhausted and out of money and food, I was too close to the Olympic park not to check it out.  It was a gorgeous evening, and I was hoping just to quickly check out the cool architecture and leave.

Oh hey Ben, I'm a hill.  Climb me.  

So I walked around the lake and climbed it.  It was worth it.

The Olympic Pool

Exhausted, hungry, broke "gotta take the picture" half-smile

Soccer stadium in the sun on the way down

Over an hour later, I was finally back on the train and en route to the hostel.  I ran into my German roommates, who invited me along to Kultfabrik that night.  Ruh roh.  I said I'd come.  We went down to the bar to have some drinks and play some pool, and I ran into Jack (the other American from Saturday night).  Glad to have another English speaker along for the ride, we left the hostel, returned to 11er for Happy Hour, and tried to get into the same club - this time without girls.  That didn't go so well.  We went next door, bought some wristbands for a less busy club, and walked right back in.  We somehow lost the Germans in that process, and partied for a bit before getting bored, eating some !free! pizza, and leaving.

We went to the hostel next door when we got back, since their bar was open later.  I witnessed a guy casually chundering in the corner in plain view of everyone, and promptly ordering a beer once that was said and done.  People were impressed.  


The next day, I repeated my morning procedure of eating as much as I could, and checked out of the hostel.  I then went to the Deutches Museum, which I will refer to as my dreamworld from now on.

A popular, partially polished woman - as seen en route

Inside a submarine: toilet beside the torpedoes

Dropping down into the fantastic mining exhibit

Oldschool human hamster wheel

Amazingly well done displays chronicling the advancements in mining technology over the ages

Less-than-modern techniques and working conditions

Apocalyptic machinery

Whotating water wheel

Big bore engine componentry.  Probably doesn't get good mileage

A stairwell winding around a V2 rocket

Super appetizing space food

5 hours later, I had probably really only looked closely at 5-10% of the museum.  The mining exhibit alone took well over an hour.  I could spend a few more days there, but it was time to catch my train home.


The train left 15 minutes late "due to technical difficulties."  This didn't bode well for my 12-minute transfer in Ulm.  I'd heard Ulm was beautiful, so I hopped off to take an hour-long walk.  It also has the tallest church in the world.

Yep, I can confirm it's tall.  

I got back to the train station only to discover that the next train home was another 2 hours later.  Hooray.  Totally spent, I walked to a park to sit next to the river and watch The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.  At least it was gorgeous out.

A sunset I wanted to see in Donaueschingen, not Ulm

I arrived home at 12:10am.  Work the next day was a little slow.