Munich: ‘Munchen’ on pork knuckles, reminders of Hitler, and Art Garfunkel
We crashed in Munich with our friend Henning, whom we met in Vietnam and will be joining us in Peru to hike the Inca Trail this fall. We spent an awesome week there hanging out with Henning, taking in yet more World Cup craziness, checking out the city, and taking day trips outside the city which brought us to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, Berchtesgarten (home of Hitler´s infamous Eagle´s Nest), and across the border into Vienna for a visit to Salzburg. The last (but by far not the least) of the highlights of our time in Munich was seeing Anthony´s friend Marat who is the personal assistant to Art Garfunkel and got us free concert tickets and backstage passes and to meet the legend!
Lonely Planet calls Munich the “Bavarian mother lode” and it lives up to many aspects of this reputation. Bavarians are known to really enjoy and have a lot of pride in their food and drink. Along with Oktoberfest, Munich is famous for being a beer capital of the world. Yes, there was beer everywhere and lots of it and it was good. The Bavarian food was gut-warming and hearty -very BIG hunks of meat in every shape and form served with potato salads, mustard, and sauerkraut. Our favorites were the pork knuckles, laberkas (something close to sausage meat loaf), and the pretzels (some of which were really bigger than your head). We also saw our fair share of laderhosen and oompah bands, whose presence were probably much higher than normal given the abundance of festive spirit in Munich due to the World Cup.
Aside from being very Bavarian, Munich is a unique city compared to the other big cities in Germany as it is very modern and cosmopolitan and has a very different energy about it. It is the city with the strongest economy in Germany and and the home of BMW (for those of you who didnt know stands for Bavarian Motor Works) along with many other big companies in the technology, biotech publishing and service industries. Additionally, you get the feeling that people work hard and take pride in what they do, but also make a point to enjoy life as well, which is apparent in many different ways. The cafes, bars and restaurants all seem to have a good crowd every night and the the many beergardens and beer halls were all full and lively. Once again, we acknowledge that the WC attributed to a lot of the festiveness, but based on past experiences and what we have been told by locals, they are always filled with people and always are a good time. Additionally, people were always out and about all hours of the day enjoying the summer weather in the park, in open air bars, or just strolling around on the street.
Between the personal tour that Henning gave us and the organized walking tour of the city we took, we saw many of the major sites and city plazas. Munich has a collection of many different types of old architectural styles – medieval, baroque, romanesque, gothic and etc. and these architectural beauties have been combined with a lot of really interesting modern buildings and structures, which gives the city a very unique style. Our favorite place in Munich was the Englishgarten, one of the largest city parks in Europe, which was always full of people out enjoying the fantastic summer weather. The Englishgarten is also a popular spot for sunbathing in the nude, which was confirmed for us as we strolled alongside a very tan and very nude man who was obviously not an amateur nude sunbather.
We also got a glimpse into a part of Munich´s darker history as this was where Hitler´s attempted coup took place in one of the local beer halls and also became one of the strongholds of the Nazi party. We visited and took a tour of the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, the first camp that was built and had many modeled after it. Our tour guide was extremely knowledgable and thorough and provided us with a lot of information about the compound, concentration camps, the distincition between the different camps, and the associated history. Though not much structurally remains, simply walking the grounds knowing what took place there was enough to bring chills down your spine and much sadness to your heart. The government has done a remarkable job of transforming the site into a memorial to those that died and had to endure time there as there is a eyecatching monument and many other memorials that have been erected on the grounds by various different groups.
We also took a day trip to Berchtesgarten, a beautiful little mountain in the Bavarian Alps that is also home to the infamous Eagle´s Nest, a meeting house that was built for Hitler but was hardly ever used. The fact that the Eagle’s Nest is built on one of the higher peaks in the Alps AND has an elevator that takes you 120m through solid rock up to it makes it a pretty spectacular building acheivement. Hiking around the Eagle´s Nest that warm and sunny afternoon we saw some of the most beautiful views we have seen in all of Germany AND even came across multiple pockets of snow still preserved in random places in the mountains. Actually, it took us two tries to make it to Berchtesgarten as the first time we tried, we took a detour and ended up in Salzburg, Austria, which is not to shabby of a detour!
Finally, on our last night in Munich, thanks to our friend Marat from NYC, we went to the Art Garfunkel concert. None of us expected to know many of the songs he would sing as we were not familiar with his new music. But to our surprise and delight, Art sang many of the old Simon & Garfunkel favorites – Bridge Over Troubled Water, Mrs. Robinson, Boxer, Scarborough Fair, Cecilia (which he sang with his teenaged son) – and let me tell you, he sounds just like he did 20 years ago! He sang a beautiful moving version of Billy Joel’s “And So it Goes” that made me cry and brough nostalgia with Bridge Over Troubled Water as it reminded me of family roadtrips and my dad blasting Best of S&G over the car stereo while speeding down the freeway – in short was a spectacular show which exceeded our expectations. After the show, we got the chance to meet Art on his way out (unfortunately he hates pictures, so we werent able to capture the moment on film) and though the meeting was brief I managed to tell him how spectacular I thought the show was (and that it made me cry) AND insult him right after when he asked me which song made me cry, I told him the truth – the Billy Joel song….ooops, don´t think he was too thrilled that it wasn´t one of his own. Well, maybe he will remember me as a result? 🙂
We want to thank Henning again for being a great host and making time for us despite his crazy work schedule, which we really appreciated.
For pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlovesphotos/sets/72157594195402764/
Over and out,
Shan
Tags: Europe, Germany, Munich, Travel
Shan