- Munich
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Germany
Hotel Brunnenhof is one of many OK hotels south of Central station. It's clean and pleasant with very comfortable beds, varied breakfasts and free internet access. Their website makes booking easy. About 96 a night for a double.
www.brunnenhof.de
Schillerstr. 36
D- 80336 München
Tel. +49 (0)89 54510-0
German, Bavarian especially, portions are substantial, and may seem more than you really want. However, most German restaurants will be happy for a couple to order and share just one meal between them.
The area just south of Central station (Hauptbahnhof) has many OK hotels, but few nice places to eat and drink. But go a bit west to the 'Westend', by St Paul's Church on the corner of St-Paul-Strasse and Schwanthaler-Strasse, and there's an excellent pub-restaurant with freshly cooked Bavarian food available late into the evening, along with draft beer and appropriate wines. Cheerfully kitsch in décor and friendly too.
It's called 'Gasthous Zur Festwiese', apparently, though the name isn't prominently displayed.
Schwanthalerstrasse 85, 80336 Munchen, Tel 089 5439050 -
by St Paul's Church on the corner of St-Paul-Strasse and Schwanthaler-Strasse
Check out the new high-speed links from Paris to south-west Germany, TGV Est Européen.
From Paris it's three hours to Mannheim (romantic Heidelberg round the corner) or Karlsruhe (Black Forest nearby). Or 4-ish to Frankurt or 6-ish to Munich.
Changing in Paris couldn't be easier (10 minutes by foot) - from the Eurostar terminal at Gare Du Nord, walk round the corner to the magnificently restored Gare De L'Est and hop on your TGV or ICE (= the German TGV) towards Germany.
A traditional bräuhaus, with a lively atmosphere at the weekend, and especially around Oktoberfest time. In the summer, there is a small beer garden too, and you can get traditional Bavarian food in the evening. Try the Hefe Weisen Dunkel (dark) beer for a change from the typical lager-style beers.
Kapuzinerplatz 5, not far from Goetheplatz underground station
www.eat-out.net/restaurant-muenchen/ph113319-paulaner-brauhaus
I just moved to Munich - what a wonderful city! Fantastic mixture of historic tradition and anarchic alternatives, accessibly modern and suprisingly friendly. From the moment you arrive in the well-designed (of course!) airport -they check your passport and you pick your luggage up straight at the gate - right the way through to literaly hundreds of independent bars and restaurants it's one the nicest cities in the world!
Best bars are in the Glockenbachviertel. For good restaurants try Schwabing and Liehl. Great beer gardens everywhere.
Public swimming pool complex at the Westbad tram stop. Just follow the scent of chlorine from the tram. Entrance was nine euro last time I visited.
Inside there's a water slide, a whirlpool, heated mineral bath, sauna and swimming lanes. Good place to take kids on a rainy holiday. Outside there are even more pools, plenty of grass to lay about and sometimes ducks come down to swim laps in the pools.
Address: Weinbergerstraße 11, Westend, Munich, 81241
Phone: +49 89 23617701
Nearest Station: Westbad: Tram 19, Bus 72
Neighbourhood: Westend
This gallery opened in 2002 and shows the visual arts and design of the 20th and 21st centuries. It was designed by Stephan Braunfel. It is spacious, full of natural light from a huge rotunda, and offers both a permanent collection and changing exhibitions. It is a pleasure to visit. The design work in particular is imaginatively displayed, on ramps, on huge open lifts that revolve in the air, or suspended at eye level from the high ceilings. Like the other nearby museums, it has a good cafe, and an attractive shop that sells both mementos of your visit and scholarly material. The entry fee was 9.50 euros but that covered all the shows offered in the gallery.
Museum District; tram 27 from Karlsplatz (Stachus) www.pinakothek-der-moderne.de
The Haus der Kunst is one of the few Third Reich buildings left intact in Munich, (the former air ministry also survives in Berlin). It housed the notorious so-called Degenerate Art exhibition in July 1937, where examples of new art were displayed in order to be ridiculed. By a nice irony the building is now used to show changing exhibitions of radical art of all kinds, including performance.
Prinzregentenstrasse, adjacent to the Bayrische National Museum and the Schack-Galerie. Tram 17 from the city centre.
A decision to restore the city of Munich was taken after wartime bombing and so, unlike Frankfurt, for example, which is almost brand new, or Berlin, which is an extraordinary mix of old and new, Munich has regained the main elements of its prewar appearance. The result restores a city whose inhabitants, including its rulers, were in love with Italy and Ancient Greece. Koenigsplatz is one good place to see the epic scale of this phenomenon, where two major classical museums face one another across a vast grassy square, separated by a monumental gate, again in a classical style. What might have been grandiose is saved by the presence, in good weather, of children playing, and students from the nearby university sitting around, chatting, and generally enjoying the sunshine.
U2 to Koenigsplatz from Hauptbahnhof.
The Stadtische Galerie in the Lenbachhaus is set in an Italianate villa and shows both changing exhibitions and a permanent collection of paintings and sculpture from the first half of the Twentieth century. There is an unrivalled collection of the work of Kandinsky, Gabriele Munther and Franz Marc. The building has an intimate, friendly atmosphere and, very important, a good cafeteria.
Luisenstrasse 33. U2 to Konigsplatz from Hauptbahnhof (central station). Five minute walk to Lenbachhaus.
The U6 U-bahn to Universitat takes you to Geschwester Scholl-platz, named after Sophie and Hans Scholl, the students who were murdered by the Nazis for challenging the regime. The buildings in this area, and the nearby Englischer Garten, will be familiar to admirers of "Heimat 2." This is where Edgar Reitz set his series about student life in the 1960's. The area just to the north contains many beautiful Art Nouveau villas.
U6 to Universitat. Short walk to Englischer Garten.
The Alte, the Neue and the Pinakothek der Moderne are wonderful galleries showing painting, sculpture and, in the last case, design as well, all in close walking distance of each other, just to the north-west of the city centre. They have work ranging in time from the Renaissance to the present day, all presented in distinguished buildings which are welcoming and, especially in the case of the modern gallery, fun to visit.
Barer Strasse. U2 line to Theresienstrasse, or Tram 27 to Pinakotheken.
"Prager Frühling" is the German for "Prague Spring". The name refers to the period in early 1968 when the Czechoslovak Communist Party leader Alexander Dubcek tried to liberalise the country's communist regime by introducing free speech and freedom of assembly. The Prague Spring ended when Warsaw Pact troops invaded on the night of the 20-21 August 1968. But enough of the history lessons. Prager Frühling is currently one of the hippest joints in Munich. There are live bands most nights. And when there are no bands, there are live DJ's or special parties.
Prager Frühling
Leopoldstrasse 27
80802 München
Giselastrasse tube
www.prager-fruehling.info
The Stadtmuseum cafe is worth a look - modern and minimalist, with tables in the leafy courtyard in the summer. It has a huge selection of international papers and magazines, because journalists from the Süddeutsche Zeitung often come here for lunch. The cakes are among the best in Munich and there's a decent selection of wines by the glass.
Serves a daily changing menu of light modern European food, e.g. excellent fresh cheeses, alongside some Bavarian staples.
The "filmmuseum", consisting of an inexpensive rep cinema and restoration/research department is located in the basement. There are retrospectives year round, along with the Munich film and documentary festivals.
St.-Jakobs-Platz 1
80331 München
Mitfahren is carpooling par excellence! Check out www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de and hook yourself up with very normal people travelling long distances who want to split the cost of the journey.
It's eco and wallet friendly, wíth a Munich-Berlin trip coming in at around 30€.
As this system is very established in Germany, you will almost always find someone going to your destination when you need to go. Keep it in mind!
I strongly recommend to all of you this Olympic complex built for the 1972 Munich Games. Its gorgeous architecture and magnificent landscape will give you an unforgettable visit. It is worth a visit!
Olympia Zentrum is the nearest tube station
Coolest club in Munich on Thursday, on the weekends the crowd is a bit young and it is too packed.
Thalkirchnerstreet just next to the tube station sendlinger tor.
www.ersteliga.com
Munich is a mecca for beer-drinkers, at least for lager or Weiss (wheat) beer fans. Some of Germany's most famous breweries are based here: Hofbraeu (most notably in the Hofbraeuhaus, but try the Hofbraeukeller too if you get the chance), Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, Spaten and Loewenbraeu - most famous of all, and thought by many, including me, to be the least good.
But the locals don't drink any of those, they drink Augustiner. Either Helles (the Munich word for standard lager) or even better, Edelstoff.
Augustiner has also looked after its breweries and pubs, they are all worth a visit. The Bierhalle has its own tip here, but the Augustinerkeller near the station is recommended, the brewery itself on the opposite side of the tracks, and any pub at all displaying the blue and white Augustiner sign.
Throw off your clothes, ditch that tiresome British reserve, and unwind in a series of saunas and pools in a wonderful setting just across the river on Rosenheimer Straße. It's a gloriously relaxing way to spend a chilly winter's afternoon in Munich. You might want to rehydrate before hitting the beerhalls afterwards, mind.
Rosenheimer Strasse 1, Haidhausen, Munich, 81667
Tel: 49 89 2361 3434
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