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Published: March 13th 2011
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I arrived in Munich late in the afternoon so after checking in I went out for a walk, not knowing where I was going or what I would be seeing. I made my way, in a roundabout manner, to the Marienplatz where all I could hear was clocks chiming. It was 4.45pm in the afternoon and I could see clocks on spires all around and it seemed that each one was trying to compete to be the loudest. I figured that maybe it had something to do with it being the end of the work week in Munich and it was the city’s way of saying “Hey, enough with work, go have a beer…” because that seems to be the flavour of the city – beer! But, I’ll talk about that later.
So here I was, wandering through the Marienplatz, not realising that I was standing and looking at the famous Glockenspiel (to be an effective traveller it really is worth researching where you are heading and taking a map out with you when you go walking which doesn’t tend to be my style). I decided to veer right at an intersection and found myself within markets selling fruit and
veg along with various hot food items which mainly involved bratwurst. Walking through the markets, I decided it was time to turn left and see where I ended up and after about 300mts I ended up in front of the famous Hofbrauhaus – very convenient indeed. I headed in to see what all the hype was about this particular beer hall and was not disappointed – the place was packed with beer drinkers, each grasping their 1 litre steins, and some were singing and dancing away to the band in the middle of the beer hall – and it was only 5pm in the afternoon!
The following morning I joined a New Europe Free City Tour of Munich, these tours are really great. You rock up at the designated meeting point, have an English speaking guide walk you around the various sights of the city providing really great information and then at the end you decide if you would like to tip them – the tip being equivalent to how you valued the tour. They operate in a number of cities across Europe and they seem to have a big following, as everywhere I have been going people have
raved about them. Our guide led us around the city and provided some really good insight into the formation of Munich, the beer purity law (only four ingredients were allowed to be used to make beer – water, hops, barley and yeast) a law that was made in the 1500's and only overturned in 1987 however all of the Munich breweries still continue to follow this tradition, the fact that it is acceptable to drink up to one litre of beer whilst in your workplace each day – hmm, there might be some Aussies who try to get that passed back home, and the history of Germany in the late 30's and early 40's. Overall, I got a really great insight into Munich.
I noticed, whilst walking around the city, that the city was preparing itself for a celebration. Stages were being erected in key locations, decorations were atop light posts and oddly enough random people were walking around wearing costumes, masks etc. I asked the tour guide what was going on and he said that Munich was preparing itself for a Fasching Carnival on Tuesday – he described it as a cross between Rio’s famous Carnival and a
Mardi Gras. He said that come the Tuesday the streets would be packed with people dressed up and drinking – it would be their last chance to have fun before lent commences. I liked the sounds of such a big street party so I planned to extend my stay in Munich by another day so that I could experience the event.
Back at the hostel that afternoon I ran into a Canadian girl Rachelle who I had met in Salzburg. We got chatting and decided that we would go on another New Europe tour out to the Dachau concentration camp which is now a memorial site the following day followed by the Beer Challenge.
A few weeks ago I heard that Kylie Minogue had kicked off her new tour Aphrodite in Europe, so being the Aussie girl that I am, I found that I could still get a ticket, so I booked to see her on Saturday night at Olympiahalle in Munich. I navigated my way through the underground system to Olympic Park and watched her show which was fantastic! I have never been to a concert on my own, however I found that I quickly made friends
This is what you get when you have no idea what you are ordering
That "stuff" to the left is ALL pork crackling - hear attack waiting to happen with some guys who were there to watch Kylie for the eighth time.
The following morning, as planned, we went out to Dachau. I am not going to write much about my visit here nor post any photos, because I think that each person has their own personal experience when wandering through the memorial site. We had the same guide as the previous day, and he was extremely knowledgeable on the site and he gave a really good insight into the camp in the four hours that we were there.
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