Munich

Last year, I took a trip to the San Juan mountains in Colorado with Paul Hooper as a birthday present to myself. We backpacked into a lake at 11000 feet to camp overnight, and we hiked up to 13000 the following morning. It was an incredible experience, and I decided to try replicating it by taking a trip to Munich and hiking in the Alps for my 30^th birthday.

I emailed a few couchsurfers in Munich who had “hiking” listed in their interests, and a woman named Ruth got back to me in early September. She said that the first weekend in October worked for her, and that she'd be up for both a hike and a trip to Oktoberfest. So I booked a ticket to arrive in Munich early on a Friday and leave in the afternoon of a Monday.

I'd been to Munich once before, in 2002, during my month long loop around Europe. During that trip, my travel companions and I didn't see that much of the city. We spent our time taking day trips to a castle an hour outside of town and the concentration Dachau, and spending time in beer gardens. So I was really seeing the city through new eyes.

I was struck by how grand and imperialistic Munich seemed after I've been living in Amsterdam for four months. Amsterdam is a modest city overall – few large palaces or churches, no archways or gold plated statues. Munich has all of these things: arches and large roundabouts; Greek statues; sculptures; and museums documenting empires.

Outside of the palaces, museums, and government buildings, the architecture is uniquely Bavarian.

The interior of the imperial residence museum.

Like Amsterdam bars, Munich bars and restaurants advertise the beer they serve.


This type of scene is common in Munich: lots of empty liters of beer.

Munich has similar outdoor markets as Amsterdam.

I went to a flea market with Ruth and saw all sorts of German trinkets.



The common apartment styles in Munich







Chestnuts sold on the street.




Many of the bakeries in Munich sell the iconic Bavarian giant pretzels

Most of my time in Munich was spent wandering aimlessly around the town, popping into random museums and shops, and taking pictures along the way. I did get out of town into Austria for hiking, and I visited Oktoberfest. Separate posts for those.