Nov 03, 2016 09:31 PM
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I was in Stuttgart in 2014 and one fine weekend I felt like visiting a new place. It was Oktoberfest time around September end and Munich was a place I’d often heard about, for various reasons. The train connectivity within Germany being quite good, and I being in the state adjoining Bavaria at the time, thought this would be a good day outing. So, one Saturday morning, I set out for the same.
There was an option of a 5.30 A.M. train and then there was one around 7 A.M. I chose the latter, the former being a tad strenuous, considering I would have the full day at my disposal. On the train I met 4 Mercedes employees who were also Munich bound. They wanted to see Oktoberfest too, but had no other plans. I on the other hand, wanted to utilize the whole day and had some other places I wanted to visit. On discussing the same, they decided they’d want to come along.
On reaching Munich main station, we underwent the checks / formalities in order to exit the station. It was only around 10 A.M., so we decided to visit some other places first before walking to the carnival location after grabbing a quick breakfast.
Places Covered:
We first took a U-Bahn to Marienplatz. The central square is a centre of a lot of hustle-bustle with several stuff going on at any given point of time. The New Town Hall is one attraction there with an old bell which rings just before noon and at noon. Other than that, it wasn’t particularly special, considering town halls of other medieval cities of Europe.
Nevertheless, it was a nice place to be and after some good picture moments, we moved on to another nearby attraction, Frauenkirche. This Gothic cathedral is supposed to be in existence since 15th century and makes for good viewing. After appreciating the exterior for a while, we also went inside briefly to check out proceedings. It was nice.
Walking down Marienplatz, one comes across several other sculptures and buildings which seem intriguing. The slight drizzle which was there early morning had ended and we moved on to Odeonplatz by U-Bahn to visit the Munich Residence Palace.
The Munich Residence Palace, in existence since 14th century was a former residence of Bavarian monarchs. Before one enters the main palace area, there is another building outside the entrance which has 2 huge lion sculptures at its entrance. There was also some program going on there at the time, which was interesting to watch. After taking some pictures and fooling around with the inanimate yet awesome lions, we entered the palace area. It has several courtyards, some interesting sculptures and now is a museum of art, antiques and textiles I believe, among other things. We maundered for a while, inclusive of some picture worthy moments.
Eventually, deciding we’d had enough, we moved on to the English Gardens, just north-east of the palace. It is considered to be a major central park here and is one of the main hubbubs of various recreational activities in Munich. Also makes for very beautiful viewing.
After this, we went back to the main station. But it was still just around noon. We were interested in visiting the former Dachau Concentration Camp. It was supposed to be one of the first such camps during Nazi Era and one of very few to have survived World War II. We got there by first taking the S2 train followed by the 726 bus. Our Schones Wochenende ticket was applicable throughout, so we never faced any issues. Once there, we had the option of taking a guided tour which is available between 10 A.M. and 1 P.M. Or one can just move around and take a look on their own. We decided to do the latter on this occasion. We grabbed lunch at the cafeteria like place there before exploring the camp. The camp was reasonable to navigate, courtesy of a map and the informative placards. No doubt, the prisoners of the camp had really undergone some disturbing times back in the olden days. However, one slightly disappointing thing there, was there was very little to actually see. Mostly, just info from the placards.
Once we were done here at around 3 P.M., we headed back to the main station. From the main station, we walked along Bayerisch Strasse, till we had to turn left towards Paul-H Strasse. Then onwards, we kept walking till we reached the Oktoberfest carnival location. I’m not sure if the location is the same every year. The festival is said to have originated in Munich, now a popular theme throughout Europe at around the same time. It is essentially a carnival where people from several parts of Germany get together in traditional clothing and have a good time. Lot of tourists too. One could enter a stall / tent to grab a beer or one could just enjoy the fun fair with all the amusement rides and the various food and drinks it had to offer. I am not much of a drinker so I just had fun walking about, trying out food and the amusement rides with some others while some enjoyed the beer festival. I tried a “Haunted House” ride which seemed anything but horrifying to me.:D Finally, it was evening and we’d had an enjoyable time. So had the few who had entered the beer stalls. They were on quite a high when they finally came out and we had an exciting time trudging back to the main station, where we would catch a train back to Stuttgart.
OTHER THINGS ONE CAN DO IN MUNICH:
I visited Munich for specific objectives which I achieved. However, one must note there are other good things one could do here. For example, if one is a soccer fan, visiting the Allianz Arena stadium is a must do. The Deutsches Museum here, is supposed to be the largest museum of science and technology. The BMW Museum here is also supposed to be pretty good. No doubt, there would be some other things as well.
All in all, we had a good time while we were there and once we returned to the main station, we caught a train back to Stuttgart via Ulm. I believe it was the same route during our onward journey. On the way back, the train stopped at a station called “Kissing” which evoked some laughter from us at possible implications etc. I think we returned to Stuttgart in the early hours of next morning, where I parted ways with my companions. Munich is a nice city and I would recommend the same to those interested in the kind of things it has to offer.
