We recently spent a few days in Munich with our Scottish friends. We chose Munich because it had been recommended to us by a girl we met in Palermo last year and because it can be reached directly by air from where we live (Surrey) and from where our friends live (Edinburgh). Incidentally we first met these friends on a holiday in Italy in 2001 and have kept in touch with them ever since, going on a city break together every year.
Munich is an interesting city with brilliant shops, very interesting architecture and good beer and wine – I’m not so sure about the food though! Being almost vegetarian I could not bring myself to eat grilled udders, lung of veal, or calf’s head in aspic! In fact, veal features quite a lot on the menus, so I stuck mainly to salads and fish.
I would definitely recommend a visit to the Residenz and the Asamkirche with their spectacular architecture and amazing works of art. In fact I would revisit Munich – just to spend more time in the Residenz as there is so much to see there! I would also like to spend more time shopping (I would need plenty of money though!)
We went on open topped bus tours but they were not as good as in some other cities as they did not offer a hop-on and hop-off facility and were not particularly cheap at 25 euros per person for two days – no discounts for older passengers either.
What I did find particularly interesting was the number of men and women in national Bavarian dress – we found the same in Salzburg when we visited there a couple of years ago. There were also a number of shops dedicated to selling national costume for all ages from babies upwards.
Munich airport is large and has many shops – unlike Berlin airport which we found disappointing – we met the same friends there last year and were so impressed that we thought we would try another German city this year.
