Christmas in Munich, 2007

Kari and I spent Christmas week in Munich (Munchen in German). We stayed at the Hotel Flora, about 10 minutes from the main square, Marienplatz (Mary's square), which it turns out is run by a woman from Richmond, VA and her German husband, Susan and Faulkner. Very nice people, even had a few drinks with Faulkner Christmas Eve.

Munich is my new favorite city. It was not completely flattened in WWII so there is a lot of interesting architecture, good museums, really good food and excellent beer at very reasonable prices. You could sit in a bar or restaurant, even in the old town, and drink all day without breaking the bank. Part of that is because the beer comes in .5L glasses (sometimes even 1L! %}) so after about 3, I could not physically drink anymore.


Christmas markets are a big thing in Germany. They run from the end of November until the 23rd/24th of December. There are about 20 in (and around?) Munich. We only had Sunday the 23rd to go, so we went to the one at Marienplatz. Pretty cool, but the owner of Ludwigsburg (33 Trappentreustrausse, take the U-Bahn 4 or 5 to the Heimeranplatz stop, one of the best meals we ever had, excellent art) that the smaller ones tend to have more homemade type stuff that makes better gifts. We also saw a "Krampus Run". According to the legend of St Nicholas in and around Germany, Austria, and Hungary, while St Nicholas would reward the good kids with little presents (on the 5th/6th of December), Krampus/Knecht Ruprecht/Klaubauf would beat the bad children with sticks and chains or throw them in a sack. I must have missed that part of the legend when I was a kid. No, wait, wasn't that Billy Bob Thornton in "Bad Santa"?

St Nicholas and his helper; two pictures of the Krampus run.





Kari did some iceskating while I drank Gluhwein. We did a lot of walking (as usual) and gawking. We also went to several concerts. Christmas eve we went to Jazzclub Unterfahrt (yeah, that is how it is spelled, quit giggling Eamon and Mike V - 42 Einsteinstrasse, take the U-Bahn 4 or 5 to Max Weberplatz) and listened to a jam session. Christmas night and the 26th we went to two different organ concerts.

There are quite a few museums in Munich. We hit three, the Deutsches Museum, the Alte Pinakothek and the Neue Pinakothek. The Pinakotheks have paintings, the Alte from about the 1300's through the 1700's, the Neue is dedicated to painters from 1800's.

The Deutsches Museum is most excellent. It is a technology museum, so there are displays on every thing such as mining, metals, aeronautics, chemistry, physics, textiles, etc. And there are actually three different locations. The one we were at on the River Isar, one dedicated to cars and motors and one dedicated to flight. You could do two days at the one we went to.

Got to tell you, after you go through the Deutsches Museum and see the displays on tunneling and bridge building, planes and boats, welding and mathematics, etc, you may feel like an idiot. The knowledge and the ingenuity of people through history is overwhelming.

Now the important stuff. Bratwurst and sauerkraut with half-litres of beer, Oh My! Go for the Dunkel which is the dark beer, but the Weissbier is also good. Ooh, they have mozzarella sticks, but instead of cheese there is potato inside of them. Apple struedel and plum strudel, potato pancakes and beer! Ooh, if you go, you have to have Kaiserschmarrn: Pieces of pancake, carmelised almonds and raisins with apple sauce.

The Metro system, the U-Bahn, is excellent. Weather was cold, freezing or below every night, maybe a little warmer during the day. The people are friendly and most spoke at least some English (we can only learn one language at a time - had a nice conversation with an Italian couple using bits of German, Spanish, Italian, and English). Most restaurants have an English menu or at least someone who speaks enough English to translate. You could easily do 4 days in Munich alone and it is well-connected to other cities nearby. Two thumbs up!