[The following post is from the archives of my In Search Of Incredible blog, originally published on 9 November 2016]
10 December 2015, Thursday
After two days in Prague, it was time to move on to the last stop of our Europe trip, Munich. This morning, we hired an Uber taxi to take us from our apartment to the bus stop at Autobusová St. Wilsonova, which was co-located at the Prague hl.n. train station. We arrived at 7:24am, and the fare was CZK 107 (approx. S$6). It was a short trip (3.27km) but our driver wasn’t very familiar with the bus stop so he took some time to find it. However, the place that we alighted from was not the right spot, and we panicked for a few minutes before we finally found the correct bus stop, which was on the other side of the road. Thankfully, we made it in time for our 8:00am departure. That is why it’s always better to set off early!
For this last leg of the trip, we took a bus instead of a train because if I remember correctly, the timing was more favourable and it was about the same duration as a train anyway (around 4 hours 53 minutes). The bus was operated by the German company Deutsche Bahn (DB) and we booked our tickets through www.bahn.de, paying €24 each. It was a double decker bus and we were assigned seats on the lower deck. But it wasn’t full so we were free to roam around and occupy two seats each. The seats were comfortable and there was free wi-fi onboard, so time passed by quite quickly.
At about 1pm, we arrived at München ZOB (Hackerbrücke), the bus terminal located beside the main München Hauptbahnhof (Hbf) train station. From there, we took a short taxi ride to our hotel, which was actually just 1.2km away but we were simply too lazy to lug our suitcases and walk. We arrived at about 1:30pm, about an hour before the official check-in timing, but luckily the room was ready so we could check in right away.
Hotel Bayer’s
Address: Bayerstraße 13, Munich 80335
Tel: +49 (0) 89 590 68 22-0
Price: €320 (S$508.71) for 2 nights
Website: www.bayers-hotel.de
This was the only time we stayed in a hotel for the trip. We had looked at Airbnb but there weren’t many good options in Munich so we decided to pamper ourselves since it was the last destination. We chose Hotel Bayer’s because it was located near the Hbf train station and U-Bahn and also within walking distance to the main shopping area at Marienplatz. The room was larger than expected so it was quite good overall.
At about 2pm, we headed out to search for lunch. From our hotel, we walked along Bayerstraße to Karlsplatz, which marks the start of Neuhauser Straße (look out for the castle-like archway) and leads to Marienplatz. We did not have any particular craving so we just picked a random restaurant at one of the side lanes. I ordered a dish of smoked salmon and rosti and it turned out quite well.
After lunch, it was time for some shopping. Neuhauser Straße is Munich’s main shopping street and it is also known as Stachus. It is home to restaurants, department stores and chain stores catered to the middle and lower budget shopper. It is open only to pedestrians so it makes for a very pleasant shopping experience, with shops lining both sides of the street. Here, you can find the Bayern Munich Fan Shop so you don’t have to travel all the way to the Allianz Arena to get your hands on official FC Bayern München merchandise.
Marienplatz (aka St. Mary’s Square) is Munich’s central square and it is very much the focal point of the city, especially so with a U-Bahn and S-Bahn station located here. There is a bustling Christmas market (Münchner Christkindlmarkt – which means “Christ child market”) right in the square and along Stachus, and the atmosphere is fantastic. The key highlight of Marienplatz is of course, the Glockenspiel, a world-renowned (some say overrated??) cuckoo clock located in the tower of the New City Hall, overlooking Marienplatz. We will be going on a guided walking tour tomorrow so I shall save the details of Glockenspiel for the next post.
In the evening, I went to Odeonsplatz to meet my university hall mate, JT, who is Singaporean but is now working and living in Munich. It hadn’t been too long since I last saw her because she would return to Singapore about once every year and we would find time to meet up, but it was still nice to see a familiar face when you’re overseas and have someone play tour guide to show you around!
Where it was sunny and warm in the afternoon, the weather changed drastically and a fog descended upon us, making it freezing cold. From Odeonsplatz, we hurriedly walked to the nearby Munich Residenz, where there was a small Christmas village, Weihnachtsdorf im Kaiserhof der Residenz München, in the courtyard of the building. It comprised mostly of food stalls and JT introduced me to one of her favourite snacks from the Christmas markets – French fries with a generous topping of mayonnaise, tomato sauce and fried onions. Maybe I was hungry or I was just feeling cold, but it tasted exceptionally good and yummy!
Saving space in our stomach for more goodies, we then left and went to another market. JT had built up the anticipation for this one and I was really looking forward to visiting it. It was called Mittelaltermarkt-München, or simply, the Medieval Christmas market. Located at Wittelsbacherplatz, Brienner Straße, it was just a short walk away from Odeonsplatz.
Everything was medieval themed and there was none of the fancy fairy lights or Christmas trees like the other markets. The stalls were constructed with wood and designed to evoke the feel of the medieval period. The people selling stuff were dressed in period costumes and some of the stalls sold medieval products like bows and arrows. Definitely not your typical Christmas market. In fact, it was packed full of people and we could hardly walk in there.
The most popular stall was the one that sold Glühwein. However, the one being offered here was called Feuerzangenbowle, a more adventurous and exciting version of Glühwein. It comes with a flaming rum-soaked sugar cube dripping into the mug, something like a medieval version of a Flaming Lamborghini cocktail, except that you are not supposed to drink it until the fire has burned out. I queued patiently for my Feuerzangenbowle and wasn’t disappointed when I finally got it. It was a cheap thrill seeing the sugar cube on fire, but interesting nonetheless. The drink was served in a red clay mug unlike the typical glass mug at other Christmas markets. JT dubbed it a chalice and I found it so amusing I decided to keep the mug and lug it back to Singapore. It must have weighed something like 500g.
After experiencing the medieval market, JT brought me to another unusual one, the Pink Christmas market. It was located at Glockenbachviertel near Sendlinger Tor U-Bahn station. As its name suggests, it is targeted at the pink community but everyone is welcome here. You’ll definitely know that you’re in the right place because everything is lighted up in pink here. It was even more popular than the medieval market and it was impossible to walk. You just squeezed along with everyone else.
When we arrived at 7:05pm, the stage performance was just about to begin. Taking the stage was none other than a drag queen version of “Whitney Houston” and he gamely belted out credible renditions of “Saving All My Love For You”, “The Greatest Love Of All” and other Whitney hits. The appreciative crowd lapped it all up. It was fun to just soak in the atmosphere and have a good laugh.
As it was too crowded, we didn’t stay there for long. We then walked back towards Marienplatz, where we stopped by (yet) another Christmas market at Rindermarkt. This was a “normal” market so it wasn’t that interesting. By now, I had sort of developed a Christmas market fatigue because there were so many. We then took the U-Bahn to Theresienwiese to visit Tollwood, Munich’s largest and coolest winter festival.
The enormous grounds occupied by Tollwood in winter are where the Oktoberfest is held every year, for 16 to 18 days from September to the first weekend in October. As Oktoberfest is an important part of Bavarian culture, held annually since 1810, with more than 6 million people attending the event every year, you can imagine how massive the grounds are to accommodate that number of people. In winter, Tollwood takes over the grounds for about 5 weeks, hosting a massive Christmas market and New Year’s Eve party.
Tollwood was like the grand daddy of all Christmas markets. There were so many stalls and people all around, selling food of all cuisines. We bought a serving of mac and cheese and it was awesome. It was really more like a Glastonbury festival atmosphere, with food, performances and art exhibitions. We went to one of the tents where there was a great live band playing Cuban music. It was very enjoyable.
At about 9:25pm, I decided to call it a day as I was rather tired by then. The night was still young for JT as she continued to party the night away with another friend. Such a happening life. The Germans really do know how to throw a party!
