Canadian World Traveller / Summer 2016 Issue
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16<br />
Munich at its Best:<br />
Small-Town Charm and Free-Flowing Beer<br />
by Rick Steves<br />
New Town Hall, with its beloved glockenspiel--only<br />
100 years old--that recreates a<br />
royal wedding from the 16th century.<br />
Nearby, you can experience small-town<br />
Munich at the Viktualienmarkt, long a<br />
favorite with locals for fresh produce and<br />
friendly service. While this expensive real<br />
estate could have been overrun by fast food<br />
places, Munich keeps the rent low so these<br />
old-time shops can carry on.<br />
The oldest church in town, St. Peter’s, a few<br />
steps from Marienplatz, is part of the soul of<br />
the city (according to a popular song,<br />
“Munich is not Munich without St. Peter’s”).<br />
And wherever you walk, you’ll see the twin<br />
onion domes of the Frauenkirche, the city’s<br />
iconic church. Along with much of Munich,<br />
the church was badly damaged in <strong>World</strong><br />
War II, then lovingly rebuilt and gloriously<br />
restored.<br />
After the war, people who lived in<br />
Germany's heavily bombed cities debated<br />
how they'd rebuild. Should they reconstruct<br />
the old towns, or bulldoze and start over<br />
from scratch? Frankfurt voted to go modern<br />
(and is today nicknamed "Germany's<br />
Manhattan"), but the people of Munich<br />
rebuilt their old town center.<br />
City leaders took care to preserve Munich’s<br />
original street plan and recreate the<br />
medieval steeples, Neo-Gothic facades,<br />
and Neoclassical buildings. They blocked<br />
off the city center to cars, built the peoplefriendly<br />
U-Bahn (subway) system, and<br />
opened up Europe’s first pedestrian-only<br />
zone--which let’s you stroll peacefully right<br />
through the old center. Only now, more<br />
than 70 years after the last bombs fell, are<br />
the restorations finally wrapped up.<br />
Despite its population of 1.4 million,<br />
Munich (or “München,” as<br />
it’s called in German) feels<br />
small. This big-city elegance is possible, in<br />
part, because of its determination to be<br />
pedestrian- and bike-friendly, and because<br />
of a law that no building can be taller than<br />
its church spires. There’s ongoing debate<br />
about changing this policy, but there are<br />
still no skyscrapers in downtown Munich.<br />
Walking through Munich, you’ll understand<br />
why it is consistently voted one of<br />
The twin green domes of Munich’s Frauenkirche<br />
overlook the city’s bustling main square, Marienplatz.<br />
Photo: Pat O’Connor, Rick Steves' Europe<br />
Germany’s most livable cities--safe, clean,<br />
cultured, a university town, built on a people<br />
scale, and close to the beauties of<br />
nature. Though it’s the capital of Bavaria<br />
and a major metropolis, Munich’s low-key<br />
atmosphere has led Germans to dub it<br />
“Millionendorf”--the “village of a million<br />
people.”<br />
Dawdling in the sunlit main square called<br />
Marienplatz (“Mary’s Square”), I love to<br />
take in the ornate facades of the gray,<br />
pointy Old Town Hall and the Neo-Gothic<br />
As Germany's beer capital, Munich offers<br />
classic beer halls complete with cheap<br />
food, noisy fun, oompah music, and rivers<br />
of beer. While the boisterous and belching<br />
Bavarian atmosphere can be extremely<br />
touristy, everybody's having a great time.<br />
Connoisseurs have their favorite brews--<br />
and to get it, they simply go to the beer hall<br />
that serves it.<br />
When I was in Munich recently, my local<br />
guide, Georg, took me to his favorite beer<br />
hall, Der Pschorr. At some beer gardens,<br />
they have a big wooden keg out on display,<br />
but actually draw the beer from huge stainless-steel<br />
dispensers. At Der Pschorr, every<br />
few minutes you hear a “whop” as they tap<br />
a classic old wooden keg. Hearing this,<br />
every German there knows they're in for a<br />
good fresh mug.