Canadian World Traveller / Summer 2016 Issue

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