MikePadgett.com

Easter in Munich

— Art, design, beer gardens and a food market. Just a few reasons to love Munich.”

J and I visited Munich over the Easter break. The sun was out and the beer was flowing.

The seat of Bavarian power in centuries past, Munich has been the home of Ibsen, Wagner, Einstein and the current Pope.

An early Nazi stronghold in the 1920s, the city recovered from a devastating bombing campaign in World War II to become the strongest city economy in Germany, being home to global heavyweights such as BMW, Siemens and Allianz.

Munich loves you

Close to three million people live in the Munich metropolitan area. The city’s motto “München mag dich” (Munich loves you) is fitting: it’s one of Germany’s best-loved cities and ranks among the top 10 worldwide for quality of urban life.

Public transport

Getting around town is straightforward. The city has two notably seamless, punctual systems: the S-Bahn (metropolitan rail) and the U-Bahn (underground subway). Plans are also afoot for a Maglev train to cut the journey time between city and airport from 45 to 10 minutes, reaching 400km/h in the process. However, after a couple of high-profile accidents in 2006, safety has become a major focus of debate.

Architecture

Munich adjoins the alpine River Isar. The programme of rebuilding the city following wartime damage has been conducted sensitively, so that much of the original character of Munich has been carefully retained.

Odeonsplatz

Among Munich’s beautiful buildings and public spaces is the Odeonsplatz.

It is a wide square bordered by the baroque Theaterinerkirche and the striking Feldherrnhalle, reminiscent of Florence’s Loggia Dei Lanzi, before which Hitler’s ill-fated Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 ended in fatal violence.

Viktualienmarkt

Gastronomy is a serious business in Munich. Viktualienmarkt is the city’s enormous open-air food market and the range of products available is astonishing.

Placed in the centre of the market is the renowned biergarten, where many customers wash down the lunch they bought from the market with a glass of local beer.

And of course we couldn’t resist trying a few classic local dishes. J got stuck into a plate of spargel white asparagus and I polished off some rather tasty sausages with sauerkraut at the Augustiner Brauhof.

Special mention should also go to the famous Hofbräuhaus and the vegan restaurant Zerwirk tucked away on the Ledererstrasse, whose distinctive logo appears on their signage below.

English Garden and the Chinese Tower

The Englischer Garten carves a large green space through the city and its size is second only to Phoenix Park in Dublin. Towards the southern extent is the Chinese Tower, rebuilt as a replica of the original eighteenth century edifice that burned down in 1944.

Surrounding the tower is a 7,000 seat biergarten, in which J and I enjoyed lunch in the Spring sun to the strains of Amapola played by the polka band stationed in the Tower.

Where the Englischer Garten ends at the Prinzregentenstrasse (in the distance of the first image below), we might have been surprised to discover surfers catching the strong waves near the bridge, but I’d read about it on the Internet before we went to Munich.

Art

Art is all around in Munich. Even the shops contain amazing displays. Looking in the window of the Isartor tobacconist below, we couldn’t tell whether customers were supposed to smoke the pipes and cigars or frame them!

Munich’s Kunstareal (“art district”) features no less than three major public art galleries, collectively named “die Pinakotheken” and consisting of the Alte (Old) Pinakothek, the Neue (New) Pinakothek and Pinakothek der Moderne (Modern).

Alte Pinakothek

The monolithic and extensively rebuilt Alte Pinakothek houses the Wittelsbach collection, exhibiting art from medieval times through to the 19th century.

The Alte Pinakothek features renowned works by Giotto, van der Weyden, Leonardo, Filippo Lippi, Bosch, Durer, Raphael, Titian, Rubens and Velázquez amongst many others.

Neue Pinakothek

Wartime bombing destroyed the Neue Pinakothek and damaged some of the items in its collection of 19th century art. During our visit, for example, a special exhibition of the Greek landscapes of Carl Rottman showed several works damaged beyond repair.

Pinakothek der Moderne

Neither J nor I are declared aficionados of Dan Flavin‘s fluorescent lights, so we gave the special exhibition a miss. The Moderne actually contains more than just 20th and 21st century art. It is also home to design and architecture exhibits. The Moderne is also the home of a very impressive design collection.

Sci-Tech at the Deutsches Museum

Dedicated to exhibiting science and technology, Munich’s Deutsches Museum is the largest of its kind in the world.

The museum, based on an island in the Isar river, was another popular Munich landmark to suffer from bomb damage in the Second World War. Indeed, it did not return to its pre-war state until 1965.

The Deutsches Museum covers an extraordinary range of subjects. J and I particularly enjoyed the Bridge Building, Printing and Glass sections.

However, many exhibits do not currently feature English translations so my appreciation of molecular physics and pharmacology will have to stay rudimentary for the time being.

What a shame.

Printing and type

I’m in hog heaven here, you can see it on my face. The displays of Gutenberg presses, metal type, printers and typesetters were something akin to pornography.