Munich revisited

Now we are back in Munich and it is the last full day of our time in Europe. Tomorrow a long daylight flight home to Chicago with a time change of 6 hours.

I hadn't been to my favorite Biergarten this trip. It's in the giant public park called the Englisher Garten . There are three  Beer Gardens there (with seats totaling 12,500), one of which has a huge lofty bandstand where a brass band plays Oom-Pah favorites to the sprawling crowd below. They are located in the 5 story Chinese Tower which looks like a pagoda. This garden has seats for 7,500. Much further from the center of the city in the Nymphenberg district (near the Palace of the same name) is the biggest Beer Garden in Europe-the Hirschgarten which seats 8,000 people with shade from chestnut trees. Hirsch is the German word for deer and there are deer in the park behind a fence. The Biergartens are unusually open from 11 a.m until midnight. They all serve good hearty food and with typical German efficiency you won't be in line long before you are carrying away big plates of rotisserie chicken and fries or eating a fish on a stick grilled to perfection. You will lick the stick afterwards. You pay on the way out of the food area-usually in cash. You will typically be sitting at a large wooden table, sharing it with an ever-changing cast of Germans and people from lord-knows where. Everyone is good spirited and friendly.
We have yet to see any obvious drunkenness at these places.

munichbeergardens.com is the place to do your research with lots of photographs to give you the flavor of these massive friendly gardens.

Here are a few older pics from our last visit to our favorite- the Seehaus, a ten minute stroll north of the Chinese Tower, in 2009. No brass bands but lots of ducks! Seehaus seats 2500.

Beers this big cost about 7 Euros.

See is the German word for lake. 

I didn't get to visit the Seehaus this time but there will always be "another time" as Munich is probably our favorite city anywhere so we will return. We stayed close to home and cut down on the walking.

We took a leisurely stroll on our well-trodden path to Marienplatz. I'll spare you the Glockenspiel show this time. Yes it drew a crowd, as always. We whiled away an hour sitting drinking and soaking up the atmosphere of another peaceful Sunday in Munich. Every city should have a Marienplatz and the world would be a better place.

As everywhere we went they seemed to be renovating it was no surprise (though a bitter disappointment) that our favorite Munich restaurant-the Spatenhaus where they serve the beer of the same name was also part of a large renovation project.

Normally we would be sitting at a sidewalk table eating and drinking and admiring the Bavarian State Opera House just across the plaza. When we attend the opera in Munich it is here we dine after the show. Here's the opera house.....

The Munich taxis are typically Mercedes, BMW or Audi and are the same color. They shine inside and out and the drivers are professionals. They wait at stands so there's no point leaping off the street waving frantically for them to stop. That's not safe but it's how we do it in Chicago, New York etc.

So with the Spatenhaus closed we had to come up with plan B for dinner.....