In our Hoppy Place
From beer diplomas in Bamberg to fairy tale castles in Füssen, our first week in Bavaria was more German than an evening frying Frankfurters with Jürgen Klinsmann. Into week two and we were to base ourselves in the region’s largest city, Munich, while splashing out on a few vanless nights with an attractive wooden guesthouse in the suburbs for Lowri’s birthday. The suburbs of a major metropolis it may have been but, as was explained to us by many a local, Munich is considered to be more of a city-sized village, as opposed to a city-sized city, with an atmosphere, charm, and culture unlike anywhere else in Germany. This, we quickly gleaned, was something they are extremely proud of.
Wanting to sample this unique Munichness on our first night, I booked us a table at the finest Vietnamese restaurant in the city and was blown away by what we were served (big up the Nam Giao 31 crew). While not Bavarian in any way, we would more than make up for it the following evening as we joined a beer and pretzel tour delivered by an affable Germa… Australian named Jeremy. With bottled local lagers in hand, we took in some of the most noteworthy locations on the Munich beer circuit including the Oktoberfest Museum and, most interestingly of all, the site of the infamous Beer Hall Putsch where Hitler began his first failed coup d’état: Hofbräuhaus.
Lederhosen, beer benches, dirndls, oompah bands, masses, and steins by the hundred, this was Germany at its stereotypical finest, and it was absolutely infectious. Jeremy informed us that, although extremely popular with tourists, elderly moustachioed locals still keep their personal steins behind the bar and regularly meet their pals there for a good knees-up. While the Hitler connection obviously remains an extremely sore point, the hall has done its very best to mix the best of German tradition with a modern touch for the visitors and it succeeds tremendously.
Feeling sufficiently emboldened by beer we decided to rent a pair of scooters to whizz us back to our lodgings on the outskirts of the city. Unfortunately, we hadn’t learned from our drunken scooting mistakes in Seville and soon ran into a few issues, most notably Lowri hitting a kerb at walking pace and slowly sliding to the pavement in front of a bemused pedestrian. Barring the odd scratch, the damage was primarily to her pride (and knees). With our scooters running out of juice and our fingers starting to succumb to frostbite, we required a bus to take us the remaining distance. Very much looking forward to relaxing in our cosy lodge after a full day’s exploring, we were thrilled to discover that our key card wasn’t working and we were locked out of our room. With nobody to contact given the late hour, we were resigned to sleeping on the two musty sofas in reception until an even later returning guest offered us a spare bed in their room. The hotel received our full wrath the following morning and we received a free night’s stay, so a small victory was obtained.
Just a thirty-minute drive north from the heart of a humming and joyful Munich lies the former Dachau Concentration Camp. While in no way a pleasant place to visit, we considered it to be an important historical stop and a disturbing reminder of humanity’s potential for evil. So it proved to be. We entered the eerie gas chambers and wandered the grounds where all but two of the barracks had long been demolished although the pair that remain offer a distressing vision of what daily life was like for the almost two hundred thousand inmates held there. Visiting the extensive museum was also a moving and, at times, harrowing experience as it brought grim story after grim story back to life, leaving us both shocked and drained by its end.
Needing to finish our German leg on a more upbeat tone we headed south of Munich to the quaint lakeside town of Tegernsee. Home to the rich and famous, including most of the Bayern Munich football team, the picturesque spa town proved the ideal place to escape the bustle of the city and an excellent location to exit Germany stage right. While we had only visited its southeastern Bavarian corner, I think we chose wisely as we were completely enamoured by its untamed forests, charming villages, and boisterous beer houses. A comparison with the north, including Berlin, would be made on our return journey but for now, we hop into neighbouring Austria.
J
