3 Days In Munich

A recap of my 3 days in Munich Germany, which sights to see and where to eat!

Following Copenhagen, Prague, and Berlin, I took a quick flight down to Munich, where I would end my Europe travels. I stayed at an airbnb just outside of center city Munich (15 minute train ride) and within walking distance to Nymphenburg Palace. The host of the airbnb was probably my favorite host I’ve ever stayed with. The sweetest Italian woman, she made me feel right at home while I was traveling solo. She would greet me every morning with a homemade espresso or cappuccino and some bread and jam. One night she offered me some wine and when I told her I wasn’t feeling well (damn, that pesky cold), she offered me medicine and a heating pad. Basically, she was the caretaker I needed while flying solo abroad. If you find yourself traveling to Munich and are looking for a place to stay, I can’t recommend her place enough.

Her neighborhood was very residential, super quiet and a nice place to retreat to in the evening. Plus, there was this beautiful pond and walking path that led right up to the palace.

Oh, and not to mention the Italian restaurant Canal Grande a few minutes from her place that I ate at…twice! Such delicious authentic Italian food served out on a secluded patio under the trees.

DAY ONE:

You can really see city center Munich in one day, which is exactly what I did. I followed Rick Steves’ audio guide to take me on a self-guided tour of the city. I thought about taking one of those free walking tours but decided I’d be much happier going at my own pace. Rick Steves’ tour hit on all the major sites to see including Marienplatz, which is Munich’s main square where New Town Hall sits, home to the famous glockenspiel show.

The glockenspiel show runs three times a day and I just happened to stumble upon it while it was about to start. It’s basically this robotic puppet show, which retells some of Munich’s history. It was fun to watch but I wouldn’t kill yourself trying to catch this thing.
After the glockenspiel, I was pretty hungry so I stopped at Cafe Frischnut for one of Munich’s staple eats I’d read about called the schmalznudel, which is basically like fried dough 2.0.

Cafe Frischnut is right next to Viktualienmarkt, Munich’s open-air food market, which was conveniently the next stop on Rick Steves’ tour.I had fun wandering through the market stumbling upon lots of fresh produce, cheese, wine, juices, and oddly enough, Unicorn cookies. Right in the middle of the market is a biergarten, because it is Munich after all so if you’re looking for a place to stop and have a bite or a liter of beer, you’re set.

After the market, I made my way along the tour and stopped at a few old, historic churches in Munich, like the Asam Church, a Baroque church built from 1733 to 1746.

Next was St. Michael’s, a Jesuit church, which is the largest Renaissance church north of the Alps.

Made my way to the Michael Jackson memorial, which sits across the street from the hotel he used to stay at in Munich. RIP, MJ.

Walking from Promenadeplatz (the square where the memorial is) to Dallmayr Deli, Rick Steves has you take a shortcut through this passageway, which has a super cute fast casual restaurant called Dean & David with lots of salads, soups, sandwiches and juices on the menu. I ordered a yummy salad with mushrooms, tomatoes, edamame, gogi berries and cheese and a ginger shot with the hopes of it helping my cold and immune system.

After my lunch stop, I powered on for the rest of the tour. Walking through Platzl, which is the center of Old Town Munich and where you can find Hofbräuhaus (which I went to for dinner later), one of the oldest beer halls, built 500 years ago.

Moseyed on over to Odeonsplatz, a large square in Central Munich, home to the Theatine Church, a Catholic Church built from 1663 to 1690.

And home to Feldherrnhalle, which was the site of the brief battle in 1923 that ended Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch (coup attempt).

And the last stop on Rick’s tour is Hofgarten, a quaint garden located between the Residenz and the Englischer Garten.

From the garden, I made my way to bigger gardens, the English Gardens, Munich’s large public park. It was a beautiful reprieve from all the city walking and I plopped down on the grass and read my book. I’m glad Rick gave me a heads up that I would find some people hanging out nude in the park because I probably would’ve been a little more taken back if he hadn’t :).

In the middle of the Gardens is Munich’s second largest beer garden, right next to the Chinese Tower. I stopped there for a beer and a pretzel.

I couldn’t stop laughing about the size of the pretzel – basically bigger than my head!

From there I made my way to Hofbräuhaus for dinner. Because when in Munich…

It was a pretty lively spot, packed with people but with plenty of first-come, first-serve, seating and plenty of pretzels to go around.

My “I have a cold” with glassy eyes and red nose selfie. I couldn’t not have a beer at Hofbräuhaus though. Pretty sure they would’ve kicked me out ;).

I ordered sausages with sauerkraut and a side of spaetzle. Decided that I’m not a big fan of sausage and basically ate the kraut and spaetzle.

DAY TWO:

Took the train to Salzburg, Austria for the day! I had no idea this was a day trip from Munich until i arrived and was reading through my airbnb host’s Rick Steves’ Guide to Munich. Highly recommend taking a day trip there from Munich if it’s not already in your itinerary! Stay tuned for my Salzburg recap next!

DAY THREE:

This was my last day in Europe (tear) before having to catch my flight back to Boston so I took the morning to visit Nymphenburg Palace since it was so close to where I was staying. This place was absolutely gorgeous – definitely make the trip here even if you aren’t staying close by. The palace was the main summer residence of the former rulers of Bavaria. #SummerHomeGoals.I debated whether or not to pay the fee to walk around the inside of the palace and I almost skipped it but saw two travelers walking out and asked them if it was worth it and they said they’ve visited a number of palaces throughout their travels but that this one was really special. And I couldn’t agree more. This was the first room you walk into and I was like MIND BLOWN.

There’s also a huge park behind the castle and you can explore some of the Park Palaces there too. The only one I had time to visit was the Pagodenburg, built between 1716 and 1719. Apparently this was built as a place for people to rest in between rounds of a game called Mailspiel, which was similar to golf. A palace to take golf breaks. NBD.

After the palace I went back to the airbnb, grabbed my luggage and set off to figure out public transportation to the airport (it’s pretty far outside the city and an expensive Uber ride (~$60-70)!