Munich: Around town #1

A very typical trip around Munich, one of the most liveable cities in the world.

Although we live in Germany and the easiest place to travel is in fact German cities, we’ve only been to a couple. No specific reason, although I mostly blame the food. So when there was an opportunity of a three-day holiday, we went for it. For Munich.

Munich was ranked 8th place again on Monocle‘s Top 25 liveable cities list (highest German city with Berlin coming in at 14th, No.1 was Copenhagen) and although I agree with the city being one of Germany’s most affluent, green and pleasant, I have to say it’s not an overly touristic city, say like Berlin. Not because it’s not nice, but because it seems more like a city for students or business: a lot of museums, nice schools, parks, big companies and cultural attractions. And when I read the description on Monocle, I had to agree. According to Monocle, the city “has one of the lowest crime rates of any state; a number of world class universities; and thriving industries, ranging from cars to media.” Plus, it’s “a nice place to live and work but it hasn’t done anything to grab our attention over the past 12 months.”

Which is why we took the safest, most popular travel route possible, and now I can say I did Munich, the touristic way.

독일에 살고 있어 다른 독일 도시를 방문하는 것이 쉽고 간편하긴 하지만 여러가지 이유로 우리는 차라리 다른 곳을 선호하는 편이다. 대부분의 독일 도시들은 일단 서비스면에서 뒤떨어지는 면도 있고 음식도 그렇게 좋아하는 편도 아니고 다소 심심한 분위기가 핑계라면 핑계. 그래도 되도록이면 짧은 휴일에는 독일 도시에 가자고 하여 이번 3일 연휴가 생겼을때 뮌헨을 다녀왔다.

Monocle이 해마다 실시하는 살기 좋은 도시 순위에 따르면 뮌헨은 무려 8위. (베를린은 14위, 1위는 코펜하겐.) 다녀온 후에 읽은 기사라 어느 정도 수긍은 갔다: 안전하고 일하기 좋고 좋은 학교도 많고 문화적인 면에서도 베를린에 뒤떨어지지 않고 초록도 많고 적당히 관광지스러운 멋도 있는 도시. 하지만 마지막에 덧붙인 말처럼 “살기 좋고 일하기 좋은 곳이지만 지난 12개월동안 우리의 관심을 끌만한 거리는 없었던” 도시가 바로 뮌헨.

Marienstrasse is where everything happens: the cathedral, the clock show, all the touristic cafes and restaurants and all the streets that lead you down to the main attractions. It’s also where you get bumped into everyone, make a cameo appearance in almost everyone else’s photos and selfies and find affordable sandwiches and bad gelato.

Victuals Market is right in the corner of Marienstrasse. It’s a farmer’s market and you can find stalls of vegetables, fruits breads and sausages. A lot of sausages. Munich is the capital of Bavaria, the southeastern state of Germany and the most popular and well known sausage is the weisswurst, or literally the white sausage. It’s traditionally made in the morning and eaten as a snack between breakfast and lunch, or even brunch, and although people can eat it anywhere or anytime in the city, most Bavarians eat it before noon. (During summer, or when there’s any sign of the sun, you can find almost everyone outside, drinking beer, looking around and just spending time. A very nice habit indeed.)

It is a bit lighter than the other sausages or other German dishes, but it’s still not snack material for me. But the mustard that comes with the weisswurst? Super sweet and super good. Weisswurstsenf is great for anything. I add it to salads, sandwiches, toast, sausages. The sausages come in a small ceramic bowl in water and no, you are not supposed to drink the water. I had to wait and see other Bavarians taking theirs to figure this out the first time.

Marienstrasse가 뮌헨의 중심가. 바로 옆에는 Victuals Market이라는 시장도 열리는데 우리나라의 5일장 느낌. 뮌헨은 Bavaria라는 지방의 수도로 특히 하얀 소세지라고 불리는 weisswurst로 유명하다. 오전에 만들어져서 아침과 점심 사이에 간식으로 먹는 것이 보통인데 우리와 같은 관광객들은 아무때나 먹는, 다른 독일 소세지보다는 가벼운 느낌의 소세지이다. 일반적으로 하얀 사기 그릇에 물에 담겨져 나오는데 스프가 아니라서 물을 마시는건 아니고 소세지만 살짝 껍데기를 까서 먹는 것. 사실 이 소세지보다도 함께 나오는 하얀소세지용의 겨자가 진짜다. 달콤한 겨자인데 개인적으로 샌드위치 만들때 적당히 넣어주면 맛있다. 말그대로 하얀/소세지/겨자, weiss/wurst/senf.

One of the best ways to enjoy the city: go up as high as you can. And in Munich, this would be the tower of the Church of St. Peter. It’s the oldest parish church in the city and like any other tower, it’s a challenge. This one was particularly tricky because there were so many people and the road up to the top was so narrow. Which was great for me because this meant I could wait a bit to catch my breath and try not to faint. But as always, great views. Plus, the ticket master was the sweetest man.

Marienstrasse 한가운데에 위치하고 있는 시청 Rathaus를 제대로 감상하기 위해서는 Church of St. Peter 위로 올라갈 것을 추천. 계단이 가파르고 비좁아서 올라가다가 중간에 멈춰서 내려오는 사람들을 기다려줘여하는 불편함이 있긴 하지만 개인적으로 그래서 올라갈만했다. 중간에 쉬면서, 내려오는 사람들을 배려해주면서 숨도 고를 수 있고.

And the best view of the New Town Hall, or Rathaus.

The St. Johann Nepomuk, or the Asam church, isn’t as crowded and busy as other churches, but it was included in a couple of to-do lists we found here and there. It takes about five minutes to look around and it’s a quite dark little place. The first floor, which is open to the public, is the darkest and symbolizes the suffering of the world. So a lot of demons, skulls, sad, angry faces and scared angels and angel heads floating about.

Asam church라고 불리는 이 교회는 찾기가 좀 애매했지만 뮌헨에 가기 전 찾아봤던 “뮌헨에 가면 꼭 가야할 곳” 리스트 몇개에 꼭 포함되어있었던 곳. 둘러보고 나오는데에는 5분정도가 걸리는데 굉장히 화려하고 어둡다. 1층만 개방되어 있는데 1층 자체가 고통이라는 주제로 장식된 곳이라 더 어둡고 무시무시한 느낌. 악마, 해골, 화난 표정의 얼굴들이 특히 많았던 곳.

English Garden. The creme of the crop, the best of the best when it comes to touring Munich. Everyone, including those from Munich, advise to go and it was easy to understand why. It has everything Germans enjoy: trees, the park, beer garden, a live band playing traditional folk music and a small stream called the Eisbach where you can swim and surf! Stuttgart has its fair shares of lovely parks and beer garden but no surfing stream. I first thought it was weird that there were so many people in their bathing suits (you will never find a Korean wearing a bikini in a random park in Korea. It’s quite the opposite since many Asians don’t enjoy having a tan) and especially because a lot of them were wet from top to bottom like they were swimming. We followed some and found this spot where people were surfing. And, like any other German form, it was done in a very orderly, very well organized fashion.

가장 인기가 많은 관광지 코스인 English Garden. 독일 대부분의 도시에서 볼 수 있는 맥주 가든이다. 공원 자체가 워낙 커서 걷기도 좋고 사람 구경하기도 좋은 곳인데 특히나 특이했던 점이 바로 서핑을 할 수 있는 시냇가가 있다는 것. 뮌헨 전체 일정중에서 이곳이 제일 신기하고 좋았다. 사실 독일인들은 햇빛이 조금이라도 비치면 너도나도 수영복 입고 나와서 잔디밭에 누워있는데 무려 서핑을 할 수 있는 곳이 있으니 여기가 바로 지상낙원. 수영복을 입고 돌아다니는 독일인들은 어디에서나 볼 수 있다. 잔디밭과 햇빛만 있으면 학교 앞, 주차장, 도서관 옆 가리지 않고 모두 누워서 태닝을 하고 있는 모습. 처음에는 어색하고 이상했는데 (지금도 약간은 이상) 2년정도 넘게 독일의 날씨를 직접 경험해보니 이해는 가는 상황까지 와버렸다.

The Chinese Tower that overlooks a huge beer garden. The live band plays inside, possibly the upper floor, the tower.

You wait your turn, surf and then roll back into the line. If you stay too long on the water, they start whistling and drumming their boards. Down you go. No more than 15 seconds. Everyone gets his or her fair share of practice time.

The Eisbach is a man-made stream or even river that flows through the English Garden. Surfing has been officially allowed since 2010, although surfers have been practicing here since 1972. This was the coolest thing I’ve seen in a while, and I had to stop G from jumping inside the water.

독일인들답게 굉장히 질서정연한 모습을 볼 수 있다. 보드를 들고 줄을 서 있다가 본인 차례가 되면 뛰어드는 시스템인데 조금 오래 끌고 있는다 싶으면 바로 응징, 휘파람을 불고 보드를 손으로 탁탁 치기 시작한다. 그러면 또 바로 미안한 모습으로 물속에서 나와 다시 줄을 서는 시스템. Eisbach이라는 불리는 이곳은 인공적으로 만든 곳으로 1972년부터 서퍼들이 서핑을 연습했던 곳. 2010년에서야 합법적으로 서핑을 할 수 있게 했는데 이런 것마저도 법으로 정해놓고 연습을 하다니.

What to eat in Munich was one very important question. Especially for us since we are pretty much acquainted to the German cuisine. The Schweinshaxe (“s-vine-hack-se”) literally means pork knuckle and is the most distinctive cuisine found in Munich, or Bavaria. It’s super heavy, at least for me, and it makes me feel like I’ve just eaten two kilos of steel. Any German restaurant in Munich offers them, but there’s one place that really stands out. It’s called Haxnbauer and I believe it’s the most elegant place where you can get this dish. But then, the grill says it all. You cannot not stop when your’e walking by it, because it’s both so big and the smell is overwhelming. In a good way.

독일 어디에서나 유명한 Schweinshaxe. 돼지정강이를 삶아서 다시 튀긴 요리인데 한번 먹으면 무슨 쇠를 먹은 것처럼 배가 굉장히 부르고 신나서 너무 많이 먹으면 잠에서 깰만큼 배가 답답해지기도 하는 무서운 요리. 특히 뮌헨에서 쉽게 먹을 수 있는데 대부분의 음식점들은 모두 판다. 그 중에서 유명한 곳이 Haxnbauer . 통닭구이처럼 정강이들 구워지는 모습을 보게끔 해놓았는데 사실 먹을 것을 생각안하고 이것만 보면 굉장히 맛있어보이긴 한다. 하지만 일단 먹기 시작하면 그 느끼함이란. 일반적으로 감자와 작은 샐러드 혹은 sauerkraut과 함께 나온다.

Being a bit of a snob when it comes to waiting half an hour for tables, we decided to move out from the touristic area and find somewhere that was a bit quieter, had a open terrace where you can eat and watch people walk by and also seemed to be a little less touristic when it comes to food. So Hackerhaus it was. After a long discussion of what to order, the Italian G decided we needed something else to calm our stomachs down from the oh so heavy Bavarian dish. So one Schweinshaxe and a Caesar salad. And water please.

Haxnbauer  에는 사람이 너무 많고 상대적으로 굉장히 비싸서 관광객이 많지 않고 오픈되어 있는 곳으로 향했다. Hackerhaus이라는 곳이었는데 사실 특별한 레스토랑은 아니고 관광지에서는 조금 벗어나서 조용했다는 점. Schweinshaxe 두 개는 도저히 자신이 없어서 하나와 샐러드 주문. 하나만 시켰는데도 호텔에 가니 배가 너무 불러서 물을 계속 마시는 상황 발생.

• Victuals Market
• Church of St. Peter, tower
• St. Johann Nepomuk (Sendlinger Strasse 32, 80331, Munich)
• English Garden
• Haxnbauer 
• Hackerhaus (located right next to the Asam church)

All photos by rachelsanghee