Munich Day 2: two walking tours!

Tuesday 24th September

Today was a very full day and we are exhausted so this will be rather brief.

Our morning started with a walk down to see the Oktoberfest site followed a by a 10.45 am walking tour of Munich with Sandeman Free walks. Our guide for this tour was Aileen and she was excellent in giving us an overview of Munich’s history.

The Viktualienmarkt was just near the end of our morning tour and so we stopped there for lunch and a rest. This area has been a market place for the last 200 years so it was impressive to take some time out and soak up this history.

We had decided to take the afternoon 3 hr Third Reich walking tour (15 Euro p/p) and this started at 2.30 pm. Our guide for this tour was Jax and he was excellent in bringing the development of WW2 and the rise of Adolph Hitler to life.

I’d highly recommend both tours if ever in Munich.

Some bits of information I collected along the way include:

Most of Munich was destroyed during WW2 and much of the city seen today is a reconstruction.
The Cathedral and Town Hall building were spared from bombing as they were used as landmarks by the allies.
The Town hall looks 500 years old but is actually only around 111 years old.
Munich: the area was initially first inhabited by Monks. The Monks brewed beer as the water was not safe to drink. It was also considered nutritious.
Bavarians unique in Germany and have a specific culture. They are viewed in relation to Germans as are Parisians to the French.
Oktoberfest: history was it started with a wedding where all town were invited as a distraction after the mass killings from fighting Napoleon. This tradition has been going for 185 years.
Lederhosen and traditional dress are becoming more popular with Germans. Our guide explained that most folk in Munich would own a set of such clothes and wear them at least a few times throughout the year.
Oktoberfest: earns Munich 1.1 billion euros in the 2 weeks of its duration.
Munich earns 15% of its income from beer brewing.
Haufbrauhaus: the record for carrying 1 liter steins is 29! This beer hall was popular with Mozart and Lenin and is popular with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Our afternoon tour finished at around 5.30 pm and this left us just enough time to make our 6 pm dinner booking at Schiller Brau. Neither of us were that hungry but we soldiered through some more traditional Bavarian fare.