Munich, Germany has a great amount of history behind it; some of this can be seen through its architecture of many old and new buildings, the national territories, the abundant beer gardens and the Dachau concentration camp.
Over the weekend I stayed near the central train station, about a 10-minute walk to the city center. During this 10-minute walk it is easy to find lots of modern shopping and fast food restaurants. At the end of this strip the area opens up and you become surrounded by older beautiful architecture. This is called the Marienplatz, which is where you can see the New Town Hall and Glockenspiel. This gothic style building is where tourists come to hear the Glockenspiel ring three times a day. http://www.destination-munich.com/neues-rathaus.html. The Old Town Hall, also located in the city center, was built in 1392 in late-gothic style and served as a gate to the city. These buildings create territory between old and new as well as protection years ago. This area had become very touristy and throughout the square it is common to see live music and ‘human robots.’
National territories were also something I noticed a lot. It was easy to get lost walking around and throughout the city we would find ourselves in different ethnic areas. The largest among these ethnic groups were the Turks. All the restaurants and shops tailored toward Turkish people serving lots of kebab among other food. At one restaurant we ate at in this area our waiter was telling about the different areas and groups of people. I thought it was funny when he said, “we are all out of the penne pasta, and all the Italians come here on Thursday and eat all the penne.” These territories were something I found similar to the US with China Town and Little Italy.
One afternoon I spend the day at Dachau concentration camp. I found this to be very territorial. It was a very interesting yet somber place to visit. I hadn’t expected the camp to be so huge, although it was not equip to hold the huge numbers of Jews at the time of occupation. The prisoners were brought to Dachau and forced to build the road they came in on and the main building. This main building, the bunkers, the rows sleeping houses, and the role call plaza were surrounded by a three-meter wall and lines of barbed electric wire. This created a territory of discrimination and torture for the prisoners inside. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005214.
There was so much to see and do in Munich it was hard to make decisions. Luckily it is very easy to get around on the tram and I quickly noticed they do not check you tickets. The parks and beer gardens were everywhere and I was surprised to see how crowded they got. The Hofbräuhaus was definitely somewhere everyone needs to go if you love liters of beer, pretzels, and live German music and dance shows. The Englischergarten is close to the city center along the River Isar. People were laying out on the beaches, drinking and even surfing in the river; It was a really beautiful park.
It sounds like Munich has a lot to offer! I like how you hit on all different aspects of everyday life and history which is prominent in that influential city. Not only does it have huge ancient churches, but it has never dying beer gardens and the remnants of the holocaust as well. You talk about walking around tourist areas but at the same time it seems like you were able to get to something beyond the "tourist" lens and were able to "travel" to Munich. What a cool experience that must have been. Was it easy to do that? I enjoyed reading about your journey into Munich and it sounds like a place certainly worth checking out!
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