The Monopterus in the English Garden

Munich Blog from Cat and Danny from Manchester.

We had a brilliant time watching the surfers of Munich by the southern tip of the park up in the English Garden just south of the ‘Monopteros‘.
We got there on our bikes that we hired from ‘Mikes Bike tours’ for a competitive price of 15 euros each for the day. They gave us a free large map and some bike routes. From the bike shop we took a right, then a left and rode down the ‘Tal’ road, over ‘Ludwigs Bridge’ took a left through the park and crossed back over the river a couple of bridges later at ‘Luitpold Bridge’. We then followed the river all the way up to the ‘Hirshau Beer Garden’ and made our way along bike path via the ‘Munich Hilton’ to the ‘Chinesischer Turm‘  – The Chinese Gardens.

The Chinese Tower with the nice beergarden.

We choose to picnic shortly after this by a bridge in the park where three river ways met, it was a very pretty spot. We then set out to find the surfing area. When we found it down by the ‘Prinzregentenstrasse‘ and we were absolutely fascinated!  We sat for a good 40 minutes with a beer amazed by the powerful current of the river and the bravery of the crazy surfers that kept on going back for more and more surf!  Incredible to watch!  And apparently whether its rain or shine these guys and girls are on it having a great time on the Isar Wave !!!!

Thanks Christine,  keep in touch.   xxx
–
Catherine Taylor Dawson

www.catherinetaylordawson.moonfruit.com
www.myspace.com/catherinetaylordawson
www.soundcloud.com/cattd.

Schloß Neuschwanstein

I have taken student groups to Germany for many years now, and I always look forward to showing my students Munich. Due to its thoughtfully designed public transportation system, getting to Munichs many terrific attractions is wonderfully easy and convenient. Always included in the itinerary are the Pinakothek der Moderne, Dachau, and Neuschwanstein, all with guided tours.  We also see the city first hand with a Mikes Bikes tour, which is much better for getting a feel for the city than a bus tour.

We enjoy a dinner at the historic Donisl and also eat in the Augustiner Keller in the Biergarten. With regards to accomodation, there are many hotels to choose from, but I have been in particular very pleased with Hotel Monaco, due to its location near the Hauptbahnhof, kind service, reasonable pricing, cheery rooms and excellent beds.

Hotel Monaco, cosy double room

The breakfast buffet offers a fine variety of fresh meats, cheeses, breads and juices, and quite importantly, the coffee is good, too.  Overall a really good value with a staff that pays attention to your experience.

Jamin L.

As nice as it is to visit churches and museums and so much more, on some sunny days there is nothing better to do than just hanging around.

In summertime there´s no better place to do so than going to our beautiful English Garden.

The Monopterus in the English Garden

„Garden“ actually is a very confusing name. We are talking of one of the world largest parks! 78 km of trails are expecting you here, much more as you could explore in one day.

It´s beautifully arranged and perfectly located, just in the city center.

The easiest way to get there is by subway number 5, starting from the main station. Get off at the 2nd stop which is „Odeonsplatz“

Otherwise you can even rent a bike for your „garden day“, there are several bike rental places next to our hotel.

Starting from the impressive Odeonsplatz you should walk through the Hofgarten. Signs will lead you into the English Garden. No chance to get lost here

If you really want to realx properly why not renting a horse drawn carriage and feel like a princess some hundred years ago?
Being now in the southern part of the park you´ll find a lot of impromptu entertainment.

Bands singing their latest songs, drummers giving of their best, cricket players playing off.

What else do you need on a sunny day?

Fresh icecream is sold everywhere, families settle down for a picknick, couples enjoy themselves, Lots of beergardens invite you for a snack and drink.

The most famous one is certainly the one at the Chinese Tower. Here hundreds of tourists listen to traditional bavarian music.

The Chinese Tower with the nice beergarden.

All those we only have thanks to Mr Rumford, the primarly minister of war, more than 200 years ago.

He constructed that park for his soldiers in order to instruct them on agricultural knowledge.
But those times luckily are over since a long time.

So we continue our walk to the little lake, where you can rent boats or feed the ducks.

Behind that lake, in the northern part of the park you will meet much less people. Here you can really lay down and relax.

Little kiosks sell drinks and snacks and you will meet a lot of funny Munich

Little kiosks in the Garden for a short break.

people here – there´s more variety than you might expect.
On your way back you should definitely stop at the japanes teahouse. This japanese garden has been built by occasion of the olympic games in 1972.

Once in a while traditional japanese teaceremonies are celebrated here.

Our friendly staff will be happy to tell you when exactly!

So enjoy your day. Yours Sandra

Hotel Monaco.

The Munich Victualienmarket during the spring time.

A spring walk through the “Viktualienmarkt” in Munich

Do you know the “Viktualienmarket“? It´s a gorgeous, very traditional grocery market, selling since hundres of years the most beautiful fancy foods.

I really fancy that place a lot, especially in spring time.

At any time of the year 150 farmers or traders are selling here the most exotic fruits as well as very old traditional vegetables, which elsewhere can hardly be found any more, honey, fresh meat or chesse, bread and so much more. The grocereies are so niceley arranged that you almost don´twant to buy anything, just in order not to destroy the wonderful arrangements.

Walking through the market is an incredible mixture of smells, colours and tastes.

And where does the name come from? “Viktualie” is an original latin word which has been used in Germany in ancient times and means nothing else than simply “groceries”.

But you cannot only buy food and spices for your kitchen, if you are getting hungry right now, there´s a wide range of little eateries where you can try the most traditional german sausages e.g., as fresh as they can hardly be found anywhere else.

A vey charming place is the little beergarden in the middle of the plaza. Each month one of the 4 biggest breweries serves here their beer, so one more reason to come more recently here.

In this beergarden you will certainly find a lot of tourists coming from all over the world, but you will find a lot of bavrians and people Munich as well – a nice little globalised world. And after some beers  language problems will be easliy overcome.

You will find even some beautiful fountains here which are dedicated to important actors of Munich, like Liesl Karlstadt or Karl Valentin.

Each day they are lovely decorated with fresh flowers.

Certainly a lot of people would love to rent or buy a stall at this market, but this is unfortunately impossible. The owners will pass theis shops on only to their families.

The market is even a stage for events on several occasions. The most interesting event here is probaly the traditional dance of the femal marketsellers during carneval.

After all those impressions a quiet finish of this spring walk is highly required. There´s two very important churches just around the corner, there´s the “Alte Peter” and the “HeiligGeist” church.

If you should decide to climb up the 306 steps to the top of St Peters tower you will be delighted by an incredible view over Munich. On some days view is possible even till to the Alps.

And that´s by far not everything you can find on the Viktualienmarket. Explore it yourself! All you need to do is to follow the beautiful smells and you will be surprised by a variety of great spring offers.

By the way: Even our hotel has some great spring offers!

And our already cosy hotel has been all renovated and new furnished rooms are awaiting you

Your Hotel Monco

Sandra

We checked the news and weather reports daily and were increasingly pessimistic about the odds of our flight being able to leave San Francisco. However, two days before our departure, everything cleared up and we arrived 30 minutes ahead of schedule. After a day in Venice and a week onboard a cruise ship through the Greek islands, we began the German portion of our trip, arriving at the Munich train station on Saturday night.

We were thankful to find the Hotel Monaco just a 5 minute walk away. After settling in, we immediately headed out to find a good place for dinner. Our initial thought was to find a cafe or restaurant near Marienplatz. This would have been a fine idea almost any other day than May 1, since the entire area was swarming with soccer fans, and many restaurants were filled to capacity. After trying three different places, we ended up at Ratskellar, and enjoyed a fine meal there, including some excellent apple strudel with ice cream. Yummy!
We headed back to Hotel Monaco for a good night’s sleep (though it was a little noisy out there!) and a delicious breakfast in the morning.

After examining the weather report, we decided that Sunday would not be a good day to see Munich, so we headed back to the train station bound for Salzburg. We visited the Mozart museum, then took the Sound of Music tour to learn the REAL story of the family von Trapp, then headed back to Munich.

Today we again deferred our visit to the sites of Munich to take a tour of the Linderhoff and Neuschwanstein castles. Since we had limited time and wanted to see both castles, we took the Grayline tour. This tour got off to a rocky start because they apparently oversold it and some people who had tickets were turned away.

We were among the lucky ones who knew that we needed to be there at 8 a.m., and we snagged the last couple of seats on the top level, and had wonderful views of all the sites. Our tour guide, Monica, was excellent, and had the perfect balance of providing helpful information to help everyone get the most out of our trip.

We are leaving tomorrow night, so we will have just one day to see what Munich itself has to offer. Our plan is to have one final breakfast here at the hotel, then head to the shops on Marienplatz, leaving in time to see the Glockenschpiel display at 11 a.m. Then lunch at the Viktualienmarkt, a stop at the Deutsches Museum, and then dinner at Hofbrauhaus before getting on the night train for Berlin.

Munich Viktualienmarket hotel

I am returning from Romania and my wife and I needed some rest and relaxation. We checked into the Hotel Monaco in Munich and what a wonderful surprise.

Caroline met us at the reception desk and took care of us in every way possible with the most friendly attitude. She has made our stay in Munich very memorable. The room is great and I would recommend this hotel to anyone.

Munich is a special place to visit, but the hotel is very special. I love the old world charm of the city. The city center with its outdoor restaurants make any evening a special night out. I just love to walk around and take in the atmosphere. As we arrived today we found out that a 2 week holiday period has just started and therefore the stores are all closed but not the restaurants. We do not mind being here on a holiday. We are only going to spend one night here in Munich on this trip. I would love to spend more time here but my schedule will not allow for it at this time. Munich is also a great location to begin your trek on the Romantic Road. On a previous trip we flew into Munich and rented a car to make this journey on this special route. Since Munich is situated in Bavaria you cannot go wrong with coming to this city.
Geoff and Priscilla Volker, Phoenix, Arizona, USA.