48 Hours in Munich -- Beyond the Food and Beer How Munich Will Captivate You



Beer Garden at the Chinese Tour in the Englischer Garten 

Yes a brief stop in Munch is much about visiting the beer gardens and halls, and both were on a list of must-see-dos on a trip through Germany, but there is much more to this old and new beautiful city. We stayed in a hotel off the Englischer Garten (English Garden) about 15 minutes by taxi to the center of old Munich.   Since we were planning to visit several museums and wanted to spend time at the beer garden in the English Garden close by, this was a perfect location.

After quickly dropping off luggage in our room mid-afternoon, we headed off by taxi to the Deutsches Museum, passing by and snapping a quick photo of the Ishator Gate en route.   Like much of Germany, at the time, the 14th-century entrance to the old city was under some kind of restoration when we drove by.  The Deutsches Museum, opened until five everyday, is the largest scitech museum in the world. As an airplane enthusiast I was eager to see the early German aircraft.  The German engineer Otto Lilienthal was the first man to launch himself into the air, fly, and land safely. He also was an important source of inspiration and information for the Wright brothers in the next decade. He built his first glider in 1891. the one pictured below was built in 1895.

Early the next morning we headed out to the Alte Pinakothek, one of the oldest art museums in the world with one of the largest collections of old masters.   Beforehand we stopped for breakfast at a near by cafe housed in a building from 1900, Tresznjewski, and were overwhelmed with the abundance of both intriguing and good food.

The Alte Pinakothek, is one of three Pinakotheks in the museum area -- the Alte focuses on old masters, while the Neue (New) Pinakothek covers the 19th century and Pinakothek der Moderne exhibits modern art.  The collection is so staggering that its difficult to grasp it all in one visit including major works by Ruebens (one that is so large a gallery was designed specifically for it), Rembrandt,  Goya, El Greco, Fragonard, Bouchard, Da Vinci....

Leonardo Da Vinci's "Virgin and Child"

From the Pinakoteck we took a bus to the Old Town to see Munich's famous glockenspiel with its 43 bells and 32 figures.  We had to get there by noon to watch a representation of the 1568 tournament by the figurines and the Cooper's Dance below.

Just off Marienplatz, the old town's main plaza, sits St. Peter's Church, the oldest parish church in Munich  badly damaged as much of Munich was during World War II, but beautifully restored,  You can climb some 300 plus steps for a stunning view of Munich (we didn't make this), but we just spent  some quiet time  in this splendid place admiring the recreated ceiling murals, frescos and statuary.

Then it was off to the must-do Hofbrauhaus, the world's most famous beer hall founded in 1589 for a Duke,  for  lots of big beers, German music and more wurst, pretzels and potatoes than we needed.

After a stroll through Dallmayr's, the luxury food store dating back to the 17th century, just to browse, we called it a day.

On our last morning in Munich, we made our way to the monumental site known as the Residenz. a complex of 112 rooms parts dating back to the 15th century, which served as the seat of government and residence of the Bavarian dukes, electors and kings from 1508 to 1918.    The primary focus of our time there though was to see what is thought to be one of the finest representations of Rococo architecture in the world, the  Cuvillies Theatre.  Originally in the space where the new national theatre stands, the major pieces of the original  Cuvillies were preserved during WW II by literally dismantling them  for safety in 1943.  The theatre was then in 1956 reassembled in a new building near theApothekenhof (Apothecary Court) in the Residenz. The Cuvilliés-Theater – also known as the Altes Residenz-Theater, now reached from the Brunnenhof (Fountain Court), was a bit tricky to find, but the search was well worth the treasure found at the end of it - a Gesamtkunstwerk, as it is called, a totally comprehensive piece of art in its own right.. And while we were visiting we were privileged to hear a mini-concert, by the pianist rehearsing for a sold-out concert that evening.

Certainly, Munich is a place to linger and explore longer.

Travel to Lijiang along the Old Silk Road In Southwest China

The ancient city of Lijiang owes much of its unique character to its crossroads location on the old Silk Road also called the Ancient Tea and Horse Road or Ancient Tea Route. The Ancient Southern Silk Road starting from Burma, wandered across Lijiang, traveled through Persia (Iran) and wound its way to the Mediterranean Sea. Travelers en route brought along with their goods, their religions, their customs, their languages, their science, their philosophy and their cuisines much of which remained and blurred into local culture.

Today travelers this way continue to leave behind their culture to the consternation of the purist. In fact, many of the more seasoned explorers advise avoiding Lijiang with its western influences,  fast-food restaurant chains, faux historics structures and costumes, and flocks of Chinese and western tourists. To us, Lijiang was just the degree of exotic we wanted to explore in this region of China, and only a short distance from the place which Hilton in Lost Horizon dubbed Shangri- la.

The hotel where we stayed in Lijiang meanders around the foothills, lower ones, that run below what ultimately leads to the Himalayas and some of the highest peaks in the world.   

Lijiang is full of stories.  Stories of an orchestra that survived the communists who tried to eradicate them during the cultural revolution.  Tried to take away from them their history, their culture, their music.  It survived. And now the ancient orchestra plays with joy to visitors who come throughout China to hear them.

Other stories revolve around people who live near Dr. Joseph Rock's old house and bedeck visitors with flowers.

And others are around  exotic foods being sold in the markets and around people full of humor and casualness so unlike Beijing.  

And around a society led by women where men play instruments and lead a more leisurely life.   And where anicent 

Here we had a Dongba shaman inscribe an anniversary message in the ancient Dongba script. 

Although now crawling with tourists (mostly Chinese), Lijiang is  a World Heritage Site worth adding  to your bucket list.