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Beer Gardens and bare arsed People: Travel Article on Munich

Published in Mannlif Magazine, Icleand, October 04

English Version:

I was born in Munich. I was raised in Munich. At the age of 20 I left Munich in disgust: too clean, rich and boring. I was heading for the real life, bohemian, dirty, wild and exciting. Now, 15 years later and living in London, I cannot wait to leave for my sporadic trips to my hometown and a few days of clean air, beauty and peace around me (as well as good beer!).

Munich is called the “biggest village in the world”. And it is true: for a city of well over one million, it does not feel like a metropolis. It is too pretty, too spacious, too green, too calm and far too conservative to be

compared with great cities such as Berlin, Paris, London etc. But that is just it! It has taken me many years to realise that what had initially driven me away is precisely the strength of this town. Just try the Englischer Garten (English Garden): a massive park in the middle of the town, which draws thousands of people in the summer. If you enter from the south, you can spend a few moments at a somewhat magical place, unique in the world: a step in the fast flowing canal of the Eisbach (Ice River) forms a standing wave which has been discovered years ago by the surfing community. Though illegal and only just tolerated by the authorities, the place has become quite famous for spectators and surfers

alike, who deliberately ignore the slightly overdramatic “Achtung! Mortal Danger!” signs. The wave has even made it into the “Stormriders Guide”, the guide to international surfing. Watch out Hawaii, here come the Lederhosen!

Further down the park the river widens and slows and invites all the sunbathers to a cool down. But be aware: us Germans have a long tradition of nude bathing. Once an elderly English lady I met, left the museum “Haus der Kunst” , and entered the park still deeply in thoughts about the exhibition she had just seen. She was in for a shock when she became suddenly aware that she was surrounded by hundreds of naked men with tattoos and piercings, with no other woman in sight: unfortunately, she had wandered into the gay section of the park. However, the park is huge, and there is a place for everybody.The water specialists let themselves drift along the Eisbach through the whole park, exit at the end and

take the tram back to the beginning. You might find yourself in a wagon with dripping people in bathing suits. Even though they clearly have no tickets, the city tolerates these “cheaters” with good humour. The line was drawn, however a few years ago when a nude swimmer wanted to take the tram back and thus made the headlines of all local newspapers.

Located in the middle of the park is a beautiful example of the one invention Bavaria has given to the world: the Biergarten (Beer Garden)! But the world did not listen! For all the tour guides recommend the beer halls in Munich to. Rubbish! Maybe in the winter… but no, not even then would you find me in the Hofbräuhaus. That is just for tourists! When I told a friend from Munich that I was going to recommend the wonders of the

beer garden to potential Icelandic tourists, his first reaction was: "No! Don’t tell them! Let them go to the Hofbräuhaus, so they can be amongst themselves" (and we can stay amongst ourselves). Hmm, he might have a point. But I do feel passionate about the philosophical concept of the beer garden; it should be shared throughout the universe! The “Biergarten” is the embodiment of “Gemütlichkeit”, a word that is almost impossible to translate into English. “Cosiness” might come close. But the Bavarian Comedian Gerhard Polt found perhaps the best definition in that Gemütlichkeit is the “Mixture of time, beer and money”, needing enough off all three. Nevertheless, the beergarden is not a place for binge drinking. Though it might as well happen, that, after a pleasant evening, you end up slightly tipsy, it would be unfortunate to go to a beer garden with the plan to get drunk. For it is a place for a quiet evening chatting to friends, eating food and relaxing. And since most beer gardens have playgrounds these days, it is one of the few ways of going for a drink with friends who have children. As the first drink of the day I recommend a “Radler”, a mixture of beer and lemonade. This might sound strange, but believe me: after a hot, sweaty day this is the ideal drink to rehydrate without getting drunk too quickly. And whilst sitting there, with a bit of luck, you might even have the pleasure of a Bavarian Humpa-Brass-Band. It gets more bearable after a couple of beers, believe me! And another couple of beers later, you will be

singing along, no doubt! For beer in beergardens is normally drunk in “Mass’n“ – glasses which hold 1 litre of beer. The Bavarian beer is traditionally more malty and sweet than northern beers and thus can take a slightly higher drinking temperature. So no one has to down their litre in a frenzy, afraid that it might get too warm and stale.

Another interesting way to immerse yourself into Bavarian culture – the beautiful outdoors, a brass band, and plenty of beer – is to take a raft down the river Isar. Historically, this was the way to transport wood from the forest rich country close to the Alps to Munich. The trip starts in Wolfratshausen, a town easily accessible by public transport, and it takes you on a 6 hour journey to downtown Munich, including a stop at a Bavarian Pub for lunch. The countryside is beautiful, the beer too. You can argue about the band… And if the weather is nice, you can swim along the raft, and teenagers jump from low bridges, climbing the raft and hitching a short ride and a glass of beer.

Munich is remarkably “wet”: the river Isar has been re-naturalised in recent years and invites thousands of bathers with plenty of pebbled banks throughout the city and with an excellent water quality. Additionally, the countryside around Munich hosts many small lakes. After a dusty, hot day, go for a quick dip in the river or drive the 25 Minutes out of town. And yet again, a beergarden in which to recover from the exhausting water sport and to re-hydrate will never be far away.

As mentioned before, Munich is a quite conservative city. This is reflected in its architecture: very pretty but basically built in the late 19th century with few

modern attempts. True, it has got its fair share of 60s concrete catastrophes: when you stand on the main square, the Marienplatz, and admire the old town hall from 1447 and next to it the new town hall from 1900, just turn round for a second and marvel at the taste and subtlety the retailer Kaufhof has planted its shopping mall into the cityscape.

But Munich has remarkably few exciting and famous modern buildings. There is only one exception and that is the Olympic Stadium complex from 1972: built as a tent structure where Perspex roofs are hanging from poles, this is a visual masterpiece as well as a technical one: for the distribution of the tensions of the

curving roof structure is highly complex. And during planning in the late 60s, there was no computer in the world powerful enough to calculate the strength of wire and poles needed. They had to build everything with a huge safety margin. Only in the 1990s did computers finally catch up, a simulation was run and it turned out, that the poles could actually carry 3 times as much as they are now. The result is, though unmistakably 1970s, refreshingly different to normal stadiums, which mostly are concrete circles. In fact, it is the most beautiful stadium in the world! And I am saying this with some authority, having seen many of the other

great stadiums: Camp Nou in Barcelona, Bernabéu in Madrid and Laugardalur Stadium in Reykjavik.Home to FC Bayern Munich, the most successful German football club of all times, it is always worth watching a match. But the latest highlight is the recently introduced daily tour across the roof. Wearing a climbing harness and strapped to a safety cable, this tour is nothing for people who are afraid of heights. But the rewards are a unique perspective of the stadium and breathtaking views over Munich and the Alps.

And last a suggestion for a rainy day, especially with children: the Deutsches Museum, one of the world's largest museums of science and technology. When I was a lad, my dad used to take me quite regularly. Even

though the museum hosts whole ships and submarines, an enormous train and car section and numerous other wonders, for me, it always had to be the mining department. My poor dad! I do not know how often he was forced to take me through the same exhibits. But what an adventure! Stairs would lead you down into the bowels of the earth and in almost complete darkness you would follow the mineshafts and get a demonstration of coal- and other mining techniques through the centuries. The last time I went this summer, however, the weather was so hot that the museum had opened the emergency exits for better ventilation. And suddenly in the darkest,

scariest mineshaft, there was a door wide open, letting in bright daylight and showing trees in a gentle breeze. And it turned out that the whole mining department is not hundreds of meters below the surface, as I believed as a child, not even in the museums cellar, but almost street level! After 30 years a childhood dream was shattered! Fortunately, in this city, there is always a beergarden nearby to recover.