Citizens of the World: A Stoic Podcast for Curious Travelers - Munich Must-Sees Travel Guide (Plus Day Trips)

Episode Date: October 12, 2018

Today is all about Munich, Germany, often ranked among the world’s most livable cities. I’m continuing my conversation with independent tour guide Maxine Ryder, who you heard on our Oktoberfest episode. She is a British Australian who’s made Munich her home.   You may know that Munich was the birthplace of the Nazi movement and that 80-90% of Munich was bombed in World War II. Maxine and I talk about the beer hall where Hitler honed his oratory skills; about the sad King who came before him and built castles to escape reality; and more.    But it’s not all doom and gloom. Munich is packed with great museums and restaurants and is an easy train ride to fantastic destinations for hikers and castle lovers, and we cover that, too. Visit postcardacademy.co for spellings and links to what we talk about.   But back to Germany’s dark history: if you’re visiting Munich you should visit the Dachau Concentration Camp to pay respect to the victims, survivors, and liberators of the camp. It’s not hard to get to from Munich, and Maxine takes tours there.    I’m your host, Sarah Mikutel. Ready to travel? Sign up for my newsletter and get your free guide to cheap airfare.    Thank you so much for listening to this show. I know you’re busy and have many listening options, so it means a lot to me that you’re here. You are the best.   This podcast is brought to you by Audible. Not a member yet? Postcard Academy listeners can get a FREE audiobook and a 30-day free trial if you sign up via audibletrial.com/postcard   This podcast is also brought to you by World Nomads. Need simple and flexible travel insurance? Get a cost estimate from World Nomads using their handy calculator at postcardacademy.co/insurance  Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

Welcome to the Postcard Academy, your weekly travel and culture podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Micatel. Thank you for spending time with me during your busy week. I really appreciate you being here. Today is all about Munich, Germany, often ranked among the world's most livable cities. I'm continuing my conversation with independent tour guide Maxine Ryder, who you heard on our Octoberfest episode. She is a British Australian who has made Munich her home. You may know that Munich was the birthplace of of the Nazi movement, and that 80 to 90% of the city was bombed and destroyed in World War II. Maxine and I will talk about the Beer Hall, where Hitler honed his oratory skills, about the sad king who came before him and built castles to escape reality, and so much more.

But it's not all doom and gloom. Munich is packed with great museums and restaurants, and it's an easy train ride to fantastic destinations for hikers and castle lovers, and we cover all of that too. Visit Postcardacademy.com for spellings and links to what we talk about. But back to Germany's dark history. If you're visiting Munich, you should really visit the Daqal concentration camp and pay your respects to the victim, survivors, and liberators of the camp. It's not hard to get to from Munich, and Maxine actually takes tours there so you can go with her. Okay, this episode is brought to you by Audible. I'm guessing

you like audio since you're listening to this show. Want to enjoy a free audiobook this week? As a Postcard Academy listener, you can get a free audiobook and a 30-day free trial to Audible if you sign up for the first time using the link, audibletrial.com slash postcard. Now into my conversation with Maxine. I would love to talk more about Munich. So could you give us a visual snapshot of Munich, where is it geographically? What does the postcard look like? Okay, well, it's close to the Alps.

We're only about an hour away from the Alps. here. So on a clear day, if you go up to one of the towers, you can actually see the Alps from Munich. It's close to the Austrian, Czech and Swiss borders. So it's the southernmost state in Germany. And it's an alpine region, and it's a great location because it has railway lines running to all major cities of Europe. So you can go, it's a great central location for Europe for traveling. So it's easy to get to Austria. it's easy to get to Italy, Switzerland, Prague, Budapest, Paris. So a wonderful location. So when you begin your tours, how do you ground your guests in the history of the city? What do you start off by saying about the history of Munich?

Well, it was founded in 1158 by Henry the Lion. So the lion is the heraldic symbol of Munich. And so the city history is 860 years old. I tell people about how the salt was so important for food preservation and it was used as currency. So this is where the word salary comes from. It was the most important trade in the Middle Ages. And the royal family ruled for 740 years and left a great legacy behind. So pretty much everything that Munich and Bavaria has to show off to the tourists today is the legacy that the royal family left behind. The unfortunate thing with Munich's history is, of course, it was plagued by the Nazi regime. It's the birthplace of the Nazi regime. And after the First World War ended and the monarchy came to an end, that was the time that Adolf Hitler had moved to Munich.

And after the war joined a small marginal political party called the German Workers Party. So the origins of the Nazi Party began in Munich. And this is, of course, the history that affected the city so much because it led to the beginning of the Second World War and to the destruction of most European cities. So I talk about also the rebuilding after the war and how the Germans became demonically industrious after the war and really wanted to rebuild and show to the rest of the world that they could be an economic powerhouse again. And with this incredible industriousness, they rebuilt in such a quick time within 20 years. And this is how they earned the title of Germany's secret capital in the 1960s. And this is why they decided, the city of Munich decided to celebrate that status by putting in a proposal for the Olympic Games. And in 1972, they got to host the Olympic Games.

And, well, the rest is history since then because it was the Olympic Games that really put Munich on the map again. And really since then, they had an economic boom. And there's been no looking back since. Yeah, that is a stunning turnaround. So they were aided by the Marshall Plan. I guess. Yeah. Because I interviewed somebody from Berlin while they were all toiling under communism,

the West was able to build and invest. And yeah, it is stunning how much can change in just a few decades. Yeah, it's really quite remarkable, especially people are always amazed when I show them, when we're standing in the square and I'm showing them photographs of how it looked in 1944, 1945 after the bombing. And you look around and see what an immaculate job they've done of trying to rebuild. build their city. And now it's an economic powerhouse. It's one of the most, it's one of the wealthiest cities today in Germany and in Europe. And it's thriving. You know, it's the second biggest

publishing capital in the world as well. So it's, it's really very impressive. And that's when you see how those great qualities that the Germans have, industriousness and efficiency and hard work, how they put it to good use after the war, and turned everything around. So as a British slash Australian, do you find it, or did you find it difficult culturally to fit in when you first arrived? In the beginning, it was a little bit tough sometimes. I mean, first of all, the language, I had no idea about the German language. That was tough to learn German. I'd learned Italian and I'd learned, I don't speak French, but I had learned it. So it's very different to the Latin languages. They're very gruff, the Bavarians. So there was a kind of rudeness

that I've kind of come to accept now. It's just the way they are. But I found that really difficult at times to adjust to because people in Australia are a lot more kind of easygoing and relax. And, you know, so that was a very stark contrast for me. Now that I've been here for 21 years. I just see that as part of the, you know, it's just the Bavarian thing, but I know that it's something that tourists find a little bit, a bit confronting sometimes. And sometimes Americans say to me, oh, I don't think they like me here. And they don't like Americans. I'm like, no, no, it's not about Americans. I said, that's just the way they are. I take it personally. Let's say that I've never been to Munich before and I'm coming to visit you for a long weekend. What would you say are our

must seas in Munich? Well, definitely the must see. This has become a very big tourist attraction. In the garden, there are surfers that surf on an artificial wave. And every time I take people there, they are so surprised because we're landlocked in Munich and there's, of course, no beach around here. And here are dozens of surfers surfing in the middle of the city, in the park. So that's a must-see. And I would definitely say the English garden. My favorite thing to do with tourists is to hire a bike and ride through the English gardens and go and sit in a beer garden. That's a really, wonderful part of Bavarian culture. Could you talk a little bit more about what a beer garden is?

I think it's, well, I'll let you describe it. They have some very big beer gardens. I mean, one of the largest is the Herschgarten near the Nymphenberg Palace, which I believe holds about 8,000 people. And then you can have something that's called a Vertsgarten. So it's like the Hofboy house has its own small beer garden there. Now the difference is in a big beer garden, a typical traditional beer garden,

you can actually bring your own food. And this was actually a decree that was written by the first king of Bavaria, King Max Joseph. In 1812, he passed a law that allowed the brewers to serve beer directly from the cellars. And also he allowed the people to bring their own food. And this was a way of not taking business away from the restaurants. So instead of serving food at the beer garden, they allowed people to bring a picnic basket, what they call here Brotsite, which is bread and cheese and cold cuts. But this is all developed into a beer garden food culture as well.

They now serve their own food. So the beer gardens are usually divided up into two areas. One area has the tables with tablecloths, which is table service, where you have a waitress, and then the other bare wooden tables, you can bring your own picnic basket. So it's a wonderful part of Bavarian culture, and people are really, This is when you see the Bavarians at the real happiest when they're sitting underneath the chestnut trees in the beer garden on a lovely sunny day. I mean, life doesn't get better than that. Always outside, under trees.

And it's chestnut trees as well. Chestnut trees. And so in the winter, do they bring out heat lamps? Do they keep this traditional life all winter long? Well, the beer garden is generally closed in the winter because it does get very bitterly cold here. But there's occasions when we have really beautiful sunny days in the middle of winter. on a day when they have the fern wind, which is a warm wind from the Alps. And if we have one of those days in the middle of winter, they will open some of the beer gardens

if it's warm enough to sit outside. But generally they close. What are some of our other musties? Well, if you have an extra day, I would definitely go to the Bavarian castles. Nois-Fundstein Castle is usually on people's top five things to see in Munich. On a more serious note, people usually want to go and visit Dachau concentration camp. In fact, most visitors that I have usually make a trip out to Dachau, which is a half day. To see the castle as a full day.

And I would definitely say to people to go and see the Alps, either go to the castle or take a train to one of the Alpine towns south of Munich and go hiking. If you're into hiking, that's something that's something that. I particularly love to do on a free day. Staying in the city, if I'm interested in palaces, could you tell me a little bit more about the city palace? The city palace is also a must-see, the residence palace, which is the former residence of the Vittlesbach monarchy. It was all rebuilt after the war, and it's really very impressive. In fact, one of the oldest rooms in the palace is called the Antiquarium, and it's a former banqueting hall, and it's absolutely exquisitely beautiful.

And the treasury inside the residence as well is world-class. It's fabulous. There's 130 rooms, so you do need a lot of time to visit the palace. And you can get a ticket either for the whole palace or just get a ticket for the general palace and a separate ticket for the treasury. But you do need a lot of time for that because it's massive. Was that the permanent residence of the royal family? That was a permanent residence of the Royals, well, the main residence, and it was also the seat of their administration, their government.

But they built a summer residence outside of the city center called Nymphenburg. And that's where the royal family would spend their summer months. Another thing that sticks out in my mind is the Glockenspiel. Can you talk about what that is and what the story is behind it? Yeah, well, I guess I would say, that's another must-see in the city center. The Glockenspiel, you can. only see it three times a day, although I do often see people there at every hour. It's only at 11, 12, and 5 o'clock in the summer months. And it's depicting two events that happened in the

16th century. One of them was a royal wedding of Wilhelm V and his bride, Renata of Lothringen, which took place in the main square of Munich, the Marineplatz, with a jousting Knights tournament. So that's the first spectacle of the Glockenspiel. And the second one is called the Sheffler Tans or the dance of the Coopers. And it was a celebration of the end of the plague. And the Coopers are the barrel makers at the breweries. And allegedly they were the first people to venture out of doors after the plague was over in the 16th century and dance in the streets to celebrate the end of the plague

and to encourage everybody in Munich to come out of their homes because it was safe again. And they made a vow that every seven years they would reenact this dance, which they do still today. So it will be next year in February that the seventh year will occur and they will do their dance in the city of Munich. Oh, very cool. And until then, we will have the Glock and Spiel. So at the accorded hour, the figurines of the clock tower come out and dance for a minute. That's right. Yeah, the whole thing takes 12 minutes.

And it is a big spectacle. And it's really lovely to see that people get really into the whole thing. This is old-fashioned, very quaint entertainment, but everybody enjoys seeing the Glockenspiel. Yeah, I think that was my favorite part of Munich. I love these old clocks. And the Abra House is gorgeous, and I heard an interesting story about the night that it burnt down. About being put out with beer from the Hofroy House. Yes.

It's apparently a true story, yeah. It sounds very far-fetched, but apparently that's true. I'm sure there's many versions to this story, but what I heard was that the opera house had pipes, but they froze. And the lake was also frozen. And so the people decided to make a human chain and pass buckets of beer to try to put out the fire. But then they just got tired because the buckets were too heavy. So they started to drink the beer, and then they all got really drunk. and the Aberhaus burned down.

Yes, there's lots of versions of the story. Which one is true? I don't know, but that's the one I've heard too. Yes, that's very funny. What are some hidden gems that you would take me to? Well, in the city centre, I particularly like a little square on the other side of the river called Vinaplatz.

It's a small square. It has a little farmer's market there and a little stand selling food and a little cafe. It's very small and it's very local. It's outside of the tourist area. And down the back street in that little square is a house, which featured in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. So it's my secret little gem that I take people to as a special treat when we do a bike tour. Because people are often surprised that the film was filmed in Munich.

So I show them Grandpa Joe's house. Oh. So, yeah. I'm quite interested in film locations. and it was something I discovered on my own. So I take people there as a little surprise. But it's a lovely little square, and they also have a tiny little beer garden there, very small,

and a huge beer garden that's owned by Hofboy called the Hofboy Keller Beer Garden. And it's a less touristy one because it's on the other side of the river, on the east side. So it tends to be the one that more locals go to. So that's a favorite spot. Trendy shops and nice little boutiques and cafes and people, The Glockenbach area, which is the gay quarter of Munich, is the favourite of mine as well, for shopping and for cafes. If I have a free day in the summer, I tend to get out of the city.

I put my bicycle on the train and I get out and go into the countryside and I go either cycling or hiking. Because I'm in the city all the time, I like to get out into the countryside. But if I do only have an afternoon, I tend to go down the river. I love to go down the river, go for a walk. It's beautiful down there. And within half an hour, you're out of the city center. And I will take my hammock with me, my portable hammock,

and I'll just hang my hammock on the side of the river and read my book. That's how I spend a free afternoon in the summer. Very nice. Are there any artificial beaches by the water where people are hanging out in the summer? Along the Issa River, they've created their own beaches, actually. where people go at night. And that's very lively on a nice summer night. People go down to the river, the Isar River.

They take picnics down there. They take their beer. Some people go swimming. And, yeah, it's in an inner city beach. It's fantastic. Is Munich like other major cities where there are bikes available for rent all over the place? There are. They're all over the place.

There's ones that are owned by the German Railway. And there's a couple of other companies as well. that have set up a bike hire that you can have with a chip card. Yeah, they're everywhere. And it's a very, very bike-friendly city. Cycling around Munich is very easy. There's bike trails everywhere. And that was one thing that I really loved about moving to Munich because I'm a bike rider.

I've never had a car. So for me, it was a dream to be in a city where there's bike tracks everywhere. Very nice. Where do you go to get a great view of the city? I would take people up to the town hall tower because it has an elevator and often I'm with people that are a lot older and they don't want to walk up 300 steps. So I take them up the elevator of the city hall, the rat house and the views from there are fantastic. So that's a good location. Or you can go to Olympic Park and they have a revolving restaurant at the Olympic Tower.

and occasionally I've taken people there and we've had lunch there while doing a revolution in the revolving restaurant. And it's nice to go also in the evening and watch the sun setting over Munich while having dinner or a cocktail. But within the inner city, there's also a cocktail bar

on the top of the Baryshirehof Hotel and anyone can go up there even if you're not a guest in the hotel. It's a little bit pricey but it's worth it just to sit up there and it's right near the cathedral. So you have a fantastic view right in the city center of the cathedral and the rooftops while having a nice cocktail.

And you might find yourself sitting next to someone famous as well because that's where a lot of the VIP guests that come to Munich, they stay at the Bairosha Hof Hotel. Great tip. I do you have a good rooftop there. Where else do you like to go out at night? I tend to not go into the city center at night because that's where I am for my job most of the time. So I tend to go more locally, maybe to the Glockenbach area. because some of our favorite restaurants are there.

Or to Heidhausen, which is a residential area on the east side of Munich, which is close to where I live. So there's a good number of different restaurants, Italian, Afghani, Indian, French. So it has a good variety of restaurants around there. Where do you go when you're in the mood for some culture, whether that's music or museums? I would go to art galleries. I tend to go to either the... the Pinocotech de Modern, the Contemporary Art Gallery, or House to Kunst.

Because I like modern art, and House to Kunst has changing exhibitions, and they have some of the top artists, contemporary artists of the world showing there. And sometimes in the evening, they'll have very cheap guided tours that you can do for about five euro. And it's always interesting to have a tour of the exhibitions by a curator. So I really enjoy doing those. And it's also good for my German as well to go and listen to some German every now and then because I'm speaking English so much. For English speakers, what would you recommend for them? Well, one of the top galleries I would absolutely recommend would be the Alta Pina Kotech for the Old Masters because it's considered one of the best collections in the world.

And I would go there. I mean, on the Sunday, there are only one euro, the state galleries. And they're all opposite each other. So there's the Altar Pinnakeretech, Noia Pinnacotech de Modern. And so for one euro, you could just hopped from one to the next. But the Alta Pinnacotech has Albrechtura's self-portrait, which for me, it's worth going there just to see that one painting because it's so exquisitely painted.

That's a must-see, I think, that painting. It would be, for me, like going to the Louvre and seeing the Mona Lisa. Great recommendation. You mentioned day trips. I'd like to dive a little bit deeper into that. And DACA in particular, I know that you're an officially accredited guide there. Could you talk a little bit more about why people should go to this site? So that they don't forget it.

I mean, that is the message of the memorial site, so that this history doesn't get forgotten about. And I think generally most people that I meet feel a sense of paying respect. by going there, particularly Americans, because they have a personal connection to DACA because it was liberated by Americans. So, yeah, I think it's important that it doesn't get forgotten about because it's such an important part of the history here. And, you know, for the survivors, I think it's important to pay that respect to them.

Yeah, and for anyone who doesn't know, this is a concentration camp memorial site. So could you just talk a little bit more about that history? When was that camp used? I mean, this wasn't one of the death camps. I think a lot of people are unclear about what these different sites were for. Yeah, well, Dachau originally opened as the first prototype camp. It was a model camp. It opened in March 1933 as a protective custody camp.

And it was political dissidents who were the first victim. of the concentration camp system. So the Germans themselves were the first victims. And that often comes as a surprise to visitors when they come to Daccau, because there's often a misconception about Dacow that it was all Jewish prisoners and it was an extermination camp. And it was neither of those. In fact, the Jewish question came later.

It was, first of all, political opponents of the regime. So people who are speaking out against the non-seigne? is. That's right. So communist, social democrats, trade unionists, anyone who was opposed to the Nazis became a victim. And then shortly after they started to bring other groups that didn't adhere to Nazi ideology, like handicapped people, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, criminals, emigrants, there were many different prison groups. And they started a system of categorization with colored triangles. So it went through different phases.

And of course, during the war, all the prisoners were going to be used as slave labor for the German armaments industry. And yeah, and it was the first camp to open and one of the very last to be liberated. And people did die here. I mean, the conditions were horrific. They were horrific, yes.

It was a humanitarian catastrophe by 1943 and it just got progressively worse because diseases started breaking out. They were completely overcrowded. The camp was only built for 6,000 prisoners. And by the time it was liberated, there were over 32,000 prisoners there. And yet just before liberation, just three days before liberation, 10,000 were evacuated. So if they hadn't been evacuated, there would have been well over 40,000 there.

Yeah, and of course it's sad. But I think, like you said, it's important to pay respects and to at least bear witness to this. And it's not that hard to get from Munich. So I think people should definitely make that day trip out there. And there's an express train that goes there every hour. So, you know, I would give yourself a morning, though, to go there and not do a lightning tour within one hour. Because to give it justice, to do it justice, you really need to spend at least two hours there. I mean, the tours are usually three hours on site there without the travel time.

So trying to do it in one hour doesn't really do it justice if you really want to. understand something about the place. And you could contact Maxine and have a guide out there. And I think it's one place that I would really recommend, not because I am a guide, but I do really recommend Dachau having a guide when you go to Dachau because you'll get a lot more out of the experience because guides are there to condense 12 years of history into three hours.

Because it's quite hard if you go there on your own, very overwhelming to go through the museum and see so many photographs, so much information to read, you could spend days there. Yeah, and it's also filling in the pieces, I think, because aside from the museum, a lot of what was there has been knocked down. Yeah. I mean, there's still quite a few original buildings, but you're right, the barracks were all demolished in the 1960s.

The reason was it was a refugee camp for displaced people after the war, So it had a different post-war history to a lot of other camps. And that's the reason why they knocked the barracks down after the refugees were rehoused. They're in a bad state of disrepair and no longer authentic. Yes, that was crazy to me that there would be refugees living there. Could you speak a little bit more about that? Well, it was actually due to the housing crisis. They had thousands and thousands of refugees from Sudaten land.

flooding into Western Germany. And of course, here in southern Germany and Bavaria, like the rest of Germany, they had a housing shortage after the war. I mean, Germany was really still smoldering and trying to rebuild at that stage in 1948. And it was actually due to a housing crisis. There was nowhere for them to house these refugees. These were ethnic Germans living on the border of Germany and Czechoslovakia, which was called Sudatenland and yeah they were forced out of that area back into western Germany because

they were actually ethnic Germans and yeah so they were they were forced out they were expelled and that's why they had nowhere to go. The refugee committee had to make a decision where do we put these families and they had all the infrastructure already at Dachau it was an abandoned camp it was still standing there and so they made a decision to reopen it because they had all the facilities still there. So it was supposed to be a temporary solution to a housing situation, but unfortunately took nearly 20 years before those people were rehoused. And actually my boyfriend's family, they live in a village in the countryside and they have a big old farmhouse. They had about five families living with them for years and years and years after the war. And that was

very normal. A lot of people had to take in refugees. They had no choice because of the housing shortage. Do you think that's part of the reason why Germany welcomed so many refugees during the crisis in 2015? You mean because of their history? Because of their history. I guess that, like what your boyfriend witnessed, and then I guess it also just goes back to atoning for everything that happened in World War II. Well, I personally think that, whether that's true or not, I don't know, but maybe Merkel wanted to show a good face to the rest of the world for Germany,

that they were, you know, very welcoming and open and, you know, willing to do something like that, something so menschlich, humane. I'm sure, yeah. Moving on to another day trip. So you mentioned I love castles and palaces, which I know I've been to Niphembourg Palace. Which one did you say that you would recommend for a day trip and which one do you do as a guide? Well, the one that most tourists would go to because it's the iconic castle is Nois vonstein, which is two hours south of Munich.

And it's the one that Walt Disney copied. So it's known as the Disney fairy tale castle. But it is overrun with tourists. So be prepared, you know, if you're going to go there, it's going to be very crowded in the summer. He built another castle called Lindahof, which for me, personally, that's my favorite of the three that he built. And the other one is Helen Kempsey, which is on a lake. So the wonderful thing about the three buildings he built is that they are all in completely different locations. One, Noist von Steen is up on the mountain, in the Alps.

Linda Hoff is in the valley and Hellingerkemsi is on a lake on an island. So they're all unique in that sense. Why is Lyndonoff your favorite? And I'm sure I didn't say that right. Linda Hoff is my favorite because one of the reasons is I love the location there. the valley, it's beautiful, but there's also lots of other things to see on the grounds. There's a hunting lodge that he built. There's a Moorish pavilion. There's a Moroccan house. There's the Venus Grotto.

There's actually, if you could spend all day at Linderhof in the grounds visiting all these other little buildings that he built around, which most people don't even have time to go to. So I, and my favorite thing that he built was the Venus Grotto, which is a man-made cave for the Varden Opera Tanjuser and it's magnificent but it's closed now for five years they're doing major restoration work on the cave so it's a fantasy world why did he build three massive castles

just because he could yeah and he was self-indulgent and he was getting himself deeper and deeper in debt but he loved to live in this fantasy world of Vagnirian operas and also he wanted to create Versailles. So, Hedon-Kemsi Palace was actually copied

from Versailles in France after he'd made a visit there. So he wanted to create a Bavarian, Versailles. So it was living out his fantasies, basically. Could you talk a little bit more about who this man is? He sounds like such a character.

Oh, he's a wonderful character. I think every guy that does castle tours, we all feel a little bit of affection towards King Ludwig II. But it's a tragic story. You know, he was, he'd became king at the age of 18 and had a very strict upbringing, was a very lonely young man. And he was thrown into the position of king at the age of 18 because his father died so abruptly, Maximilian II. And then he was thrown into two wars within a few years of him becoming king.

And he just didn't like the court, the royal court. He preferred to live in the fantasy world of Wagnerian operas and in this beautiful alpine location. And that's why he built these castles as a retreat from reality, his world away from the real world. And anyway, he died very tragically at the age of 40, just short of his 41st birthday. He drowned mysteriously in Lake Stamberg with his psychiatrist, Dr. Bernard von Guden in 1886. And the circumstances surrounding his death have never been completely resolved. So it's one of the most bizarre, unsolved mysteries in Germany still today. So that makes the story even more fascinating.

It's the story about him, actually. That's the interesting thing. I think the story of him is more interesting than the castles. Yeah. And he's been fodder for so many films as well. Well, now I definitely want to go to these castles and to see these films. Is it easy enough to get out to those castles with public transport? Yeah, it's very easy, actually.

There's a train every hour to Fusson, and it takes about two hours to reach the Fuson. and then there's a bus that takes you straight from the station to the castle. Yeah, so you can do it on your own. You don't necessarily have to go with a tour. But in the busy season, it's worth booking tickets in advance, so you don't have to queue up in the long lines of people trying to buy tickets. So you can do that online. You can just go on their website and book tickets in advance,

but you have to make sure you pick up your tickets there and then one and a half hours before your tour time. So you pick up your tickets, and then you can just. tour the grounds, I guess. Yeah, it used to be an hour, but now they've introduced an hour and a half because people were turning up too late, and so they've changed the rules. But, yeah, once you get your ticket number and your ticket time, that means you've got, you know, an hour and a half to wander around the grounds, go hiking up the mountain to the bridge where there's a lookout, go to the lake, have lunch, and basically have a nice time

in the valley before you actually have your tour. Yeah, that is a great tip on planning the day. So thank you for that. Well, if you're feeling adventurous, what you could do is you could go a little bit earlier and you could do a paragliding, tandem paragliding nearby over the castle, which is pretty exciting. That's the best way to see the castle from above. And I did that about six years ago and it was fantastic. Probably one of the best things I've ever done. That sounds incredible. Adding two lists. Can we take a few minutes to talk about food, what kind of foods that we should try while we're in Munich?

Yeah. Well, a typical thing to have in Munich, if you're a meat eater, would be the pork knuckle. That's probably the most popular thing to have. It's called a Schweins-Huxen. And it comes with dumpling and saulcrow. For breakfast, a typical Bavarian breakfast would be the, it's called Fruschopen. Fruschopin means an early jar. and it's the white Munich sausage.

It's veal sausage with herbs and parsley and lemon. And it's simmered in hot water and is served with sweet mustard and a pretzel or a brezer, as it's called in Bavarian. And normally you have that between 7 and 11 in the morning before the midday church bells ring. And traditionally you would have it with a wheat beer, a heifer-vicea beer. So that's a typical Bavarian breakfast. Interesting. Is that like Bavarian brunch, kind of? Yeah. Yeah, it would be a brunch. Because, yeah, I can't imagine drinking beer at breakfast, but maybe that's what they do.

That's what they do here. Yeah, that's the thing that actually that was the first culture shop when I came here. I was looking for a cafe that was open early in the morning around 7 o'clock. I couldn't find anything back then in 1997. Now it's different. But if I wanted a beer, no problem. Go anywhere and have a beer at 7 in the morning. The market was open. People were drinking. their beer. So that was quite amusing to see. Are there any foods that vegetarians can try? Yeah, there's the Spetsle, the Kayser Spetsle, which is like macaroni cheese with bits of caramelised onions on top. That's very tasty, very heavy, very filling. There's not a lot of vegetarian options on Bavarian menus, but that's one of them.

But there's a couple of good vegetarian restaurants in Munich. One of them is Prince Michigan, which is right in the city center, which is probably one of the best vegetarian restaurants. But the Bavarians, I'm afraid, are big meat eaters. They're hearty hangover food. That's right. The real hunting food. Are there any good food markets that we should check out?

Absolutely. There's the Victualian Mark, which is the city market. It's a wonderful place for all kinds of food. It's been there since 1807 actually. So it's a very old market. There's over 200 firms selling food there, numerous stands, and a beer garden right in the center as well. So the wonderful thing about the food market, the victorallion market, is that you can go around the market and pick your own food and then sit in the beer garden and have a beer with it. That sounds perfect. It sounds like so everything that you're talking about is around the 1800s.

So the castles and this food market and so many other things. What was going on around then where all the stuff was developing? Well, the food market is also to do with the royal family. They set up the marketplace in 1807. The first king set up the marketplace. Yeah, I mean, I guess that the late 19th century was the beginning of the industrial revolution. So there was a lot of building going on at that stage, and that's one thing that King Ludwig II was obsessed with was all the new technology of the industrial age. They had the first cooling machine as well that was introduced in the late 19th century by Carl von Linde,

and that revolutionized a lot of things. I mean, they could preserve food for longer periods. It was the original refrigerator. New sewerage system, the first sewerage system was put in into the city by a man called Pettenkoffer. So yeah, there was a lot of new things happening, modernization of the city.

And the city was expanding as well. And so, okay, so they were investing in like this technological advancement and then also in things for the people. So like the beer gardens and the food market. And then the gardens, did they come about?

Like the English garden was that around that same time too? Yeah, roughly the same time as well. And, you know, the city was very, basically growing, you know, so the English garden became the biggest city park, one of the biggest city parks in the world eventually. So, I mean, that was a wonderful place for the locals to go and, you know, imagine that they're in the English countryside. You're right. There's a lot of new changes happening around that time in Munich. What is the most famous beer hall in Munich? Definitely the Hofbroy, the Hofboy house. That's the one that most tourists know. They feel like when they, as soon as

they arrive in Munich, they have to go to the Hofboy House. It's a cultural institution. Is it worth it, or is there somewhere else they should go instead? Well, I think they should. Just as, I mean, it would be kind of like, I would compare it to, you know, going to Paris and not going to the Eiffel Tower. That's not a very good comparison, but it's a must see in Munich. It's a very, very famous beer hall. But for me personally, I never go there. You know, most locals who live in Munich don't tend to go to the Hofbore House because it's very touristy. I personally would go to somewhere less touristy, probably in Augustina Beer Hall that's a bit quieter and not in the city centre.

There's a lot of better beer halls with better food and better beer, but, you know, everybody knows that one, so it's a must-see. And also because it has history, it was the birthplace of the Nazi Party as well. So it does have that dark history as well. Yeah, I mean, that seems like it would be a tough thing to overcome. Is there, like, I'm thinking back, because I, of course, stepped through when I was in Munich. Was there like swat-stick regalia somewhere still there in the design? I thought I saw something.

In the Hofbre House, yeah. Well, they've been kind of painted over now. They had water damage several years ago, and they were repainted a little bit differently. But I actually have a photo of how it used to look, and it's quite, a recognizable swastika. It's a fan-shaped swastika, quite decorative in the blue flag of Bavaria, and it's on the ceiling around the lamp corner, the light cornices in the main drinking hall. Yeah, so you can still kind of point them out if I show people the old photo and how it used to look. So this is where Hitler would have gone to get a beer.

Well, he actually was a teetotaler. He didn't drink, but he did go there. He did have meetings there and they had the first mass meeting of the Nazi party there and several others as well after that. So yeah, he did go there but he apparently didn't drink. I don't know what he drank, but he didn't drink alcohol. That just makes me want to drink even more. To me, even more. If I want to buy something to remember Munich, what's a typical product to bring back with me? Well, a lot of people like to buy Beersdine. traditional style beer steins, the old ceramic ones. They're very popular.

Christmas decorations, nut crackers, and cuckoo clocks. These tend to be the things that most tourists like to buy. And cuckoo clocks, why, is that just famous from Bavaria? From Bavaria, from the Black Forest is where they're usually made. Or even in Oberamagau, because Oberamagau is known for its wood carving. So there's a lot of wooden products that are made in Bavaria. Do you have any favorite artisan shops or designer markets? I have a favorite shop. I actually took a tourist there today and she was so happy.

She ended up buying so many things from there. It's a kind of funky, quirky shop called Service Heimat. And they kind of use all the traditional iconography of Bavaria, typical cliched images of the ducks and dog, the pretzel, the beer, the later hose. But they've got a modern, quirky take on it. And they have a lot of interesting little gifts that you can buy in there. Anyway, I took this lady there from New York today, and she loved the shop,

and she ended up buying a whole lot of stuff in there. So they have about three shops in Munich, and it's called Service Haimat. Yeah, so that would be, that's why I actually go to buy quirky Bavarian presents. I don't go to the usual souvenir shops. The best place to go for handcrafted souvenirs, I would say, out of town is Oberama Gau. Obramagal has a lot of shops selling wooden, handmade wooden souvenirs. The Christmas markets have a lot of things made by locals. What would you say it's the best time of year to visit?

Would you say it's Christmas or some other time to visit Munich? Well, autumn is a lovely time. It's a beautiful time when all the leaves are in colour, but Christmas is one of my favorite times of year. Coming from Australia, where we have very hot Christmases, for me, Munich became like the Christmas. I thought Christmas I should have had when I was a child. It's so beautiful at Christmas time with the Christmas markets.

It's very, very atmospheric. It's probably one of the most atmospheric times of year. And it's very full of tourists as well. And I just love it. It's very authentic, very traditional, very beautiful, and just a great atmosphere at Christmas time. Before I get to the lightning round of Maxine's favorite places in Munich, this episode is also brought to you by world nomads. Need simple and flexible travel insurance? Want to figure out how much it will cost with no commitment and without having to speak to anyone?

Go to postcardacadacademy.co slash insurance. And there you can find a handy calculator to get a cost estimate. from world nomads. You can do everything online, no pressure. One more thing before I continue my conversation with Maxine, I'm recording this episode at my parents' house and you will hear our family dog Charlie barking a little bit. Let's give him a pass. He is blind and he is just trying to protect us from the delivery man in the driveway. Thank you for looking out for us, Charlie. What's your favorite bakery in Munich? My favorite bakery. Well, it's not in the city center. It's called Shuntner, Cafe Shuntner. And it's in Sondon.

and they make the best cakes in Munich. But within the city centre, Café Luets Pold has a fantastic array of cakes, and that's in Bremenesstra. But they're a little bit more expensive, but it's a great cafe. I don't eat a lot of bread, so I don't tend to go to the bakeries,

but the Richard bakeries are very good. They're very renowned, and they're a chain, but they do good quality breads and pastries. And the other thing they do is they support the arts, which I like. A certain percentage of their earnings goes to help local artists. So they get the thumbs up from me for that. Right. How about favourite coffee shop?

Well, we go to a cafe every single morning. We go to Cafe Ducats and it's in Clenzestrasse in the Gay Quarter. It's in the Glockenbach and that's a place we go to every morning. But a great cafe has opened up the market now and it's a, they roast their own coffee. It's a cafe stand in the victualian market. Very good coffee there. How about lunch spot? A lunch spot?

The market is a great lunch spot. Great atmosphere. Lots of different choices of food. Sometimes for me, I'll go and have a quick bite to eat at a Thai restaurant because they always have good offers, lunchtime offers. And I love Thai food. What's the name of that place? There's one at the market called Thai to Take. What are some good?

places for a traditional Bavarian meal? I would go to Rumpler. It's an Augustina restaurant. Augustina is one of the breweries, one of the six breweries, and it's the oldest brewery. Okay. And it's the most popular one with the locals in Munich, because they make the best beer. A Rumpler, and it's in the Glockenbach, quarter of Munich. And they have really reasonable prices, and they have Sunday offers.

So it's a bit cheaper on a Sunday evening. And it's a very traditional Bavarian place. but within the market area there's a lovely little place called Zum Alten Mart. Which is a nice traditional Bavarian restaurant behind the market square. Where do you like to go to dinner? We tend to go to Hydehausen or to the Glockenbach. So we have a favorite restaurant. We often tend to go to either Thai Vietnamese or Indian restaurants.

Monsoon is a Vietnamese restaurant. which is very good. There's Banyan Afghani restaurants in the same street in the Glockenbaugh. And Chopin. Chopin is an Afghani restaurant. I tend to like to have something a bit different when I go out to dinner rather than Bavarian. Yeah, I imagine. You can't eat that heavy food all the time.

How about wine or cocktail bar? Okay. Well, I don't actually go to cocktail bars, There's a famous one that is renowned in Munich, and it's called Schumann's Coulouse, It's right in the city centre, and it's a bit of an institution. It's very famous, and it's been around for ages. And Charles Schumann is a famous cocktail maker. He's very well known in Munich.

And how about museum? The Alta Pinochetek, definitely. And if you're interested in science and technology, the Deutsche's Museum, the Science Museum, that's considered the top science museum of the world. It's actually the biggest one in the world. Are the museums typically closed on Monday? Most of them are closed on the Monday. But now the residence museum is open every day.

I know that the Kunsthaler has Blue Monday, and the Kunsthaler is a modern art gallery, and on Mondays, it's half-price. So that's one of the galleries that's open on Mondays. Very good tip. do you ever go out for do you ever go listen to live music our dog is back in the background charlie be quiet sometimes we go to listen to live music my boyfriend's actually a jazz musician so he plays at a it's a very famous jazz club in munich called the unterfart is probably the most well-known jazz club in munich on the east side

and that's great for live music. It's really probably one of the best. And how about beer hall? Where should we go? A beer hall, if you want to get away from the touristy center, I would go over to the east side of Munich and go to the big Hofbroi Keller. It's owned by Hofbroi House, and it's a very authentic, very local beer hall, but with a lot of atmosphere.

And they have a big beer garden as well. Are there any culture tips we should know about Munich before we go? Well, one thing that often comes up with tourists is they tend to find the service and restaurants a little bit slow. They tend to not want to push you out. So one thing you have to do is you always have to ask for your bill. Don't wait for the waiter. You've got to ask for your bill. Otherwise, you'll be sitting there forever.

And the other thing is, I would recommend that if people are going out into the countryside, always take cash with you because a lot of places in Germany don't take – well, particularly Bavaria, don't take credit cards. So it's very unlike America where you can use the credit card for everything. My tip would be to always carry a bit of cash with you when you go outside of the cities. That is true. The Germans like their cash. You can drink the water here. Don't buy bottled water. The water is excellent. How much should we tip at a restaurant or a bar or a taxi? About on average 10%. They say between 10 and 15%. Sometimes with taxis, you can just round it up. So if it comes to 18 euro, give 20.

But if the service is really bad, you don't have to tip. If you think the service was bad, then you don't necessarily have to leave anything. Because it's not like America where they're on a very low minimum wage. Here they do get a decent wage in the restaurants. What neighborhood should we stay in if we're visiting Munich? Well, most of the hotels are near the railway station, but the railway station is a little bit of a seedy area. If you want to go into a more boutique-style hotel, the Glockenbach has some boutique hotels,

Hydehausen has some boutique hotels. And they're probably a little bit cheaper if you go outside the city limits. And it's still within walking distance as well. Okay. This doesn't have anything to do with travel, but one thing I want to ask you about, because I just find it fascinating is I know that in the UK, if you're renting an apartment, it will often come furnished. But in Germany, it comes with absolutely nothing, not even like a kitchen sink.

You have to bring everything. Even light bulbs. Even light bulbs are taken. I know that was a bit of a culture shock when I came. Everything was just completely stripped. Yeah, you have to provide everything. If you're moving into an apartment, why you would want to create a bespoke kitchen that you would have to later take away and probably would not fit into another place?

It makes no sense to me. It doesn't make any sense. But what people often do is if they're moving out, they'll offer a cheap price for the kitchen that you can pay them a bit of extra so they can leave the kitchen there for you. Okay. So when I moved into our flat, the kitchen was here already. But we didn't have to pay for it because it was pretty old anyway. A little tip for anyone planning on moving to Germany, you're going to possibly have to just do everything yourself.

That's right. Would you recommend Munich as a good place for expats to live? would definitely and um munich has one of the best qualities of life of any city in the world in fact did you know this year it was voted as the most livable city in the world by monopole magazine um so it does have a great quality of life it's expensive but people earn more here it's very safe as well you know although they have long cold winters it's the climate is actually pretty good here well this has been a lovely conversation maxine where can people find out more about you well i don't have a website, my own website, which is sightseeing Bavaria.com. Yeah, contact me directly. That's the

best way. Excellent. Thank you very much for your time today. You gave such great information. Oh, it's been lovely. Thank you. I've enjoyed it. I hope you have a great time in New York. I haven't lived there in a while, but, you know, I used to. So if I can help you out in any way, let me know. Well, you've had a really interesting life. I went, oh, I listened to your Berlin podcast last night. Oh, yeah. Really liked it. So I'm going to listen to more of them now that I've got the link. great idea. Thank you. I'm glad you liked it. Thanks, Sarah. It's been fun. Bye, Maxine. Are you still thinking about paragliding next to a castle? I know I definitely am. Thank you again, Maxine, for sharing all of this fantastic information with us.

And now I have a question for you. What city do you want covered on this podcast? I would love to hear from you. So visit postcardacademy.co and let me know. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe if you haven't already and tell a friend about it. That is the best way to grow the show. That's all for now. Thanks for listening and have a beautiful week wherever you are. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free conversation sheet sheet with simple formulas that you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you're in a meeting or just talking with friends.

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