Travel Chronicles – Europe (2015) – Munich

Who cannot like Munich? From the richness of Bavarian castles and palaces to the modernity of BMW welt and Allianz Arena, you are sure to have an eyeful.

Neuschwanstein castle: From Munich downtown, it is about an hour and half drive through German country and small towns to reach there. The Neuschwanstein castle is located on top of a hill. You need to park your car and buy tickets at the town downhill and either trek or go on a horse carriage uphill. As we reached the town downhill, its touristy nature (lots of cars and lots of parking lots for the cars, lots of tourist buses) was a turn off for me. In any case, we took the horse carriage up the hill. As we reached the castle, we could not but admire the majesty of it – location in the mountains, surrounding valleys, its height, foundation and strong walls.

Still, the best remained inside. Once we got inside the castle, the richness and the passion of Ludwig II was evident from the choice of furniture, many of the intricate furniture carvings, the patterns on the upholstery and the paintings on the walls. In spite of the apparent hype about the castle, Neushwanstein castle indeed was worth the drive from Munich city and lived up to its hype.

Quite a contrast from the remote and mystic setting of the Neuschwanstein castle was Munich downtown. The BMW welt was a modern architectural masterpiece. Its double cone, the curvature of its roof, its mega size and the back drop of BMW multi-cylinder shaped headquarters were truly fitting to the world-famous engineering brand.

For car lovers, the inside had a lot to offer in terms of new car models and latest innovations by BMW.

In the Olympiapark right next to the BMW welt, by chance, we came by its cute soccer arena. I hadn’t seen something like that before. Kids and budding players were playing “soccer” in netted soccer fields of the size of a volley ball court. Although the fields were small, neither the skill nor the energy or seriousness of the game was small. It was quite entertaining to watch the fast paced game and in fact, we had to force ourselves out of the place in the interest of time. That was a peek into Germany’s soccer legacy.

We then headed to the Residenz Muenchen. This was a treasure of gilded furniture, gilded paintings, canopied beds and ancient sculptures. This showed the richness of the Bavarian kings. In fact, there were so many of them that towards the end, even the rich contents seemed ordinary. Sigh!

Worth mentioning were the relics of cross and bones from Christ’s time and the sculpture of Venus exquisitely carved to show her sensuousness. From the curves, the delicate fingers and toes of Venus, we momentarily forgot that we were looking at hard marble.

We had a glance (unfortunately a mere glance, while driving) at the bright orange glow of the Allianz arena.

What I have to absolutely mention is the extensive suburban-underground-tramway system. It was super convenient.

We took the day pass and used the tramway to go back and forth through Munich downtown taking in other attractions that Munich had to offer such as Marienplatz, the Bavarian state parliament building and a parked Lamborghini to my son’s delight.

Also, nice to see were innumerable bike stands and bikers of all ages all around the city.