Well, my assessment of how today would play out was correct. We stayed put in our Airbnb, thankful for fever reducers and a clear schedule. John’s work calls ended up being cancelled (fortuitously, not because of the family illness), so he was able to work flexibly all day.
I’m thrilled to report there has been zero additional vomit, laundry is up to date, and the rest of the family is still healthy (fingers and toes currently crossed).
The unaffected child has mostly been on screens all day. Such is life. They will survive and it has given me a chance to take a breather. And… to pull pictures into the summary I wrote up en route to Vienna!
This is a VERY long post, but I plan to do a recap post with all our top highlights/hidden gems and tips for navigating Munich to offer a more practical resource for planning a trip to Munich.
Here’s the recap of Days 1-2.
We started out Day 3 by heading to Dachau (I wrote about visiting with kids here; I wanted to keep it separate from my main summary because of the subject matter). There was a lengthy public transit delay which wreaked havoc with our itinerary (and impacted everyone’s moods). We ended up getting to Dachau a few hours later than anticipated, which pushed everything off schedule.
After Dachau, we headed back toward the heart of Munich (Marienplatz), to get onto a different public transport route.
In a jarring change of focus, we headed to Motorworld München which is a giant warehouse (of sorts) full of luxury car brands. Belle and I sat down for most of the time while the boys explored together. We were tired and not nearly as enthusiastic about Bugatti’s as the male members of our travelling party.
Entry is free and we heard through the grapevine there’s go-kart racing on site (I never saw it or researched it, so don’t quote me on this). I can confirm there are restaurants and cafes, and great (free) public bathrooms. Complete with tire sinks and gas nozzles for water dispensing. Very cool!
We headed back to public transit… and right back to Marienplatz. It was a lot of travel and standing and navigating. We made use of the free public bathrooms at Ludwig Beck again, and then settled in to watch the 5 pm performance of the Rathaus-Glockenspiel. There was a huge crowd. The top part of the glockenspiel commemorates the wedding of a famous German duke, and the bottom part shows dancing and celebration after the end of a plague in the 1500s (very reminiscent of Covid).
The whole performance was about 10 minutes and it was a lot of fun to watch/listen. I found it far more fascinating when I learned the figures are controlled manually by humans! I had assumed everything was automated, so that tidbit added an interesting layer of human interest.
At this time of year, there are shows at 11 am, 12 pm, and 5 pm (and then a short display at 9 pm which I think is set to Brahm’s Lullaby?). It’s a major tourist draw and anytime we were there around those times, a giant crowd had formed to watch.
A few minutes later we headed to St. Peter’s church to climb the tower.
Yikes. That was a workout. There are 301 stairs and I was tuckered by the time I reached the top. We like to go to at least one high vantage point in every city, and Turm Alter Peter is a great place to do it in Munich. Tickets were €5/adult and €2/kids. Everything I had read online said it was cash-only for payment, but when we were there, paying by card was an option.
Our effort was rewarded with stunning views of the city and it was easy to pick out some major landmarks (admittedly mostly churches which tend to be the most iconic) that we’d visited already.
That was enough exploration for one day; we headed home and I have zero photo evidence of anything else happening this particular day! So I’ll assume it was showers and bed?
Day 4
We had a relatively slow start to the morning. Our first stop was Justizpalast, the courthouse in Munich. It’s a bit of an obscure stop, largely devoid of tourists, but it’s open to the public and has free entry.
Count us in!
The only catch is a full security checkpoint (understandable, it’s a courthouse), but we were through quickly. (You need to take off watches and belts; if you bring in opened water, you’ll have to take a sip of it.)
We were through quickly and we were the only tourists inside for most of our visit (and I only saw a handful of staff).
The building is STUNNING. The kids loved this spot and were very enthusiastic about exploring all the stairways and taking lots of pictures. I can also confirm there are free bathrooms!
It felt like something out of Beauty and the Beast! 10/10 recommend a visit.
After the Justizpalast, we made our way to see an old city gate at Karlsplatz (Karlstor) and grabbed Starbucks (I had their drink of the day which happened to be a €3 chai latte). Indy settled in to watch cars and had the BEST time. He was not ready to leave even after an extended view party. At least he’s easily entertained 🙂
We eventually had to make an executive decision to leave and we started making our way toward Asamkirche, but just that morning I had read a comment from blog reader Fiona recommending I try Julius Brantner. What did we happen to literally walk right by en route? You guessed it.
I sent John in to get a fresh pretzel and he came out with two; thank goodness because we devoured them! Another 10/10 recommendation.
After we polished off our snack, we headed inside Asamkirche. It’s tiny and was originally built as a private church in the 1730’s by two brothers (surname Asam). They bought up a whole bunch of property before demolishing the middle buildings and constructing a lavish church. Quite a real estate project!
The interior is dark and unique, and Indy LOVED it. I was not expecting that; it didn’t hurt that an organist and trumpet player started a beautiful rendition of Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring the instant we stepped inside the vestibule.
We happened to be walking through Marienplatz (again!) at 12 pm, so we took in most of another performance of the Glockenspiel. And then we headed to Viktualienmarkt for lunch. This was a GREAT stop. I had being craving some authentic Bavarian food and this is a central hub.
There are about 100 stalls in the market, a giant (iconic) maypole and all sorts of fruit, veggies, flowers, and prepared food.
Indy picked first and went for currywurst. We all had a bite and it was delicious! Then Belle picked Spätzle (a traditional egg-based pasta); I thought it tasted like gnocchi. Also DELICIOUS.
John bought some incredible olives, and then we rounded things out with two Leberkäse sandwiches. At the risk of repeating myself: DELICIOUS.
The market is also full of drinking fountains which was perfect for filling up water bottles. (It didn’t hurt it was gorgeous and sunny out all day.)
We wandered streets and took random photos, before getting to Maximilianstraße which is full of high-end shopping. And, of import for one member of our group, fancy cars. Alas and alack, the middle of the day on Wednesday is not peak “fancy car” time, so we didn’t stay too long.
We wandered around the Munich Residence (Residenz München); we didn’t pay to go in, but you can stroll around the gardens (Hofgarten) for free, and see some of the lion sculptures people rub for good luck.
Then it was back to the Mercedes-Benz bathrooms for a pit stop, more car-watching (back to the eternal flame at Platz der Opfer des Nationalsozialismus; this ended up being the best spot), before heading through the English Gardens.
One of the most famous landmarks—Eisbachwelle—a perpetual wave in a canal that’s attracted surfers from all over the world… is currently closed. Womp, womp.
From what I gathered from John’s colleagues there has been a lot of local outrage, but sadly someone did pass away from a surfing accident there and so it’s been shut indefinitely.
From there we made our way across the (HUGE, almost 1,000 acres!) park toward a replica of a Greek temple called Monopteros. It was full of locals drinking beer, wine and champagne (mostly out of crystal glasses, no less—impressive picnicking skills!).
I thought this dog was adorable while lazing beside his owner (drinking beer out of a can, coincidentally) who was playing Skip-Bo with a group of friends. (The owner, not the dog since opposable thumbs are quite handy for playing cards.)
The kids had been on each other’s (and thus my) nerves a lot during the week, but the best antidote to sour moods and squabbles was taking silly pictures of their parents. They were in hysterics. As was I.
We popped by the Siegestor Arch. It was built in the 1800’s to celebrate Bavarian troops, but was heavily damaged in the war and is now considered to be a symbol of dedication to maintaining peace. A quote on the arch, roughly translated, says: Dedicated to victory, destroyed by war, urging peace.
We stopped by a Flying Tiger (a Danish variety store; it’s tradition for us to visit them in every European city we travel to and I highly recommend!), stopped by a grocery store, and the kids convinced us to revisit the park we’d discovered a few days earlier without John. They made quick work of the obstacle course and everyone left without injury.
Phew.
We ended up going to an Italian place right beside our hotel (La Romantica). The food was delicious. The kids shared a pizza, John settled on lasagne and I had a yummy carbonara. The noodles were perfectly el dente and very flavourful.
Then it was home for showers, some screen time to unwind, followed by bedtime for all.
Our last day in Munich
This was it. We woke up to steady rain and I was a bit unsure of how to plan an itinerary. There were lots of options. Nymphenburg Palace. Deutsches Museum (the largest science/technology museum in the world). I had planned on going to the latter, but I felt like we were all tired and exploring a GIANT museum just didn’t sound like much fun, so we skipped it this time and I have no regrets.
Belle’s one food request was to find a place to get churros. Not surprisingly, Spanish street food is NOT overly common in Germany. But I found one place—Loqma Churros—and we navigated toward that for its noon opening.
While waiting for the shop to open, I had my first real coffee on the trip. Indy’s expression sums up how I feel. He also insisted we look through all his pictures. I love seeing the different perspectives he captures.
Isn’t this such a cool picture he captured at the Justizpalast?
Despite the churro shop opening 30 minutes late, both kids enthusiastically claimed they were better than the ones they had in Portugal and Spain!
They were delicious! We watched them get freshly made and they were hot, crunchy, and so flavourful.
After that sweet stop, we were off.
Navigating across a city takes… a lot of time and walking. I planned to repeat our successful market lunch by heading to a smaller market across town called… wait for it… Elisabethmarkt. I mean, how could I resist?
I’m sure the food was great, but it was all in what looked like upscale stores, there were almost no open-air vendors, and we decided to just keep on going (after finding a free public bathroom on site).
Next up was Westpark. It’s a giant park (seemed hillier and nicer than English Gardens). We mostly headed there for the giant slides. This was so much fun and we all got in on the action. The kids didn’t want to get their pants wet (it had rained earlier) so they sat on their coats and SHOT down the slides. When I went down (after the slides were dry), I went a lot slower. Thank heavens.
I highly recommend this spot for adventurous kids.
We wandered several kilometers through the park, stopping at the Thai Sala temple.
I had to take a picture of this little outhouse of sorts; it’s a wooden structure built around an industrial portable toilet!
When we crossed a bridge going over a busy intersection, we had to stop and watch cars. Indy spotted his favourite vehicle of the trip. A fancy Alfa Romeo if I remember correctly?
Then it was various pit stops at playgrounds within the park to play. If you’re wondering if we just randomly come across this sort of thing, most of the time the answer is NO. I plan many of these stops out in advance. My kids do not know how good they have it 😉
And that was the last of my pictures from our final day of adventuring. It was light on big experiences, but the kids loved strolling through the park (it was a lot of walking), fueling themselves with churros, and we finished the evening with a stop at the grocery store for supper (sandwiches and more packaged salads which were, once again, delicious)!
Back at the hotel by 6 pm, we showered, and did most of our packing in preparation for our trip to Vienna the following morning.
As mentioned above, I’ll do a summary post (without nearly as many words) for a cheat-sheet version of our favourite things in Munich. I’m realizing most of my travel recaps aren’t well-suited to actually building a personalized itinerary. I’m increasingly directing friends and family to my posts… but then they have to read through and pull things together. So I’ll start with Munich, but ultimately want to do the same for some our other destinations, too.
Okay. Your turn:
- Have you ever visited Munich? If it’s on your current travel list, what’s your must-see location?
- What’s the most memorable food you’ve discovered while traveling?
- Do you plan your trips in detail, or prefer to wander and discover things as you go?
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This post is full of so many wonderful things! I have never been to Munich or anywhere in Germany, but you make me want to visit! I have to say that the tire-shaped sink with gas nozzle water spout is genius. The action shot of Indy on the slide is fabulous!
I loved the whimsy of that sink (and it was especially wonderful since it was free; I’m not a fan of paying for bathroom access which is quite standard in Europe).
Those slides were SO fun!
You are having so many amazing adventures already, Elisabeth! Your photos are a great mix of beautiful and fun. I am like you and plan my trips in detail, but am open to just wandering when I have spare time and even not going to see something iconic if I’m just too burnt out. Hope everyone continues to feel healthy!
I like a mix of purpose and wandering. I find since we tend to walk a lot, I’ll navigate to a specific location, but then we’ll wander on the way (if that makes sense). Kinda the best of both worlds?
Well… both kids have been knocked out by the bug (but it was short-lived so they’re tired but no one is vomiting). BUT, my stomach is feeling very queasy right now. We’ll see…I’m hungry but think skipping supper would be wise given the current stomach bug situation.
You have done remarkable research in finding fabulous places, especially all those activity parks. The most impressive thing to me so far is the Justizpalast. The architecture is stunning, and how terrific to be there when it was so devoid of people.
Nice job on the Dachau trip telling. So rough, but so necessary to know about.
And the food! I just made a quickety 2 day road trip (300 miles each day) which involved 2 restaurant meals, and I feel as if I consumed a week’s worth of calories, along with spending a month’s worth of allowance. (We NEVER go to restaurants unless it is to use a gift certificate to pick up a sandwich to go from a place in town which happens to be in Yelp’s top 100 sandwich shops in the entire US of A!) Holy cow, if it wasn’t for all the zillions of miles to walk and stairs to climb, you’d weigh 400 pounds by the time you get home!
I’ve done relatively little international travel in my 66 years, and living rurally, I get fairly excited about any town with beautiful architecture. It is what I look for wherever I go, no matter the size of the burgh. In the ratty sorry terrible little town where I painted that mural on the library, I went driving around, trying to find a house that I thought was “Bee-Yoo-Tee-Full” back in about 5th grade, and yeppers, I found it! It is currently painted a curious turquoise, fitting with the third world look of the entire town, but architecturally intact in all its glorious and peculiar Victorian embellishments—remember, I was in elementary school when I first saw it.
Thank you so much for your (and Indy and Belle’s) fabulous photos and excellent descriptions. I will continue to enjoy them from the comfort of my living room, listening to the river in the distance, the ticking of the clock, and knowing I am heading to my very own bed tonight.
Jana, this made me laugh out loud: “Thank you so much for your (and Indy and Belle’s) fabulous photos and excellent descriptions. I will continue to enjoy them from the comfort of my living room, listening to the river in the distance, the ticking of the clock, and knowing I am heading to my very own bed tonight.”
Ha! I sometimes miss my own bed.
Eating out is so expensive. We’ve been eating all our meals in Vienna at home and it is delicious and a whole lot cheaper.
Justizpalast was my favourite thing in Munich, I think. So beautiful, and such a hidden, under-rated gem.
We will probably spend some time in Munich before we head to the Bavarian Alps later this year, so I’m bookmarking your posts. I’m loving all the architecture and can’t wait to see the Rathaus-Glockenspiel. We will probably skip all the car things because I feel like we did a lot of that in other cities when we were in Germany with E. You know that I am a big planner, but I don’t overfill our days, so we do get to wander as well. I tend to wander more when it is just me.
Yes, without Indy in tow, I would have skipped all the car things, too – ha!
I try to have 2-3 anchor things to visit and then we try to walk between them and wander along the way.
Elisabethmarkt!!! With an S!!! What are the odds?????????????
My one encounter with currywurst was on Put in Bay island in Ohio. Of all things to have on a small island in Ohio, there is a German beer garden because there is a lot of wine grape growing on the islands, and the Germans came in the 1800 to make wine.
I know the guys were in heaven with all of the cars. If my family had gone, I would have been the one sitting to the side and relaxing while they had at it.
My trips are a mix of a few planned activities plus whatever else I can find to get into while I’m there.
So many Elisabeth’s with an “s” in Europe. I see my name everywhere.
The currywurst was sooo good. I’d definitely like to have a plate of my own (I got one little piece from Indy).
The car thing… isn’t my thing. But that’s okay. I appreciated having that time off my feet 🙂
Yes, I have been to Munich! It was a long time ago though. It’s interesting to see how things have changed, and of course many things are still the same. There was no Starbucks when I was there! I did eat a lot of pretzels though.
What is it about guys and cars??? My daughter’s boyfriend is really into cars, and is always dragging her around to car shows. Sometimes when he talks about cars my husband gets really interested, while our eyes are glazing over. I don’t get the appeal- is it only a male thing??? The good thing for you is, it seems like a pretty easy way to keep Levi happy.
I LOVE all your photos. Justizpalast really is stunning. Glad you had such good weather! Germany can be gloomy and overcast. Hope everyone is still healthy and you’re able to get out and explore Vienna!!!
There are plenty of Starbucks in Munich now.
I do love watching Formula 1, but in terms of looking at cars as they drive by? Basically a 0 on a scale of 0-10 in terms of my interest. But it’s great because Indy is so engaged and I can zone out and have a rest.
“My kids do not know how good they have it” – YES!!! Elisabeth, you are an incredible mother-tour guide. Carefully planned playgrounds, perfectly timed food stops, backup bathrooms, churros appearing out of nowhere. They’re basically on a highly curated adventure tour!
Mixing those big, heavy moments like Dachau with cars and pretzels feels exactly like the right balance when with kids/teenagers. Keeping it light without skipping the important stuff – perfect!
And those moments where the kids are suddenly hysterical over silly photos of you… that’s gold. Those random, chaotic pockets where everyone forgets to be annoyed. I imagine it must be very satisfying to see all these hours of planning play out so well in real life!
Maybe when they’re adults they’ll realize how much energy went into making their lives so fun and easy????
Yes to needing a mix of things after Dachau!
That slide looks super fun and I want to go on it!
Wow, those buildings! They are all so gorgeous. So is Belle’s HAIR WOW. *covets hair*
My most memorable food, and one I think of all the time, is this Tuscan bread soup that is tomato based and SO delicious. I tried to recreate it at home, but you know how it goes. It was not even 10% as good!
The slides were SO fun. And we were the only people there. One of the delights of travelling in March 🙂
Her hair is the best. I covet it, too, Nicole 🙂
It is so frustrating to not be able to recreate a delicious recipe. That said, I suppose it’s part of the magic of vacation food.
Love all these updates!! And echoing the astonishment at the Justizpalast — absolutely incredible. The first thing that came to my mind is that it would be a fabulous place to take wedding photos!
Highlights of visiting Munich for us in the past included the glockenspiel and visiting the original Hofbrauhaus (there are franchised locations all over the US, not sure about Canada, so we probably go once a year to the one in Pittsburgh and indulge in some good German beer and Bavarian food!).
Those parks look like so much fun and the churros look incredible! I think it’s hilarious that your kids are now international churro connoisseurs!
Hope the sickness is 100% done for you all and stays away for the rest of your travels.
It was SUCH a gorgeous building. I have to laugh because I feel like every single impressive building like this we see I make some comment about how stunning it would look as a backdrop to wedding photos 😉
The churros were so good… which reminds me I need to look some up here in Vienna.
Both kids are finally back to normal, so we’re headed off on some adventures. John and I are still feeling fine. Maybe we dodged a bullet??
That courthouse is STUNNING. OMG. Who knew I’d be drooling over a courthouse?!?!
Belle’s hair is GOALS.
Looks like this adventure is off to a fantastic start (minus the puking).
Isn’t it GORGEOUS. And free!!!!
Stephany, she has half of my genes and I want to know exactly how my genes translated into PERFECT hair.
I’ve never been to Munich–this looks like a lovely day. I giggled that you guys are getting on each others nerves, and the funny photos are lightening up moods through the family. 🤣 You gotta do what you gotta do!
How fun to make it a tradition to find a High Point in each place you visit. Eagle perch=great views!
The stairs at St. Peters===WOWZA. You are in great shape for that.
So happy the sickness stopped with only one person!
It was so many stairs, Suz. I was EXHAUSTED!!!
Both kids came down with the bug, but a week out from it, I think John and I are in the clear?