Getting There

When we started this trip, Spenser was flying back from a conference in the US, and we both had connections through Amsterdam, so we met up there for the last flight. My flight from Bristol was delayed, so I ran through the Amsterdam airport to board my second flight. I flew KLM, and they had already texted me a pass to cut the customs line, which was great. I felt appreciated and supported by the airline. 

We arrived in Munich after 10:30 PM local time, so we went to sleep after checking into our hotel.

Saturday, 23 August 2025

In the morning, we had an excellent cappuccino across from our hotel and meandered to the Marienplatz to meet up with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Sam and Vicky. We had breakfast at a cafe called Cafe Glockenspiel in Marienplatz. The food was delightful, though I recommend making a reservation, as they were only able to fit us in because we promised to be done in under an hour.

We like booking tours on the first day we arrive somewhere new, so we can get the lay of the land, and that’s what we did in Munich. Our guide grew up in the city, spoke English well, and had a good sense of humour.

Munich in German is München, meaning ‘monks’, as monks were the first inhabitants over 800 years ago (“Munich’s History – the Munich Times”). The best part was her narration of the glockenspiel at Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall), which has 43 bells and is solar-powered (muenchen.de).

There are two ‘floors’ to the glockenspiel, both depicting an important scene from Munich’s history. The top shows the wedding of Duke Wilhelm V and Renate of Lorraine in 1568, including the jousting tournament in which the Bavarian knight overcame the Lorraine knight in Marienplatz.

The lower floor shows the schäffler dance, schäffler being an old German word for the barrel-maker’s guild (Norman). Local history says the barrel makers were first to venture outside following a severe outbreak of the bubonic plague. The dance is still performed every 7 years, and while there is only one barrel maker left in Munich, other craftsmen participate to uphold the tradition.

While perhaps a bit less visually exciting than the wedding, this second glockenspiel scene has become even more meaningful since the COVID pandemic. The schäffler performed in 2022 outside of the usual 7-year schedule, in acknowledgement of the city beginning to reopen and look forward to the future (“Schäfflertanz | Simply Munich”).

After, we grabbed lunch at the Viktualienmarkt. We each tried different stalls, and I had a delicious grilled cheese at one of the stands, accompanied by a cola that was quite good and less sweet than Coke.

We washed our lunch down with beer at Hofbräuhaus, the legendary brewery. We found that most places had a low-alcohol option, which is what Spenser and I tried.

To stave off the post-lunch lull, we climbed the tower at St Peter’s Church, with lovely views of the town.

Finally, we rested at the hotel before having dinner at Spatenhaus an der Oper, a restaurant serving traditional German food. The wooden chairs and tables, and antler chandeliers, completed the feel of a German-style tavern. It has two floors, the bottom, where we ate, being more casual, and the top a bit more posh.

Spenser ordered a great brothy soup with potatoes and vegetables, and I had the German version of chicken cordon bleu, which was quite tasty – just thinner, more like two extra-thin pieces of schnitzel with ham & Emmental between them, rather than being wrapped/rolled.

This was also our first introduction to chanterelle season in Germany, especially Bavaria. We found that most of the restaurants where we ate dinner had five to ten special dishes featuring the mushrooms.

While we didn’t order the chanterelles that first night, Vicky had some other mushrooms with her meals that we all liked a lot – even Sam, who doesn’t usually like them. Spenser and I finished off our meal with an apple strudel.

I hadn’t had much German food before, and I was already impressed by the end of our first day. And there was much more to come!