The Robbi Route

Tuesday, June 23, 2026 (10 miles)

Munich (“München” in German), is considered by many to be Germany’s most livable city and is saturated in history, abundant art, beautiful parks and plenty of entertainment – often involving beer.  Our hotel even has a beer vending machine!  We are still in the region of sweet white wines although the Riesling varietal offerings are said to be dryer.  There are sixteen states in Germany.

I loved reading this in my Rick Steves guidebook, “ If you’re impressed by how a big city like Munich can feel so inviting, thank a city government whose passion is nurturing and protecting a people friendly culture. The big Viktualienmarkt is only possible because the city subsidizes rent for mom-and-pop stalls over corporate chains. Oktoberfest, the world‘s biggest beer party, is not corporate run but city run – leaving it free, easy-going, and hell bent on having fun rather than making money. Public transit is designed to encourage big corporate offices to locate away from the center, as is a zoning law that allows buildings taller than the cathedral domes only in the outskirts. Bikes have priority over cars. Even Munich’s venerable circus tent – which has housed backpackers for 40 years-is held up with city support. Munich is a rich and capitalistic city, but its populace knows the free market needs a referee: a smart and caring local government.”

We had a GREAT tour of Old Town with a spirited, knowledgable and funny guide who met us at our hotel.  We walked together back over to the nearby Viktualienmarkt where she noted that their story being “pictured” on the towering, white and blue striped maypole that Ruby pointed out to us yesterday, was in part about the “German Beer Purity Law” of 1487.  Originating here in Munich, it was later adopted in Bavaria and eventually spread throughout the rest of Germany. It stipulated that beer could consist only of three ingredients: barley, hops and water with no additives. Later they realized that a fourth ingredient, yeast, is always present in fermentation.  

In fact, last weekend they had the official swearing in of the thirty-two new brewmasters who had just graduated from their two year program!  They must swear to abide by the Purity Law.  This is followed by a massive community parade – six breweries represented, with their huge horses, “coopers” (wooden barrel makers) riding in the back – And Free Beer for EVERYBODY who can legally drink (drinking age here is sixteen). There is a college in town and one of the programs is for Brewmasters to obtain their doctorates!  

Also featured on the maypole, a  standard in any village, are depictions explaining which merchants are doing business in the market.

We revisited Marienplatz (Mary’s Square, honoring the Virgin Mary with a golden statue sculpted in 1590) which has been the center of Munich for a thousand years, standing at a crossroads along the Salt Road (and later stops in Munich for beer) which ran between Salzburg and Augsburg.  The New Town Hall is the impressive, Neo-Gothic medieval looking structure that houses Munich’s famous glockenspiel which we heard and observed last night.  At the very top is the “Münchner Kindl”, a statue of a child with outstretched arms, dressed as a monk and holding a book – Munich’s symbol. The town gets its name from the monks (Mönchen) who first settled there.  To kick off the town’s annual Octoberfest opening parade, a teenaged girl dressed as the Kindl leads on horseback and then serves as the mascot throughout the festivities.  

Adjacent to the New Town Hall, is the Old Town Hall.  “It was in this building, on November 9, 1938, that Hitler called for Germans to rise up and ransack everything Jewish. On what came to be called Kristallnacht, synagogues were burned and shops were trashed.” (Rick Steves guidebook).  

There’s more history than I’m choosing to cover in this travel blog – of World Wars I and II including the allies bombing of the city, as well as the religious wars of the Reformation between German Catholicism and Martin Luther‘s Protestant reform.  Our guide did a great job of touching on many of these topics.    

We briefly went into Saint Peter‘s, the oldest church in town and where Munich’s original monks probably settled as far back as the ninth century.

We visited Kaufingerstrasse, a car free street (thanks to transformations made for the 1972 Olympics held here) with discount to high end designer shops, souvenirs, home goods, grocery and restaurants, a mall and, well, a myriad of options for shoppers!  

Countless buildings were pointed out as being fashioned in a copy cat fashion of architecture found in Italy and Greece, beloved by the ruling Wittelsbach family.  We visited the ornate, Renaissance style St Michael’s church, built in the late 1500’s.  We briefly stopped into the courtyard of the ruling family’s “Residenz” across from the Opera House.  This trip didn’t allow for diving into the vast musical productions and offerings that are found here in Munich – suffice it to say it’s a big deal!!

I always love seeing a public market on my travels, and it was great to stroll through Viktualienmarkt again with its produce, cheeses, coffee, sausages, and of course its beer garden, featuring a rotating selection from the city’s six leading brewers – ON OUR WAY TO the 8,000 capacity Hofbräuhaus.  The original Hofbräuhaus was built in 1589 and then rebuilt after being bombed in World War II.  Our tour was before noon, so there was no resemblance to the notoriously rowdy vibe and packed with beer drinking people good times of the evenings and probably weekends – multiplied a thousand during Ocktoberfest!

As Fabulous as the tour was though, my highlight of the day during our free time was packing up a lunch and hoofing it over to beat the heat, spending some time in the vast (three mile) “English Garden” park with its Isar River running through it.  The Rick Steves guidebook says it’s the largest urban park on the continent and was laid out in 1789. 

The Eusbach (Ice Brook) wave at the southern end is an artificial standing wave, created by a swift, man-made tributary of the river flowing over a fixed underwater structure and rocks, generating a continuous standing wave for surfers!  Not to mention a fast moving and lengthy section for floating!!!  And the place was packed with both!  Yet I didn’t see one raft or inter tube – it was a waterway of floating bodies!  Plus throughout the park and on the trails and paths, on the riverfront and in the fields were volleyball players, picnickers, bike riders, dog walkers and walkers in general, students, families, friends and lovers!  I saw a couple of swans, a goodly number of ducks and some mighty fine looking trout!  I enjoyed myself immensely and decided I didn’t have a need to get up to any beer drinking shenanigans this day!