Gardening In Munich – OBATZDA

German countryside

The train ride through the German countryside was beautiful and entertaining. A group of beer drinking American students on their way to Stuttgart for a soccer match were glad to meet some English speaking travellers. We chatted for a while which helped us forget that we had to stand the whole way, not having made a seat reservation in time.  

Stuttgart to Munich

The ride from Stuttgart to Munich was more mellow and let us soak up some of the scenery of rolling hills and vineyards.
Waiting for us at the train station in Munich were our good friends Heather and Fahiman. Fahiman has lived in Munich for most of her life and is an excellent guide and spokesperson for the city she loves so much. Heather is a Vancouverite and visits Munich often, together they could open a tour company and do very well.

Flat as a pancake

The first thing Fahiman pointed out is that Munich is as flat as a pancake. This makes it a very cyclist friendly city and it takes advantage of that by having extensive pathways that are not to be dawdled in by pedestrians (or else!). After a quick subway ride, we were walking around downtown. 

Victoria Market

Fresh chanterelles

€6 bought a pound of fresh chanterelles, perfect for the dinner I planned to cook for the four of us. Since Alsace, Nat and I both had a craving for spaetzle with mushrooms and that night we would put an end to that with “Spaetzle & Pfifferlinge mit Bärlauch Sahne”.

Bärlauch

Bärlauch is wild garlic or ramps (ail des bois) which we also picked up at the market. The madness of the market and downtown had us heading towards the relaxation of our first garden.

Obatzda

We also grabbed a fresh pretzel (the size of your head) and a plate of obatzda, a great spread, made of Brie, cream cheese, beer, butter, onion and paprika. Beer in one hand, pretzel in the other, our Bavarian garden tour was off to a great start.

Englischer Garden

The next day our personal tour guides took us to Munich’s central park, the Englischer garden. Much like New York’s Central Park, this is where city dwellers escape to the solitude of a huge green space. Unlike Central Park, there is a clothing optional section and a great place to go surfing. That’s right, surfing.

Standing wave

We had heard about a famous spot in the park where the river’s currents are strong enough to form a great standing wave that is surfable. We had to check that out. Sure enough, like some Hawai’ian oasis, at one end of the park, there they were, surfer dudes, hanging ten and carving gnarly turns in the middle of Munich.

Chinesischer Turm

The midday sun felt nice and hot so we decided it was time to retreat to the cool shade of the Chinesischer Turm (Chinese Tower) garden for lunch. Beer all around and some weisswurst hit the spot perfectly.

Weisswurst

Seehaus

The Seehaus (lake house) beer garden sits on a nice little lake with boaters, ducks, tables, and a great view.  We knocked back another pint and then set off again.

Keep it local

BMW Museum

The next day we gave our hard working (drinking) hosts a rest and made our way to the BMW museum. Next, to food, cars are my second biggest passion and that passion was fed well with scores of vintage “beemers” and a special art car exhibit. 

Art cars

The art cars had been decorated and painted by some of the world’s most prolific artists including Roy Lichtenstein, Jeff Koons and Andy Warhol who got crazy on an M1 IMSA race car.

Paulaner Bräuhaus

That evening, Fahiman promised us a true Bavarian dinner at one of her favourite beer gardens, the Paulaner Bräuhaus. Paulaner is one of Bavaria’s oldest breweries, started in 1634, and has a small brewing facility at the bräuhaus that makes special beer and fresh draft for their garden.

Schweinebraten

The Bavarian speciality that we all ordered was schweinebraten, a crispy skinned ham roast with beer gravy and potato dumplings.

Plump dumplings

Fahiman grew up in the same neighbourhood as the Paulaner and knew it would not disappoint and boy was she right! The crispy skinned succulent pork with plump dumplings and rich gravy was awesome. I mopped up my plate with some delicious spent grain (from the brewing process) bread. Our waiter was great too and recommended a progression of beer that fit the meal perfectly.

Turkish liqueur

To top off our night we headed back to Fahiman’s for a nightcap of Raki, a Turkish liqueur similar (but better) to Sambuca. In fact, we ended all but one night with this delicious drink and by the time we left Munich most of the bottle was gone (We owe you a bottle Fahiman!).

Nymphenburg

On our penultimate day in Munich, we needed to check off a serious sight. We headed first to Nymphenburg for a nice walk on the grounds and to view one of King Louis’ many castles. Rumour is he was drowned by his own people to keep him from spending all of their money on his castle obsession.

Hirschgarten

The next stop was Dachau but our tour guide wisely suggested that we stop at another great garden called Hirschgarten, hirsch means deer in German. True to its name it had a large pen of deer to watch as we washed down a Bavarian baguette (pretzel) with yet a different variety of beer to take the edge off before visiting one of Europe’s many camps.

Dachau

Dachau was Germany’s first concentration camp and the model for all other concentration camps operating during WWII.  Only two of the prisoners’ barracks remain in the compound along with the buildings that housed the soldiers, 5 churches were built later, in the 60’s and 90’s.

Emotionally draining

Fahiman had warned us that it was an emotionally draining place and she was absolutely correct. I had a hard time making it through the whole exhibit and we were all deeply moved by the horrors that took place right where we stood.

Final night

Our final night in Munich was going to be light and easy. We started off with a nice walk up to yet another garden, built on top of a highway and ended the evening at an Italian restaurant down the street for a tasty pizza. The following morning we were dropped off at the train station, with hugs and well wishes from Heather and Fahiman, on our way to Amsterdam.
Have your own gardening party with this recipe for Bavarian obatzda.