Munich is one of the most popular travel destinations in Germany. Millions of tourists visit the city every year. And maybe you have already planned to book a trip to Munich or you’re thinking about it. Surely you have already found some information and many good things about Munich while searching the Internet. But every destination has a few things that are not necessarily great or wonderful. Be it a weather-related limited travel time, environmental factors or simply completely crowded streets and squares. For this reason you should also learn a little bit about annoying things about Munich. I think this is part of a complete travel preparation.
Especially during the summer months, when the weather conditions allow outdoor activities, you will definitely feel that everything is packed, full and dense in Munich.
Try to get a seat in a Café in the inner city – I wish you good luck! Also shopping in Munich’s main shopping streets (Neuhauser St., Sendlinger St.) on a saturday in the summer feels like training for Oktoberfest as all shopping streets and shops are overcrowded and you can’t even take your time to do window-shopping.
And don’t think you can flee into a calm beer garden and have some „Gemütlichkeit“ as the well known beer gardens will be packed and crowded as well on nice summer days which will give you a hard time finding an empty seat.
You might think you just have to flee the city and do a day trip in your rental car. The rural part of Bavaria will be calm. You’re right, but the interesting spots for tourists like the towns of Garmisch, Füssen, Tegernsee, etc. will also be crowded and if you don’t start your trip early, you will find yourself in a heavy traffic jam on the motorway to the south. Well, at least it is a traffic jam in a nice and beautiful region and sometimes you get really great views of the Alps and the Alpine Foreland.
When you search the web about travelling to Munich and Bavaria, you will find lot’s of articles, pictures and videos praising the Bavarian culture, the traditional clothes, and the beer and roast pork impregnated air in the beer halls and restaurants where brass bands always perform.
Unfortunately the truth looks completely different. In Munich there is hardly a living Bavarian culture anymore. What you will experience as a tourist is actually almost completely organized just for you. Some restaurants will even exaggerate so much and thus exclusively serve existing sterotypes about Bavarian culture.
This sometimes goes so far that you might speak a few words of German and want to order from the waitress in lederhosen or dirndl and she will tell you that she has a hard time understanding German because she herself comes from Russia or Bulgaria and you may prefer to order in English.
It is also a fact that the Bavarian dialect, which was spoken by 60-70% of all inhabitants in the 1950s and 1960s has decreased. Today only 0.9% of the inhabitants of Munich speak Bavarian dialect. Therefore, the dialect can be found on the UNESCO list of dying languages since 2009.
In the many countries that I have already travelled I have noticed something. Especially in countries like the USA, driving a car is much more pleasant and less stressful than in Germany. In my opinion, this is certainly due to the fact that there is much more space available, for example on the motorways. But I firmly believe that there is also a certain driver mentality – and this mentality is quite aggressive in Germany.
As a driver of a rental car, you should therefore always be prepared for the fact that many German drivers will have no patience at all. They will honk at you aggressively when you start a milisecond late at the green traffic light. They will curse, gesticulate wildly and flash their lights when you turn too slow or too fast or drive strangely in their eyes.
Photos by wheretostayinmunich.com