Standing outside Old Town Hall at Marienplatz I started to ponder just how much fun a guided bike tour of downtown Munich might be. My preconceived notions of Munich were that its primary tourist attraction was beer, and alot of it. In fact, during last year’s Oktoberfest participants chugged over five million liters of beer while chomping down 200,000 bratwurst. To my surprise, this was not the only useless fact I would learn on my bike tour, but also a detour through Munich’s nudist meadow and a local surfing spot down the Isar river.
We jumped on our California Cruzers and hit the town passing through Hofgarten, Odeonsplatz, and lunch in the English gardens. From all the places I’ve been in Europe, the Odeonsplatz quadrant of Munich is one of the best representations of Baroque, Neoclassical, and Rodocco architecture.
A must see is the Residenz and interior of the Theatinerkirche. Also, the Hofgarten’s adjacency to the Konzlei and elevated Northern position in the city gives a great vantage point for snapping a few pictures of downtown Munich.
The tour also stopped in the English Garden where we ate like kings! Liters of Wiesen beer, half a grilled chicken with honey glaze, and a plate full of potato wedges. After finishing lunch, the afternoon took an interesting turn.
We all jumped back on our Cali cruzers and began navigating our way along the pedestrian walk ways when suddenly an old man wearing nothing but hiking boots passed me on the right. At first I thought I was losing it, but when I looked out into the meadow everyone was naked. The guide started laughing and gave a brief explanation of how this meadow never escaped the 70’s peace, love, harmony movement. Then, the next stop was one of my favorites where locals used surf boards to catch a 3 foot roller. It reminded me of the boogie bahn at schlitterbahn except free! I’ll definitely be hitting this place next time with board shorts.
Looking back, I’m now convinced that Munich has much more to offer than the beer gardens and I would highly recommend Mikes Bike tour. I think next time I’ll try the BMW museum. Fingers and toes crossed that they will let me do a test drive!
