A City of Opposites: Exploring München

Every city and village carries a different atmosphere: Vienna has a mixture of arrogance and indifference. Stuttgart is creepily friendly when you are used to the Viennese lifestyle because people are not going to make a secret that they are eavesdropping. Zürich is all about milling about mixed with superiority.

After dropping my car off in a secure location, enough sleep, and a filling breakfast, it was time to discover what München would be like. When someone mentioned this city to me, the first thing that pops into my head, is BMW. However, there is much more that makes the essence of this city.

One of the insider tips that I been given, was to check out the "Müller'sche Volksbad". It is a little public pool but instead of just a sad little pool in the middle, the city decided to keep the original and quite impressive architecture:

Obviously, I can't talk about München and not mention the sight that is BMW. BMW World and the BMW Museum are located at the Olympiapark. There are the iconic three towers of their Headquarter that marks the city:

BMW World is right at the edge of the Olympia Park:

However, it is not the only park in München and overshadowed by the vastness of the Englischer Garten (transl. English Garden). While the name might delude you that it has big flower beds filled with pretty little flowers - been there - the park offers open spaces of grass, mixed with trees and smaller lakes where you can ogle at ducks.

And as a local kindly explained to me, it is a popular spot as a pre-night meet up to "lie in the sun and get drunk." Yes, that's a direct quote.

Since I had visited it on what felt like the first spring day of the year, it was stuffed with people but the mass spread out unlike the sheer amount of people at the Marienplatz:

Which is the town square and home of the Rathaus - above - and the old Rathaus - below - which now inhabits a toy museum.

If you walk down the Kaufingerstraße, toward the Frauenkirchen and eventually head for the Karlsplatz - note to self: there are more than one in the whole world - you are going to encounter more older buildings that add to the old character of the city:

After shoving my way through the huge masses of people on the Kaufingerstraße, I was ready to take my train back to Riem and settle in my hotel bed. All in all, München is a city of opposites, both in regards of the people and architecture:

On the one hand, it is known for BMW - a car manufacture which heads the field in renewable energy and modern car technology. Definitely one that does not want to be stuck in the past. Meanwhile, the city centre takes pride in its olden architecture.

On the other hand, there are the people: after a mere ten minutes in the public pool, a local man and I had started small talk and after swimming our lengths, I had ended up in the office gossip group before I even noticed what had been going on.

This marks the people out as kind and open, but at the same time, I had to elbow my way through the Marienplatz. While in Vienna in a crowded place you somehow managed to avoid each other without making eye contact and it would be considered rude to bump into someone, in München nobody even bothers if you brush against them if its in a crowd and you try to get the other way.

And is there a better way than to show this dichotomy than by taking a photo of an electric BMW i8 parked on an old cobbled road?

More About My München Road Trip 

🚗 The Rookie Road Tripper Visits The BMW Museum and BMW World in München 🚗 

🥨 A City of Opposites: Exploring München 🥨 

🏨 The Road Tripper's Hotel in München? Reviewing The Landhotel Martinshof 🏨