Munich By Bike

In my week in Munich I spent too much time imbibing, but there was one particularly sunny day that was ideal to see Munich how locals see it: by bicycle. I was signed up to do a tour with Mike’s Bike Tours, which meets daily near the famous Glockenspiel.

The tour was frequented by mostly Americans and Australians and even my guide was from California. I was concerned about my ability to ride a bike, since it had been at least a decade since I had ridden one, but thankfully my fears were unfounded. I felt a bit wobbly when I got on, but I soon got back into the hang of it.

I picked a pretty pink beach cruiser, complete with a bell. Our guide Kyle was great at sharing with us the important landmarks in this bike-friendly city. One of our first stops was the Feldherrnhalle, where Adolf Hitler led a march against the Bavarian State Police which resulted in many deaths and Hitler’s imprisonment.

The gold line of bricks behind the Feldherrnhalle delineates where non-Nazis walked without saluting until they were arrested and made to “Hail Hitler.” The gold bricks do not go all the way down the street for this reason.

Located inside of the Hofgarten, the Bavarian Staatskanzlei, or State Chancellery, is on the original grounds of army barracks. The dome was part of the Bavarian Army Museum, which was destroyed in World War II. It stood as an anti-war memorial for many years before the glass walls were created in 1989 to symbolize transparency in government.

I was thankful that this was the first sunny day in my entire visit to Munich and it couldn’t have been planned any better. The flowers were in full bloom and I stopped my bike every few minutes to snap some photos.

Halfway through the tour it was time for the most important stop of the day, the beer garden. A few days prior I had visited Englischer Garten when it was rainy and overcast. I never even found the Chinese Tower. But today was different and I couldn’t be happier.

Englischer Garten is Munich’s answer to Central Park and the Chinese Tower (Chinesischer Turm) beer garden is one of the top landmarks in the city. We all got in line to pick up some much-needed sustenance. I got a sausage and potatoes as well as a weissbier (wheat beer) but learned the hard way that they prefer cash.

The original tower was burnt down after being bombed in 1944, but was rebuilt a few years later. This beer garden is the best place to soak up sun with locals, who you will find here every day. When you purchase a beer you are given a token which you have to return with the glass in order to get your 2 euro deposit back.

If you want a glass to purchase tell them at the front of the line. They are significantly cheaper here than at the Hofbrauhaus gift shop.

And one of the final stops of the tour was one of my favorites. Watching the surfers on the river is captivating and I could have watched it for days. Everyone took turns, in true German fashion, and cut across the artificial waves created by something tied to the bottom of the bridge.

I very much enjoyed my tour with Mike’s Bike Tours and highly recommend that you give it a go the next time you’re in Munich. They also run tours to Dachau, Neuschwanstein and have a branch in Amsterdam. If you prefer self-guided, they also rent bikes.

Mike’s Bike Tours Munich provided me with a complimentary bike tour of the city, but all opinions are my own.