Munich

I realize this blog seesaws between Rick Steve Europe and epic adventure travel a la Ewan McGregor in Long Way Round.  So here's my last chapter of civilized travel on the European continent before I head back to Mongolia and wrap it all up with some dusty, edgy adventure travel.  I will carrying lots of dead weight in the form of preppy button downs and loafers.  Life is hard.

I was lucky enough to have a friend living in Munich, and so I found myself here one beautiful weekend in July.  Now, Munich is understated in a lot of ways, which usually puts it below people's radars.  The city's claim to fame are its Christmas markets.  That sounds great if you are 40, or 70, but it's not exactly comparable to Rome, or London, or Paris when it comes to energy and intensity.

So why is Munich cool?  One word: livability.  The city might be one of the most pleasant places to live and work in the world.  It's like the world's most perfect pedestrian city.  It has all of the cafe culture of Paris without any of the traffic, or attitude.  It has killer public transportation, but great roads, anyway.  The parks are big, easy to get to, and you can drink beer in them.  It has Europe's good architecture without the bad new stuff.  It has all of the high-class jobs of New York or London without all the grime and models and bottles culture of those finance capitals.  The unemployment rate is low.  People are well dressed.  There is more to eat than just wienerschnitzel and pretzels - I happened to have a fantastic Ethiopian dinner.  It is so civilized it hurts.  Should I go on?  You get the idea.  Switzerland has met its match (probably because Munich is right on the border of Switzerland).   It's like the Germans fixed one problem at a time until there was nothing left to fix, and then they delivered the world a model city.  

Now, if it sounds a bit boring, well, it is.  It is a city of engineers, consultants and financiers (also similar to Switzerland...).  The city's most famous employer is BMW, and its home to many top-tier consulting firms as well.  But does it need to be exciting?  If your idea of a good evening involves a couple of pint of hefeweizen, crushing some brats, and just hanging out in the company of good looking people, this is your city.  It's no New York, but then again, it doesn't have New York's faults either.   

I wrapped it up with a trip to the BMW Museum, where you can let your tongue wag over generations of the world's ultimate driving machine.