Munich, oh Munich… you never let us down. We have been visiting you a few times now and each visit seems to be too short…
We decided we wanted to go somewhere, but we wanted the destination to be ‘easy’. Andy by ‘easy’ I mean that we wanted to just go somewhere and don’t do a lot of preparation. No energy for that at the moment! At that point, Munich came to our minds… We have been to this city a few times. So we know the tourist attractions and we are familiar with the city (to a certain point). For this visit, we decided not to make big plans or schedules, but take it easy and just enjoy city life.
To make everything even more relaxed, we decided to go there by train. So, after handing our dog over to my parents we went to the train station and off we were. The brilliant thing about travelling by train, of course, is that you have a lot of knitting time!
Munich – Taking a stroll
Now, we did not go totally unprepared. But we looked for the not-so-obvious things to do. On our list was to explore Haidhausen which is a neighbourhood close to the city centre, just across the river Isar. To start the day well, we had breakfast at Kaffeeküche.
Going out for breakfast is a little treat for us since we don’t have many options to do so where we live. We then walked down the Weissenburger Strasse to the Pariser Platz popping into a little shop here and there. This area is actually full of beautiful independent little shops! And… it’s nice and quiet here as well. You wouldn’t think that you are in a large city.
We continued our way to Bordeaux Platz and walked up to Johannes Platz. Along the way, you’ll find a lovely shop called Kokolores which sells gifts and other nice things. In one of the back streets, you can find a rather unexpected shop and you’ll recognise it when you see this:
It’s a shop called Medical Art & More and they sell all kinds of (funny) things related to the body and medicine. Definitely worth a browse.
We have found some lovely houses in this part of the city as well. I can totally imagine living in the one with the blue shutters!
Visiting the botanical garden was on our plan too. We hadn’t been there before. There are large glasshouses where the more tropical plants are growing and there are outside gardens. Being in the garden in Spring meant that it was really colourful already!
I’ve spotted some old stairs surrounded by beautiful wisteria.
Aren’t the green tulips stunning? I had never seen them before!
Next to the Botanical Garden is Schloss Nymphenburg with its large gardens. We have been into the buildings before but we hadn’t really explored the gardens yet so that’s what we did this time. The tranquillity was very nice…
Munich – Yarn shopping
The other little bit of preparation that I did before we went to Munich was to research the yarn shopping opportunities. And there were two shops on my list: Rauwerk and Die Mercerie.
Rauwerk Wolle is located in beautiful Haidhausen and is owned by the lovely Christine. Her focus is on sustainable, eco-friendly and ethical yarns. At the time we were at the shop, she was just about to launch her own yarn brand made entirely in Bavaria. Additionally, you’ll find smaller (European) brands that produce yarns in a sustainable way.
Of course, I couldn’t leave without taking some yarns home with me. The neutral ones are Rosy Green yarns and the pinky one is made by Nabi Wool Studio from Switzerland (details in the stash section on Ravelry).
The shop is not very large, but the selection of yarns is really beautiful and Christine is a very friendly lady who we also had a nice chat with. Thank you, Christine!
Die Mercerie was the other yarn shop that I had on my list. The yarns that they carry are definitely in the luxury segment! But so beautiful. I had a clear focus here because I wanted to find the necessary yarn for my Hotel of Bees shawl.
And I did! I had a kind of mustardy yellow in my head. That had to be in it. Shibui turned out to have to perfect colourway in their range which is called Pollen. How appropriate is that for a bee themed shawl? The blue ones are both Madelinetosh.
Oh, and did you notice the cute project bag? I’ve bought that at Kokolores which I mentioned earlier. The perfect match with the yarn is a coincidence :)!
Munich – Exploring the Foodie Scene
We had great weather during our visit which is perfect to enjoy some Bavarian specialities outside, in a beer garden. I’m not really keen on the very large ones, but we found a lovely small one right in the English Garden (one of the largest parks in the city). It is called Milchhäusl. It can get rather crowded, but the food is great and 100% organic!
A nice place to go for coffee and cake is Café Lotti. It’s nicely decorated and their cakes are great.
Something that we really, really enjoy when travelling, is eating out and try new-to-us or different food. Again, the concentration of more exotic restaurants is not very dense in the rural area where we live, so that is something that we always look forward too. And Munich does not let you down here!
We decided to try an Afghan restaurant that we did not know yet which is called Bamyan Narges. The food is absolutely great and the people are very friendly too and they like a chat as well. This one is definitely a recommendation should you be in Munich!
And how about starting the day with a coffee and brezn’ on the go somewhere on a square in the shade of a tree?
Munich, oh Munich… It was a pleasure visiting you again!
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