Today I’m talking again about Munich, and I’ll take you to discover four places I think you shoudn’t miss.
Let’s start the tour from the Englischer Garten: it deserves a (half) day dedicated, but for a matter of time and things we wanted to see we had to choose a small part of the park to cross to discover the beauties. Me and my friend, we entered almost the middle of the south part of the park, and we headed towards the small Monopteros temple. It is located at the top of a small hill and at the time of our visit was under renovation: this is why we decided to photograph it from afar without getting too close (it was not possible to climb the steps to see the inside of the dome). Then we moved towards the Chinesischer Turm (Chinese Tower), around which there is a vast Biergarten with 7000 seats. It is a 25-meter high wooden construction built between 1789 and 1790 by Johann Baptist Lechner. For its construction, the “great pagoda” in Kew Gardens (in London) was taken as a model. The Chinese tower of Monaco caught fire several times, the last one in July 1944 during the Second World War.
It was meticulously rebuilt in 1952. We continued our tour going towards the Kleinhesseloher See, a large artificial lake in the park, where we decide to take a ride on a pedal boat. The rent of pedalos costs 10 euros for half an hour, and I have seen pedalos of different shapes, from the “traditional” to those that look like motor boats. You can turn the lake far and wide, with ducks swimming around you or they will ignore you while they rest on the giant trunks leaning in the water. Half an hour is tiring, but it’s still an entertaining ride! If you go to Munich during the summer, I suggest you pedal in a shirt to not die of heat and sweat like crazy, as happened
to us. The second place I recommend to visit is the Alter Südlicher Friedhof, a monumental cemetery in Munich. Wanted by the Duke Albrecht V in 1563 as a cemetery for the dead of the plague. It is half a kilometre south of Sendlinger Tor, at the gates of Munich. It was also the burial place of the dead during the Sendling uprising of 1705. From 1788 to 1868 it was the only cemetery for the entire metropolitan area of Munich. Some tombs are fascinating, monumental and with statues that I found fantastic in their expressiveness. Quite impressive is how much the people of the neighbourhood seems to love this place: a lot of people
come here to walk, run and take dogs for walks. I finish this tour of Munich with the system of bridges over the Isar, connecting a network of islands cradled by the river of the city. Of course, a walk to the park is indeed more beautiful for the landscape and the cool, but this hike offers a unique view of the city. It also connects several green areas where I have seen many people sit down to enjoy the sun and the fresh air that also characterises Monaco in the summer.