Munich - Great for Beer and Footie
"FC Bayern Munchen"
Whenever I venture abroad sometimes you do not know what to expect. With Germany and especially Munich you always know that there be great food, great beer and people who know about their football.
A recent trip was to Munich in March 2010. A two night stay for the UEFA Champions League Quarter Final 1st Leg game.
I flew over to Munich with a good mate of mine Craig, the night before the day of the game on the 17.10 Lufthansa flight from Heathrow. We then headed into town via a 45 minute bus journey, dropping us off close to the hotel at the main Hauptbahnhof railway station.
Our hotel, the Hotel Schweiz, was decent enough although the room we had was a bit on the smallish side.
After dumping the bags off at the hotel we hopped in a cab and headed to the city centre to meet up with some mates at about 22.00. A few steins were finished off at the Hofbräuhaus, and then it was across the road for a late drink at the Hard Rock Cafe and an even later one at Lamm’s.
Bed at 03.30 up at 08.00 for breakfast and prepare for our pre planned Third Reich walking tour. We met our guide underneath the famous glockenspiel at Marienplatz at 10.15 and headed off for the 2 ½ hour tour. I can highly Recommend this tour if your interested in the early day of Hitler in Munich.
After the tour we then decided to go and visit the two memorials to the 1958 Manchester United air crash, in the small village of Kirchtrudering, and pay our respects to the Busby Babes.
We then met up with the rest of the gang back at Lamm’s and had a few pre match Weissbeers...really excellent. One funny thing that happened that afternoon was that when we bought a local paper from a seller in the bar there was a front page picture of some of the lads, now known as the magnificent seven, whilst they were in one of the other local bars. Signed copied of the paper were being taken by the locals!
It was then of to the Allianz Arena for the match. It started off very brightly as United scored in the first minute of the game. Unfortuntely it ended disappointingly as Munich equalised and then scored a winner with the last kick of the game.
We ended up after the game back at Lamm’s and downed a few more beers before retiring to bed.
Next morning we took it easy at the hotel and headed to the airport, this time via the u-Bahn, for our 13:15 flight back home to Heathrow.
A really enjoyable trip to Munich and I would not hesitate to come back again.
Raise a few steins for me when you visit.
"FC Bayern Munchen - Allianz Arena"
A recent trip was to Munich in March 2010. A two night stay for the UEFA Champions League Quarter Final 1st Leg game.
Manchester United played Bayern Munchen in the Allianz Arena on 30 March 2010, United lost 2-1.
United won the second leg 3-2, but went out of the cup 4-4 on away goals.
"FC Bayern Munchen - Olympiastadion Munchen"
My first visit to Munich was for the UEFA Champions League Group D Match.
Manchester United played Bayern Munchen in the Olympiastadion on 30 September 1999. We drew 2-2.
I was running out of holiday for the year and was in danger of missing the match. Fortunately I found out that I had a financial exam in London in the morning on that day. It was the custom at work to take the full day off as an exam day, after the exam I made my way to the airport and flew over to Germany in time to meet the lads for a couple of pre match drinks and then made it to the match. Unfortunately I had to take the coach journey back with the rest of the lads to Kent, which seemed to take forever! Much better to fly there and back!
My second visit to Munich was for the UEFA Champions League Group Quarter Final 2nd Leg.
Manchester United played Bayern Munchen in the Olympiastadion on 18 April 2001. We lost 2-1 on the night and that meant we lost the tie on aggregate 3-1. Out of the cup!
