My very first morning in Munich, I reached there pretty early in the morning. While waiting to check in at the Euro Youth Hotel where I was staying at, I decided to check out the city via the Sandeman’s New Munich walking tour. It’s free and happens twice a day (1045am and 1pm), so if you’re not familiar with the city already, it’s a great way to get acquainted – Munich’s city centre is full of history, and while a lot of it was destroyed during the World Wars, the city has taken a lot of effort into restoring it to its original glory.
The tour guides come to the hostel lobby to pick you up at 1010am, and gather up other interested folk from the neighbouring hostel as well. After that, it’s a 10-15min walk to Marienplatz where other people interested in the tour gather.
Sandeman has a few tours that all meet at this spot, the rest are paid tours but the most popular one is naturally the free city tour. To sort everyone out, each person is given a ticket to hang on to.
Often, they split large groups up according to the number on the ticket
The tour starts out in Marienplatz at 1045am, so you’re just in time to catch the famous Glockenspiel at 11am at the New City Hall, a giant cuckoo clock of sorts that does this intricate little dance of sorts every hour. It really isn’t very exciting, a rather old-fashioned mechanism that displays some of Munich’s historical events. The guide did try and make it as exciting as he could though, kudos to him.
It’s about 3 hours of walking around, so wear comfortable shoes and if you’re there in winter like I was, make sure you stay warm! Here are a few of the highlights from the tour.
Munich’s New Town Hall is the centerpiece of Marienplatz
The famous Glockenspiel clock that everyone comes to see. What I thought was interesting is that the music that the figures dance to are metallic chimes which are affected by the weather, so the music sounds different depending on the weather
Halfway toilet break + drink stop. I don’t know why everyone headed to the nearby starbucks when you have a lovely gluhwein stall right there. This is also how I met my friend S on this walking tour – we bonded over gluhwein
The Church of St Peter doesn’t just have some impressive architecture, it also has a real antique cannonball stuck in its window. After the war, the building was bombed and in pieces, but they managed to locate the original cannonball so they put it back in place when they rebuilt it.
The Frauenkirche or Church of our Lady – this is a pretty iconic symbol of Munich
This Gold Line is a memorial to those who resisted the Nazis
There’s a lot more that I saw of course – this is just a snapshot of what you will see on the tour. I recommend anyone visiting Munich to check out this free city tour. You can also do paid tours with them to Dachau (though you can go on your own quite easily) and Neuschwanstein as well.
Exploring Munich in Winter? Check out all my Munich posts from this trip.
Cara Stombock
Thursday 12th of July 2018
I did this tour in Munich, as well. It was amazing! I had written in my journal about a story our guide told us about St. Peter's church. Years ago, a storm blew the cross off the top of the church. Church leaders scrambled to find someone to put it back up, to no avail. Finally (apparently) a man drinking in a beer hall climbed up with the cross and his full stein of beer and was able to put the cross back in its place. She said that he then chugged his beer and threw the stein off the top of the church, but it did not break. It is now a holy relic! I have searched and searched for confirmation of this story and have had NO luck! Did you hear this same story?? Thanks!
Jaclynn Seah
Thursday 12th of July 2018
wow that's new to me! Can't give you any confirmation unfortunately~