[HN Gopher] Munich from a Hamburger's perspective
___________________________________________________________________
Munich from a Hamburger's perspective
Author : toomuchtodo
Score : 98 points
Date : 2025-06-15 20:55 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (mertbulan.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (mertbulan.com)
| ahofmann wrote:
| A nitpick, that bothers me more, than I'd like to admit: the
| author talks about the former divide in Germany and the
| difference between Hamburg and Munich because of that. Problem
| is, both towns where in west Germany and not divided at all
| (except of course by the Weisswurstaquator ;-)).
| Svip wrote:
| I assume you are referring to this sentence:
|
| > I know German history and how divided the country used to be,
| so it shouldn't be a surprise to see these differences.
|
| The author is not talking about Germany post-WW2, but pre-1870,
| where Germany was divided into 39 independent states (if we
| include the Austrian Empire), at least in the 19th century.
| Before that, the number was likely higher.
|
| German history is a lot longer than the past century.
| mc32 wrote:
| It's true; however it'd probably be a nice parenthetical to
| add context to the division bring referenced. Kind of how
| it's good manners to initially spell out any acronyms at the
| beginning of a text.
| dietr1ch wrote:
| IMHO abbreviations that you don't define are way easier to
| miss than context that an audience, maybe larger than
| originally planned, is going to need.
| bcraven wrote:
| The irony contained in this sentence is superb.
| gerikson wrote:
| As soon as I saw the title my thoughts went to the old
| divide between Lutheran High Germany and Catholic Bavaria.
| But that's a lot because I had a coworker (from Berlin)
| whose grandfather was from Bavaria and ran away to sea to
| avoid becoming a priest, which his mother had promised God
| he would become for sparing his brother in WW1.
| Svip wrote:
| In truth, I was a bit surprised to see the piece written in
| English, because it feels like the audience should be
| German-speaking. Whilst there is an initial paragraph
| discussing the different situations within the Holy Roman
| Empire in the 1100s, the Holy Roman Empire itself is never
| explained, merely assumed (in fact, it is not even
| mentioned by name). Perhaps it comes natural to Germans
| themselves that their history of unity is far smaller than
| their history of division.
| Exoristos wrote:
| We spent years on this area's history between elementary
| school and high school, and I'm from rural Kentucky. The
| eastern Franks. Henry V and the Pope. Barbarossa. Luther
| and Anabaptism. The Fredericks and Prussian civil order.
| Romanticism. Moltke and Bismarck. The Christian Democracy
| movement. Weimar. Before the obvious stuff from more-
| recent history.
| Tomte wrote:
| > So while Munich was ruled by a single dynasty for
| centuries, Hamburg was more independent and focused on
| trade.
|
| > There are also clear religious differences. Both cities
| were Catholic until the 16th century, but during the
| Reformation, Hamburg became Protestant.
|
| Etc.
|
| At this point not getting it seems willful.
| bee_rider wrote:
| I read it as more of an "yeah sure, let's dispense with the
| really obvious thing" type aside. Going into too much
| detail would be distracting.
| croemer wrote:
| > pre-1870, where Germany was divided into 39 independent
| states
|
| The 39 independent states is only correct for a few years in
| the 19th century. Summarizing the changes in number of states
| of the German confederation since 1815: 1815:
| 39 (German Confederation founded) 1817: 40 (Hesse-
| Homburg admitted) 1839: 41 (Limburg added) 1850:
| 39 (Prussia annexes two Hohenzollern duchies) 1853: 38
| (Anhalt-Kothen merged) 1863: 37 (Anhalt-Bernburg
| merged) 1866: 36 (Confederation collapses; Prussia
| absorbs Hanover etc.) 1867: 26 (22 in North
| Confederation + 4 southern kingdoms) 1871: German
| Empire formed, states are no longer independent
| amunozo wrote:
| I did a research stay two summers ago in Munich and oh my God,
| it's the best place I've "lived" by far. So clean, so calm, yet
| so vibrant.
| mvdwoord wrote:
| I lived there for three years, about 10 years ago, and could
| not agree more. Highest quality of life I have experienced.
| vasilzhigilei wrote:
| I lived in Munich for a month a few summers ago. While I
| enjoyed it, and it was definitely clean, I couldn't help but
| describe Munich as a "city where people go to work". Pleasant,
| but not exciting. Very walkable, though!
| mft_ wrote:
| Interesting; from my experience, clean, calm, safe, and
| expensive, but absolutely not what I'd call vibrant. A lot of
| the time it feels flat and dull in comparison to other large
| cities - Berlin, London, Barcelona, etc.
|
| (My personal theory is that it's just too rich and developed;
| you need cheap 'edgy' areas to support the people and business
| ideas that make places more interesting. Plus Bavarian culture
| is [in a nutshell] basically Catholic Churches and beer
| houses/gardens, so not hugely varied.)
| Barrin92 wrote:
| >A lot of the time it feels flat and dull in comparison to
| other large cities [...] My personal theory is that it's just
| too rich and developed; you need cheap 'edgy' areas
|
| As someone hailing from Cologne but with lots of friends in
| Munich, I tend to agree. Maybe it's the "Ruhrpott"
| dysfunction you're used to when you grew up in this part of
| Germany, but Munich always felt like a giant Apple Store,
| Hamburg does too but with a Protestant/Nordic spin instead of
| the posh Catholic south.
|
| I think also another factor is that Munich is monocentric,
| the urban core absorbed districts very quickly (most people
| wouldn't know it these days but Bavaria used to be very
| underdeveloped for a long time) whereas the Ruhr area or
| Berlin are much more decentralized urban agglomerations,
| growing over a longer time, making it a bit more chaotic and
| sprawlish and economically hit or miss.
| CGMthrowaway wrote:
| Idk about that. The Bavarian State Opera is very good, and
| all three(!) of Munich's three orchestras are world-class.
| Munich is a science and tech hub bringing interesting and
| important transients all the time. It has an amazing art
| collection, English Gardens that actually get used, and
| cultural and entertainment amenities that are well-spread
| across different parts of the city.
| amunozo wrote:
| Well, you're right. I was comparing to places as clean, calm
| and safe as Munich. I only found that kind of peace in much
| smaller cities that were way less vibrant. I understand (and
| agree) with your second paragraph, but from all the "too rich
| and developed" places I've been, this is the most vibrant.
|
| Except for housing, I did not find it particularly expensive.
| I ate out at very nice places for less than 10EUR a lot of
| times, ice creams were amazing and cheap, too. At least
| compared to Spain, I did not noticed a big difference, taking
| into account the wealth of the city.
| bgnn wrote:
| Vienna is a better version of Munich for the things you
| seem to like. Have you been there?
| fxj wrote:
| Munich has a smaller version of the Octoberfest all year
| around. Beer Gardens everywhere, many people wearing
| "Tracht". The tourists love it and the munich people love the
| money. It has some nice places like the English Garden or the
| River Side. Also the Farmers Market in the city centre is
| nice to hang around. It is not for the young crowd but more
| for the settled and wealthy ones. Very much like Zurich, but
| bigger. The mountains are close and the lakes around Munich
| are famous. Also many nice castles like Schloss Nymphenburg,
| the Residenz and of course the castle built by Ludwig II.
| Lots of historic buildings. The city was founded 1158 and
| parts of the old city still exist.
| CGMthrowaway wrote:
| Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Trieste, Krakow, even
| Innsbruck, Bratislava -
|
| I have traveled all over Europe, just about everywhere, and my
| favorite cities are consistently in the old Habsburg Realm.
|
| I don't know why but that's what they all have in common.
| hellrich wrote:
| Munich/Bavaria were not ruled by the Habsburgs, unless you
| want to count the whole Holy Roman Empire.
| CGMthrowaway wrote:
| Yeah good point. Now I need to find a different commonality
| jackcosgrove wrote:
| I think "Habsburg" is a good enough descriptor. It
| encompasses the Catholic, northern-influenced culture (if
| not actually in the north like Trieste) as well as the
| baroque, counter Reformation-derived artistic styles.
| lostlogin wrote:
| They had a couple of notable 20th century leaders.
| mistrial9 wrote:
| see the movie The Sound of Music
| anyfoo wrote:
| As someone from Munich, I often joke that if I fell
| unconscious and woke up in Vienna, it would take me a rather
| long time to figure out that I'm not in Munich.
| neuronic wrote:
| If in doubt just try to open Immoscout and rent an
| apartment.
| j-krieger wrote:
| I live there. It's the best city I ever lived in. I just wish
| my rent wasn't so sky high.
| martin_a wrote:
| As someone who has been to both Hamburg and Munich quite a few
| times I find them hard to compare. Each city has its own benefits
| and they are both great in their way.
|
| I think in the end it comes down to whether you like mountains
| more than harbors. ;-)
|
| Hamburg has its own charme with the harbor and the surrounding
| history of sailors, trade, red light districts, very old
| factories etc.
|
| Munich is much more polished but also kind of crammed. Cars
| everywhere, lots of traffic in the streets, yes, parks also,
| but... it's different.
|
| I like both cities and also beer from both cities. If you're not
| from Germany and decide to come over: Visit both of them and
| enjoy their uniqueness.
| cantalopes wrote:
| I don't know what munich you were in, but it's one of the most
| uninviting, dirty and boring cities i've ever been to
| fxj wrote:
| Munchner here. It is a very touristy city. Dirty? not so much
| in comparison to other german cities like Cologne or Berlin.
| Uninviting and boring depends what you want to do. Nightlife
| in comparison to Berlin is poor. All the techno clubs are
| there. Octoberfest is a melting pot for the whole world.
| Americans and Australiens have a hard time digesting the
| amounts of beer.
| neuronic wrote:
| I am from Munich but live in Hamburg. I have read all
| comments here and experienced people visiting and heckling
| Munich for decades now. People can talk a lot of shit about
| Munich, many things rightfully so.
|
| But dirty? I have literally never heard anyone say that. If
| you think Munich is dirty you must be from Singapore or Japan
| and never visited any other city on the planet.
| blackguardx wrote:
| I went to Munich last September and didn't see any mountains
| from the city. I was very surprised because I flew direct from
| Denver and maps made it seem similarly situated. Munich and
| surrounding areas more closely resemble Wisconsin than anything
| else.
| fxj wrote:
| You can see them on sunny days when the wind blows from the
| south. So called "Fohn" weather.
| neuronic wrote:
| Actual mountains are about a 90min drive from Munich (towards
| Garmisch).
| fxj wrote:
| Hamburg has a harbor and is at the riverside of a large stream
| so that makes it a complete different setup. Munich on the
| other hand still has a castle in the inner city (Residenz) and
| has many historical buildings. Hamburg has the status of a
| "state" in Germany while Munich is the capital of Bavaria (a
| state in Germany). Both cities are rich and the rich people
| also celebrate the weath in both cities. If you want a party
| city you better go to Berlin. (Arm aber sexy (Poor but sexy))
| is their slogan.
| mschuster91 wrote:
| Munich is an awesome city... for a tourist. It's clean, one of
| the safest cities of Germany (with the exception of the Central
| Station) and, with the exception of some "Asi-Viertels", well
| maintained (particularly compared to Berlin, Frankfurt or most of
| NRW), the attractions are _awesome_ , and the beer is excellent.
|
| For locals though? Speaking as one (who fled a year ago to nearby
| Landshut and still has to commute)... if you think about moving
| here, please don't:
|
| - public transport is way too overcrowded, no matter what type of
| it, and forget about commute by car unless you are rich enough to
| pay someone to drive for you
|
| - The rents are frankly _insane_ , and fucking Bavarian wannabe-
| chieftain Soder keeps inviting one big company after another to
| Munich (instead of, say, Nuremberg for a change) while doing
| everything he can to avoid and hinder helping Munich alleviate
| the housing cost crisis.
|
| - Munich's police are rabid if you're not white. Particularly the
| Central Station is _not_ a good thing to "live while Black" (or
| dressed like a hippie or alternative), you'll get hounded by them
| because they can and will suspect you being a drug dealer,
| although the situation has relaxed a bit ever since cannabis got
| legalized federally a year ago.
|
| - did I already mention the insane lack of housing? Seriously:
| prepare to either pay through your nose for short-term
| accomodation or couchsurfing, unless you are employed at one of
| the tech giants or rich enough to buy a place in cash you will
| likely spend a year or two until you have housing. If you are a
| student, that applies even more.
|
| - a lot of Munich's infrastructure dates back to the money spigot
| times of the Olympic Games 1972 - and is subsequently shut down
| for repairs all the time because there hasn't been much invested
| in maintenance over the decades.
|
| - Oktoberfest, Bauma (the construction trade fair) and the
| regular Champions League soccer games grind the entire city to a
| standstill. If you can help it, DO NOT move to any area close to
| the Theresienwiese (people WILL piss and even shit on your porch,
| I speak from personal experience) and to the Sechzger-Stadion in
| Giesing (in addition to the noise, 1860 fans are violent hothead
| hools that lead to massive disruptions for traffic every time
| that sorry excuse for a football club has a game).
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| _> inviting one big company after another to Munich (instead
| of, say, Nuremberg for a change)_
|
| Companies go where the workforce already is. No company will
| waste their time to convince workforce to move to a smaller and
| cheaper town just for them, and workers won't move to a smaller
| and cheaper town just for one employer in case it doesn't work
| out and need to job hop quickly.
| donjoe wrote:
| ... If you live close by Theresienwiese, the city provides free
| cleaning for any accidents during Oktoberfest in your
| front/backyard also. I have to smile everytime I do find the
| note containing an emergency accident cleanup number in my
| mailbox :-)
| fxj wrote:
| Well I live very close to Theresienwiese and dont have any
| problems at all. During the 2 weeks of Octoberfest they clean
| the streets every morning at 4am and everything is clean and
| shiny again. Also now that the Theresienwiese have been
| encircled by a fence during Octoberfest the numbers of drunk
| people has fallen dramatically.
| Tornhoof wrote:
| As someone who still lives in the suburbs of munich, I want to
| emphasize on the horrible public transportation situation in
| munich. It's always under construction, nothing really works
| and, as soon as there is some Public Event, everything breaks
| down.
| SvenL wrote:
| Well, about the public transport being always under
| construction, yes, it is. But I think it's a good thing.
|
| First there is quite some money put into public
| transportation which is great.
|
| Second, it has to be modernized all the time to accommodate
| for the growing passenger numbers and city growth.
|
| Last but not least, for a long time there was no investment
| done into public transportation in Munich, so now they have
| to do more to keep up.
|
| I like it and I would not like to live in a city which
| doesn't invest in its public transportation system.
| ilumanty wrote:
| Can confirm every single point you made.
|
| I'd add that riding a bike is also quite stressful at times.
| mschuster91 wrote:
| Munich streets are a war zone - you always gotta be the top
| dog. Too much traffic, way too much.
|
| And yet I routinely see morons here and on r/de + r/Munich
| advocate to build even more housing for people in Munich... I
| mean, obviously, more housing is good, but as there is no way
| to meaningfully expand the capacity of public transport it's
| frankly useless.
| twixfel wrote:
| It's quite the opposite of moronic to build more housing
| where there is demand.
| j-krieger wrote:
| OP's article touches on this. This city is too crowded man.
| There are too many people on too little space
| subarctic wrote:
| So it's busy, expensive and hard to find a place to live.
| Sounds like any popular city that lots of people want to move
| to.
| okanat wrote:
| People want to work in companies that pay a lot. They are
| usually not aware of intricacies of the city that the work is
| in.
| mns wrote:
| As someone living in Munich for more than 10 years, 5 around
| Hauptbahnhof and another 8 around Theresienwiese, I think
| you're exaggerating quite a lot, as well as the people below.
| But in general people do exaggerate and complain a lot about
| the places they live in, especially Germans :) Munich probably
| has one of the best public transport systems in the world, but
| god forbid the S Bahn have some issues during winter or a
| storm, and some people have to lose their minds about what a
| disaster the public transport is.
|
| I think people should appreciate more the good places they are
| living in, instead of trying to find something to complain in
| every single aspect of their lives
| j-krieger wrote:
| > The rents are frankly insane, and fucking Bavarian wannabe-
| chieftain Soder keeps inviting one big company after another to
| Munich (instead of, say, Nuremberg for a change) while doing
| everything he can to avoid and hinder helping Munich alleviate
| the housing cost crisis
|
| I live there and I know this to be true, but I don't get it. I
| personally know tech companies that can't hire in Munich
| because they can't find apartments for their hirees to live in.
| ItCouldBeWorse wrote:
| I find both cities, cultivate a strong "The rest is peasants"
| vibe - but Hamburg is quite at the top with this. It seeps
| through the media made there ("Der Spiegel") and the authors
| writting in it. Its also part of the multi-culturality and
| openess that comes with having a harbour - which a landlocked
| city "naturally has a hard time developing". So whenever you goto
| hamburg from the south, you recieve a ton of subtle signs about
| the superiority of the city and the "elb-adel" (aristocrats) and
| its old history ("Wir waren Hanse, wat ward ihr? Bauernvolk fur
| den Marchenkonig bis pleite!"). The harbour of hamburg is old and
| awesome by the way!
|
| The only thing that really helped to covercome these century old
| - was ironically the Conscription for the Bundeswehr in the cold
| war, intentionally mixing recruits allover germany and binding
| groups of friends together. That is now absent for a while- but
| the Ruhrpott and hamburg have missmanaged germany for quite a
| while now - and it shows, as subtle cracks of doubt in the
| superiority surface.
|
| Cumex and Wirecard showed that elite as the lame ducks without a
| plan they really are.
|
| PS: This explicitly ignores the Neo-prussians of berlin and the
| insults they throw at everything outside in the "incest-villages"
| as they call the rest of germany.
| neuronic wrote:
| I grew up in Munich and live in Hamburg now. I would object
| that Hamburg isnt even close to the "Lokalpatriotismus"
| (patriotism about your city?) which is highly rampant in
| Munich. Aristocratic behavior is a thing in Hamburg but Munich?
| It's my hometown so let me slander...
|
| People from Munich REALLY celebrate that they are from Munich
| and from kindergarten onwards a sense of snobility is distilled
| into your soul.
|
| "Helles" 0.5l+ is the only allowed beer and you have to meet a
| "Trachten" quota (traditional clothing). The Lederhosn has to
| come out at least 5x per year and dear god if it is a cheap
| model below 300EUR which is already considered trash.
| pchristensen wrote:
| I was really hoping that this was about a grilled ground beef
| sandwich opining on a German city :(
| sib wrote:
| I was extremely disappointed when I clicked through...
| xeonmc wrote:
| This makes me curious of contrasting perspectives between a
| Hamburger and a Frankfurter.
| water-data-dude wrote:
| Who do you think has the most interesting time of it? People
| from Hamburg, Lesbos, or Frankfurt?
|
| Those are the only three I could think of, tricky to put
| together a search query to find more.
| fragmede wrote:
| Dijon, Bologna, Cologne, Wien
| gherkinnn wrote:
| Berlin, Parma, Champagne, Fucking
| ivanche wrote:
| Cross out the last one, they changed the name to Fugging
| lordnacho wrote:
| How is it that Hamburg's football club (HSV) is not anywhere near
| the level of Munich's? They are from similarly large cities, and
| had somewhat comparable history until it diverged in recent
| decades.
| eschulz wrote:
| Yes, they're in two comparably large and affluent German cities
| (although each of these cities has numerous clubs), but when it
| comes to sport club success I think city details is just one
| factor. Ownership wealth and dedication, current management
| issues, and recent luck are important factors.
|
| For example, Boston has way more championships in US "big four"
| sports than every US city except NYC, but there are 24 larger
| cities in the country. There are just a ton of factors at play
| (pun intended).
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_by_number_...
| johannes1234321 wrote:
| Uli Hoeness as a manager professionalised German football
| (soccer) a lot and early understoodnhowntonmake it a business
| and ran the club like his personal business.
| southernplaces7 wrote:
| Have to admit, I first read, "munching from a hamburger's
| perspective", expecting a satire about the trauma a burger goes
| through while being eaten.
| lqet wrote:
| > You're close to places like Switzerland, Austria, and Italy,
| which makes it easy to travel.
|
| One thing I really like about living in southwestern Germany is
| that I can hop onto a train at my local station at around 6am,
| and - after changing trains 1 time - get out in Milano Centrale
| at around 11am (until quite recently, there was even a direct
| train). From Milano Centrale, it's 2 hours to Venice or the
| Italian Riviera.
|
| Paris is a 3 hour TGV trip from here. London is 5 hours, plus 1
| hour transfer and checking into the Eurostar train at Paris Gare
| du Nord.
|
| Milan, Paris, and London are all quicker to reach by train from
| here than Berlin.
| est31 wrote:
| It's hard to overstate how much southern Germany, Switzerland,
| France, and northern Italy are profiting from the new alpine
| tunnels being bored: Basis Brenner tunnel, Lyon-Turin tunnel,
| and the Gotthard base tunnel. Last one already opened 10 years
| ago, but it's still pretty recent when it comes to
| infrastructure projects of that size.
|
| As for inner-German train transport being slow... it's thanks
| to a bunch of reasons, like
|
| a) Germany having been divided in two until 30 years ago, so
| railways to Berlin have not been the top priority. in fact, one
| didn't really want to give russians, whose army mainly used
| railway to transport, the infrastructure to invade west
| Germany.
|
| b) the German car industry is running the country and ofc they
| want people to drive and not use DB, so investments went/are
| going into the Autobahnen instead of the railways.
|
| c) Germany both being multi-centered and shaped like a square.
| France has the Paris star, UK has London, and Italy is multi
| centered but it has this elongated shape, so south of the Po
| valley the high speed railroads (roughly) follow the
| coastlines.
| neuronic wrote:
| Don't forget that German highspeed rail (ICE) is not running
| on a separate network of tracks like Shinkansen in Japan.
| This and your point (c) make it very hard to manage in
| comparison.
| pjmlp wrote:
| You get the same feeling from here I am located, easy weekend
| trips between France, Belgium and Netherlands to chose from, a
| couple of hours away.
|
| Now if the getting all the train connections wasn't like going
| to the casino playing roulette.
| k__ wrote:
| _" Besides Munich, I've also been to Berlin and Magdeburg, but
| Munich gave me a very different impression."_
|
| Hamburg and Munich are like San Francisco and Houston.
|
| Sure, Munich is more progressive than the rest of Bavaria, but
| it's still in Bavaria.
| Freak_NL wrote:
| Especially compared to Hamburg and Berlin, which,
| comparatively, lean a lot more left politically speaking.
| fxj wrote:
| Hamburg is more conservative than Munich (I have lived in both
| cities). It is more like Austin wehen you compare it to a city
| in Texas. And Hamburg is in no way as hippy as San Francisco
| was. The closest I would compare Hamburg to is Boston.
|
| In the golden 70s Munich was a melting pot for musicians, gay
| people, Hippies. They still have the nudist beach in the city
| centre. Try to find something like that in the US.
| ahartmetz wrote:
| Still in the 70s? I thought the last time that Munich had
| bohemians was between the two world wars. Hitler was one of
| them. Yes, really. He formed his ideology in that
| environment.
| ulrischa wrote:
| Servus from Munich: as you may know: Munich is now the most
| unfriedly city in the world. This comes from a Mix of the
| Grantler, Mia San Mia and Schickeria culture. The first is the
| traditional grumpy nature of the typical Bavarian (especially
| Oberbayern). Sone say this is because of the Fohn wind (warm, dry
| downdraft that occurs on the leeward side of alps mountains)
| which can cause headache and paired with a massive beer consume
| even more. Mia San Mia and Schickeria is only typical in Munich:
| Many people from all over Germany moved to Munich in the 60s and
| 70s and earned money and build up an extreme snob culture seeing
| theirself as better as the rural people in Bavaria.
| https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/2048237/incredible-euro...
| FL410 wrote:
| FWIW as a (somewhat frequent) visitor this has not been my
| experience at all, and in comparision to other European cities
| I found it very warm and inviting.
| bgnn wrote:
| Depends on the European cities you are comparing it to. Any
| sizable Dutch city would be much more warm and inviting in my
| opinion. Compared to some French, Swiss, or German cities..
| Yeah, Munich is definitely one of the better ones. Hamburg is
| the best German city in this regard though.
| anyfoo wrote:
| I grew up in Munich, so I'm heavily biased, but my impression
| is that people in Munich may appear somewhat cold/"grantlerig"
| on the outside, but when you actually interact on them on a
| personal level, they are extremely warm and welcoming. I've
| lived in several places in the world, so I have some
| comparison. Prague seemed similar in that regard to me: People
| don't even smile at you in public, but damn are they a friendly
| and inviting bunch once you get to hang out with them. I felt
| right at home immediately.
| fxj wrote:
| Damn, he mentioned Andy's Krabblergarten. Now it will be overrun
| with even more tourists. My serious advice: Don't go there!! The
| Schnitzels are aweful and the Beergarden is ugly. ;-)
|
| Too bad that Google, Apple, Intel now have offices here. This
| drives the rents up. Gentrification already killed the gay
| quarter. All luxury appartments and people now start complaining
| that the vibes of the quarter are gone. Who would have thought...
| FL410 wrote:
| Yes, agreed, never go there! The schnitzel is small and
| horrible! :)
| DidYaWipe wrote:
| From a hamburger's perspective, I'm sure Munich looks like
| munchin'.
| adamcharnock wrote:
| I've been living in Munich since Feb, I've visited Hamburg
| several times, and previously lived in London and (rural)
| Portugal. (I'm British)
|
| I'm really very surprised by some of the observations being made
| here, just because they are very contrary to my experience.
| Thoughts in no particular order:
|
| - Hamburg's road systems took some inspiration from those of LA.
| To me Hamburg seemed exceptionally road/car heavy. Munich in
| comparison seems much more sane and European.
|
| - The startup scene is great. I'm a member of the Werk1 co-
| working space there, and it is a huge and friendly community.
|
| - Munich drivers are really great with cyclists. I eBike
| everywhere, and never have a had any problems with a car
| endangering me. They are exceptionally good at giving way to
| anyone in the cycle lines (bike, eBike, or scooter)
|
| - For me it is a really very clean city.
|
| - The English Garden (bigger the Manhattan's Central Park) is a
| place of absolute magic in the summer. Floating down the river
| through a forest in the middle of the city?! Amazing.
|
| - People are indeed super friendly when you talk to them. They
| don't do much needless smiling, but they are warm and friendly.
| (I'm white and look fairly presentable, and I cannot rule out
| that being a factor)
|
| - You drive to the Alps in 1h ish. True, you cannot see them from
| them from the city. But it not much time you can be at the top of
| a ski resort.
|
| - I think the comparison to Austin TX is very fair. Bavaria is
| conservative, Munich is not.
|
| - The U-Bahn is pretty reliable, the S-Bahn less so. I cycle or
| e-scooter everywhere, so don't really notice (and even when it
| rains it really isn't that bad, said as a Londoner).
|
| - I _think_ there is more of a culture of having a stable job at
| large companies, perhaps in Germany in general (vs the UK). And I
| can see Munich feeling like 'a place people come to work' if you
| hang out in those groups. But I think there is is more available
| than just that.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| Never been to Munich, but went to Hamburg (and Lubeck) a number
| of times, as we worked with a German company there.
|
| One of the German managers was from East Germany, and was very
| much a "Northern German."
|
| We used to bait him, by talking about Bavarian stereotypes, like
| steins and lederhosen.
|
| He'd get cranky, and start going on about how "We're _Northern_
| Germans... "
|
| Hamburg is a pretty industrial city, and was firebombed flat, in
| WWII, so most of the architecture is relatively new (like Tokyo).
|
| Lubeck was really cool. The company we worked with, started in a
| 1,000-year-old building.
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