Munich Winter Walk & English Garden

A Gentle Morning

Day 10, 18 December, was left unbooked on purpose — a self-guided day to cover the corners of the city we'd missed. We spent the morning on a slow and relaxing walk around Munich. Our daughter had a great time at the playground near our boarding house, laughing on the swings while we enjoyed the crisp winter air. From there, we wandered toward Königsplatz, a neoclassical square commissioned by King Ludwig I in the early 19th century, its museum colonnades modelled on ancient Greek temples. The square had a darker chapter too — the Nazi party later used it for mass rallies and built two now-demolished "temples of honour" on its edge — a layer of history easy to miss standing among the quiet, grand buildings today.

Hofgarten and the Dianatempel

Without any real plan, we drifted into the Hofgarten, a formal Italian-style garden laid out in the early 1600s beside the Residenz, the seat of Bavarian dukes and kings for more than 400 years. At its centre stands the Dianatempel, a small domed pavilion from 1615 topped with a bronze statue of Diana. Buskers and street performers often set up right underneath it, which made it the garden's unofficial meeting point.

The Hofgarten arcades, with the Theatinerkirche tower rising behind.

The Dianatempel, its copper dome gone green with age.

Winter Market Treats

A small Christmas market stood along the way, already glowing with warm lights. We stopped at a Baumstriezel stall for a Transylvanian chimney cake: dough wound around a spit and roasted over open coals until the outside caramelises into a crisp, sugared shell. Ours was still warm enough to steam in the cold air.

Straight off the spit, with a crisp caramel shell.

One cone to share, at the stall.

Maximilianstraße and the Evening Lights

In the afternoon we walked up Maximilianstraße, the grand boulevard King Maximilian II had laid out from 1852, lined with boutiques and historic facades. By dusk the shopfronts were lit, and the street had the quiet, golden glow of a German winter evening.

Odeonsplatz: Theatinerkirche and Feldherrnhalle

At Odeonsplatz, the yellow Theatinerkirche, built between 1663 and 1690, stands beside the Feldherrnhalle, a loggia modelled on the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence and completed in 1844. Under the Nazis, passers-by were required to salute the memorial to the 1923 putsch dead that stood there, a history our guide mentioned quietly while we stood under the arches.

The Theatinerkirche, its yellow facade and twin towers.

The Feldherrnhalle, a Florentine loggia on a Munich square.

On the walk back toward the Hofgarten we passed a domed building with long glass wings, classical stone on one side and modern glass on the other, a pairing Munich handles surprisingly well.

English Garden and Eisbach River

Later, we made our way to the English Garden, one of Europe's largest city parks, bigger even than Central Park in New York. Tucked inside it is a genuine Japanese teahouse, built for the 1972 Munich Olympics and still used for tea ceremonies today. We found it quiet and half-forgotten, a crow perched on the roof as if it were guarding the place. Beyond it, the park's canals and the Eisbach River ran cold and fast between the bare trees, and we watched surfers ride the icy current — an unexpected sight that made us pause for a while.

The Japanese teahouse, a crow keeping watch from the roof.

A quiet canal, a small wooden pavilion on the footbridge.

On the iron footbridge, the river running beneath.

Along one of the park's grassy canals.

A Quiet Ending

We walked back to the boarding house as the lights came on: a playground stop in the morning, a 400-year-old palace garden, two chimney cakes, a crow watching over a teahouse, and not a single ticket bought all day.