MUNICH

Munich is more than a city; it’s a vibration. It is the inner resonance of the German artistic soul, which rings from the domed bell towers of its Late Gothic cathedral. A vibration that no fire or historic event can destroy, one that can be felt in the city’s National Theatre of Bavaria (Bayerische Staatsoper), Royal Palace of the House of Wittelsbach (Munich Residenz), Church of Our Lady of Munich (the Frauenkirche) and modern art museum (Neue Pinakothek), which like cultural phoenixes are constantly being reborn, their grandeur magnified only by their content and architecture.

Nourished on Schweinshaxe (pork knuckle with grated horseradish and potatoes) washed down with beer from its breweries and its Biergartens and buoyed by its festivals such as Oktoberfest, Munich is a festive and creative city. It is also a city in motion, once damned, like Faust, and then continually rebuilt more beautiful then before. You will get swept away by its romantic fervour, just as Ludwig II, the King of Bavaria, was by the operas of Wagner, whose turbulent chords echoed in the halls of the glorious Neuschwanstein Castle (Schloss Neuschwanstein), before you are carried along with celebratory fervour during your visit to a mecca of European football, the Allianz Arena, home of the over-hundred-year-old club Bayern Munich, or the BMW Museum. In Munich, everything is a matter of style and design, and all is alluring, especially at the city's famously comfortable hotels, where the legendary Bavarian service, from the bed to the plate, is exceptionally warm and attentive. A perpetual feeling of understated luxury attaches itself to every step you take in Munich, and, of course, it comes with a price, since the capital of Bavaria has always been everything but cheap.

The feelings the city generates, however, are priceless, and much of them come from surrounding nature. Travellers will see it everywhere in Bavaria, from Chiemsee to Konigssee, Starnberg to Ammersee, Bodensee to Forggensee and Tegernsee, and in the many lakes that dot the countryside. We apprehend as much from these enchanting, idyllic landscapes as we do from the artistic camps born here, which encompass both traditional and avant-garde movements. Their lines and brushstrokes are as pure as the nearby peaks of the Austrian Tyrol, and help illustrate how Munich was, and remains, a formidable artistic, cultural, and scientific centre, never ceasing to expand its vocabulary of correspondences between colours, sounds, and words.