Petit Marché

The train station always seems to have something interesting going on, from the interesting characters it seems to draw, lost tourists, and occasional pop up market. Here's a touch of France to grab some foods and products if time or money don't allow for hoping on the train yourself.

Vending

If you've traversed through the Hauptbahnhof lately you may have noticed this small machine tucked in the corner near the Kardstadt S-bahn entrance. Looking more similar to something you'd find in Japan is this vending machine filled with electronic gadgets for those that need instant gratification. Inside are hair dryers, electric toothbrushes, ipods, cameras, and headphones. Maybe it's only time before we get one similar to Nürnberg's that has detergent and kitty litter as well.

Rain to Snow

Despite cold and rainy weather many people still prefer to get around the city by bike. It's only time before the bikes will be stored for the Winter. As early as this week we'll receive our first flakes of snow.

Bahnhof

One of the funniest idioms in German is, "Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof" (Literally translates to: I only understand train station) meaning 'I'm not quite following or don't understand'.

My guess is it's a reference to those speaker systems announcing things with a bit of static. Even if you understand German you might find the perfect time to use this saying after hearing some people with a strong Bavarian dialect.

There are more polite ways to tell someone what they are saying isn't so clear, such as a simple 'Wie bitte?', but using idioms is always a fun way of feeling like a local. Sometimes a little gruffness is crucial to survival here.

Auto Test

Germany is very car oriented with Audi + BMW in Bavaria and Mercedes + Porsche in nearby Stuttgart. On occasion you may notice a distinctly patterned car on the streets of Munich. They are unmarked, but nearly impossible not to notice. The bold patterns and swirling designs are meant to hide the contours of these yet to be released designs while giving their test drivers a better idea of how the car handles in real situations.

Stop and go city traffic (particularly around the Hauptbahnhof) as well as the stretch of autobahn between the airport + Allianz arena are hot spots to see these yet to be released cars.

Auf Wiedersehen

I am very excited to continue this project and will explore the far stretches of this sweet little city.

Troy certainly leaves some very big shoes to fill and will be greatly missed. Each day I looked forward to seeing the hidden corners of Munich through his eyes. He definitely made the most out of his 30 months here, which can serve as inspiration for us all.

Thank you, Troy! We all wish you the very best.

With the World Cup matches now over there are remnants of seldom seen German pride doting the city. A florist in the Hauptbahnhof has decorated anthurium to match the colors of the German flag. It will be 4 more years until we see this patriotism creep back into the daily life. Hopefully by then the vuvuzelas will be long forgotten.

Livin on the Edge

The Central Station in Munich, like many other central stations in Europe has it's mix of characters. Given it’s central location and its influx of out-of-town people (350K passengers per day), it’s always a bit of a mixed bag.  That’s my nice way of saying that every central station in Europe is a good place to avoid.  But as the only major terminal in Bavaria, and with 32 tracks split over the original three train stations, you’re sure to find a peaceful point.  I found this one at the very end of those 32 tracks.  Next to the hustle & bustle of the station, this was really nice.

Going Downhill

On March 3 I did a post on the interesting U-bahn signs that surround Munich. I was fascinated by their historical appeal. It was karin who provided all the insight I could have expected – stating that the current cool designs were done in the 70s, but were being phased out. I came across the first sign of modernization today (see picture), and I have to say that it’s a sad state of affairs. A three-year old could have designed this image, and it lacks all the sophisticated imagery that the current image has. Is there any way we can reverse the decision, with any hope of keeping the image of Munich as cool?

End of the Line

Apparently there are lots of changes in store for local commuters in Munich, as prices go up 4.5% on local trains in the coming months. At the same time, the U-bahn is opening up the newly crowned "green" 23 tram from Schwabing's Munchener Freiheit out almost to EuroIndustrial park. Construction for the 23 line has tied up traffic and caused construction all along Leopoldstrasse for at least a year, but now it's coming to an end. Also changing for the trains is the opening of the Hirschgarten station. For me, the local DB needs to first figure out their issues with leaving travellers stranded, as reliability of the trains have dropped significant'y in the past two months.

Lady in Waiting

I caught this beautiful image of a woman awaiting the arrival of a friend in the midst of the chaos of the Hauptbahnhof. I love this area because there is so much going on, and it's wonderful to see people in the midst of their journey. In some ways, it reminds me of the loneliness that one can feel in a big city, even when surrounded by others. When we lived in Paris, we were constantly reminded of how anonymous the city could feel, despite being surrounded by 12 million people every day. I think this is true of any city, and it certainly comes across in this photo.

Sh*# Bahn!

A line streams around the corner at a DB service point, as they try to field questions during a recent outage. As you likely know, the "S" in S-bahn stands for Schnelle or fast, but I've coined my own phrase for the S-bahn after being personally left stranded 5 times in the last 5 weeks. I've now paid more in taxi fares than I have for my entire monthly pass, thanks to the complete breakdown of the S1 line and sometimes the entire network. Sometimes there are emergency busses put in place, other times absolutely nothing - just a lot of chaos. In all, thousands of travellers were stranded, at least once because of an electrical outage to the central system, and several times because of a train breaking down and clogging the rest of the system. I read in the news that they believe the problems are fixed, but I won't be holding my breath anytime soon.

Selling Munich

With well over 12 million visitors per year, tourism plays a critical element in the Munich economy. Approximately 10% of the 130 million visitors to Germany end up in Munich, with more than half visiting during the three-week Octoberfest festival. One of the leading drivers of tourism in Munich continues to be lifestyle based, a great climate, easy going attitude and what I would call a beer garden culture. Other major draws include skiers on the way to Austrian, German, Italian and Swiss Alps. Since Germany hosted the World Cup in 2006, tourism has increased steadily for the past couple years, but with the downturn in the economy Munich is expecting that flow to flatten or go down slightly. As we lead into Spring, it has been difficult to notice any slowdown, but like the economic indicators I talked about a few weeks ago – I think there may be a delay here as well. For now, as Spring appears there are no shortage of tour groups, full beer gardens, and – as pictured – bus tours throughout Munich.

At a Crossroads

It appears that the debate over a high-speed Airport/downtown connection may go on longer than the construction of the new line itself. 9 months after voting down a magnetic high-speed train, which would have been the pride of Germany yet cost locals more than $6 billion, the debate lingers about the best way to connect the airport to the city center. The trip on current S-bahn lines takes about 45 minutes, seemingly a little too long to get drivers off the roads. After several traffic studies, there still is not a decision on how to proceed. Some ideas include a non-stop S-bahn train along the S-8 line, which would shave at least 15 min off the trip. Other ideas include leveraging the high speed ICE (Inner City Express) trains that Germany is famous for to link the airport to all of the surrounding routes. The plan would include several new tunnels, and rack up a cost of about $2.6 billion. So for the time being, we continue to sit in our cars and battle through the highway 9 construction.

The Dominance of T

Germany’s leading mobile provider, T-Mobile, is one of the country’s premier brands. A subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, and based in Bonn, T-Mobile has 35% of the market share with more than 37 million subscribers. In recent years they have come under tough competition with the UK’s Vodafone. O2 has also gained significant marketshare as well, and fended off a takeover attempt by T-Mobile, only to be purchased by Spain’s Telefonia in 2006. In fact, the entire European market is a mix of state backed giants, and enterprising upstarts. So T-Mobile has built its international operation with a strong presence in International markets, and has been successful in 11 European markets and the US to total more than 100 million subscribers, and now one of the most well known brands in the world.