In the city of Munich, capital of Bavaria, southern Gemany

 “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer.”-- Abraham Lincoln

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(in the capital of the Bavaria Land [state], in southern Germany) Munich, Bavaria’s largest city and the third largest city in Germany (after Berlin and Hamburg), lies about 30 miles (~50 km) north of the edge of the Alps and along the Isar River, which flows through the middle of the city.

+ Munich, or München (“Home of the Monks”), traces its origins to the Benedictine monastery at Tegernsee. In 1157 Henry the Lion, duke of Bavaria, granted the monks the right to establish a market where the road from Salzburg met the Isar River. In 1255 Munich became the home of the Wittelsbach family, which had succeeded to the duchy of Bavaria in 1180. For more than 700 years the Wittelsbachs would be closely connected with the town’s destiny. In the early 14th century the first of the Wittelsbach line of Holy Roman emperors, Louis IV (Louis the Bavarian), expanded the town to the size at which it remained up to the end of the 18th century. Under the Bavarian elector Maximilian, Munich increased in wealth and size and prospered until the Thirty Years’ War. It was occupied by the Swedes under Gustav II Adolf (Gustavus Adolphus) in 1632, and in 1634 a plague epidemic resulted in the death of about a third of its population. The third Wittelsbach who left his mark on the community was Louis I, king of Bavaria from 1825 to 1848, who created modern Munich, and his architects established the city’s characteristic appearance in the public buildings they designed. The 19th century was Munich’s greatest period of growth and development. Protestants became citizens for the first time in what had been until then a purely Roman Catholic town. Munich’s cultural importance in Europe was enhanced when Louis II, by championing the composer Richard Wagner, revived its fame as a city of music and the stage.

+ With its tall tankards and high-tech cars, edgy art, and Lederhosen, this is a city where traditional and modern sit side by side like few places on earth. Beer has been part of Munich life for at least seven centuries and the brewing tradition remains very much alive today. The Bavarian capital boasts six mammoth breweries pumping out world-class suds to hundreds of beer gardens and beer halls. And the climax to the Munich beer year is, of course, the famous Oktoberfest, attended by more than six million people.

+ Before heading off to the nearest pub, however, take some time to savour the local art scene. The Kunstareal, Munich’s art quarter, is the place to start, with four major venues displaying everything from Dutch masters to 1960s design. The city also boasts some world-class museums focusing on topics as diverse as Oktoberfest, porcelain, and BMWs. There are also royal palaces to be explored here -- the legacy of 700 years of rule by a single family, the Wittelsbachs.