When I travel for work, I have a hard time fitting in physical activity. Running shoes are too big to pack for the small amount of use they’ll get since I only wear them for running. Swim gear is small, though, and there were pools both places I went on my recent work trip. I brought a swimsuit, cap, and goggles, which fit easily in my suitcase. However, the pool the first week was outside and cold, and the pool the second week was indoors but closed. So I didn’t get to swim.

By the time we got to Munich, after I’d been sedentary and eating delicious food non-stop for a full week in Palma de Mallorca, I was desperate for physical activity. It turns out Munich is a wonderfully walkable city, if cold and wet in November. For my second week away, instead of running or swimming, I laced up my boots and I walked.

Day One: city center shopping and Munich American High School

On our first day in Munich, I discovered to my delight that we were only one block away from access to natural beauty, with walking paths and without cars. Our hotel was called Hilton Munich Park, but until I looked at the map and saw huge green spaces everywhere, I didn’t put it together that the hotel was named for its proximity to the Englischer Garten, one of the largest urban parks in the world. Our first morning in Munich, I walked out under the grey sky into the park, and I fell in love. I walked there every day.

This day was our day off between meetups, and after breakfast, the four of us from my team who’d come over from Mallorca walked all around the city center to watch the Glockenspiel strike noon, to shop for art supplies, kitchen supplies, and a photography backpack, and to eat pretzels and drink beer.

After lunch, I ventured out on my own to see if I could find my mom’s high school. All my life I’ve heard her talk about Munich American High School, the school she graduated from in 1969. Her dad was in the US Air Force and was stationed in a small town in Italy where there wasn’t a high school for Mom and my uncle to go to, so they shipped off to Munich.

I rode the tram to the stop near the address my mom had given me. The rain had finally started falling after threatening all day, and when I got off the tram, I went straight to the supermarket to buy an umbrella. I walked for about an hour, all around the area where my mom’s high school used to be. The school isn’t there anymore, but I got to walk a wooded path by the schools that replaced it, and I got a feel for the area.

I got in 19,000 steps that day, and it felt so good.

Day Two: Surfers, Palace, Hofbrauhaus, and cake

This was the travel day for the meetup, meaning that most people from the company would arrive today. I started my day with a morning walk, as I ended up doing every day in Munich. On this day I tested waking at 6am and walking at 7am (sunrise was 7:20) to see if I could walk around the lake and get back by 8am for breakfast. If it worked, I planned to make that my routine for the rest of the week.

It did work, and I followed that routine every day: wake and shower, do a little work, walk, then head to breakfast, when I had meetings scheduled nearly every day. My daily walk was a perfect way to start each day. I loved seeing the lake in different light and weather.

Since I couldn’t find Mom’s high school the day before, I asked her for any other landmarks to visit. She remembered the Glockenspiel, and she also told me about a beer house she used to go to — Hofbrauhaus — where she could get a liter of beer for 50 cents. So the second day, that was my primary quest. My team lead also told us that Germany is good at cake, so we needed to also meet for cake. That was my secondary quest. First beer, then cake.

After my morning walk and catching up with some work stuff, a friend from my team walked with me through a different part of the park to get to the city center and Hofbrauhaus. The river through the park is flowing fiercely right now, and there are places in the river that create continual waves.

And these continual waves attract surfers.

So on our way to the beer house, we stopped to watch some surfers, decked out in full wetsuits, surf the river wave. We also walked through the grounds of the Munich Residenz, the palace that was home to Bavarian kings and queens, and Feldherrnhalle, the site of the battle that ended Hitler’s failed coup to take over the Bavarian state in 1923. He was subsequently arrested and found guilty of treason. He wrote Mein Kampf from prison after that arrest.

My coworker and friend, Kris, joined me on my venture to Hofbrauhaus. As soon as we turned the corner and I saw the crowned HB on a building, I recognized it from a stoneware beer stein we’ve had in our house my entire life. I always liked it because my dad and mom are Henry and Beth: HB.

At Hofbrauhaus, I had the best meal I think I ate in Munich. We got a bread basket that included rye rolls and seeded breadsticks with fried onions and crispy cheese on top. The bread in Munich is amazing. Our team lead told us that mushroom foraging is big in Germany, so I ordered a seasonal special of mushroom ragout. And of course, I had to get a liter of beer, the Hofbräu Dunkel. The mug was bigger than my head.

I could barely walk when we left, I was so full. And we were due for cake in 30 minutes with our teammates. So we set out on foot again and headed for the cake shop, Konditorei Erbshäuser, where we shared 5 pieces of cake among 4 of us: Prinzregententorte (many thin layers), Sachertorte (my favorite! all chocolate), almond cheesecake, apricot cheesecake, and Mohnkuchen (German poppy seed cake). It was raining when we finished, but we walked through the rain to another shop anyway before catching an Uber back to the hotel.

Days 3-6

Our meetup officially started on our third day in Munich, which means I had less time to move and get active. But I still walked every day in the park.

On the final day of our work meetup, I went a different direction on my walk than my normal lakeside routine. I walked toward the palace and found a different part of the park I hadn’t seen yet. I walked along the river and found more waves and small waterfalls. It was too early for surfers, but in a calm pool in the river, in the early part of the day just after sunrise, before many people were out walking and running, two people bathed naked in the river. I wore a warm hat, a coat, long underwear, and wool socks, and these two were just hanging out in the barely-above-freezing water with nothing on. Apparently this is fairly normal, nudists in Germany. In winter, surfers wear hooded wetsuits, but in summer it’s not unusual to see them surf naked.

That night, our company booked tables for more than 300 people, and we were treated to dinner and beer at Augustinerkeller, a beer garden and hall that’s been around since the early 1800s. I got another liter of beer, because why not, I was in Germany, and though the walk was short and cold, we did walk around the garden where people in liederhosen played matches of curling in the rain. We stood around a raised fire bowl and sipped our wegbier — “beer for the way” — or walking-around beer. Because of course there’s a German word for the beer you carry with you.

I didn’t have any idea what to expect of Munich, but I fell in love with it. I could spend a lot more time there.