Book review: Only in Munich

ONLY IN MUNICH: An unusual guide to the
Bavarian capital .

Here’s a travel guide with a difference and one I have no hesitation to recommend - Only in Munich by Duncan J. D. Smith. While it may sit alongside bulky Lonely Planet and Rough Guides on bookshop shelves, what’s inside is world's apart. There’s little information about transport, shopping, festivals and other bits and pieces that go into making a successful trip.

It is instead split into 84 chapters, each going into quite a lot more depth about a particular place of interest than you will find in mainstream travel guides. The book’s tagline is ‘a guide to unique locations, hidden corners and unusual objects’ - and that sums it up well.

Here's what I mean: Chapter 3 ‘An Experiment in Communism’ explains the pavement memorial to assasinated socialist leader Kurt Eisner. Chapter 21 - ‘The History of Emergencies’ looks at the Munich Fire Brigade Museum and Chapter 72 ‘Relics of the Nazi War Machine’ explores a number of industrial buildings on the city’s outskirts.

Munich’s major attractions are also covered. There are chapters on the Englischer Garten, the BMW Museum and the Neues Rathaus. However, the author looks at them from a different perspective. For example, the chapter on the Englischer Garten focuses on the unusual buildings and monuments in the park, and the one of the Neues Rathaus looks at the inscriptions you find on the walls of the entrance.

The book is thoroughly researched. Even people who have lived in Munich since birth will learn a thing or two about their home city. Because of the way it's laid out it almost feels like you're reading a novel, and by the end you will have a much better understanding of the city than if you were using a regular guidebook.
I’ve even used the book as a source for different parts of this website :)

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