Every design for München

Munich lies on the Isar, north of the Alps, and the river runs through the city like a green corridor that everyone seems to share. Bavaria's capital is the most densely populated municipality in Germany, yet its old centre still feels built around squares, fountains and church towers rather than traffic.

Ask people who grew up here what they miss when they are away and the answers are rarely the obvious ones. It is the Fischbrunnen where friends arranged to meet, the walk up to the Friedensengel on a clear evening, the round little temple of the Monopteros where an afternoon somehow turned into a whole day. The Mariensäule marks the middle of town, and the Karlstor is the gate many remember passing through on their first trip in with the family.

Munich stayed Catholic through the Reformation, became the capital of a kingdom, hosted the Summer Olympics and grew into a centre for science, technology and business, and through all of it kept a firm sense of itself. Coming back, through the Karlstor or along the Isar, feels less like arriving somewhere and more like being let back in.