Munich

On Sunday afternoon I arrived in Munich for a short vacation. There is a giant ceramics industry conference and exhibition called Ceramitec every three years in Munich, so Eva's company sends people and I got to tag along. (I didn't have to do anything with the ceramics industry.) We stayed at the town of Poing (I am not joking) which is on the outskirts of Munich on a S-bahn line. The next S-bahn stop was Grub. (Again, not joking.) The hotel restaurant was called Mango's, so naturally I had to get a picture in honor of my dog by that name.

We got to the hotel and I headed into Munich. I was immediately struck by how clean and organized and modern everything is. Oh, the Germans! The S-bahn trains (aboveground) were so nice and new and spotless and ran right on time. The streets are wide and everything looks clean and well taken care of. Part of the modern feeling of the city is probably due to the fact that it was bombed like mad in WWII so a lot of the city is fairly new...more on that later. But even the old buildings were in good repair. And it felt very alive and lived-in. In the city center and historic parts of Prague it seems like almost every building is a hotel or a souvenir shop or a "traditional Czech" restaurant, but that touristy stuff was not as overwhelming in Munich.

Here is the town hall in Marienplatz. It was very chilly and a bit grey but what a cool city! I wandered around for hours and headed back to the hotel (about 30 minutes on the train) once it got dark.

This is another view of Marienplatz.

The next day I headed into Munich again for a free walking tour by the New Europe Company. I believe I mentioned them in another blog post. The guides are mainly young people, as are the customers. It doesn't cost anything to go on the tour; you just tip at the end if you want to. They have tours in all the major European cities, and I highly recommend them. They are fun and a great way to get oriented. Here is the inside courtyard of the town hall.Some pretty creepy gargoyles in the courtyard.

And a rat thing.

Munchen, (the German word for Munich) has some relation to the German word for monk. It might mean monk or just be a derivative, I can't remember. Regardless, monk and Munich are close because the area used to be covered in monasteries. There were loads of monks. So that is why Munich is called Munich. There are lots of images of monks around the city--carved on buildings, painted on walls, etc. He is usually holding a book in one hand and giving the three-fingered Father-Son-Holy Ghost salute in the other. Some people joke that the monk is really holding a beer stein...

I got sort of excited to see a UPS truck. When you have been away from America for a long time it is comforting to see American things that aren't McDonald's. Although at this point McDonald's is looking pretty good, too.

The truck drove by the Frauenkirche, the Church of Our Blessed Lady. It is interesting because it was built in only twenty years in the 15th century which is super fast for a huge church. It went so fast because it is built of red brick, not troublesome marble or something, and it is fairly plain. Also, the devil built it. That tends to speed things up.

There is a legend that the devil built the church. He was about to destroy the church but he noticed on the plans that there were no windows. He assumed it would be dark and cold and gross inside--a perfect place for devil worship! So the devil made a deal with the architect that as long as no windows were added, he would send his little satanic minions to build the church really fast. What the devil didn't realize, though, was that there were windows planned for the church; he just couldn't see them. The architect wanted the windows to be invisible from the main aisle of the church so that it would appear that the building was lit by God. When the devil realized this, he stomped his foot in the church and disappeared. You can see the "devil's footprint" on the floor. There is an actual footprint in stone. The legend is true because the footprint is there and the two towers are different heights. One tower is 1 meter higher than the other. And the Germans don't make mistakes like that. So it must have been the devil.

You can see one of the Frauenkirche's brick towers topped by a dome in this picture. The whirly thing in the middle of the picture spun around and made funny noises at intervals. Marienplatz is the square through the archway. Above the archway is the room where Hitler plotted Kristallnacht--now more appropriately termed Reichspogromsnacht.
Now the building is a teddy bear and toy museum. Weird, huh? But Munich is full of places like that.

There were beautiful flower stands and fruit stalls and huts selling those delicious candied nuts that I always associate with Renaissance fairs all over Munich. And they didn't feel touristy. By that I mean it seemed that actual Germans and Munich residents were shopping at these places. You can see a flower shop by the orange truck in the right hand corner of the above picture.

Here are two views of Mary's column in Marienplatz and the town hall Glockenspiel. The Glockenspiel has life-size figures that perform a little show three times a day. According to a survey mentioned by my guide, it is the second most overrated tourist attraction in Europe. The first is the Astronomical Clock in Prague.

Here is the opera house.

Next door is an Italian-looking building with lots of columns.

Some of the columns are scarred by shrapnel and bullets from the War.

Munich's approach to war memorials and remembrances seems to be focused on these "little scars" instead of huge memorials. There are small plaques around the city to commemorate various events--we saw one affixed to a building where a Jewish-owned department store used to be. In Reichspogromsnacht the store was basically destroyed and the owner and his family were sent to concentration camps. The plaque was small and only in German, so if I hadn't been on a tour I would have missed it.

My guide said that Munich and Germany know they need to remember but they also don't want to be branded forever by the Third Reich. It was twelve years--only twelve years! in a long history which includes some really cool, great stuff. I understand that--I don't want to be branded by slavery, for instance...but at the same time...I think it might be nice if the plaques were in German and Hebrew and English and Spanish and Italian and Chinese...etc.

In Berlin there is a huge WWII memorial, which my guide said is powerful, but that has become such a part of the city that you don't really notice it anymore. People picnic on it and take funny pictures. It becomes part of normal life. So I think there is a balance between branding and remembering.

Even though I did not intend to think about Hitler and the Nazis and the War all the time in Munich, you can't help it. I was talking to my dad about this--we seem to be fascinated by Hitler and the Third Reich. It is almost a fetish. Hitler is just enough crazy and more than enough evil to hold our attention and be the perfect villain. It is a sort of delicious tragedy, you know? I don't want to minimize it or trivialize it--see an upcoming post on Dachau for some serious stuff--but it is interesting to me how fascinated people are by Hitler and the Nazis. There have been other villains and other countries and people have done really horrible things, but Hitler seems to be the one we like to learn about and read about and watch movies about. I'd be interested in discussing this further, so shoot me an email if you would like.

We went to the Viktualienmarkt, which is an outdoor market where you can get honey, flowers, plants, food, beer, craft-y things, etc. There was a row of butcher shops by the market where I purchased my first bratwurst. Unfortunately the Christmas markets aren't open yet, but maybe I will go back in December.

Here is another image of the town hall. It was not destroyed in the war.

I liked this staircase.

After the tour I had about six hours to fill before I met my Munich friends for dinner. (In Venice I studied with several students from Munich, and it was awesome to see them again!) So I wandered in and out of shops (Munich is the most expensive city in Germany, so I just scouted and now I have a good idea of what is out there.) It was cold, so browsing in shops was a good way to spend the time! When I would get too cold from strolling I would head into yet another H & M or MANGO or the fabulous Ludwig Beck department store.

I ate bratwurst--yum--and a comical number of soft pretzels. They aren't just for sporting events! Wonderful soft pretzels were everywhere. It is basically all I ate the whole time I was in Munich. I even bought a little lapel pin in the shape of a pretzel to remember my trip!

It was a pleasure to wander around totally free. I didn't have anything to do and I had plenty of time. No buses to catch, no metro to ride, no children to watch. The last is the main, wonderful thing, actually. Munich is a very walkable city and people are friendly. And beautiful. Heidi Klum is not an anomaly--more of a heightened version of the norm. Beautiful city with beautiful people in beautiful boots. There were a few pairs I had my eye on, but I will wait until I have some time in Prague before making that purchase.

Also beautiful cars. There was a gorgeous Mercedes showroom on a main square across from the Residenz Palace, and next to that showroom was an Aston Martin one. The cars on the street were clean and sleek and lovely. Munich is a wealthy city! It seems to have recovered really fast, and fortunately it didn't have to deal with Communism. Go Marshall Plan!

I wandered into the Hofgarten. I saw a man balancing on a chain trying to juggle.

Pretty building in the garden.

The garden is a formal one with wide pathways and lovely grass. It was pretty empty since it was cold and getting dark.

There was a nice gazebo garden house thing in the center.

Inside the building were these cool mosaic niches.

I believe this is a theater or gallery or something. Sorry about these gaps in my knowledge. I didn't have a guide book and my only map was a free one I got in Starbucks.

I met my buddies by Mary's Column in Marienplatz (handy meeting place!) and we went to a great Italian restaurant. It was marvelous to see them and equally marvelous how we fell right back into how we were in Venice.

After dinner they put me on the S-bahn back to Poing where I fell asleep immediately. I got back about 11:00 and I had been in Munich since 9:00. Long day, but very nice.

The next day it was time to visit Dachau. But first I saw this ad for a musical about Elisabeth, (Sissi), the Empress I mentioned in another post. Told you they are obsessed with her.