After our last trip to Europe, Mary mentioned she wanted to see the Alps next. Therefore we flew to southeast Germany and spent 8 full days in Munich, the capital of Bavaria. We went with our great friends, Kurt & Heather. Kurt used to be fluent in German and Mary took the language in HS and college, so we should be good to go, right? Not exactly. The first waitress we asked "
Sprechen Sie Englisch" fled to get her manager! In another restaurant, a Tapas bar, the waitress was not comfortable speaking English, so I ordered for everyone en español. I spoke
auf Spanisch a couple more times on this trip: with our castle tour guide and with other tourists at The Residenz Palace. We even heard a teacher at The White Rose Museum giving Spanish instructions to her students. By the middle of the trip both Kurt and Mary had gotten comfortable with speaking
Sie Deutsch, so Heather and I could coast and let them do the talking the few times we did not interact with a multilingual local.
We decided to stay at the Eden Hotel Wolff since it was directly across from the
Hauptbahnhof, the main train station. On most days the vendor on the left provided our breakfasts, before we boarded a tour bus or the excellent public transportation in Germany:
On the first day we headed for the Bavaria statue, since it is not near most of the places we wanted to visit. You can climb up inside the 18 m bronze cast and from inside Kurt and I were able to take pictures of the preparations they are making for the upcoming Oktoberfest.
The next two days were sunny. Time to ride atop the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus,
although we didn't get off until an hour later, at Nymphenburg palace:
We only toured the outside, which is free to everyone, yet all of us consider this a must-do if you visit Munich. Back on the bus to the English Garden and its Biergarten, next to the Chinese Tower.
Since (a) it was such a glorious day and (b) Summer is almost over, we saw many of the locals enjoying the warmth of the sun, in beach attire, on this green space that is larger than New York's Central Park.
The next day was sunny as well. Time to take Mary to see the Alps and tour the Castles of "Mad" King Ludwig II. Ludwig was declared crazy and died under suspicious circumstances, but it seems his only issue was he was mad about Richard Wagner, best known to the readers of this blog as the composer of The Ring Cycle that inspired "Kill the Wabbit!"
The first castle we toured was Linderhof and it was the only one that was finished in Ludwig's lifetime. No pictures were allowed inside so just imagine rooms decorated in gold leaf, then crank it up to 11. "Over the top" doesn't begin to describe the ostentatious decor. Here are some pictures of the outside of Linderhof:
Now it's off to
Schloss Neuschwanstein ("New Swanstone Castle"), the structure Walt Disney used as his inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle. It resides at the foothills of the Alps that divide Germany and Austria. If you visit, please remember that it is a decent climb up to the castle. Save enough energy to walk an extra 15 minutes beyond
Neuschwanstein to Marie's Bridge, where most of the famous pictures are taken. The bridge
is crowded and some of the boards
do shake. We kid you not.
That shot above is as far as Mary went before the height of the suspension bridge got to her. I think it is a fantastic photo and it should suffice. That smudge in the sky above the castle is a hang-glider. I did cross the bridge only to see that the trail around the mountainside goes on for another 3 hours. No thanks. Looking away from the castle you can see a small waterfall and the Alps in the background.
Obligatory "we were there" photo. With a mom that kept taking selfies and then would check them right there (not moving out of the picturesque spot). So I finally asked her to be in
our photo and THAT got her to move away.
Neuschwanstein dominates this area so much you almost forget that Ludwig's father built his hunting lodge in nearly the same spot first. Here is picture of
Hohenschwangau plus the German Alps, looking south towards Austria, and one final shot of THE castle.
Most of the tour bus feel asleep on the way back to Munich, since it takes about 2 hours. After a long a day that was well worth it. That was it for our yellow star and cloudless skies. The rest of the days were cloudy at best and raining consistently at worst. Time to enjoy The Deutsches Museum, where most of the displays had English as well as German text.
We've made it this far and no mention of The Glockenspiel at Marienplatz. Fine, we knew we had to go see it. We also ate at the Hofbrauhaus and it was ... OK, I guess... but probably the worst meal we had since every other random restaurant or Biergarten that we tried was superb. Here is the Glockenspiel, which goes off at 11, noon, and 5 PM. If you are sadistic, it's sort of fun to continue to drink beer there and wait for all of the 6 PM disappointed tourists as they learn they "missed the bus."
On the next day I visited Munich's Paleontology Museum, which is very well-hidden on the University grounds, by myself. Archaeopteryx was discovered in Bavaria and I appreciated the display they had for that important fossil find.
I went alone because Kurt, Heather, and Mary went to visit Dachau. The first of the Nazi concentration camps opened in 1933. No thanks. No pictures were taken. All of them came back quite somber from the experience. We ended the night at a great restaurant that sent us downstairs to their beer cellar since we didn't have reservations.
Another must-do if you visit Munich is the Residenz Palace, next to Odeonsplatz. Note that like many other places in old Europe, this place is not barrier free. Also, the WC's can be few and far between, so never pass up the chance to use the
Toilette.
Now it's Sunday and the entrance to the Pinakothek Museums in Munich cost only one euro (instead of seven). We visited the
Alte Pinakothek (classical art) and
Pinakothek der Moderne -- which Kurt really enjoyed since he is more into the new (and weird) stuff. We will only post one piece, by Max Liebermann, "
München Bieergarten". It is eponymously German.
Another somber place we visited was the small museum dedicated to The White Rose. It is located where three German students were arrested (and then almost immediately executed) in Munich for leading a resistance movement against Hitler.
The members of the White Rose used leaflets to advocate nonviolent resistance to the Nazis.
Very moving experience learning about those brave students that did not die in vain as their story spread throughout the Allied countries.
As we are getting ready to leave we saw blue skies again. So here are two more pictures of the Glockenspiel. There's a story behind Heather and Mary making the peace sign. You're going to have to ask us to tell the tale in person. In order to protect the Internet reputation of a young lass who was having the darndest time getting herself photographed. Barely edging out the "jumping Madre" who wanted her señor to snap a shot of her in the air in front of the Glockenspiel. In the words of John Lennon: "most peculiar Mama".
A thoroughly enjoyable trip. Best Wienerschnitzel any of us have had in a long time. Obviously tremendous sausages, particularly the white sausages. The Tapas bar was great and so was the one Italian restaurant we tried. Even the two times I had Thai food it was very good.
We saw many churches; St. Paul's, St. Michael's, St. Peter's, the
Frauenkirche Cathedral, and
Asamkirche. All of them are beautiful inside and don't exactly encourage photographs. You can climb to the top of St. Peter's for 3 euros, but we decided our time has passed for doing tons of corkscrew stairs. We end this blog post with a shot of
Asamkirche and say
auf wiedersehen.
UPDATE: received over 500 photos from Kurt's phone. Some spectacular pictures in his collection. Here's a sample -- classic German fare, the river that runs through the English Garden,a sobering picture of shaky Marie's Bridge from The Castle, one shot
inside Neuschwanstein Schloss, "
Das Boot", a model of The Red Baron's plane, the Siegestor arch, two more photos of the Residenz Palace (one of them a little gorgony ... err ... gory) and the ceiling of St. Peter's.
Finally, one last look at the Alps. Thanks for the pics, Kurt.
Danke schön!
