Auf Wiedersehen, Munich!

Munich is relatively small, so I was originally planning on taking the train over to Salzburg for the third day, but I decided to stay in Munich as I hadn't seen as much as I had hoped on the day I arrived. The weather had massively improved and no rain or snow was in sight, so I got my day pack ready and headed out back to Marienplatz to see the glockenspiel at the Rathaus play.





The glockenspiel plays twice a day, and it recalls a wedding that took place back in 1568. It takes a while to get going, but if you're patient, you can see the wedding procession, the joust, the coopers' dance, and the rooster crow.

I took a stroll over to the Asam Church, which is a Rococo church built by two sibling architects. The church functioned as a showpiece for all the things you could order from their firm, and it's pretty intense.





I especially liked the gold grim reaper caught in the act of cutting the thread of life. Who knew he used gold scissors.



It's a bit of a shock walking back outside with the bright light, and if you look to your right, you can see the city walls!



I turned left and walked towards Frauenkirche. The church is easy to spot due to its twin domes, and the interior is surprising modern since much of the church was destroyed during World War II. It was a nice rest for my eyes after Asamkirche!



There's a neat little detail you may miss if you're not looking for it. There are tiny painted men who helped construct the church decorating the tops of the columns playing peekaboo.



I also really admired the beautiful metal work surrounding the perimeter of the pews.



Just nearby is the St. Michael's Church, a Renaissance building with a beautiful yet not overly ornate interior.











There's a crypt below, containing the Wittelsbach royal tombs, including the king that built Neuschwanstein and Linderhof, but unfortunately, it was closed.

I next paid a visit to the famous Dallmayr deli, which is similar to the food hall at Harrods. There were loads of delicious goodies to be had! 

Even an in house coffee roasting bar with beans stored in large porcelain urns!

It was getting on lunch time, so I decided to visit a restaurant that J and his officemates had gone their first night, the Spatenhaus Beer Hall, which serves some damn good Bavarian food. I'm not quite sure what I ordered, but it was definitely meat based, brown, and delicious. I don't really mind eating alone, and it was nice to sit down and rest my feet and read through the guidebook for a bit.

After ingesting copious amounts of meat, I ducked into the nearby Residenz Museum, which is the former royal palace for the Wittelsbachs. It was just in the nick of time too, as it started to rain. The Museum is split into three sections, the Treasury, the private apartments and the Cuvillies Theatre. I wanted to visit all three, but I opted for just the Treasury and the Apartments in the time I had left before the museum closed.



The treasury is pretty freaking amazing, and I spent a good chunk of my time oohing and aahing over all the beautiful things. I probably could've stayed in there forever, just drooling and wiping my chin for hours on end.









But it was time to visit the apartments, which weren't too shabby.



Let's just say that restraint wasn't exactly the royals' strong suit.









I  made it out of the museum just as it was closing, which gave me just enough time to nip back over to the Hofbrauhaus to take some snaps and pick up some souvenirs for the beer drinkers in my life.











It was pretty much the perfect end to my Bavarian holiday, and I was ready to go back home to London and spend some time with J and the cats.

Beer and Sausages in Munich

J had to make a quick trip out to Munich for work so I decided to take advantage of the free hotel room and tag along. He was staying for less than twenty four hours, but I decided to extend my trip to three days so that I could make a proper visit of the city.

We both had very early flights, and I discovered that it's all business people flying first thing on a Tuesday morning. Of course, I lucked out sitting next to the only two kids on the entire flight. They were adorable, but a bit too loud for me to get the nap I was planning on. Them's the breaks.

J's work is pretty awesome, and they arranged a ride for me to the hotel, and I prayed that the room would be ready so I could take a nap. Nope. J and his colleagues had gone straight to the office from the airport, and we decided to meet up at the world famous Hofbräuhaus for lunch.



I arrived before they did and got hassled by a very sweet three year old boy who decided to latch on to me. He wouldn't leave me alone despite his parents' pleading, and I very awkwardly extricated myself before he decided I was suitable for climbing. I decided to slip inside and explore the building. The beer hall is on the ground floor with a posh restaurant on the first floor. The top floor is a giant dining hall, complete with long trestle tables and a stage for an oompa band or two.  I don't think I was actually supposed to enter the hall on the top floor, but the people using it were Asian and I guess I fit in? In any case, no one said anything as I walked around and took a gander or two.

The main beer hall on the ground floor was beyond chaotic! We couldn't find each other, and the place was boiling hot from all the heaving bodies.

We decided to meet up at the restaurant across the street, the Bayern Ayinger, and it was a good thing we did. The food was fantastic, albeit meat intensive, and we all got treated to the requisite pretzel basket. I tried a Radler, a beer mixed with lemon soda, which was better than I expected!

J and co left for the office, and I began my work as a tourist. The weather was a bit chilly, but I warmed up as I made my way to the heart of the city at Marienplatz. You can see the New Town Hall, the Old Town Hall, and St. Peter's Church all from one spot. Munich was bombed during the war, so there is a slightly jarring juxtaposition between the old and new. Fortunately, Munich decided to rebuild much of its city in the old style so the city retains much of its original flair and flavour.

The Rathaus (New Town Hall) was pretty stellar to look at!

The Old Town Hall isn't bad to look at either. My guidebook described it as Disney-esque, but I'm not sure I agree.



I especially liked the detail on the zodiac clock mounted on the tower! It's aries o'clock!

The weather made good on its threats of rain, so I ducked into St. Peter's Church to check out the interior.



There was very fanciful and pretty art installation of white paper birds floating over the pews. You don't often see art installations in churches, but I found out that Munich is a very artsy city, and there's loads of such installations dotting the city streets and plazas.

I walked a short distance to the nearby Viktualienmarket, a local outdoor food market, and I had a great time browsing the stalls. The pole with the figures is located in the centre of the market represents the different market stalls, including the beer, of course.

I had never seen so much white asparagus in my whole life! Pretty much every fruit and veg stall was selling it.

It began to rain in earnest and since my umbrella was stowed away in my luggage back at the hotel, I decided to pack it in and finally take that nap I had been lusting after. 

It took a bit of wandering about, but I finally found myself back at the hotel. I peeled off my soaking wet clothes and passed out for an hour or so. I felt loads better after my nap and my clothes had dried, so I decided to head back out into the city, even though most of the sights and shops had closed for the day. 

I ended up walking around the major shopping streets just to see what the fuss was all about, and it didn't matter that the stores were shut since Chanel isn't exactly in my budget! The kind of terrible thing about globalisation is that shopping abroad is so boring because it's just like shopping at home. It's the same chain stores selling the same things, the only thing that's different is the currency.

I made my way to the Odeonplatz, which was the site of Hitler's beer hall putsch, and Hitler had put up a monument there for his first joiners when he came into power.



Everyone was required to salute the monument so the clever citizens used a nearby street, Viscardigasse, to detour around the monument. That's a pretty good reason for a street to exist.

There wasn't much else to look at and it started to get dark so I decided to return to the hotel. I popped into a grocery store on the way and picked up some snacks for the following day. One of my favourite things to do in a foreign city is to check out the grocery stores and pharmacies. I know it's weird, but I love seeing all the different packaging and food items and what the locals really buy on a daily basis.

Anyway, I showered and relaxed until J finally returned to the hotel late in the evening. He had spent all day at the office followed by a client dinner. The poor thing had to be up at five in the morning to catch the first flight back to London for more work, so he pretty much zonked. I woke up for a quick second to kiss him goodbye and give him the breakfast snacks I bought for him at the grocery store in case everything at the airport was closed. Then it was back to sleep for a few more precious hours before I had to get up early to start my castle touring!