Munich Germany
July 2 - 10

Munich was founded in 1158 by Henry the Lion who destroyed a rival's toll station on the Isar River and built his own near a monastery (hence Munchen - place of the Monks). The pope made him share the income with the other guy but let him keep the toll station on the river traffic - mainly salt from the south.

Here's stuff we saw in Munich but there's more on other pages about The Residence, BUGA05 flower show, and Dachau concentration camp along with beer halls and gardens which cannot be separated from the Munich experience.

There's about 1.3 million people now and the city stretches for 15 miles in all directions thanks to an excellent system of subways, trams, and suburban railroads. Going downtown was a simple 3-mile drive from our hotel in the east suburbs to the S-Bahn station where we parked for free. An 8€ ticket allowed both of us to ride the U-Bahn (urban), S-Bahn (suburban), trams, and busses all day. We did this 4 times in the 10 days we spent in Munich.

One lever on the desk to the left is pushed forward to go faster and
pulled back to slow down.
The button to the left of the one lit is pushed at the station to set the brakes.
The computer display compares the current time and position to the schedule.
Simple as that.

The city is clean. Grafitti only in the normal spots - the railroad walls and underpasses. Pedestrians have the right of way. No scooters zooming around. Food portions are filling. So is the beer.

The main touristy sights are in the mile-square center bounded by the city gates so we'll start our tale there.

East gate - a block from Marienplatz

South gate - 6 blocks south of Marienplatz

West gate - 6 blocks west of Marienplatz

North gate - 8 blocks north of Marienplatz.

Everything is measured from Marienplatz. It's the crowded pedestrian plaza with the famous Rathaus Glockenspeil - the most overrated tourist attraction outside of Mount Rushmore.

The Rathaus, the old seat of government.
The two onion-top domes are the Frauenkirche a block west, the city's official logo.

Halfway up the tower is the glockenspeil. It goes off at 11am, Noon, and 5pm. The Marienplatz fills with tourists who listen to the worst carillon ever constructed - actually maybe it was once good but it really needs work, all sour notes and some that are just thuds. Painful to listen to. The books say there are 43 bells, the largest being over 3,000 lbs.

The crowd audibly ooohs when the figures start moving. First the 18 figures of the top layer go around in a circle 2 times. There are two rows, one going each direction. This includes two knights on horseback who pass each other the first time by but the red knight gets knocked backwards the second time by the blue and white-suited knight. Some people say the Japanese tourists bet on the outcome but we think it's fixed.

This all represents the wedding festival of Wilhelm V and Renata von Lothringen in 1568.

Then, after a pause, the bottom row goes around with the individual figures rotating in a cooper's dance, representing a celebration of the end of the plague in 1517.

At that point the crowds disperses - it's been more than 10 minutes and their attention span is only so long and their necks are stiff from looking upwards. But they miss the real highlight - a minute later, the crow at the very top caws three times, flapping it's wings up and down once each time. That's the good part.
 

The second most famous Munich landmark is the Englishcher Garten which rivals Grand Central Park in size, usefulness, and natural beauty built by man. It's over 1,000 acres and serves the citizens of Munich well. 10s of thousands were there on the nice sunny day we walked through the southern half. Drinking, strolling, sitting on benches, walking dogs, biking, swimming, surfing, sunbathing, playing frisbee and volleyball, even a drum circle. It's just outside the old city and walkable from Marienplatz, which we did.

About in the middle is the Chinesischer Turm, Chinese Tower, surrounded
by a large beer garden.

A river running the entire length, south to north, is split into many streams
which give many swimming holes and grass beaches.

At the south end we found surfers!
Where the river enters the park they've set up an underwater reef to make
a permanent wave. Good surfers to the right alternate with less-experienced
surfers on the left bank, taking turns until they wipe out, swim to a bank, and
walk back to do it again. Notice the wet suits - it's cold water.
Watching from a bank or the bridge is fascinating.

This woman could hold position smoothly for almost a minute.
Others scooted from side to side, delighting in splashing water on the crowd.
Most of those coming from the right in this picture stayed up for less than 10 seconds.

We think this sign forbids nude bathing.
But that's not the case down river a bit where nekkid people are allowed.

There are probably 50 nekkid or topless people in this picture.
90% are men.
One bike tour company even advertises their route goes through this area.

Just 2 blocks from Marienplatz, the Viktualmarkt thrives except on Sunday when it's deserted completely. Like a permanent farmer's market, there are stands for vegetables, fruit, fish, sausages, meats, noodles, cheeses, eggs, bread, soup, flowers, tea, dried fruit, candy, olives and pickles, baskets, jam, bottled wine, berries, and of course beer.

It seems like each stand specializes in one and only one item. There are lots of stands and lots of competition - we saw three cheese stands situated next to each other for instance. But there's only one beer stand; which the big 6 breweries of Munich take turns supplying.

A couple of big table areas seat old ladies, suits, families, and tourists side by side. True democracy.
 

Red and yellow wassermelone

Mushrooms. One great thing about eating in Europe is a wider variety than
those wonderbread button mushrooms we see almost exclusively in the states.

Radishes of all types and two colors.

In addition to The Residence, BUGA05 flower show, and Dachau concentration camp, we also saw the Schloss Nymphonburg in the suburbs. At one time it was way west of the city, a hunting lodge turned getaway home for the Wittelbach family.

The place is a full ring of impressive buildings and outbuildings but only a few rooms on the first floor of the center building are open to the public - and they all have furniture moved in from other places.

There's a panorama also of course.

Looking back past the pond out of the front of the center building.

The back garden. Huge area that goes way past the trees.

Entrance hall.

One room is called the Gallery of Beauties. King Ludwig I, in the early 1800s, had portraits painted of 36 women and posted them prominently in the Residence. Bet his wife was happy with that. One of these is a dancer, Lola Montez, who he had an affair with, touching off a revolution in 1848. That probably made his wife even happier.

We also spent a couple of hours at the Munich City Museum. Exhibits on fashion in the 20s, reconstruction after WWII, and a major area discussing how the Nazi's came to power in the 1930s. No pictures though.

Restocked Terry's mystery novel pile - she's read about a dozen of them since the boat left but now it's time to weigh down the 3rd suitcase again. Looked in vain for a guide to German breweries. The 10-year old CAMRA book will have to do but it has led us down garden paths, literally, to closed breweries.

Other sights around Munich.

The kid at right was in the Hofgarten beside The Residence playing a hammer dulcimer. Poor guy wasn't bad but he couldn't keep it in tune and kept breaking strings. In fact he broke one string 3 times just trying to replace it.
 

The pavilion in the Hofgarten with the luckless hammer dulcimer player.

The old National Theater, now closed.

Part of the courtyard inside the Rathaus.

But wait, there's more.

A bike for 7 people. Looked very heavy
and they had to pedal very fast.

A carom board in a store window.

A diesel switch engine. Note the wheel connecting bars.
It seems to have only one motor driving all six wheels with an eccentric flywheel.

We met this opera singer at a small bar in the suburb of Perlach.

Rockhoppers in a downtown park.

Sister cities.
We can figure 6 of them but what is Harare?

Beer mugs in a tourist shop.

And then there's the lions. Bratislava had cows, Munich has decorated lions all over.

As far as we can tell, there's only one coin-op laundry in this entire city. It's located two blocks south of the train station in the middle of a section of youth hostels. Figures.

We've noticed the Germans don't use Qs in their language. Terry wants iced tea. Bob's getting homesick for Qs.

Watched a guy eat "lardmeat" (English translation on the menu) at one cafe. His wife was appalled also. Looked like meatless bacon served pretty raw.