Munich 11/29

After a wonderfully exhausting day in Fussen, I decided to extend my weekend in Bavaria into Monday. Rather than take a night train departing around 7 PM, I opted instead to take my time in Munich, get a good night's sleep, and catch the first train to Metz in the morning.

New City Hall at Marienplatz

I was up comfortably early Sunday morning, and, armed with a tourist map, I strode into the old city in search of, not surprisingly, churches. As I came through the heavily commercialized pedestrian streets, I first found the Marienplatz. Here, in the literal and figurative shadow of the new city hall buildings, christmas market booths bustled. I moved on to the Max-Joseph, snapped some photos, and inspected a church that, according to Let's Go, had a tower with an excellent view of the city. Mass was in progress inside the Theatinerkirche and the sweet singing of the choir persuaded me to take a seat for a minute. I ended up staying for the entire mass, which had apparently just begun as I arrived. The sermon was completely lost on me, but I enjoyed the choir, and it felt good to be back in church. I didn't take any pictures, but the interior, was tall and well-lit, but austere and white-washed.

Theatinerkirche (Theatine church)

Small square off of Max-Joseph Platz. Buildings are part of Munich's Residenz.

Next I checked out the Residenz, a palace whose first phase was begun in 1385. The seat of the Bavarian monarchs whose power fluctuated heavily over the years, the massive Residenz was in many ways reminiscent of the palace at Versailles, with lavish appointments at every turn. The Residenz was heavily damaged in WWII, but restoration, completed in 1980, made it difficult to distinguish the original rooms from the restored ones.

One of the palace's simpler rooms

The Residenz's oldest room, the Antiquarium, was originally designed to display antiques, but surely held a few fish as well once it was converted to a dining hall in the 16th century

On display in the antiquarium, this display case of beautiful china holds mint condition plates bearing Munich's blue and white colors and images of the city's mascot, the lion


The ceiling of this room is painted to create an optical illusion of a lofty vaulted roof, but the illusion is effective only when viewed from the very center of the room. Look closely at this picture.


This treasury room contains many relics. The skulls and hands contained in various golden bejeweled monstrances are allegedly those of saints. Relics were considered more valuable than gold during the height of Papal power, so monarchs sought to collect and display them.

Steeds of Neptune - Walter Crane - Neue Pinakothek

Next I visited Munich's solid museums - Althe Pinakothek and Neue Pinakothek. The Althe held classical paintings, that were, to me at least, forgettable. There was a Rubens exhibition taking place that reinforced my impression from my Amsterdam trip that Rubens' art is bland and overappreciated. My time would probably have better spent at Pinakothek der Moderne, a modern art museum. The Neue Pinakothek was more my style, featuring artists like Van Gogh, virtually the entire impressionist clan as well as sculptures by Rodin.

It was getting late, but there was still one interesting place open. I made my way by metro to the olympicpark area. The BMW museum was open, but nearly empty. The cashier explained that everyone gets the student discount at this late hour.

Ice-climbing wall outside the BMW plant

Here's a brief history of the BMW company as I remember it: BMW first made airplane engines in the early 20th century, then moved into motorcycles, was a war-manufacturer employing concentration camp labor in WWII, and was eventually allowed to restart operations years after the war.

Early BMW airplane engine



One of their first motorcycles

Feast for the engineering eye

Side view

BMW's foray into jet engines

A quirky, popular 1950's BMW Isetta

My favorite room of the museum, where each engine's corresponding set of headphones played the sound of the engine going 0-60.

Race car and concept car

Single-person flier ....

Its wing looks like a windsurfing sail to me

BMW plant with TV tower in background

The BMW museum, despite its attempts at high-tech interactive exhibits, catered to the car and company enthusiasts, more than the casual observer like myself. A friend explained later, that the plant tour, unavailable on weekends, was the highlight of his visit to BMW world.

I took a metro back to the city center, where I ate dinner at the Augustiner beer hall. I ordered Roast Pork knuckle from an english menu, and, for my first time in Europe, had my age questioned after ordering a beer. The pork knuckle was the heaviest meal I had had yet. I could feel each bite slide slowly into my stomach. The side of potato dumpling was visually appealing, but as physically painful as the pork, and certainly less tasty. This was one of the few meals I did not finish during my semester.