Day 41 - The Sound of Munich

Wow. Another daily update missed. Chalk it up to my hay fever or whatever I've got. I just remembered I have some only slightly expired anti-histamine in my pack, too. Tomorrow should be better. But first let's talk about the day before yesterday. I don't really understand why, but after my internet usage, I was feeling light headed. I wasn't going to go to bed without some food, though, so I went to a nearby pizza place the gal at the front desk recommended. It gets really cold here at night, so I started off with asparagus soup. I've seen it all over since then, but at the time, I was a little surprised to see albino asparagus. I followed it up with what turned out to be a really funky veggie pizza. I declare artichoke (including softened leaves, not just the hearts) a right proper pizza topping. Then I wandered back to the hostel, all of fifty meters away, in a congested haze, and went to bed. Oh yes, and I thought some of you might get a kick out of the street I'm on. Senefelder Street. I'm not sure if that's what Jerry's family name was pre-Ellis-Island, but I wouldn't be surprised. I love this head cold. It's rambleriffic.

• Deutshmarkets Uber Alles. First thing yesterday morning was provisioning as I was down to two apricot cakes and a 250ml juice box and the five euro breakfast here looked pathetic, kind of like the breakfasts in the hotel in Buenos Aires, but with even less variety. So I walked around a couple blocks. In addition to lots of naughty shops, there are a ridiculous number of computer shops here. But these aren't like US shops. Apparently everyone here rolls there own, because every shop window was full of pieces and parts, no prebuilt systems. I think a lot of electrical engineers would move to Munich if they walked down that street. Eventually I did come across a supermarket. Well, it wasn't exactly a supermarket. It was more like a really long and skinny U-shaped market. But I had no problem finding a big bag of assorted rolls (including the mandatory soft pretzels), a good sized box of granola cereal, a liter of unrefrigerated milk (a common thing here in Europe), and a liter of vitamin enriched fruit juice cocktail for just under four euros. It's funny. Lots of people get a huge thrill from having the latest, most featureful item. I get a small "oh goody" from that, but the glow I get from a really good bargain is so much more satisfying. I am truly a grandchild of the depression. Thanks for passing it on, dad! ;)
• Free Tour. I finished up breakfast just in time to catch the "Free Tour". Really the guides work for tips, so it should read "Free (for total jerks) Tour", regardless, it was nice to be part of a group for a change. Although trying not to get in the way of normal pedestrians was sometimes a challenge. I'm definitely too nice for my own good. Ah well. At least one American is. :)
• Marienplatz. Platz means square, so Marienplatz is Mary's Sqaure. There's a gold statue of Mary in the middle, so I'm assuming that's the English translation. Munich is largely Catholic as well. In fact, the St. Michael's church here was built to celebrate the "success" of the inquisition. (What a show.) But I digress. So let's regress to Marienplatz, where they have possibly the world's most famous glockenspeil, which literally means "bell play". First you listen to the impressively out of tune bells play a song. Then a small carosel of marble figures representing a wedding and a joust go around. The second time they go around, the knight representing an enemy state to Bavaria leans back to represent the coolness of Bavaria. Then the carosel below that, representing a funeral goes around twice. Life-sized marble figures twirl around on sticks. It's a very festive funeral appartently. Then the bells clang away for a big more and you wonder if you can't get that twelve minutes of your life back. Seriously, our guides making fun of the glockenspiel was more fun than the glockenspiel. I didn't even consider taking a movie.
• The Monkey Tower. I think this tower is attached to the old town hall. Nothing's really old here of course, since the place was levelled during WWII, but they built replicas of all the historic stuff. Anyway, the old town hall and monkey tower courtyard have some cool back story. The low wall (It's actually just a fence.) off the courtyard faces away from the city. Since Munich's leaders were appointed, and often not well liked by the people, the palaces were built at the edge of town so the duke (Munich was a duchy.) could escape quickly in the event of revolt. Okay, but back to the monkey tower. Duke Ludwig the second (as opposed to Mad King Ludwig the Second) was supposedly picked up by a monkey (who I assume was supposed to be there for entertainment purposes). The maid freaked out. This in turn freaked out the monkey. The monkey, baby in hand, jumped out the window and climbed the nearest tower. Apparently the monkey was pretty preturbed because it took over an hour of coaxing to get monkey and baby to come back inside. Of course the tower was built over a hundred years after Duke Ludwig the Second was born, so this story is a total fabrication, but supposedly the locals still like to tell it to people. I like Munich Monkeys.
• Devil's Church. Depending on how you look at it, this really is the devil's church. It was built in twenty years, breakneck speed in cathedral time. And one way or another, it could be argued you have the devil to thank for it. One story is that the devil was strolling by while the cathedral was under construction and noticed only one window on the building. (That's because the windows along the sides are all recessed.) The devil finds the architect and tries to trick him by saying, "If you agree not to add any more windows to this church, I'll have my minions finish it for you." The architect happily agreed. When the devil came back, he thought the deal had been broken and demanded the architect's soul. But when the architect showed him how the devil had just stood in the wrong place to see how many windows were there, the devil stamped his foot and disappeared (probably with a suitable BAMF noise), leaving his footprint on the floor of the church. I don't know where that footprint is because I went up the bell tower instead, but I'll probably be back to take a picture of the footprint at some point.
• Hoffbrauhaus. Litterally "Royal Brew House" this is the most famous beerhall in Munich, despite the fact that the beer isn't the best, the food isn't the best, and the prices really aren't the best. Regardless, it's the oldest brew house and the Nazis used it to announce their platform (and followed it up by beating up some Commies).
• Residenz. You remember how dukes in Munich had to be ready to head for the hills at a moments notice? Well, during a 100 year period of Munich's history, the city grew five times in size, so the original palace was surrounded. Obviously the amount of love the people had for the ruler didn't because a new escape friendly palace was then built on the new edge of town. We just walked through a courtyard there, but I think Eulah's Europe For Dummies book said this place has the greatest collection of royal jewels (from the Hapsburgs?) of any treasury in Europe, so I'll probably drop by.
• Military Plaza. Between the Residenz and the Tina Turner Church (a big yellow church who's name in german escapes, but sounds like Tina Turner) is a big military monument showing great Munich generals. Or it would if there were any. The statue on the left is not of a man from Munich, and the statue of the right is not of a general. It's of a military lawyer. He was actually scheduled to lead troops into battle once, but in very un-german fashion was delayed and missed the fight. There's a couple lions on the front. The one next to the Residenz has it's mouth open and the other doesn't. That's to represent that you can say whatever you want about the goverment, but don't mess with Tina Turner. It's too bad Ike had to find out the hard way. And just when you thought this thing couldn't get any weirder, the main statue, a giant black bronze of a man with a spear and a woman with a flag (I think) turns out not to have anything to do with Munich... at all. It looks greek. It was commissioned by a South American government who didn't like the fact that it didn't look hispanic. Munich picked it up cheap and stuck it in their monument. Needless to say, I couldn't help but take three or four pictures. :)
• English Gardens. After the tour officially ended, I was feeling pretty beat. But there was a statue of Ludwig the First (the education king) to photograph, and a big garden to explore. If my allergies hadn't clouded my judgement so thoroughly, I'm sure I would have considered the garden excursion a bad idea. Oh well. It was lovely, and I got some gnarly video of one of the river surfers shredding it up.

Okay. My time's almost up. I've sent some more pictures and stuff back, so expect them shortly. Later days.

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