Day 69: Munich (Day One)

June 20, 2022

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This one snapshot of the street by our hotel reveals a fair bit about Munich. Although it's a main street, it is not really clogged with cars, not are they moving fast. We see one of the Munich electric trams, which are in widespread use, and we see a cyclist on a dedicated cycle lane. The pedestrian is wearing a mask, but that is likely because she just got off the tram. Otherwise, masks are not generally in use.

We had today to look around Munich. Although of course one could spend a lifetime and not totally know your home city, each town has a set of no more than 20 key points that capture the place for all tourist purposes, and maybe even for residents. Those Hop On Hop Off services pretty much have each major city pegged, so one of their maps can tell a lot.

In our case, we grabbed a web site, "19 Top-Rated Attractions & Things to Do in Munich". Because we are less devoted perhaps than even the average tourist, we only checked out a subset of those. Still, if you look at the track, you see a morning with 12.5 km of scouring the city centre on foot.

We entered the altstadt through a gate on the west, which also features a fountain that is great for kids to jump in.

You can boil the 19 places down into just a few categories. First, there is a pile of churches. Each is completely over the top in terms of decoration, featuring painted ceiling, marble, and gold tint everywhere, many statues and much carving, and a goodly selection of impressive altars and side chapels. The centrepiece is the Rathaus, with its neoGothic carved exterior and elaborate carillon. The Rathaus presides over the Marien square, which is lined with shops and cafes. A little beyond the square is the food market, Viktualien Markt, which contains nicely spaced, but many, fruit vendors plus cheese and delicatessen stores, meat stores, and again. cafes. A final category is museums, gardens, and royal residences, theatres, and music halls. We generally tend to ignore these. And mercifully, Munich does not feature any forts on hills!

At the Karls gate, where we entered, they have this cartoon map of the sights. I love these, and asked for one at Tourist Information. Seeing the shape of things helps to identify them.

The Karlstor, where we entered, has these figures, which used to be part of the fountain in the main square.

Lovely old buildings can be seen all around.

One beef this morning was the number of trucks blocking the way and the views. Considering that this is where we got kicked off our bikes yesterday, we are not so tolerant of trucks driving about.

Trucks, cars. Note also the bike rider. Just sayin'

In front of St Michaels, Michael slays a devil. We expected that to be a dragon, but this time it's a devil. Presumably this is not "the" devil but only some second string devil? Note the grippy claws and cloven hoof, sharp teeth, and goat horns. What did goats do to get involved in this?

Inside, St Michael's is fairly restrained, compared to some other churches in town.

Along the street, walking toward the central Marienplatz, we noticed thse typical wooden nutcracker figures, beautiful buildings, with brass statues to rub, curved apartment blocks that we read follow the alignment of the original city walls, and traditional dress set out to look very modern and stylish.

The Frauenkirche has the two towers, visible from all around. A service was going on when we got there. We noticed today that each church had 5-20 devotees in attendance. While not many, this is more than in other places. Because of the service we could only snap one shot, on the way out. It seems like a major feature - a tomb or such.

Ah yes, from planetware.com: "Given its important role as the main church of southern Bavaria, Munich's Frauenkirche has long been the final resting place of some of the region's most famous historic figures. While many of these tombs are to be found in the crypt, including those of Archbishop Michael Cardinal Faulhaber from 1952, Joseph Cardinal Wendel from 1960, and Julius Cardinal Döpfner from 1976 - along with numerous members of the wealthy Wittelsbach family - many of the most well known are in the chapels in the main part of the cathedral. Notable examples include the Tomb of the Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian, a free-standing monument erected in 1622 in black marble with magnificent bronze figures of Dukes Wilhelm IV and Albrecht V and, at the four corners, armor-clad standard-bearers made by Hubert Gerhard. In the South Tower Chapel is the Tomb of Jörg Halspach (known as Ganghofer), architect of the Frauenkirche, while in the North Tower Chapel is the Tulbeck Tomb from 1476. Also of interest is the 14th-century tombstone of the aristocratic Ligsalz family in the Chapel of the Immaculata."

Back to the street, more Munich trade goods. In Strausburg it was storks, here it is lions!

We arrived in the Marienplatz, where our attention was focussed on the carillon, and the figure at the very top of the building.

The carillon, we will return to see it play at 11 a.m.

The figures above the main door of the rathaus

Yesterday I mentioned just happening to notice quite a police presence in the city. I have no theory, or axe to grind about this, just noticing. Today again, so many police vehicles?

Pictured below, police are having a discussion with an old man in the square. Are they helping or harassing?

Wondering about the role of the authorities was enhanced when a fire truck came blasting into the square, siren blaring. I screetched to a halt near us, and I said "the Rathaus better be on fire, with that dramatic display!". About four firemen jumped out of the truck and raced toward the building.

The object was not a fire but a young woman (second from right below) who seemed to be feeling poorly. Other concerned people also gathered around. Based on this, we would assess Munich as a caring place with a lot of resources for anyone in difficulty.

The lady in distress was at the Fischbrunnen (fish fountain). We are set to meet Suzanne and Janos there tomorrow!

With a glance forward toward the Isartor - the gate towards the Isar - and back to the golden statue in front of the rathaus, we proceeded to the St. Peter's church.

Inside the Peter's Church, we again have painted ceilings and gold statues. This one is from 1294!

The rindermarkt fountain is a 1964 sculpture, recalling the use of the area for cattle trade. We left St Peters and passed through here to the main food market.

The food market has lots of vendors, both in outdoor stalls and in free standing buildings, all tastefully spaced and with cafes around. We found prices to be very high, but quality to also be very high. For example we got some really big good cherries, but about 6 euros a pound. Take a walk around, before we head back to listen to the carillon!

Ok, we're back, just before the carillon is set to play. These things are fascinating, even though they are just sort of merry go rounds. Maybe because they are up high? In any event, lots of people gathered for the event, many sitting on the pavement.

Like many, I tried to film the carillon event. But I found I could not keep my and steady enough, pointing up so high. Instead, I have subbed in here a version from Youtube. A remarkable thing is that the version I chose is from 2013, and the crowd and the whole thing seem identical. It's daunting to think of this event happening three times a day for the 9 years, and I can still use the old video of it!

We trudged over to the St Johann Nepomuk church. Yes, by now we were starting to trudge! This church is one of the most over the top ones we have seen. Every square mm of the interior is covered in marble and glitter.

The church is built in with the surrounding buildings - see columns on right?

The church is quite recent - from 1733 - no doubt a google search will be more informative than these guidebook snippets.

There were more modern works of art, out in the street, like these e-transports:

We went back to the food market for these bratwurst examples - one white one red.

And then to the Church of the Holy Spirit, which is between the food market and the rathaus, of course. Nearby we ran into this string and accordion band, seemingly from Ukraine. We did not pause to learn their story, but the flag was enough to garner a lot of our coins.

The Church of the Holy Spirit - yes, lots of great decoration. Just how many of these great churches do they have here? Lots more! They seem to have been working on this stuff since the 13th century, after all!

Now we really trudged back to our hotel, taking one slight (but tiring in the hot sun) wrong turn. We resolved not to be such tough guys and to try the U Bahn for going to meet Claire at a distant restaurant. Claire is the sister of Joel Macht, who you can find with a blog in progress here on Cycleblaze. Joel stayed with us as a Warm Showers and thought we might like to meet his sister in Munich one day. That day is now! We are off to find that U-Bahn.

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We dove into an S-Bahn/U-Bahn entry and had to really search for the train that Google Maps had flagged as the one to bring us near the restaurant that Claire had recommended and reserved at. Two stops took care of all the distance we had trudged earlier in the day and more, but we still had to cross the river and walk some on the other side.

Bathers are still out there. The rivers here are big asset for recreation.

A walk in a leafy not downtown Munich neighbourhood.

This is roast duck, roast pork, two kinds of dumpling, and red cabbage. Flavour was wonderful. This is not exactly diet food!

We had in common with Claire no only her brother and his family, but an interest in cycling, and also in Munich and in what it is like for her to live and work here.

The meet up with Claire Macht was great fun.

What gave Meaning to Life today? A new friend.

Today's ride: 18 km (11 miles)
Total: 3,862 km (2,398 miles)

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Tricia GrahamMunich is indeed a lovely city. Twice we have met Suzanne there which made it seem special. Give her your best wishes when you meet her tomorrow
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2 years ago

Suzanne GibsonYou certainly did a good job seeing the sights! The only thing that is missing is some torten! Maybe we can find a konditorei.
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2 years ago