Germany Trip

I had an audit in Munich Germany in November and didn't get around to posting pictures until now because I was too busy with work, Thanksgiving, and birthdays. It was a short week, but I did get to at least walk around the city and get a feel for old Europe.  As an architecture and history buff, I was in heaven (except for not having my wifey there).

First, Munich is very compact, not sprawling, so you can walk all over the downtown. In fact most of the old downtown is only for walking. There are 3 layers of subways under the thousand year old city (not sure how they did that without destroying everything), so no cars are needed. Just take a subway and then walk. Second, much of the city was destroyed in WWII, so they've been rebuilding it for the last 60 years.

The downtown is dominated by churches and old monuments to the royalty who reigned in the 18th and 19th century. The same family ruled from the 1300s until 1918. Munich has been largely Catholic since the 1000s, when it was founded by some monks (hence the name Munchen in German). Unlike northern Germany which became protestant in the 1500s, Munich has remained Catholic. There is a large spire near the city center dedicated to Pope John Paul II (who was Polish but had links to Munich and to Pope Benedict, who is from Munich). Now only about 35% of the population claims Catholicism.

View of Downtown from my hotel. St. Peter's church, Frauenkirche, Rathaus, and other churches are prominent. Most buildings are 5-7 stories tall.

St. Peterkirche, built in 1100s on the ruins of a 9th century church that was the start of Munich. This church has been modified many times in the last 900 years.

Not sure why I'm sideways, but that's a 18 story church behind me. It was first built in the 1400s.

Inside the Frauenkirche (the really tall one)

The church belonging to Maximilian University

Theatinerkirche is a grand Italian Baroque style cathedral built in the mid 1600s. Over 18 members of the royal Wittelsbach family are buried inside.

Dome of Theatinerkirche

Nave of Theatinerkirche

Paintings and plaster details

Tomb of a young princes in Theatinerkirche

St Paul's church near the Oktoberfest grounds (taken at night from about half mile away)

St. Lukas Lutheran Church built in late 1800s (Romanesque style). Picture is also from my hotel window.



St. Johann Baptist Church on the east side of the river, built in the 1850s. I heard it was Gothic revival style. 



Marianilf Church, a neo-Gothic church built in the 1830s. 



Don't know the name of this one, but it was an awesome view with the Alps in the background.

This old church in the center of Munich, called Heilig-Geist-Kirche or Church of the Holy Ghost, is from the 1300s. It has been remodeled several time, most notably after being nearly demolished in World War II.

The next group of pictures were a few cool non-church buildings, of course headlined by the amazing Rathaus (town hall).

This is the Rathaus, or town hall. It was begun in 1867 and has more than 400 rooms.

The tower of Rathaus has a glockenspiel which performs at noon. It was pretty ingenious for its day. This is one thing Grandpa G remembers from his trip to Munich in 1962. It's been there a long time.

Rathaus is covered with hundreds of details like statues. Some of the gargoyles look quite grotesque. I wonder what message the royal family was sending with the design of the building.

Notable kings from the Wittlesbach dynasty are shown on the grand porch of Rathaus.

I loved the subtle wrought iron frog on this entryway.

There's a copper dragon climbing up the corner of Rathaus.



In the Residenz district, the State Chancellery or similar to legislature building is very cool.



Simply called Residenz, the Wittelsbach family built it in the 1300's and expanded it to 110 rooms.

One of the medieval gates of the city, still intact after 750 years.

 

I like this wind chime, which is certainly unique.

Fall on the Isar River, which bisects Munich.

Strangely, there is a place in the city where a river comes out of a bridge at such an angle that it creates waves very much like a surf.  So of course, in November in Munich, there are always lines of surfers waiting their turn. They were pretty good.

Without body suits, this wouldn't be so fun.



There is a huge park in town called English Garden which is larger than Central Park. It was very pastoral, with rolling hills, colored autumn leaves, and streams. There were also numerous street musicians playing. We even saw a jazz quartet in an ancient square playing on a white baby grand piano, a bass, a saxophone, and drums. They had a box where people were dropping donations.



A bridge in the English Garden

A "Chinese" pavilion in the park. Here temporary restaurants (biergarten) are set up to serve traditional Bavarian food. In a week in Munich, I concluded (perhaps unfairly?) that they eat great quantities of meat, especially pork, that they drink prodigious amounts of beer, and that they smoke much more than here in the US. The food is good, but is quite heavy and rich. Probably not such a healthy diet!



I loved the alpine paintings on the ceiling of this restaurant, a reminder that the Alps are just 40 kilometers away.





Not that you care, but these are some of the people I was auditing. The work environment in Germany is much more formal than where I work in the US. They are quite disciplined. The reason for the picture, however is so you can see the radish and lard appetizer tray on the table. Yum!



The Opera house is part of the Residenz Palace complex. The building on the left is part of the palace that is still being rebuilt from WWII. I thought it remarkable that while under construction, a giant screen is placed in front of the wall that looks like a finished wall.

 

At the Oktoberfest grounds, there is a hill with this gigantic monument to the heroes of Bavaria. The lady in the statue (Bavaria) is standing next to a lion (the Wittelsbach family).



If any of you actually read all of that, my condolences. This is a way for me to journal, and if you like it too, that's fantastic.  I hope you enjoyed it. If any of these pictures brought back memories or spurred thoughts of other cities, I'd love to hear about them.