Munich

Today was Sunday, which in Germany means that most places are closed for the day, particularly retail and food.

We arrived in Marienplatz where the New Town Hall adorns the square. This weekend was pride weekend so many food vendors set up and a stage in the middle. I will say it is refreshing to see the rainbow flags after being in Hungary where everything is suppressed. We arrived right at 11am when the glockenspiel went off. There are 32 figurines on the clocktower that twirl as the music plays. There are two figures on horseback and as they go around the second time, the knight knocks the other man on horseback off. It was quite cute to watch the figures go round and round as it only happens at 11am and 12pm.

Marienplatz has been the city center since the 12 century and derives its name from the Marian column in the middle. The pillar commemorates the withdrawal of Swedish troops in 1638. On the side of the New Town Hall there is the Wurkmeck, which is a dragon scaling the building.

I wanted to be able to see the New Town Hall in its entirety which meant I needed to climb something. St. Peter's church which was in the square had a clocktower opposite the New Town Hall. We paid a couple euros to climb up the steps to the top. By the time we got to the top it was 12pm which meant we got to catch the little figures doing their dance on the clocktower for a second time! I won't lie I blinked both times the horsemen knocked each other off. From the top of the tower I was finally able to see the whole town hall building!

Following the clock tower we stopped at St. Peter's church. St. Peter's is Munich's oldest church. It was originally built in 1100 but then burned down in 1347. Contrasting other churches there was no stained glass in this church. The main beauty was the painted ceiling and gold decorations all over. The altar was beautifully decorated!

A short walk away from the city square is the Munich Residenz. Originally the Residenz was a 14th century castle that is now a palace complex. There are over 130 rooms and Holly and I were jokingly trying to keep track to no avail. There were three parts to the palace complex - the treasury, the theater, and the palace. We started with the treasury and spent a full hour there! It was full of gold treasures and a feast for my eyes! The audio guide was very informative and each object had additional information to listen to if you were interested. There was an insane amount of gold and precious jewels behind glass in those exhibits. My favorite pieces were the floral gold crown and a tiara set! It was not limited to just jewelry and there were many fancy kitchenware sets.

The theater was up next and boy was it beautiful! It was an intimate theater due to its small size and resembled the Hungarian State Opera house. It was crimson colored with a gold trim and gold filigree work. I love the style with the orchestral seats down below and the rest in boxes above! It was a lot to take in! Someday I will perform in a space as beautiful as this. But for now I will admire these special places.

The main palace opened with a highly decorated room. The gold stands out against the white walls framing the portraits of nearly 100 different people that are arranged in a family tree. Each room we went through had different colors and was strikingly beautiful! Gold ornaments framed every room and I loved admiring the various wallpapers and fabric that covered the walls. We loved a room that was covered with red wallpaper with filigree designs. In one of the rooms we found a very funny looking piano and I had to listen to the audio guide twice to find that the name of the piano was called a giraffe piano. Instead of laying down, the strings are vertical hence why the grand piano is upright. It sure was funny looking!

One of our favorite rooms was a green and gold room mainly since we realized it really fit our color scheme today. We matched so well with the elegance of the green and gold on the walls.

Visiting the palace took the majority of the day and wiped us out. We stopped at an Asian joint for lunch since I was craving spice and something other than potatoes. After our late lunch, we spent the rest of the day chilling in Englisher Garten. The Englisher Garten is a massive park that begins behind the Residenz for miles. It is packed with people relaxing on the grass and playing volleyball. Through the park runs the Eisbach river that has such a strong current people were hopping in and drifting from one end to the next. Both Holly and I wished we could jump in and be carried down shore! At the beginning of the river there is a huge standing wave that was flocked by surfers. The surfers went back and forth across the waves catching the wave. It was so entertaining and exciting to watch. We realized we had stayed there watching the surfers for so long that we had come up with nicknames for all of them. That was when we knew it was time to go.

In the evening we walked back to Marienplatz where the stage was now occupied by a German singer who had rallied quite a big audience. We stayed for a couple hours watching the pride artists takeover the stage.