Simmons European Vacation - Munich

After about 17 hours of traveling, we arrived in Munich, Germany at 7:50am. I was really excited to be back in Germany, since I served my mission there and spent 3 years of my childhood there as well. It was fun to hear the language again, walk around town through the picturesque cobblestone streets, past the bakeries, butcher shops, flower stands, and cafes. It brought back so many great memories and reminded me of how much I love the German lifestyle. Munich is the capitol of Bavaria and is just beautiful. Though the city is big (Germany's 3rd largest), it feels more intimate like a much smaller city.

After taking the S-bahn (subway) into town and dropping our luggage at our hotel, the first thing we had to do was stop by a bakery for a quick breakfast. German pastries are the things I dream about. Here is one of my favorites, a quarktasche (a pastry filled with a cheese that's somewhat similar to cream cheese).

Our first tourist stop of the day was the Deutsches Museum. It is a huge science and technology museum. It was very technical and in German, but was pretty cool especially if you like all things mechanical, which Brian does.

Next we went the heart of the city, Marienplatz. Located here is the cool looking neo-gothic style town hall complete with red geranium filled window boxes (in Germany, especially Bavaria, it is basically required of all buildings to have red geranium window boxes).

Marienplatz is the main town square. It gets its name from the beautiful Mary statue called Mariensaule (Mary's column).

The statue was erected to give thanks to the Virgin Mary for saving the city from destruction by the Swedish army during the 30 year war in the 17th century.

The highlight of Marienplatz is the glockenspiel. Several times a day the glockenspiel puts on a show.

The Glockenspiel shows two different scene's from Munich's past. The top scene re-enacts a jousting tournament held for the wedding of Duke Wilhelm V which took place on Marienplatz in 1568. The bottom depicts coopers doing the Schafflertanz, or "Dance of the Coopers". This is done in memory of the end of the Black Death plague in 1517.

Then we went on a free walking tour with our guide Iain who showed around the city and told us more about the history of the town. Munich became a city in the 12 century and was named after the monks that originally lived there. Munich in German literally means "monks," so they are a symbol of the city and you can see monks depicted it all over, like on this manhole cover.

This is St Peterskirche, the oldest church in Munich built about 100 years before the city was founded. It has been renovated and rebuilt a number of times. In the 30 year war, the church was hit by a cannonball but the cannonball just got stuck in the wall. The monks took it as a symbol that God is more powerful than man and left the cannonball in the wall.

The Alter Hof (old court) was the first residence of Munich's ruling family the Wittelbachs. They were the longest ruling family in all of Europe and ruled Bavaria from 12 century to the 20th century. This tower adorns the castle wing and was nicknamed "Monkey Tower". It got the name after a legend that says that the baby prince Ludwig was kidnapped by a tame monkey belonging to the court. The monkey ran up the tower with the baby and had to bribed with food to bring the baby back down.

This is the world famous Hofbrauhaus, the most famous beer hall in the world. No one could believe that we would come to Munich and not try the beer, though. It was originally a brewery built in 1607 and originally didn't let women in. It was very popular so Men didn't want to give up their seats to relieve themselves, the solution, urinal troughs under the table. Today there are bathrooms and even a vomitorium (you get fined and kicked out if you vomit on the floor). What a classy joint! It makes me glad to be LDS.

This is also the place where the Nazi party as we know it was formed. After WWI, Hitler was still part of the German army and his job was to listen to the different political parties platforms. He heard the future Nazi party and liked it. He joined them and then soon became the leader. He gave many speeches and outlined the tenants of the party here. In the early 1920's, Hitler lead a brief, one night, rebellion to overthrow the Bavarian government. He was put on a hugely publicized trial and Hitler was basically given a platform to speak freely about his ideas. The trial made Hitler a household name in Germany.

After our tour, we stopped for a quick bite to eat at this is a biergarten. We learned that a true biergarten (beer garden) has to be under Horse Chestnut trees due to their excellent shade (kept the beer cold). This is where locals eat, drink beer, and chat at all times of the day. We ate some yummy bratwurst as we enjoyed observing everyday life in Munich.

Our last stop for the day was the Alte Pinakothek which is one of the most famous Renaissance art galleries in the world. They had a wonderful audio tour and we spent several hours there. We discovered that we really enjoyed learning about Renaissance art and some of the famous artists. Brian really liked the artist Albrecht Durer and this was my favorite picture, Our Lady Tempi by Raffael.

All in all, we loved Munich and I wish we could have spent more time there. It currently has the top spot for my future summer home.