Munich, Germany

Our flight left Toronto at 8 pm, and landed in Munich, Germany at 10 am local time (which is only 4 am back home!). We managed a few hours of sleep on the flight, but not many. The airport in Munich is quite nice, and we found helpful people quickly.

For 20 euros, we got train tickets for the both of us going into the city. The train from the airport to the central train station took 40 minutes, and we walked to our hotel in 5 minutes. It was noon, too early to check in, so we left our luggage there and went off to explore Munich. We started by visiting a small grocer for some quick lunch (sausage, yogurt, and very yummy Movenpick ice cream), then thought we could eat it at the central train station. No seats. So we made our way to the Marienplatz, the central square in the old city of Munich, to look for benches there. Nope. So we found a little coffee shop, ordered a smoothie, and took advantage of one of their outdoor tables. It drizzled or rained on and off all day, but we had checked the forecast in advance and were prepared for this. Nevertheless, we were pretty drenched by the time we got back to our hotel at the end of the day! Now that we had lunch, we had more energy. Today we decided to explore Munich on foot, and in particular, 5 old churches around Marienplatz. The first was St Peter's Church. We started by climbing the 92 meter spire, it felt like there were trillions of stairs to climb but it was only 306. When we finally got to the top, we had a view over the whole city in all directions. We could look straight across to the Marienplatz and the old city hall, which is graced by a tall tower housing the famous Glockenspiel, a clock that has movable figures. We waited to see if the Glockenspiel would go off at 2, but it didn't. We climbed down the spire and went inside St Peter's Church. Large and beautiful. It is the oldest church in Munich, built in 1368 but almost totally destroyed in WWII. It was rebuilt in 1954. There are frescoes on the ceiling. The most interesting thing was the decorated bone remains of Saint Munditia, Patron Saint of Matrons. She was transferred from Roman catacombs in 1675. She was believed to have been martyred in 310 AD, beheaded with a hatchet. Her bones are sewn into a transparent body stocking covered with gold and jewels, with glass eyes staring upwards. Her bones are posed as if she was reclining on her side in conversation with someone. In a glass cage. The next church we found was quite tiny but really ornate, the Church of Saint Johann Nepomuk. It was built in 1733 by a pair of brothers for their private church, because they thought it would save their souls. Due to the resistance of the citizens, the brothers were forced to make their church accessible to the public. Church #3 was St Michael's Church. Built in 1583. They are all beautiful. What made this one memorable was the crypt in the basement. We paid 2 euros each to view the tombs. Most of them belonged to the family of the Wittelsbach Dynasty. The caskets were the size of a queen sized bed, and made of iron. There were a few tiny iron ones that belonged to children. King Ludwig II had a major shrine in the main chapel. The fourth church is Frauenkirche. It was built in 1494 when Munich only had 13,000 inhabitats, but the church seats 20,000 people. It also had a crypt but it closed just as we got there. The last church we went to was Theatinerkirche. It was built in 1663 as a gesture of thanks for the long-awaited birth of an heir to the crown. Right across from Theatinerkirche was the Residence, the royal palace. We wanted to tour the palace rooms, but couldn't find the place to buy tickets! So after wandering the palace courtyard for a bit, we decided to give it up and go back to the Marienplatz for the 5 pm showing of the Glockenspiel. Good call. The bells played music for over 5 minutes, and the clock has animated parts (a very fancy cuckoo clock). The animated parts were on two levels. On the top level, there was a jousting match. The soldiers on horseback went round and round each other until finally the Austrian knight lost. On the lower level, the figures danced round in circles. After the clock show ended, we roamed the Viktualienmarkt. We found this market very tame and quiet after the markets of Morocco. Alot of the outdoor seating had been put away because of the rain, so we found a quiet local indoor restaurant. Frankie had the "beginner" German sausages and potato salad, gluten free. So many people are friendly and helpful. Don't know why we expected them all to be beer chugging drunkards! Our train ticket we purchased in the morning was good for the subway for the whole day (not that they ever checked!). We found our way back to the Central Train Station, but had some problems actually finding the exit. We went down when we should have gone up, we turned left when we should have turned right..... Who knew that there were so many levels to this place? We finally saw light, and discovered that we were across the road from where we thought we were. Back to our hotel by 7 pm, zonked. Really wanted tea, but had to settle with experimenting with the espresso machine instead. We always ask for 2 beds because the rooms tend to be larger. They misunderstood and put a cot in the room next to the queen! Not sure if "queen" is accurate: in Europe, a "double" bed tends to be two singles joined side by side, but different mattresses and sheets.