Munich, Germany Monday, August 6, 2012

Room in Munich

Today is another travel day. We are leaving Oberammergau for Munchen( or Munich as we call it in the states). We get down for breakfast right at 0800 as are train leaves at 0938. Another great start to our day and we are soon all packed and ready to go. We check out and ask Eric if it is possible for us to print one page. We were finally able to reserve the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy, and after we pay, it says bring a copy of this receipt to the ticket office. There is a computer in the front lobby and we do not know when we will have access to another one. Eric says to forward the e mail receipt to him and he will print it. We do, but he has a lot of trouble figuring out the printer set up in the back. We feel bad as he calls one of his employees to come help him. After about 15 minutes, we have the receipt. One less thing to figure out later. By waiting,we get to say goodbye again to Sid and then Father Ron as they come down to breakfast. Sid offers to drive us to the station but we decline as he has already done a lot for us and we are trying to walk and build ourselves up for Switzerland.
The walk to the train station goes fast and we are at the tracks confirming the time when a man sitting nearby says, ” there is no train, you must take a bus”. I am not sure if he is messing with the tourists as I am looking at the schedule which says 0938 to Munchen. This was what we had found on line when we had planned our trip. However, there are no other people here and I see a bus where other people are standing and getting on. We go over there and the bus driver says there is no train, you must take the bus to Murnau and get the train there. Alright, this is not all bad as we were changing trains in Murnau anyway, so on the bus we go. It is a nice trip through the countryside and a few small towns. Arriving at Murnau, we check the schedule and we can make the original train connection we had planned. However, there is a lot of commotion going on and train representatives telling people getting off other buses where to go. Some go to another platform for a train and some are getting onto buses. I go ask and am told to get on a bus to Weilheim and catch a train from there, the train from Murnau is not running. We get on a bus that says direct Weilheim and wait for it to leave. Before long the bus is standing capacity only and takes off. Carol is in front of me and has a nice conversation with a young man from Hamburg taking a short trip to Munchen with his wife. He tells us that the tracks are being worked on for maintenance and it was announced ahead of time. That solves the mystery of do the trains still go to Oberammergau? The man Carol is talking to is an astronomer and spent some time working at CU Boulder. Small world. We get to Weilheim and finally board a train for Munchen. It is a nice ride passing Lake Starnberg and we pull into Munchen at 1200, about a half hour later than our non bus ride train would have been.
The train station and surrounding streets are crowded with people, taxis, streetcars, cars, and buses. Quite a bit different than the Germany we have been in to this point. We slowly find our way and after crossing a crazy intersection we are on a pedestrian only street. It is wide and crowded and we pass the first McDonalds we have seen in Germany. Not going to eat there, that would just not be us.
We soon find the street that our hotel street connects off of and are there in no time, about 20 minutes walk from the station. We follow signs to the second floor (really the third). We knew this from Italy but here is a helpful tip. The first floor here is E or something like that and then they start counting up so the first floor is not the ground floor but one flight up, etc. Marien, our host greets us and takes us up to the 4th, (5th) floor to our room. We were going to take the stairs but she gets us to use the small elevator. She shows us our room and after we confirm all is gut, we get the keys and are on our own. The room is extremely nice, good size, nice furniture, table, two chairs, and a small one person sofa. The bathroom is spacious as well.

Medusa Fountain

We decide to shift our plans a little, do part of a walk we had planned and then visit the Residenz today instead of tomorrow. The Residenz is the Wittelsbach family palace. This family of which King Ludwig was part of were in control of Germany for over 700 years and still own palaces and castles throughout the region. We get a free audioguide in English when we pick up our tickets. You can punch in numbers when you see things along the way that you want more information on. We enter the shell grotto, where a whole wall is made of Bavarian freshwater shells. Red wine would flow from mermaids breasts and also from the courtyard fountain out of the chopped off head of Medusa. All of these shells were donated by Bavarian towns after the grotto was bombed in WWII and then was rebuilt.

The Antiquarium

The Antiquarium was another spectacular room which was filled with Emperors busts and was used as a festival banquet hall. As we move along, we realize that there are 90 rooms to walk through, so Carol the sponge will not be able to listen to every audioguide stop unless the Wittelsbachs invite her to stay all night. We see a great mix of art, furniture, lavish halls, chapel, and a reliquary room with many religious relics. There is also a hall which contains portraits of over 100 powerful Wittelsbach family members which was meant to intimidate all those who had to pass through here to gain audience with the residing Wittelsbach of the time.

St George

We really enjoyed this Museum and the audio helped explain the history of the items on display as well as the room use. As they say on late night TV, but wait there’s more! Included in your ticket is a visit to the Residenz Treasury. Reprogram the audioguide which tells us that if you listen to everything on it for the treasury you will spend 5 hours here. We hit the highlights and items that we can not figure out. It is an amazing collection with many items older than the city of Munich. There are royal crowns, swords, everyday items, baby rattles, and a reliquary of St George killing the dragon, made up of over 2000 precious stones. We really enjoyed both of these museums and were able to learn much more than we thought we would. It was hard to believe that we spent over 4 hours in here.

Don’t Forget the Beer

It was raining when we left so we picked a restaurant on our list that was called Opatija which served Balkan and German food. We had a few things on two sampler platters that we had not heard of. Basically we had a medley of Beef, pork, chicken, sausages, and rice, all with different spiced favors and all very good. I guess to throw in something familiar we both had fries on our plates. Very reasonable prices and extremely large portions left us wishing the walk home was longer so we could burn it off. It is still raining which is keeping it cool and makes for perfect sleeping weather. So that is what we shall do. Good night.
CNC

Expenses
27E-Balkan dinner and 2 beers
80E- Pension Lindner

Miles walked – 5 miles