Not Enough Time in Munich
Yes, we didn’t plan this visit very well, and ended up missing a visit to Dachau, due it being closed on Mondays, the only full day we had in Munich. Nevertheless, we made the best of the time we had and had a great time!
We arrived in Munich on Sunday afternoon, checked into our hostel and began walking toward the city center. As we were walking past the Jesuit Church of St. Michael (I think that’s how it translates to English.), we noticed an informational board on the outside wall and went to check it out. Let’s see… Can we visit the interior? Does it cost? Are there any special events/concerts to attend? When? Hmm.. It says something about Vespers on Sunday at 16:00. What time is it now? 16:00! Let’s see what’s going on inside. We walked in, and a special Sunday afternoon service for the second week of Advent was just beginning. The church was pretty full, but we walked up the side aisle about half way and found a couple seats. Wow! The service turned out to be quite a performance as well! The church’s choir and orchestra — along with organ — performed the movements of John Rutter’s Magnificat throughout the service. It was very well performed and sounded magnificent! While the spoken parts of the service were in German, music is — of course — international, and we enjoyed it thoroughly.
Afterwards, we walked through the Christmas Market in the city center’s main square and nearby streets. The market — as all Christmas markets — consists of many, many shops with all kinds of Christmas ornaments and decorations, crafts, candies, cookies, roasted nuts, Glühwein (mulled wine), brats, sausages, sauerkraut, potatoes, etc. — in short, everything and anything that is German and/or Christmas related.
The next day, we took the train to Füssen, where we walked about an hour to reach Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein Castles. While the latter is not nearly as old as many of the castles in Germany (built in the late 19th century), it is the famous, “fairy tale” castle that is depicted on endless posters and is the image that many people conjure in their minds when they think of castles. It was very majestic and beautiful, rising out of the snow-covered, forested, Bavarian alps.
After walking back to Füssen in late afternoon, we took the train back to Munich and went to the Hofbrauhaus beer hall to have supper and — what else — drink beer. And, we’re not talking small amounts of beer; the normal serving of beer is the “mass bier,” a large, one-liter, glass mug of beer! And, excellent beer at that — whether it’s helle (lager), weiß (say VICE, wheat), dunkles (dark) or weiß dunkles (an awesome dark wheat beer that I really liked). Dan and I sat at a couple different tables during the evening, meeting folks from Australia, Korea, Spain and England. It was a lot of fun!
Yesterday we took the train out of Munich to the medieval town of Rothenburg. For now, I’ll just say that it is everything that we’ve heard and more — a very picturesque town that is all decorated and lit up for the Christmas season.
Tim
Tags: Europe
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