Sunday - in Munich
This morning we got up very early to repack and load the car for our drive to Munich. We had to return the rental car to Hertz at the Train station before 10:30 a.m. Concerned that we might have difficulty finding the hotel, we decided to begin early and enjoy the drive to the city of Munich. By 6 a.m., we had completed our packing. Quietly, we rolled our luggage out the doors of our hotel to our van for our early Sunday morning drive. The weather was overcast with a light rain.
Following the main road out of town, we found the A-95 Highway toward Munich. Last night we had purchased a Munich city map, so we could figure out where our next hotel was located. Following directions from a printout that I had gotten on the Internet about Munich, we found the Center of the city and the Main Train Station. The Hotel Mark was located near the train station.
We returned our rental van by parking it at the hotel next to ours, per Hertz's instructions. We almost did it right.....the underground parking lot was built for small cars, so every turn was a tight fit. We held our breath a few times and parked the van on the second floor. We were supposed to park on the 4th level down, but didn't want to attempt anymore driving in that garage. So, we marked our parking ticket with the location of the car, so Hertz could find it and re-park it.
We found the Hotel Mark very easily, but of course we were too early. They were very helpful at the front desk and offered to store our luggage for us.... till we could check in about 2 pm. We had about 5 hours till then, so we took a walk towards the downtown “centrum” area.
We walked for about 5 blocks, when we saw the shopping area. It was still early, so the shops were closed and there weren't many people out. As we got closer to the center of the downtown area, the buildings were older and more ornate. There were many churches, in session, so we couldn't look inside. On the half hour, church bells started to ring from several churches. It sounded wonderful, so I pulled out my video camera and recorded the view with the sound of the church bells in the background.
Munich Rathaus
We found the Rathaus (City Hall) and it was very large and beautiful to look at. We explored inside, but everything was closed. The outside of the building is decorated with lots of figures and statutes as you can see from the photo below.
Suddenly, we realized that none of the local shops were going to open on Sunday! Some cafes and food places were open, but not much else. People were walking everywhere, and street performers were starting to set up. Everyone seemed to just like to stroll around, hand in hand, looking at the windows, buildings, sitting in the outdoor cafes and just watching other people. This seemed to be the thing to do on a Sunday…. so we wandered around also.
We went looking for churches, a favorite thing for us to do. A few blocks behind the Rathaus, we found a building that looked familiar to me. We went to investigate it and found out it was the Royal Residence and Museum. For 14 Euros, we purchased tickets for both self-guided tours.
First we visited the Treasure Room, which displayed Royal possessions, dating back to the 1100’s. Items on display are from the Wittelsbach Dynasty and are displayed in 10 halls. The collection is one of the most important of it’s kind with priceless enamel, rock crystal and ivory work, along with unique goldsmith work, crowns and royal insignia from nine centuries. Jeweled statues, personal grooming items, serving platters and other dishes, vases, jeweled pins and medals and much more. Everything was amazing to see!
Royal family portrait Hall
The Royal Residence is an extensive complex built around seven courtyards, consisting of approximately 130 rooms. For four centuries, until 1918, this was the seat of government and the Royal Residence. In 1944, the residence was almost completely destroyed, but most of the movable art treasures were saved. The Bavarian Department for State-owned Palaces restored and reconstructed the residence and opened it to the public.
Antiquarium Hall
We probably walked thru about 40 rooms. Some of the rooms and halls are soooooooo….. large! The Antiquarium is the largest Renaissance Hall north of the Alps. It is decorated with about 300 ancient Roman busts and is spectacular to see. The painted walls and ceilings of all the rooms, with all its ornate décor are incredible to see. In about 5 long rooms, elaborately painted dishes are displayed. At several points we didn’t know what direction we were going, and thought we'd never get out. There was not much furniture on display – only the basic pieces, but the sheer size of the whole place is incredible.
By noontime, we had been walking for hours. Our legs where tired and aching (from the 2 days of Castles and Mountains)...... And we wanted to sit down and have some lunch. But that Palace was so large; we thought we’d be walking around the rooms all afternoon. Finally, we found our way out.... and decided to look for a place to sit and eat lunch.
After eating a quick sandwich, we went back to the Hotel Mark. By now it was 1 p.m. and we got our room, retrieved our luggage and went up for a much needed rest. The room was small, but very nice with lots of extras. It had a TV, small bar-refrigerator, large bathroom and best of all… a computer in the lobby.
By 4 pm, we were refreshed and ready to explore again. We started by, going to the lobby to use the free computer and get on the Internet. It was E-mail time again! Then, like fools.......we walked back to the downtown area to see if we could look inside the churches we saw earlier.
This time the Churches in the city center were not having services. It was time for the tourists and locals to wander around inside them. We went into St. Michaels, St. Peters, and two others. They were all beautiful to see, with the ornate altars, paintings and wall decorations. All these churches had been bombed during WWII, and were rebuilt. What an incredible job was done in the rebuilding. Photos were displayed in each church of the destruction and the rebuilding projects.
By now, we were feeling exhausted from all the walking. So, we sat down at an outdoor cafe and ate an early dinner. We did a little people watching. A lady was playing a guitar in a store’s doorway, singing for donations. This provided entertainment while we ate. Another street performer we saw was a young man and woman, dressed in a formal gown and suit – all in silver and completely covered in silver make-up, posing as statues on pedestals. When you dropped a coin in their basket, they did a little bow to thank you. This was very clever and they drew a big crowd to watch them.
Munich street performers posing as statues
Soon, we walked back to the hotel, but decided to stop at the Train Station for another look. We found 2 floors below the main floor, with lots of shops that were open. All the Sunday activity was going on right across the street from our hotel! This station had everything.... food, shops, services and lots of people. What a busy place. We decided, we must be early tomorrow for our trip to Hamburg.... So we would have time to find our train.
Munich's main train station
Back to our Hotel....we sent another e-mail from the lobby, watched a little German TV and get a good night's sleep.