~ Munich, A Culture Spree

Arriving in Munich after being on the road six and a half weeks was coming home. I arrived at night. Getting home from the airport with my monstrous luggage wasn’t quite easy. But Munich’s public transport is excellent, so I really did manage well. Next day I spent doing exactly nothing. I lounged around the house all day. All these weeks on the road was beginning to take it’s toll. Every day planned out with activities, so I just had to catch my breath for a day. Everyone was complaining about the weather. It was mid January. Usually by that time there would be a lot of snow in Munich. I remember it snowing at night and clear and blues skies during the day. That’s what winter should be like. Well, this time, it was drizzly and the temperature above freezing. Not a nice picture. Below you see one of the four gates of the City of Munich, which is about 855 years old.       My walk downtown took me through this gate, and about 1/2 mile down that street, which is full of lovely stores and beautiful buildings, takes you to the center of town, Marienplatz, to the famous Council House. You also find churches where you don’t think there is one, for instance this lovely church, Asamkirche, one of the most important examples of German Bavarian Baroque architecture, built between 1733 and 1748.   Not far from there, as I am meandering through my home town, is a beautiful large church called St. Michaels Church. It is the largest Renaissance church north of the Alps. It’s very beautiful.                   In the basement of the St. Michaels Kirche is a grotto which houses many sarcophagi of Bavarian Kings, for instance of the crazy King Ludwig II, as well as King Otto who succeeded him, and also many of other members of the Royal Family. Some are really tiny, they were babies.                                   Although Bavaria has been ruled by Dukes and Kings of various Dynasties since 548 A.D., these sarcophagi are mostly from the last three centuries. The following day, Sunday, I decided to attend a Chamber Concert, played by musicians of the Bavarian State Orchestra, playing Shostakowic, Beethoven and Schumann, all of them Piano Trios. It was wonderful. It took place in the old Court Church, part of the King’s Residence compound. To get there you had to walk through several areas of the Residence, so many beautiful buildings.                                 Inside the church was the surprise: it is not a church anymore. It was destroyed during the second world war and has been gutted completely. Even the stucco has been taken out and only the bricks of the building remain. It has been equipped with a fabulous central heating systems, so it’s really nice and toasty, even in the winter. You take your coat to the wardrobe and deport it there. Nobody keeps their coats on their laps!!! Anyway, here is what the inside looked like:     When we came out and walked home, this is what we saw:                                 And what I found most interesting: When renovations of beautiful old buildings are taking place in Munich, the buildings are covered with a life-size image of the building. See below one of Munich’s wonderful churches, Theatiner Kirche. Built in Italian high-Baroque Style, 1663-1690, then the facade finished in Rococo. It is now in full renovation mode, see on the right.