Day 04 - Europe 2010

Munich was awesome!  Somehow, despite the turmoil of yesterday, I woke up feeling fresh and ready to roll.  I guess my change of time zone plan had worked after all!  We woke up to find all six beds filled.  I guess sometime during the night our fellow hostelers had arrived – thank you again, ear plugs.  It was actually kind of fun in the morning, like a game – don’t wake the sleeping boys!  Nick and I were tiptoeing around, whispering, and signing to each other.  Haha!

Anyway, on to the important stuff!  After a decent little breakfast at the hostel, we headed out into the city.  Nick had gotten up early and done some research and planned out our day – what a guy!  Our first stop was the Residenz, a palace several Bavarian nobles had called home.  We walked there and enjoyed seeing some of the city.  I was impressed that it was so clean and modern yet it still had that European charm with various buildings of times past.  We passed the courthouse, for example, adorned with Greek sculpture.  This sparked my excitement for Munich and for all we would see throughout this Europe trip!

The Residenz was very cool.  We actually couldn't find the entrance at first but it allowed us a tour of the outside, which was quite large.  It was fun to see so many people outside, enjoying the beautiful weather, walking their dogs and riding their bikes.  We made it inside and went first to the Treasury, which exceeded my expectations.  It held a good many interesting trinkets – old altarpieces of various workmanship, golden crosses, gorgeous crowns, awesome swords, cups, bowls, plates, a pair of scissors in the shape of a stork -  and my camera went wild.  I thought to myself, ‘I will have to pick my top five pictures for the blog or I will overwhelm myself and everyone else.'

After our enjoyable Treasury experience, we went to see the rooms of the palace.  The most impressive was a gigantic marble hall adorned with busts of various Roman figures.  It was so fascinating to see these busts because these were real people so it was as if they were right there in the room with you – fascinating and slightly creepy at the same time.  Anyhow, there were probably some 100+ busts in the hall so I just took a few shots of the most interesting-looking characters.

The rest of the Residenz had a lot of somewhat interesting rooms that grew boring after a while.  We were also watching the time, wanting to be sure we left enough for a visit to the BMW Museum.  So we ended up nearly running through the rest of the Residenz and created a new Taylor-Made Phrase – “Pull a Residenz,” meaning, “Get through quick.”  Now, whenever we want to quickly browse museum objects, we say, “We’re gonna pull a Residenz.”

We hopped on the Underground right by the Residenz.  I was excited to ride it again.  They had them in Romania but only in Bucharest and I was always excited to go there just for a chance to ride the Underground.  It’s basically just a subway but I like that it is fast and usually very convenient for getting around.  We bought a pass for the day and it worked out well. 

We came out right by the BMW Museum and sat down for a quick bite to eat.  The BMW Museum was very interesting and so modern.  The walls were all white, almost like the back of a Mac with that glassy look.  You started at the top and worked your way down to the different levels of the museum.  There were rooms dedicated to certain things, like a room with engines and a room with race cars and a whole wall, covering three or four levels, showcasing different BMW motorcycles over the years.  It was Nick’s boyhood dream to go to this museum but I guess he is a little less obsessed with BMW now.  Still, he was excited to see particular models that he “thought [he] would never see.”  I admit, some of the cars looked very impressive and I felt a little urge to get in and drive.

We actually got through the museum quickly and had lots of time to kill, which was great since we only had one day to spend in Munich.  What to do now?  Well there happened to be a huge Olympic Park right by the museum.  The Olympics were held there in 1972 – thus the park.  We decided to hit it up.

There was this incredibly tall Olympic tower in the park and a man at the BMW Museum had recommended we go up it.  I’m so glad we did!  It was so high and gave us an awesome view of the city.  Nick got the butterflies looking down (a long, long way down) but he pulled out the binoculars and checked out the horizon line where you could get a faint glimpse of the nearby Alps.  Meanwhile, my camera was snapping away and I tried to get pictures to put together a panorama when I get home.  I lingered for awhile, not wanting to leave the incredible view.  But we wanted to keep exploring!  We took the elevator down – obviously – and my ears popped!  Wow!

After our descent, we headed further into the heart of the city, using the Metro again – yay!  We walked through the center of town where we saw a large old church and other old buildings that, sadly, we did not know much about nor have time to find out.  My camera battery, after a full day of awesomeness, was about out of battery too, so I was turning it on for select shots only.  Luckily, I was able to capture a bit of the Munich charm.

We heard some music and followed the sound to find a fun little band playing classical songs with a jazz or new age twist.  The violinist was not only an excellent musician but fun to watch!  You could tell he loved to play and perform and could feel this connection to his instrument.  It was really neat and I lingered for four or five songs before moving on.

We headed back to the hostel where we had just enough time to reserve rooms for our next stop, Florence, and drop dead after a full and fun-filled day.  Yay for Munich!

PHOTOS:

The courthouse in Munich, complete with Greek statues.  It was pretty cool and covered much more area than shown here.

This was outside the Residenz and added to the historic feel of the area.

This was a gold-plated wooden cross about 600 years old.

This trinket was sort of the crown jewel of the treasury.  It was pretty elaborate and looks like a really expensive toy.

I usually keep my jeweled crown on my gold-stitched pillow too.

These were probably my favorite in the treasury.  These swords were just cool!

This was just so odd and cool, I had to put it on as a sample of the unique items in this museum.

I can't quite figure out why anyone would want this in their home.  Talk about creepy and bizarre!

This was a little courtyard and the walls were decorated with shells.  Very different.

This was a rather shocking statue of Perseus holding the head of Medusa, complete with water flowing from her ripped up gullet.

The great hall in the Residenz with its impressive collection of busts.  Oh, and that's me in the middle.

 

More of the great hall.

 

A close up of the busts.

 

This statue of Poseidon was pretty awesome, I thought, inside the Residenz.

 

A look down another great hall, with many portraits of the various residents of the Residenz.

 

Nick at the BMW Museum, planning how to take over the world!  The table had information about BMWs throughout the years.

 

But before Nick finished with his plans, he got abducted and plugged into the system.  This is a room where you put head phones on and listened to different engines but I was laughing because it looks like you're hooked up getting your brain fried.  Nick played along.

 

Nick with the isetta, made in 1955.  Nick was very excited about this car, hoping to find it in the museum.

 

The Olympic tower!

The BMW Museum as seen from the Olympic tower.  The museum is the one with the symbol covering the whole roof.

 

Another view from the Olympic tower, with a little bit of the Olympic park down below.

 

More scenes from Munich, from the center of town where we walked around in the evening.

 

 Hey Krispy (inside joke)...

 

And the musicians, keeping the crowd entertained!  Funny thing was, the guy was speaking English.  Seemed a bit odd to perform in Munich and speak to the crowd in English.  Not sure if that was his native language either.  I guess it's just the best thing internationally.