It's another grey, rainy day in Bavaria (the weather swears that it'll clear up tomorrow..) and the breakfast at our hostel cost us just about 3€ and has unlimited, really awesome Europe coffee. After my tolerance has gone way down from being limited to one cup every day, two cups this morning set my day off to a jittery start. Breakfast is more of a hybrid meal here, as there is a panini maker as well as cereal and toast. Well worth the small amount of money!
This afternoon we set out for our free walking tour in the rain which meets in Marienplatz (Mary's Square) and lasts about 3 hours. This square is home to the famous Glockenspiel that chimes three times a day and has a goofy mannequin jousting... spoiler alert, the Bavarian knight always wins. Now I shall attempt to educate you as I learned more today than I have on any other day on this trip!
Here is Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), a Catholic Cathedral built at the end of the 15th century. During World War II, the only part of it that remained intact were the two towers - this is because the allies needed to use those as landmarks to know where they were flying, so they didn't bomb them. Before Kristallnacht, the basement of this church housed a lot of Jewish artifacts and scriptures, preventing them from getting destroyed. After the war, the Vatican couldn't afford to rebuild this cathedral (among so many destroyed) and the Jewish community in Munich actually funded 60% of the reconstruction of Frauenkirche. As thanks, there is a small menorah painted in one of the ceiling pendants.
Apparently this tower has 8 clock faces on it... because there used to be 8 towers before the war but they weren't able to rebuild them all - so they just put all the clocks on one. Bavarians are just so... creative :P
Here's Andy by the most famous beer hall in the entire world! The original Hofbrauhaus! We went there for dinner after the tour... we'll have to go to the one in Rosemont, IL (just built...) and compare its authenticity!
Here's Maximillionplatz and the national opera house of Germany - largest in the country and third largest in Europe. His son, Ludwig, reportedly started the Oktoberfest tradition with his wedding. A year after his huge wedding festival, the farmers wanted to celebrate and according to our tour guide said "So Dukie, how about another festival? You don't have to get married this time, that was boring" and thus Oktoberfest was born as a giant party with horse races, and agriculture show.
Lastly, I forgot exactly what this was... but it's all hectic because apparently they're setting up for the Olympic Pole Vaulting trials. Also, Hitler spoke here.
I learned SO much today that I'm having a hard time conveying it through a blog post without rambling! I guess some details will have to be saved for when I get back and talk to everyone again. After the tour, like I mentioned, Andy and I went back to Hofbrauhaus for dinner. The food was pretty good but not better than anything else we've had since getting to Germany, plus it was super hectic and full of tourists, and the server was super rude. Not to take away from it - it's the original and a classic part of Munich's history. Reportedly, back in the day, the men literally just peed under the table rather than go to an actual outhouse or bathroom. or whatever they had back then. After the night was over, the workers just flooded out the entire floor with water to clean out all the pee. As quoted from our guide - can you just imagine the smell in there... especially during asparagus season?? Gross!
Back at the hostel, we tried to do laundry... but apparently that was EVERYONE'S idea of a good rainy day activity because all the machines were in use and there were two other dudes in there with dirty clothes bags trying the same thing we were :( Hopefully everyone gets too drunk tonight to do laundry and we'll be able to wash our nasty, nasty socks. You try walking all over Europe in constant downpour of days on end... your socks would be nasty too!
No comments:
Post a Comment