Our second full day in Munich proved to be another busy one. We had our pick of churches to go to so we went to the Theatinerkirche for Sunday Mass. Since it was in German I didn't understand a lick of it which started the trend for the day. The church was beautiful and grand and a bit ornamental. Despite its size it still had an intimate feeling to it. That also might be because only 20 people showed up for 8:15 service. I have discovered that Germany does not get up before 10am on a Sunday and everything single store was closed. But I digress. Attending mass in such a grand space from the 1600s was an experience. The only downside was that the entire exterior was under renovation and up in scaffolding.
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| Theatinerkirche |
We needed breakfast at this point so we figured our best bet was to go to the pastry shop we went to yesterday. They were really good. We stopped by the Fünf Höfe on the way to the pastry shop which is a shopping mall of sorts. The design was interesting but every single store was closed. Following breakfast we went into St. Peter's Church. This church dates back to the 1100s and has been added onto in 4 different styles making it a mutt of sorts. As with a lot of Munich this church was bombed out in 1944 only to be rebuilt. We spent a little bit of time in there before heading to Marienplatz to catch a show.
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| St. Peter's Church |
On the facade of the Neue Rathaus (New Town Hall) are life size figures that come to life everyday at 11am. It is referred to as the Rathaus-Glockenspiel. It is apparently world famous. It was so cool to see it. Two stories played and last a total of about 15 minutes. It is so intricately designed. Next we made our way to another church called Frauenkirche. It is the cathedral of Munich and therefore the main church. It is also an iconic symbol of Munich with its two towers topped with green domes. It is the highest structure around and provides views of the surrounding area. Normally you can climb to the top of the towers but they are under renovation. That also seems like a constant theme in Europe. It was a beautiful church and we saw a bit of it before the next service was to begin.
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| Rathaus-Glockenspiel |
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| Frauenkirche |
We made our way to the Munich Residenz to see the Cuvilliés Theatre. It is a 4 story theatre built in the 1750s. It is very detailed and intimate. It would be pretty sweet to watch anything in the building. Once we completed this little side attraction we walked around the corner to Odeonsplatz where Munich was holding St. Patrick's Day festivities. There was a parade followed by a concert on a stage erected in front of the Feldherrnhalle, a loggia modeled after the one I saw in Florence. It was interesting to see the German culture celebrating the Irish culture. It was a good experience.
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| Cuvilliés Theatre |
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| Feldherrnhalle behind St. Patrick's Day festivities |
After some hot chocolate to warm us up (it's mid-40s here in Germany right now) we caught the train to the home of FC Bayern Munich, Allianz Arena. The arena was designed by the firm Herzog & de Meuron in 2005. The stadium was the replacement of the Olympic Stadium that I saw yesterday. Allianz Arena is covered in inflated plastic panels that light up. We bought a tour that was very cool to see that inner workings of the stadium and everything behind that signs. The downside of the tour was that it was completely in German. It was the only tour left in the day that we could make. I really enjoyed what I got to see but it would have been nice to understand it.
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| Allianz Arena |
We trained back to our Airbnb, took some photos of the Neue Rathaus, and tried to come up with a place to eat. Rebecca found this one restaurant after we spent awhile trying to something reasonably priced. The restaurant was called Burg Pappenheim and it was amazing. I got pork Wiener schnitzel and it was pretty cheap and huge. It was a locals' spot, definitely not a touristy hangout. It was fantastic and a must visit when in Munich. Dinner was amazing and relaxing after such a long, busy day.
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| Wiener Schnitzel at Burg Pappenheim |
We have half a day in Munich tomorrow before flying out to Berlin in the evening to start leg 2 of Spring Break 2016.
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