How to Plan an International Trip: Travel Tales and Tips : Bavaria Trip Report: Intro, Day 6: Munich Old Town Walk

Our German trip this time had 2 priorities, Hamburg Miniatur Wunderland, the largest model railway in the world and the fairy tale Neuschwanstein castle, the number one touristic sight in Germany.

Bavarian Alps with the picturesque villages dotted on the foothills was a must do too. As can be seen from these pics, it was FABULOUS!

This is Ehrwald, Austria..., Ehrwald offers a cable car to Zugspitze (the highest mountain in Germany) as does Garmisch Partenkirchen in Germany

Zugspitze, at 2,962 m (9,718 ft) above sea level, is the highest peak of the Wetterstein Mountains and the highest mountain in Germany. The mountain rises eleven kilometers southwest of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and just under six kilometers east of Ehrwald.

the Austria–Germany border runs over its western summit thus the Zugspitze massif belongs to the German state of Bavaria and the Austrian state of Tyrol.

Tyrolean Zugspitze cable car...

Eibsee

The picturesque Plansee, Austria

Lovely Bavarian village on our drive to Mittenwald

Mittenwald

The beautiful city of Berlin and Munich were bonuses in the scheme of things.

I've already made a detailed report on Berlin. Here are a few pics of Residenz in Munich

Nymphenburg palace...

LOGISTICS:

As explained in the intro post, we had originally planned to fly into Munich, then train to Berlin, onward to Amsterdam etc. but an annual trade fair in Munich in the 2^nd week of April made hotel prices sky high. So we had modified our plans and flew in to Berlin, spent 5 days there.

With limited time on hand, we decided to rent a car for the Bavarian part as we can cover more that way.

We split up the Munich portion this way:

ITINERARY:

Day 6, April 17, 2019 : 6.45 am train from Berlin. Stay at Creatif elephant hotel near the hauptbahnhof

Day 7 April 17, 2019: Rented a car at the hauptbahnhof at 7 am for 3 days and drove into southern Bavaria. Ehrwald, tiroller zugspitzbahn to zugspitze. Then Garmisch Partenkirchen, Mittenwald. Stay: Fussen City apart hotel (2nights)

Day 8, April 17, 2019: tickets reserved for the castles 9.55, 11.55 slots

Day 9, April 17, 2019: Drive back to Munich covering Linderhof, Ettal abbey, Wieskirche and the village of Oberammergau on the way. Return car at night. Stay: Creatif elephant hotel near the hauptbahnhof again

Day 10, April 17, 2019: Nymphenburg Palace

Day 11, April 18, 2019: Checked out, visited Residenz . Then in the evening took the Sbahn to airport, checked into NH Hotel Munchen airport.

Day 12, April 19, 2019: 6.30 am flight to Brussels... it got cancelled and they put us on the 7.30 flight which was also delayed by another 40 min when we were at the airport!

CAR RENTAL:

Rented car at hbf for 3 days from Europecar through Autoeurope. . We returned on the night of the 3^rd day, There was unofficial staff at the hbf though it was the Easter weekend. Interestingly we had booked at a location in Pasing months ago but as dates near travel approached the hauptbahnhof rate became cheaper... surprising as it was Easter week. We were very happy with this windfall, made pickup, dropoff so easy

MUSEUM PASS:

Bought 14 day Partner Mehrtagesticket. (26e for 1 person; 48 e for 2); can visit over forty of the most beautiful sights in Bavaria. we bought it at Alterhof 1 on 17^th

Partner or family tickets must be signed by both users. at the cash desk we had to show an identity document with a photo. it’s not possible to be admitted simply by showing our 14-day tkt. We had to get a ticket, but no biggie. The savings and convenience was awesome.

INCLUDED UNDER 40 FREE CASTLES:

Linderhof/Ettal Linderhof Palace Munich,Munich Residence, Treasury, Cuvilliés Theatre
Hall of Fame and Statue of Bavaria,Nymphenburg Palace,Museum in the former royal stables / Museum of Nymphenburg Porcelain, Munich/Oberschleißheim, Schleißheim Old Palace
Schleißheim New Palace, Lustheim Palace, Neuburg an der Donau Palace,

Neuschwanstein/Schwangau Neuschwanstein Castle

we booked our time slots online for Neuschwanstein/Hohen Schwangau: http://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/tourist/index.htm

http://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/tourist/admiss.htm

Ticket prices are here:https://www.hohenschwangau.de/1397.0.html

We bought tickets for both the castles as well as the museum. Though we had the 14 day Partner Mehrtagesticket. It did not cover Hohenschwangu, so we paid 13 each for that, 11 each for the museum and reservation for both castles 2.50 per person per castle

Ours was the first English tour for the Hohenschwangau Castle at 9:50, and Neuschwanstein Castle at 11:55.

STAY:

We chose Creatif elephant hotel for our stay in Munich... 1 night followed by 2 nights in Fussen City Apart hotel,
then again 2 nights in Creatif elephant hotel
followed by the last night in NH Airport hotel.

We left a bag at Creatif elephant hotel when we left on our Bavaria drive.

Now I start the detailed report of each day.

Day 6, April 17, 2019, Wednesday :

TRAIN TICKET BOOKING/ Reservation

We had booked the 6.45 am train from Berlin 4 months in advance, did not reserve seats which is an additional step. We had not done it as ours was not during peak season.

For our Berlin-Hamburg train we got on and sat in seats, a gent came and told us it's his. We asked him where the notification is and he pointed above the seat, there was some blue electronic lettering. We shifted, and sat in seats after ascertaining from another co passenger that they are not reserved...the blue lettering turned out to be just the destination name... we could not see any sign anywhere. Anyway it was just a 2 hour trip to Hamburg and we had no bags.

With this experience we decided to reserve seats for Munich trip on the day before our trip. After wasting 10 min the previous evening, the system did not allow us to reserve though initially it had shown 9e as the charge.. If we had done it when we booked the seats, it would have been 1,50 e per seat. So we had no option now other than keeping our fingers crossed that we'll get seats as it's an off season trip.

We had already done a recce of the station, lift and the platform 1 in Berlin hbf. We got out of our hotel after 6 am, checked the board at the hbf (just a paper notice board, no electronic board) and took the lift to the platform. Waited and saw and heard announcement that our train was delayed by more than 30 min. At the last moment, the train arrived in the opposite platform; it was also said, reservation has not been marked.. GREAT! We got in.

stowed our bags and sat in a two seater … not the 4 seaters with tables which we assumed will be preferred and may be reserved.

We were fortunately not disturbed.

dozed almost all the way, had some packed breakfast at 9 am, and reached Munich considerably later than we had been scheduled.

Walked to our hotel and checked in.

Creatif elephant hotel, Munich:

OLD TOWN WALK:

Then we went for the Altstadt walk.

Benedictine Monks settled in Munich in the 700s and built a modest monastery. Munich (München) is derived from Mönch, the German word for monk, basically meaning Monk Settlement. We can see a lot of Lion Statues on this Old Town walking tour because it was officially founded in 1158 by Henry the Lion. Early-day Munich was less than 1 square mile centered on Market Square and was surrounded by a gated Medieval wall.

We LOVE the old towns in Europe and Munich was no exception. However, It was incredibly crowded... usually in touristic squares, people troop in, look around for a while and then move off. Here everyone was sitting in every available place, gazing vacantly. A bit of a downer and it was pretty difficult to get some pics without a lot of random people. We enjoyed the sights though... loved the old fountains and the architecture.

This is the Palace of Justice building

This is the fourteenth-century gate Karlstor (New House City Gate)

Three Musician boys who were part of the original Fish Fountain Fischbrunnen of 1400s were moved here... three butcher boys who were also part of the original fountain are in the new Fish fountain rebuilt in 1954

Fountain Boy (Brunnen Buberl), sits just inside the New House City Gate.
The fountain depicts a naked boy shielding his face as a Satyr (a drunk Greek woodland God) spits water at him. Citizens were initially mad that a leaf didn’t cover the boy’s privates, but it has become the most popular fountain

This playful fountain was originally built in the middle of Karlsplatz Square in 1895 before being moved to the pedestrian zone right before the 1972 Olympics.

Citizen’s Hall (Bürgersaalkirche):

The Citizen’s Hall (Bürgersaalkirche) is in the square and we went in

Built in 1709, the building has been a famous meeting and gathering point for Catholic organization. On October 17th, 1810 mass was held at the Citizen’s Hall (Bürgersaalkirche) followed by a procession out of the city gates where a horse race was held for the 5th and final day of Prince Ludwig I’s wedding celebration. The race was attended by 40,000 spectators and was the start of the modern Oktoberfest festival.

since 1778 it has been used a church. The two-storey church has a baroque external facade.

The lower floor church hall is a plain and windowless room with numerous statues set in alcoves.

The shrine of Pater Rupert Mayer is in the crypt of the ground floor church and is a pilgrimage destination. Rupert Mayer was a Jesuit parish priest who worked for the resistance against the Nazi regime and was canonized by Pope Johannes Paul II in 1987.

The more spectacular part of Bürgersaalkirche is the upper church hall with its fine example of south Bavarian Rococo. A figure of the Guardian Angel, created by Ignazz Gunther, can be found in the oratory. During World War II, much of the building was damaged, but the frescoes were spared and are the original works.

This is the Richard Strauss Fountain; it's 18 foot tall and was designed to pay tribute to the composure’s most famous opera, Salome. Six different carved reliefs around the fountain’s column each depict a different scene from Strauss’ opera Salome. The water pouring down the column from the large bowl above is supposed to symbolize the final dance in the opera called the Dance of the Seven Veils

Strauss was born in Munich in 1864 and is one of the city’s few iconic musicians from his era which was dominated by cities like Salzburg, Berlin, and Vienna. His composing talents made him the Kapellmeister of Munich by age 22.

This is the massive Saint Michael’s Church 9am-7pm crypt 2e,

bronze sculpture of the Archangel Michael fighting a demon-like Protestant peers down at us.

Completed in 1588, Church’s main attraction is the Royal Crypt which holds 40 decorative tombs mainly of the Wittelsbach family who ruled Bavaria from 1180 through 1918 AD. Of the royal tombs, the most visited is that of “Mad” King Ludwig II.

We looked at the shop windows of the famous Max Krug Gift Shop which is famous for its beer steins, cuckoo clocks, nutcrackers and Christmas ornaments.

On our visit to the Rhine valley couple of years ago, the clocks in the shop windows at Boppard, were running. They were set to different times, so we got to see several clocks in action when they chimed . Here none of the clocks on display were working! They looked nice though

Said hi to a random boar in front of the German Hunting and Fishing Museum (Deutsches Jagd und Fischereimuseum).

This is a copy of the famous sitting boar (Porcellino) in Florence. As with the bronze boar at Mercato Nuovo in Florence, visitors here, as evidenced by the very shiny shout, give the Sitting Boar a good rub in hopes for good luck.

This is church Unsere_Liebe_Frau... Church of our Lady Frauenkirche... massive 325-foot tall twin towers

With most of Germany being Protestant and Bavaria being Catholic, Munich wanted to make a statement with the size of their new Gothic-style City Parish and started construction of this church in 1468

Although the builders switched from stone to brick to save money, the new Church quickly ran out of money before the Pope stepped in and saved the project. With a Papal decree that official Catholic Church indulgences could be bought in Munich, over 120,000 pilgrims showed up over a 3 year period which provided enough money to complete the Frauenkirche.

The interior of Frauenkirche is also gigantic. The size seems even crazier when we learn that Munich, which was decent sized for Medieval times, only had 13,000 residents when the 20,000-person Cathedral opened. As you enter all of your attention is funneled to the high altar as tall columns make Frauenkirche appear almost windowless from the entrance. This is quite a feat as the detailed stained glass windows are actually huge and open up to you the further you walk into the church.

Legend has it that the architect made a deal with the Devil when the project ran out of money that he would help fund the project as long as it had no windows. After the Church was finished and paid for the Devil realized he was tricked and stomped his foot hard in the entrance making an imprint on the marble floor. The Devil’s footprint can still be seen today and is one of the biggest attractions at Frauenkirche.

Other highlights include the royals buried here like the huge bronze tomb of Ludwig IV, who ruled during the early 1300s during the height of the salt trade, and was elected Holy Roman Emperor.

Great stained glass windows

During the Summer you can even ascent the massive 325-foot tall towers with a climb of about 90 steps plus an easy elevator ride to get some great views of the city.

This is another church... Theatine church

We then went to the Alterhof (Old Court) and got our Partner ticket for the palaces. Story goes that Hitler painted here...This is his painting of the Alterhof... nice, eh?

Hitler wanted to be a painter and produced hundreds of works and sold his paintings and postcards to try to earn a living during his Vienna years (1908–13). A number of his paintings were recovered after World War II and have been sold at auctions for tens of thousands of dollars. Others were seized by the U.S. Army and are still held by the U.S. government

Famous Marienplatz was slammed with crowds. these pics are from the early morning of our next visit

Alter Peter tower seen behind the building... Marienplatz (“Mary’s Square”), the Viktualienmarkt (a farmers’ market), and the Rindermarkt (“Cattle Market”) are grouped around the church nave of the Alter Peter. Why are two clock faces placed on each side of the tower of the Alter Peter? According to legendary Munich comedian Karl Valentin: Well, so that two people could look at the clock at the same time...hahaha!

This is the huge New Town Hall (Neues Rathaus)

From 1801 to 1861 the population of Munich boomed from 40,000 to 120,000 and the City’s needs quickly outgrew the Old Town Hall. Built over 40 years starting in 1867, the size of Gothic-style New Town Hall (Neues Rathaus, pronounced Noy-as Rat-house) is stunning. It sits over a football field long, has 6 courtyards, and over 400 rooms.

Dominating New Town Hall’s Gothic facade is the 280-foot-tall central clock tower which is capped by the symbol of Munich, a statue of the Child Monk (Münchner Kindl).

The main attraction of the clock tower is the 2-story, 28-foot-tall Glockenspiel (Carillon), complete with 43 bells, which is the largest in Germany.

Everyday mechanical figures in the Glockenspiel perform a 15 minute long miniature Medieval tournament, re-enacting numerous events in Munich’s history. These full performances take place at 11 am and Noon with an extra 5 pm show in the Summer.

The Glockenspiel shows are manually operated and while the figures look small from the ground, they are actually almost life-sized.

The top half of the Glockenspiel tells the story of the marriage of the local Duke Wilhelm V (who also founded the world famous Hofbräuhaus beerhall) to Renata of Lorraine. In honour of the happy couple there is a joust (Kröndlstechen) with life-sized knights on horseback representing Bavaria (in white and blue) and Lothringen (in red and white). The Bavarian knight wins every time, of course

This is then followed by the bottom half and second story: Schäfflertanz (the coopers' dance). According to myth, 1517 was a year of plague in Munich. The coopers are said to have danced through the streets to "bring fresh vitality to fearful dispositions." The coopers remained loyal to the duke, and their dance came to symbolize perseverance and loyalty to authority through difficult times. By tradition, the dance is performed in Munich every seven years.

We can get a closer look at the Glockenspiel figures and some commanding city views by taking either the stairs or elevator to the top of the tower.

Note the Virgin Mary Column (Mariensäule) in front of New Town Hall

The column was added by Maximilian the 1st in 1638 declaring Mary the new patron of the city for protecting Munich during times of trouble. Just 6 years earlier (1632) Munich had survived a 3-week Swedish occupation as part of The 30 Years War which was followed by an outbreak of the Bubonic Plague of 1634-35 that wiped out 1/3 of the population. While Mary was given the credit for protecting the city in both cases, it also helped that the Swedes were paid off with 600,000 barrels of beer to spare Munich.

The beautiful column is capped with a golden statue of the Virgin Mary which was originally crafted in 1590 for the nearby Church of Our Lady (Frauenkirche) which we had visited earlier

Below the beautiful golden icon, four playful child-like warrior statues surround the sturdy base of the column on each of its corners. These four child statues are all depicted fighting different creatures to symbolize adversities that Munich has overcome: war represented by the lion, pestilence by the rooster-headed creature, famine by the dragon, and heresy by the serpent.

This Virgin May Column is considered the 1st Marian Column built North of the Alps which inspired a wave of them around Europe after traumatic events like war and plagues.

The New Town Hall’s interior is also really cool. As we enter City Hall’s large central courtyard, which serves as an open-air restaurant, stay to your left to see some great vertical sculptures.

these Gothic sculptures show different stages of men turning into various creatures as you follow up each tier. Some of the men are turning into horses, another a large bird, and a couple of them even have quite creepy middle stages.

Rathaus restaurant open only for staff

Then we bought the ticket for the lift to the Rathaus tower from the Tourist info center on the ground floor of the Rathaus.
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This is the Fish Fountain (Fischbrunnen) in Marienplatz:

Since the 1400s, Purse Washing has been a significant tradition at the Fish Fountain. Every Ash Wednesday locals would wash out their money bags in the fountain in hopes they will be filled again in the coming year. To this day, the Mayor of Munich still washes out the City’s coffers in the fountain’s turquoise water with the town treasurer. As said earlier, three of the butcher boys in the original fountain were reused for today’s Fish Fountain built in 1954. The boys still pour their buckets into the fountain’s base, one holds a fish in the air, and the whole thing is topped with a chubby fish

We watched the Glockenspiel performance at 5 pm... For the best vantage point of the show, a guide recommended to head to the third floor of the Hugendubel Bookstore (open 10am-8pm) across the square from New Town Hall. We did so, yes, the display was at eye level and we could see it clearly... however, we could not hear the music as I had suspected... to me it was a downer. Later we did see it from the square, which was a good experience though there was a huge crowd. I'll post a video soon

Then we went up the lift to the Rathaus tower and enjoyed the lovely views... here are the 2 clock faces of Alter Peter

I'll be uploading videos soon

End of a great day.

Report on our drive to Fussen through lovely Bavaria, Ehrwald, Garmisch Partenkirchen, Mittenwald is here:

https://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2019/05/bavaria-trip-report-day-7-zugspitze.html

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