Thanks to William’s work schedule, he can take three-day weekends occasionally. This past weekend, we decided to take advantage of this by visiting Munich in Bavaria. We left Thursday night and drove to a cute little hotel near the Munich City Center. We decided to do a self-guided walking tour around the city center on our first day there. Popping into miniature yet ornate cathedrals and exploring the side streets, we had a wonderful time.
Our day started at 8:30 am as we walked to a local bakery to grab some sandwiches and water for breakfast before heading to the Marienplatz (pictured above), the city’s main square since 1158. The square is dominated by beautiful buildings such as a reconstructed gothic council hall and their beautiful New Tower Hall. We were meant to head to the top of the New Tower Hall, but with the elevator broken, we ended up exploring the first four floors of the building instead. One of our favorite finds was these stained glass windows showcasing American heroes such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Carnegie. Once we’d walked around the square to our hearts’ content, we headed to the first church of the day, St. Peters. However, there was a service going on at the time, so we didn’t get to spend as much time admiring the ceiling and sides of the church as we would have liked.
Afterward, we worked our way toward the Viktualienmarkert, which is a rather large farmer’s market. While we didn’t pick up any sweets or food, we did admire the Maypole in the center, which must have been at least 30, if not 50, feet high! It did place us closer, though, to the Munich City Museum. If you know William and me, you know that we love a museum. We ended up spending over an hour checking out the history of the city. The best part? A temporary exhibit on the nightclub culture from the 1950s to the present day. They even recreated a 1990s club whose theme was the 1960s Space Age.
Once we dragged ourselves out of the museum, we continued with the second and most ornate of the churches we saw: The Asam Church. It’s a tiny church, barely wider than 15 feet. But it’s chock full of gilded decor. My favorite decoration was a skeleton representing death who was cutting the thread of fate. William’s favorite was a little less intensive; instead of death personified, he greatly appreciated the intricate confessionals, each representing a different step in a journey. However, after the Asam Church, we headed to his favorite church of the day, the Frauenkirche. While a church has stood at that spot for almost a thousand years, the church we saw was much newer. The church’s restoration after World War II was only completed in 1994! To support continued restoration projects such as in the crypt, we went and selected a beautiful green rosery from their gift shop.
After all of those churches, we ended up at the Hofbräuhaus (HB for short) for a beer and traditional Bavarian food. While we got the original beer, we picked the food randomly from the German menu. We ended up with fried chicken (yes, we did, in fact, randomly select the most southern food dish possible) and steak tartare. Once we’d drunk and eaten our fill, we headed to a few Christmas markets around the town before ending at a local hostel, where we grabbed a few beers and watched the World Cup. Go America! It was an excellent way to wind down after such a long day.
The Wandering Mcs 
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