Salzburg to Munich, 20 Oct 2019
It was time to return to leave Austria and Germany. After arriving in Munich, we started a walking tour of the city. The timing worked out that we got to see the Town Hall's glockenspiel play.
After finishing up packing and eating breakfast, we found the owner of our apartment. Her daughter had a sleepover, so 10 girls were sleeping on little mattresses, still quite out of it. We weren't sure how long it would take to connect with her in the morning, but since it went quickly, we were on our way to the train station.
We had originally planned on a train which left quite a bit after we got to the station, so we looked and there were a couple earlier options. One was leaving in a couple minutes, so we opted for the one that was leaving about fifteen minutes after that. It would be a slower train (more stops) but still would get us into Munich earlier than our original plan.
It was kind of confusing to us why the train routing app was showing that there would be border control since we thought there was free passage between Germany and Austria (we ran into no border control going into Salzburg). When we were on the train for a bit, a couple police officers came on and asked for the passport of the person sitting in front of us, asking about his itinerary. But only him; they moved on and got off the train after that. As we expected, no passport control for us crossing into Germany.
We arrived in Munich well before lunch, and we wouldn't be able to check into the hostel until 3pm. We also needed to do laundry, so we asked at the front desk, and he said that we could go ahead and start it up. We went to the washer, figured out the controls, and started it up. Since we didn't want to have to go through the secured door too many times, we just found a place in the stairwell to hang out before we put things into the dryer.
Since we knew it would be about an hour and a half for our clothes to dry, we went into the hostel's lounge area, and I went out to bring back some lunch. The dryer was supposed to be done about a half-hour before we could check in, so we figured one person would watch the bags while the other grabbed the clothes, then we could wait until 3pm to go in. The guy at the front desk said that our room was ready, though, so that made things a lot simpler. We finished checking in, got our clothes, and put things away in the room. That done, it was time to explore Munich.
Munich walking tour
Since the walking tour started less than a mile away, and we wouldn't get too far, we decided to forego the subway and walk over. We started at Marienplatz, looking at the new town hall (“new” as in built in the late 19th century) and the old town hall (which looks new because it was rebuilt after the war). The famous glockenspiel is here, but it wouldn't play for a while yet, so we continued our tour. We figured we had several more opportunities to hear it play. We also passed on going up the tower so we could get more of the walking tour done and put it on the list for something to do later in our stay.
We then went to St. Peter's Church, which also has a tower (this one you climb instead of going up), but again, we just concentrated on the inside of the church. It was badly damaged in WWII, but it was restored from generous donations. The accuracy of the restoration was possible thanks to Nazi catalog photos. One of the chapels has the skeleton of St, Munditia, who was beheaded in the fourth century by Romans for her Christina faith. The remains were given to Munich by the Pope as thanks for the city's devoted service.
We walked through the Viktualienmarkt, but since it was Sunday afternoon, all the food and produce stands were closed. We did get a good look at the maypole, however.
After we departed the Viktualienmarkt, the tour took us through Eataly, the chain of high-end Italian food.
The Ohel Jakob Synagogue was built in 2006. The Jewish population of Munich has reached its prewar size, thanks to Germany's acceptance of religious refugees from former Soviet states. It's very striking visually, a cube on top of another cube made of travertine.
Another church we went into was Asam Church. This one is best described as eclectic. Built in the mid-18th century, it's just 30 feet wide. It used to be a private chapel where the Asam brothers could show off their architectural prowess, but is now public. The ceiling looks domed, but the paint on the flat ceiling just gives the illusion. There's even a gilded grim reaper in the narthex.
Our tour took us near Marienplatz. Since it was only about ten minutes before the glockenspiel would play, we stayed and jockeyed for a good spot, People kept arriving as 5pm neared, and the normal 5 o'clock church bells rang early. All the bells got quiet, and a hush came over the crowd. At the same time, a lot of phones came out and started videos pointed at the glockenspiel; I did a couple short clips, figuring it's already well-documented.
The glockenspiel started chiming, and we could see the figures start going around At one point two jousters went by each other, and with their next pass, one was knocked back on his horse. After the joust, barrel makers started dancing a jig. By this point, the crowd started thinning, and there were few of us left to see the chicken crowing at the end.We then strolled along Kaufingerstrasse, a pedestrian-only shopping district. On the other end, we found St. Michael's Church, one of the early Renaissance buildings north of the Alps. It's being restored, and we didn't find an entrance; perhaps we'll get a chance to try again later.
Next was Frauenkirche. Its twin onion domes are so iconic that the church is the symbol of Munich. It was also undergoing restoration, but we were able to peek inside. There was a service happening, so we weren't able to explore much more than that.
The last stop on the tour was a statue of Orlando di Lasso, a Renaissance composer. When Michael Jackson died in 2009, fans turned the statue into a memorial, and they still keep it going.
That seemed like a logical breaking point for our tour, so we started walking back towards the Hauptbahnhof where we got some dinner (a kiosk that sold mix-and-match sushi half-rolls) and headed back to the hostel. When we got there, the lobby was filled with Japanese women, each with huge suitcases. There was a line going to the small elevator (holds only a few people at a time with luggage). We were able to work our way past (no need to say, “Sumimasen!”) and make it to the stairwell to get to our room.
