After Portsmouth, I hit up Munich - mostly to visit my cousins. Munich is part of Bavaria, has lots of sausage, and lots of good German beer (much of which was made by monks!)
The first day there, I took a walking tour around the city. We met up in front of the equivalent of the Town Hall:
We stayed to watch the glockenschpiel (I'm sure I spelled that wrong, but it means clock tower:)
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| A shot of the Maypole |
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| This is a statue of Juliet. If you're looking for love, leave a flower in her hand. |
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| A statue of Bavaria's first king (if I remember correctly... I think I do.) |
This is my favorite part of Munich. When walking down a certain street, one had to say "Heil Hitler" at the end. Not everyone in Munich was willing to do that, so they would go down a side alley to avoid saying that. There would be Gestapo officers at the end of the street, watching for and intimidating anyone unwilling to salute Hitler, so people could genuinely be endangering themselves by walking that alley. In their memory, there is a line of gold cobblestones:
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| These two towers were preserved from destruction from Allied bombing during WWII because the planes needed them as a landmark! |
Here's a better shot of the Maypole. There is a tradition in Bavaria of trying to steal other towns' Maypoles. Our guide told us a story about a group of senior citizens who used a helicopter to heist one!
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| I think this was St. Francis of Assisi |
Bleah, I wouldn't want to walk down that street.
ReplyDeleteMy parents used to live in Germany. My father was stationed there and worked on aircraft. They sometimes talk about the good food they had there. When they lived in Germany, they often bought the German milk, which is processed differently and doesn't require refrigeration. As a baby, my brother loved it, and would quickly drink it. If he was given American milk, he would take a sip, then throw it down as though completely unimpressed with it. After a while, he would pick it up again, take a sip, then throw it down once more. It took him forever to finish a bottle of American milk.
And the spelling is 'glockenspiel'.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rathaus-Glockenspiel