Friday, September 5th
Woke up this morning to get ready for our first guided tour on this trip. We ended up having to switch rooms and I forgot my water bottle down in the room that was now occupied by Shawn, Mike, and Chad, so I went down there before heading to breakfast to get it back. (Chad- that water bottle may be the best thing I packed. Thanks again!) I knocked on their door to a terrible frenzy of guys running around in a half-awake panic. Apparently they thought it was 1:00 in the afternoon and they had slept too late and missed the tour. I informed them they were fine, and had my fair share of laughs.
Our tour guide’s name was Travis, a friendly and very informative Aussie who spoke perfect English, and gave tours in Germany… he had a sweet mustache. He is a really funny guy and related to our younger audience quite well.
Our hostel is located just a few blocks from the central part of Munich, so we walked in that direction and ended up at a fancy church that I cannot even begin to pronounce the name to. We learned that it had two tall towers in the front that served as a reference point to those in World War II. Travis also enlightened us on a story about the chapel, in which the architect apparently ends up tricking the devil upon the terms in which it is to be built, and you can see his footprint inside of the church.
We continued on through the city, and one of the highlights were seeing several hidden holocaust memorials. For example, one of the memorials was just a subtle plaque on the wall outside of a worn down building saying “this was a shoe shop” meant to commemorate what was destroyed in Krystallnacht.
We also got to see the famous Glockenspiel (which was cool, but unanimously agreed that one you watch it once, that is enough) and its show in the main square, in addition to Mary’s Column, which was the centerpiece of the square, beautifully displayed with plated gold and adorned by symbolic putti. We walked down to a beer garden which was part of a marketplace with rows and rows of stands of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and treats. It was here that I had my first German sausage, and the most amazing pretzel I’ve ever had in my life. I love Germany!
Travis then told us the history of the Maypole that was in the center of the markets. He told us how villages would steal neighboring village’s Maypoles as sort of a glory kind of thing. The poles are absolutely huge, so the fact that anyone could successfully uproot one of them and steal it away to another village without getting caught would impress me too. Apparently a few years back, the maypole was reported stolen, but upon calling the police, they found out that the police were in fact the ones who stole it.
Our tour guide’s name was Travis, a friendly and very informative Aussie who spoke perfect English, and gave tours in Germany… he had a sweet mustache. He is a really funny guy and related to our younger audience quite well.
Our hostel is located just a few blocks from the central part of Munich, so we walked in that direction and ended up at a fancy church that I cannot even begin to pronounce the name to. We learned that it had two tall towers in the front that served as a reference point to those in World War II. Travis also enlightened us on a story about the chapel, in which the architect apparently ends up tricking the devil upon the terms in which it is to be built, and you can see his footprint inside of the church.
We continued on through the city, and one of the highlights were seeing several hidden holocaust memorials. For example, one of the memorials was just a subtle plaque on the wall outside of a worn down building saying “this was a shoe shop” meant to commemorate what was destroyed in Krystallnacht.
We also got to see the famous Glockenspiel (which was cool, but unanimously agreed that one you watch it once, that is enough) and its show in the main square, in addition to Mary’s Column, which was the centerpiece of the square, beautifully displayed with plated gold and adorned by symbolic putti. We walked down to a beer garden which was part of a marketplace with rows and rows of stands of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and treats. It was here that I had my first German sausage, and the most amazing pretzel I’ve ever had in my life. I love Germany!
Travis then told us the history of the Maypole that was in the center of the markets. He told us how villages would steal neighboring village’s Maypoles as sort of a glory kind of thing. The poles are absolutely huge, so the fact that anyone could successfully uproot one of them and steal it away to another village without getting caught would impress me too. Apparently a few years back, the maypole was reported stolen, but upon calling the police, they found out that the police were in fact the ones who stole it.
Moving on, we came across a statue of Juliet (as in… Romeo and Juliet), just past the main square. Apparently, people buy roses to put in her arm, which is supposed to bring your love life good luck. There conveniently lies an extravagant flower stand next to the statue, and later on in the day, Rachael, Cody, and myself all put flowers in Juliet’s arms. We let Billy take a picture with Juliet and our flowers… but he was too cool to get his own.
The tour guided us past other main parts of town, including the HaufBrau Haus, but we didn’t go inside, because as Travis mentioned, he found that the tour usually ends there if that is the case… I started to get really excited… don’t worry--- the Haufbrau Haus got many more visits in the next few days… This was the place that we always talked about in high school for the polka band I played in.
I had my first experience in such an extravagant church, and Cody and I went inside and examined every bit of St. Peters Cathedral. I had no idea the churches that would follow this experience. It is incredible seeing two years of Art History compiled into the real thing. After we spent quite a while inside looking around, we decided to climb to the top of the tower, were you can get the best view of the entire city. It was awesome! There were a million stairs, but it was well worth the beautiful view at the top. We also were excited because a friendly businessman from CA stared up a conversation with us at the top of the tower. We were just suprised to find someone else who spoke English, so we chatted for a few minutes, he wished us luck on our studies, and we carried on in our journey.
We explored much of Germany for the rest of the day, and then got ready to go on the Pub Crawl that evening. The title of the tour was “The Best Night You Will Never Remember.” For a lot of us… probably true… ha.
The first stop was the HaufBrau Haus, and we were only allotted a half an hour there. We were also sitting in the back, in a private part, so you weren’t even in the action. I walked over the the gift shop and picked up some things, walked around a few minutes to check out the polka band and the atmosphere, and then we had to leave. I was excited that they even played the “Ein Prosit” every half hour or so! (yea… I played in a polka band in high school… can you tell? We instantly fell in love with the German culture! Who wouldn’t?!?!) I decided this was not nearly enough time here, so I returned the next night and had possibly the most amazing hilarious night ever…
The pub crawl continued on to several other pubs, and we were even taught the “Ein Prosit” which the Wespenmusikanten had to play all the time in High School. It was funny getting to know everyone else in the group.
We also chatted a bunch with a ton of foreign students. There are Australians everywhere! Even the other countries we visited- those Aussies like to travel!
We ended the night back in the hostel chatting with a bunch of these foreign people again. Again, it is crazy seeing how much foriegn people know of American culture! I have so much to learn... This is going to be a great trip!
No comments:
Post a Comment