Post Germany

Before our trip to Germany, I searched out some historic photographs of the cities where we would visit, with the aim to attempt to recreate some of the camera angles and to see what had changed over the last 70 odd years. This gave us a "mission" to complete while being tourists, and it provided some historical context for what we would be seeing. I recently went over some of my photos and finally pieced together a few composites. We appreciated the history we saw and this simple task made the views much more powerful for us.

The first one was in our first stop, Munich. After a busy morning touring the Munich Residence, we decided to see if we could find this old building somewhere near the Hofbrauhaus. That was all the information we had, but we were successful! Surprisingly, the cafe in the 1941 photo is still there and still a cafe! Having found it without any doubt, Wendy and I used the picture on my phone to attempt to position ourselves at just the right angle. I imagine this caused some chuckles from the many people sitting around this small busy square. The street cobblestones look similar, although the drain in front of Hitler was filled in sometime over the years. In 2019, to the right of the frame is the front door of the Hofbrauhaus beer hall (great beer!), and to the left of the frame is.... the Hard Rock Cafe! Go figure.  A little bit of Photoshop was all it took to bring this to life.

Just outside the Hofbrauhaus in Munich, 1941 and 2019.

In Berlin, the next mission was to find the Brandenburg Gate. OK, I agree that finding it is not a big stretch, but the angle was much more challenging for this location due to the number of people, bicycles, and street performers. We entered from the far side of the gate and the first thing Wendy said was, "Is that a nude man?". I had to agree that it appeared that way. On closer inspection, the 'nude dude' was actually wearing a thong but nothing else - he was demonstrating for some purpose, all of which was a mystery to us (and to most of the indifferent crowd). Not sure if this is a common occurrence in the area, but it certainly made us shake our head. Hope he had sunscreen.

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, 1945 and 2019

Up to Berlin!

Just a travel day today. We got on a train in Garmisch (about 200 m from the apartment) and took it all the way to Munich. A 30 min transfer in Munich had us on our way to Berlin in facing first class seats. Went through all sorts of towns and cities, including Erfurt and Leipzig. Unfortunately the train didn't go through Halle, where my grandfather was born.

 

A quick tram ride to East Berlin brought us to our AirBnB for the rest of the week. Sure can tell the difference in architecture between Munich and the old East Germany. 

More of Munich

Wendy and I took it a little easier today and decided to do only a few things in Munich. We went to the Deutsches Museum Verkehrszentrum (no, I can't either...) to check out their transportation collection. Lots of cars, trains, bicycles, etc. to see, many of which I had never heard about. Also had a large concrete snail outside. I didn't ask why, but took pictures anyway.

With an airbag??

They made cars as well...

Seems to be a mixed message...

We headed over to the antiquities museum, but actually didn't take many photos, except for this gold lion.

Nearby on the next street was an art piece called the "Endless Staircase" in the middle of a KPMG office building. Odd, but certainly something to view at least once.

We also walked to the Hofgarten, a small park near the Residenz. We came upon a large stone pavilion build in 1618 in honour of the god Diana. The best part was that there was (what I think was) a world class violinist playing for the public. He did most of the movements of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik without a discernible error. Definitely a random highlight!

We also went to the English Garden to see some nude sunbathers... I mean, where we saw some nude sunbathers... (no photos) then headed back to our hotel for the evening.

Another hard day on the feet

Today we mostly planned to do the Munich Residenz and the Hofbrauhaus, but ended up doing many churches and lots of shopping (wearing down the shoes even more than yesterday).

The Residenz was as ornate as the palace we visited yesterday, although the grounds were much small (being right in the middle of the city). Beautiful marble, lots of paintings and tapestries, room after room... it got a bit overwhelming at times.

Wendy's favourite was this grand hall

Wendy had noticed that all the females and babies seemed to be unclothed yesterday, and this was the same pattern today, until a nude male appeared - ready for his photoshoot with Wendy.

Doors were either tiny, or bigger than Eric

Tired after several hours of looking at bling, off to lunch we went. We aimed straight for the Hofbrauhaus as the go to destination in Munich. Eric ordered a beer (1 litre of Hofbrau dark original) while Wendy got coke. Seemed like this was going to take a while...

Wendy actually took 2 sips...

And declared... "not bad". She then went back to her coke as the food arrived.

We sat close to the Oompah band, but they didn't play for too long

More wandering around near Marienplaz, mostly looking for several churches on our list to visit.

Lots of stained c=glass caught Eric's eye.

Beautiful church lighting

We plan to do several museums tomorrow then head to Dachau concentration camp on Thursday after renting a car.

To Munich we go!

We took a late night flight from Toronto to Munich that was a little better than we thought. We were not seated together until we asked some other passenger to switch. All went well, except we may have had about 1 hr of sleep prior to a full day in Munich. At east the in flight entertainment system was good (it even had 3 live cameras outside the plane).

Yes, a live tail cam throughout the flight

A street next to our hotel had an oddly familiar name...

 

Spend a few hours at the BMW Museum and the BMW Welt (like a dealership next to their factory).

Wendy liked the Isetta

Olympic tower on left, BMV Welt in centre, BMW factory on right

 Back to the hotel after buying wine and Landjager (hard sausage).

Our second day was mostly for touring the Nymphenburger Palace on the west side of Munich. This royal Schloss was absolutely huge! Took about 6 hours and we didn't see everything.

Beer/coke and sausages for lunch outside. About 10C but sunny.

This is the bedroom that King Ludwig II was born. We will see some of his castles when we head south later this weekend.

The carriage museum was further evidence of the opulence. This carriage was very large and very gold.

One of the smaller buildings had a chapel decorated mostly with coral and sea shells.

The swans were both active and unafraid. This one stayed quite a while to check us out.

Wendy's favourite - the Pagodenburg

An indoor pool (bath) from the 1700s. Who knew?

We ended our day in Marienplatz at the Rathaus Glockenspiel.

Fish fountain (fish is on top, above the frame)

More architecture in Marienplatz. We also did some shopping along the square and nearby. Likely will spend more time here tomorrow.

Wendy found Amber!

Eric found Lebkuchen!