Munich First Weekend, Saturday

This morning I woke up, took a shower, had breakfast at the Hostel, and then headed over to Starbucks to snag some internet so that I could update my blog a little bit.  I had no idea it would be right next to the original Hofbraeuhaus.  It was about 9am and there was hardly anyone out walking around, but by Hofbraeuhaus, of course there was still a small crowd.  For most tourists who come to Munich, that’s the first thing they do.  I sat there for about an hour and a half checking email, updating my blog, and people watching.  I met up with Corey at the Hauptbahnhof at 11 to buy a 3 day train ticket so that we can move our belongings to our permanent residence at the BMW dorm, so that we can use it to travel to all the different offices we need to go to for our paperwork and permits, and so that we can explore the city a little bit on our first weekend.  Before getting on the trains, I ran to the Deutsche Post real quick to pick up some envelopes and postage stamps for writing back to the states.

Once we got our ticket, we rode to the BMW dorm to check what time it would be open on Monday.  Turned out that Corey was able to pick up his key today, but I am going to have to wait until Monday.  So the plan is to move both of our luggage into his room tomorrow and then on Monday it will be easier for me to move in, since I am living only 7 rooms down the hall.  It was funny because when we went up to his room, his roommate was in his underwear.  After he put some pants on, we introduced ourselves and found out was from Slovakia (he spoke English, but had a thick accent) and had graduated school and had been working at BMW for an internship for about a year.  He seemed interesting, I’m curious to see what nationality my roommate will be.  I’m hoping a native German so I can practice the language, but I’m ok with anything.

After that, we went back to the Hauptbahnhof and Corey had some things he wanted to take care of this afternoon, so we went our separate ways.  The first thing I did was go back to Rischard’s to get one of their pretzels.  It looked so delicious yesterday when I got my sandwich, that I was on a mission to try it.  And it delivered.  After that, I walked around Marienplatz and went inside Michaelskirche (St. Michael’s Cathedral), though the outside was under construction and had a huge sheet over it.  I’ve noticed loads of the old buildings here are under construction.  St. Michael’s Cathedral, the Frauenkirche (the one with the onion shaped tips on the steeples), and the Residenzmuseum are all under construction which is kind of a bummer.  I’m hoping they’re done by the summer so I can actually see them without the covers.

Anyway, I went into Michaelskirche, Frauenkirche, St. Peterskirche, Heiliggeistkirche, Lukaskirche, and St. Kajetan-Theatinerkirche.  All of these cathedrals were extremely ornate, amazing pieces of art, architecture, and history.  I noticed some people going in a side door of Peterskirche and took a look and it was steps toward the top of the bell tower.  I got super excited as I went up and it turned out to be an AMAZING view of the heart of Munich.  I was breathless at the view and the pictures are extremely pretty too.  Munich is just so photogenic.  By sheer luck, it turned out that I happened to be up there at exactly 3pm which is when all of the bells in all of the churches in all of Munich ring for a solid 8 minutes.  It was extremely loud and booming and the bells in Peterskirche were shaking the tower.  It was completely surreal.  It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced.  I actually got a video of the bells in the tower from an opening in the framework. 

On the way toward Maximillianstrasse, I found a shrine for Michael Jackson.  It was adorned with all kinds of pictures, trinkets, and flowers.

I continued on to Maximillianstrasse, which is basically where all the millionaires go out shopping.  I decided to go exotic car sniping, and I found a couple Ferraris, a Lamborghini, two Mercedes SLR's with the gullwing doors, two Astin Martins, a Bentley, several nice Jaguars, and tons of Porsches.  One thing that really made me laugh was that I got a picture of a cop writing a parking ticket for an Astin Martin DBS that was parked in a very clearly marked no parking zone.  I guess when you’re rich, parking tickets are pretty much pocket change. 

I continued down Maximillianstrasse and saw some of the government offices, which are enormous.  Then I got to a really pretty part where there a bridges that cross over the Isar river, which runs through town.  This lead to the Bavarian State Parliament building, which is architecturally very exquisite.  After walking around in the park nearby, I came to the Deutsches Museum, which is the largest collection of science and technology in the world and Germany’s largest museum.  I didn’t go in it yet, but will definitely go when I have more time.  I’ve heard it will take days to see and appreciate everything, and being an engineer, it’s particularly interesting stuff to me.

I walked back down Maximillianstrasse to Residenzstrasse where the Residenz is.  The Residenz is a huge palace that housed Bavarian rulers for 600 years until the early 1900’s.  There are two statues of lions guarding the entrances (just like Mick and Mack at UC) and they each have shields with the face of a lion on them.  A superstition is that if you rub the face of the lion on the shield, you will become wealthy.  I saw some people doing this and had to look that up later to find out what that was about.  You can tell they get rubbed a lot because the metal looks fresh and bright there, whereas the rest is weathered.

After that, I headed to the Hauptbahnhof where I was meeting Corey to go on a brewery tour, but my stomach started hurting pretty badly so I opted out at the last minute.  I think I just dehydrated myself because after I got back to the hostel, sat down and drank plenty of water, I was fine.  I had forgotten to fill my water bottle in the sink this morning and did tons of walking this afternoon (I took over 250 pictures in 4 hours!)  and thought I could just push through it, but it turned out to be a bad decision.  There’s no free water here and didn’t feel like spending 3 or 4 euros on a bottled water, but next time I will be smarter and just pay it so I don’t dehydrate myself.

Corey’s off on the brewery tour, while I’m sitting in bed writing this.  I’m interested to hear how it went when he gets back.  I think I’m going to take it easy and read a little bit after a long day of walking, and drift into sleep.  I’m planning to go to church in the morning with Corey.  This will be the first Catholic service I have ever been to.  I’ve been asking him some questions about it and he’s been teaching me a little bit about the Catholic faith, the traditions, and the history.  It’s all very interesting and I’m looking forward to finally seeing what a Catholic service is like after going to protestant churches my whole life.  I have many catholic friends but have never seriously taken the time to learn about what they believe.