Munich Part 4

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It's amazing how sometimes you just stumble upon things that have impact on your life. Here we were bee-bopping around Munich, enjoying the sites and snacking on the local foods. After the bus tour we really wanted to find the building that we could see people standing at the top of a tower. Didn't know what it would be or where exactly it might be located. So just like most tourists, we walked around, necks straining to look at the rooftops in search of our desired destination.

We walked along one of the back allies, nearly deserted except for a young couple quietly talking on the back stairway and a few bikes propped up along side the structure. We were clueless to what we had stumbled upon until we rounded the front of the building and then we spied the small unobtrusive sign that read "St. Peters Church". Wow! This is a historic landmark that you read about in history books back home. The four of us ventured into the structure and were instantly taken aback by the shimmering beautiful that overwhelmed our senses.

Munich's oldest parish which is affectionately known by the locals as Alter Peter, was glistening with gold and bright eye catching art and artifacts. We were instantly humbled as the history engulfed your imagination. There were people praying quietly in the pews, some were just standing at the rear of the church in silence and others were lighting prayers candles in the corner. We quietly escorted ourselves around the edges of the main sanctuary.

I thought about what the original parishiners must have felt back in 1944 when the church was mostly destroyed by the bombings of the city during WW II. Their place of prayer taken away and the loss of a physical safe haven. It wasn't bad enough that the sounds of war were ringing closely, that there was no peace in their daily activities, and that the grip of fear was a constant reality.

I looked closely at the bizarre relic in the second chapel on the left side of the aisle, it was a gem-studded skeleton of St. Mundita. I thought it so strange that I didn't even take a picture. I don't know enough about why there would be a skeleton hanging around but figured it must be mighty important to some portion of the overall religious historical benchmarks.

To take history back even farther, the church marks the site where monks in 1158 began building the core of today's Munich. If one is interested in the year to year history it would be a great project of exploration. Not only about the 800 year history but also of the famous contributing artists to the breath taking interior features.

After spending a substancial amount of time looking and internally reflecting in this historic house of worship, we decided to take a journey to the top of the church. This was the place we had seen many tourists snapping photos, and thus we needed to satisfy our curiosity. The church has a 92-meter tall steeple, which we were going to climb, innocently not knowing what awaited us. There are 306 steps and as you start out you could check out the colored circles on the lower platform which tell you about the visibility and hence whether the climb is worthwhile before you start. If the circle is white, you can see as far as the Alps. It was on white, so we figured the view would be great.

We started out like gangbusters, quickly taking the steps up the narrow staircase, and it soon became a mind over body experience. The angle of the staircase was of such that it started to kick our butt at about step 100. What I meant to say is that my thighs were burning, my lungs were sucking air and I had to fight the overarching urge to just stop and send my camera up with someone else. We would stop to rest and let the people coming down pass us, and it was usually just enough time to get that burning sensation to momentarily stop. For those of you who know me, I am really not into the army's physical fitness program, hence the terribly out of shape performance that I was experiencing.

We would look at each other, smile and grumble under our breathes about how painful this was. Part of it might have been the excruciating pace that we thought we had to continue at. Then my ego would be revived every time an older than average person would pass me going down and I had to admit that these "non-army" types were making it to the top, and so could I.

On the climb up we passed the bells which they say that the church is famous for. There is a lantern-dome tower created when the building was remodelled in Renaissance style. The most unusual feature of the tower is its eight asymmetrically placed clock faces. The renowned chimes include one of the oldest bells in Germany and unfortunately the best time to hear them is on Saturday's, which is when they ring in the Sabbath, and we were not there on a Saturday.

When we finally made it to the top it was most definately worth every out of breath moment and every complaint. It was the most incredible view! You could see for miles and miles and everybody was a self proclaimed shutterbug. There was a narrow walk way around the entire tower and so you could take a shot of every part of the town. Must have spent 20 minutes out on that balconey just marveling at the city sites. The people down below walked in the town square, the birds flew by and you could hear the sounds of the city with chrystal clear clarity. Quite the experience.

These were the moments that could never happen had we all not been here preparing to go to Kosovo. I have been afforded the opportunity to travel the world and see some pretty incredible things, and not one of these opportunities goes unnoticed or that I am not grateful to experience the world through a different set of eyes. We were not your ordinary tourists. We were soldiers who thought about what it must have been like here in this city during times of conflict. With the buildings so beautifully designed how could so much destruction happen to such a stately city? I suppose history is just that. History.

All said and done, the St. Peter's church was the most beautiful and awe inspiring structure I have ever entered. The ghosts of yesterday have made me think about today and that we are going to a land where there has been internal strife for many years and there is much healing left to do. I hope that our touch with history today enables us to find the compassion tomorrow when we are face to face with the people of Kosovo. That we may understand their history and that we can assist with sdome of the solutions for their tomorrow.

What a great visit to Munich!...

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