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Geo: 48.1391, 11.5802
Was awakened at 2:00 a.m. by what sounded like a herd of British men stomping through the hall and talking. I got the idea that they had ended up on the wrong floor, but they seemed to have no clue that people were sleeping. John, of course, slept right through it.
We met our local guide, Kathleen, at 8:30 this morning. She was so cute in her pretty dirndl. You may be thinking, "'Kathleen' isn't a German name." It's not. Her father was a GI who stayed after the war; thus, the Irish name. Also, her English was very, very good, with hardly a trace of an accent. She took us on a walk from our hotel through the city to the Residenz. Our first stop was the square in front of the new Jewish synagogue, an interesting but ultimately ugly piece of architecture. The bottom half is designed to look like the Wailing Wall, but it looks like a fortress.
She walked us into the Marienplatz and talked about the new Town Hall. It looks medieval, but is, in fact, Neo-Gothic, having been built in the mid-19th century. She said it is ugly, but I thought it was at least
interesting to look at. The building served as the U.S. military headquarters in 1945. There are two memorial inscriptions inside the portal: one commemorating the liberation of Munich by U.S. troops, and the other commemorating the 1972 Olympics. We also found out that Cincinnati is one of Munich's sister cities.
From there we walked to the famous Hofbräuhaus. It is
not pronounced hoff-brow-house. It is pronounced hohf-broy-howze, which takes some getting used to. Kathleen took us inside and even at 10:00 a.m. there were a few people inside eating and drinking. She showed us the “stammtisch” tables: tables or sections that are reserved in perpetuity for certain groups or families. The stammtisch signs are all individual, and the one she showed us in particular was decorated with hops. Kathleen put to rest the myth of the barmaid carrying 16 steins of beer in her hands while her bosom strains against her bodice. Traditionally, only noble women could show any skin, so the barmaids wore rather severe clothing. And there is no way a woman could hold that many beer steins in her hands without breaking her wrists. There is a trick, though, which allows a barmaid to carry lots of steins at once: she takes several in each hand and then squeezes the remaining steins into a group and lifts the whole thing at once. It's all upper-body strength, and a buxom barmaid has an easier time balancing out the weight.
The Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) was next with its distinctive twin onion domes. It is still being restored due to damage suffered during the war. It was initially built in the 14th century, funded by the sale of indulgences. It only took 20 years to build, which convinced the people that the architect had done a deal with the Devil,
viz. the Devil would allow the architect a quick building time if he built the church without windows. He wanted the cathedral to be dark so the people wouldn't want to go to church. When the cathedral was finished, the Devil came to inspect it and realized he had been tricked. Looking down the nave from the foyer, there are two parallel rows of columns on the sides that hide the windows from sight, yet they are there and let in lots of light. The Devil stamped his foot (hoof?), and there is a large footprint-like shape in one of 
The Monkey Tower
This is in the Fuenf Hoefe. A monkey from the menagerie took a royal baby to hold, and then ran up into this tower when everyone got angry with him.the floor tiles.
We ended our walking tour outside the Residenz … and the San Francisco Coffee Company. Despite the name, it's a German company. So we didn't feel bad about spending money there! I had an iced mocha (dear God, it was good!) and John had a smoothie. The sun was already high in the sky and hot by 10:00 a.m., so something cold was most welcome.
We were set free then, so John and I toured the Residenz and Treasury. This is the Wittelsbachs' family palace. It's a bit like touring Versailles, as it's room after room of silk wall coverings, tapestries, beautiful furniture, and gold, gold, gold. If it wasn't decorated in the baroque style, it was decorated in the rococo style. There was nothing understated about it. One of the first “rooms” we saw was the Shell Grotto (it's actually outside and faces a small garden courtyard). The entire wall is made of freshwater shells from Bavaria. It was destroyed during the war but rebuilt with donated shells from small-town Bavarians according to Nazi photos. It's fantastic and fantastically ugly. In the center of the courtyard is a fountain depicting Perseus with the head of Medusa. Her body
lies at his feet, and water spurts from her neck.
The palace has a couple of nice chapels (one decorated and one just a reconstructed shell) and several rooms full of porcelain and silver plate. The Treasury has crowns and orbs, jewels, and some reliquaries. We spent well over three hours in the palace complex.
We were hungry afterwards so went to (yes!) Starbucks and got a bagel sandwich and a couple of Frappuccinos. Again, something cold was very welcome.
We walked back to Marienplatz and ran into a parade of zombies. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos. Then John decided he would climb the tower of St. Peter's Church (which has a baroque interior), so while he did that I shopped a bit. It only took him 30 minutes to go up the 300+ steps, take photos, and come back down.
Went back to the hotel and rested up before venturing out for dinner. We tried the Hofbräuhaus, but it was very crowded and very loud and overwhelming for me. So we went across the square to Orlando and ate our currywurst (me) and deep-fried lemon chicken (John) outside. The restaurant and a lot of other places in the square are owned/run
by a famous chef, Somebodyorother Schuhbeck. Tasty. Someone across the way had two beagles and a large white dog, and I entertained myself by watching them.
Back at the hotel now trying to pack up for our departure tomorrow. I hate packing. Nothing ever fits the way it did before!
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Katherine
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That's the Munich National Theater! (Thanks, Bing!)I hope you bought me a necklace from that cute little dispenser.