Germany Part III: Autobahn/ Munich Day 1 (part 1)

Wednesday morning we got up a little earlier than previously in an attempt to get on the Autobahn to Munich and arrive at a reasonable time. We grabbed some breakfast on the go at a bakery in Nürnberg. I had some sort of berry danish with sugar drizzled all over it and a coffee. It was enormous and I couldn't eat too much of it, but nibbled at it occasionally all the way to Munich.

If you don't like traveling at accelerated speeds the Autobahn could be a harrowing experience. Kate said afterward that she made a point not to look how fast Jens was going. I'm not sure how fast exactly we went, but I know it was probably faster than I've ever gone for any extended period of time in a car. Jens had borrowed his parent's Audi wagon for the trip to Munich because it has much more pick up than Marija's VW Polo, and is more comfortable.

While the Autobahn may have a lot of aggressive drivers, the road is actually typically only 4 lanes (two in each direction). Trucks must stay in the right lane, and generally German drivers seem very disciplined about staying in the right lane unless they are passing. The traffic between cities was fairly light and was more like what you would see in Maine north of Portland, than nearly constant congestion of I95, 93, amongst many others.

The journey went by fairly quickly and we were in Munich in no time. I enjoyed the green leaves and grass which were in full bloom. When we had first left for Germany from New England, around Boston the trees and grass were probably only at 75%, and so it was though we had been accelerated a couple of weeks into the summer season.

Munich is quite a beautiful city and it's city center appears very affluent and caters to wealthy tourists. Many high end shops are intermingled with historic sites, tourist shops, beer gardens, and restaurants. There are a lot of familiar shops that are seen here in the states in areas such as 5th avenue in NYC, or Newbury St. in Boston.

In the first two photos above you can see a bank on the left, and a very colorful building called Hauptpost, which means the main post office. The building sports a courtyard and contained several restaurants.

To the left you can see a city street with a beer garden set up below a Bavarian banner.

The statue is located in Max-Joseph-Platz and depicts the first king of Bavaria, King Max I. Joseph.

The next picture is of Munich City Hall at the Marienplatz. This building is perhaps one of the more elaborate buildings in Munich. Like the Frauenkirche in Nürnberg, it has a mechanical "animated" clock inside it, and people gather at noon to watch the magical display. The Marienplatz is basically the heart of Munich. There is a massive bricked over pedestrian square that contains several fountains and statues. Typically there are several musicians, or makeshift shows being performed here and it seems busy well into the evening.

Adjacent to this picture is a view down the Theatinerstrasse towards Theatinerkirche, which I thought was probably one of the most beautiful churches that we saw in all of Germany. I'll include some more pictures of the interior of the church in a later post.

In the picture of Jens and Marija walking ahead, you can see the Frauenkirche of Munich (Dom zu unserer lieben Frau: Cathedral of Our Blessed Lady). This is actually where Pope Benedict XVI (Ratzinger) was consecrated as bishop of Bavaria in his long path towards becoming the pope. There are more pictures of the interior of this church below.

One of our first activities in Munich was to climb the tower of Peterskirche (St. Peter's) which is the oldest church in the inner city of Munich (1368- part of current building constructed). This site has some great info on the history: St. Peter’s Past. Above to the left is a view of the roof tops of Munich, to the right Jens and Kate look out at the view. Below to the left is a better view of the Munich Frauenkirche, following this are pictures of the interior. The hike up was a long one, and the construction of the stairs I suspect is not all that different then what it was many years ago. There were actually metal cables which were driven through the stucco covered walls and spanned the interior of the steeple tower to stabilize it. Parts of the stairwell seemed like a tunnel through bricks. At several points during the climb you actually had to bend over to prevent from hitting your head. It was not an activity for the claustrophobic, which luckily none of us were. I'll continue on with the Munich sites in another post.