Residenz Museum

Today was a laundry day, which isn't as bad as it sounds.  My typical laundry day involves me sleeping in, having a nice breakfast at the hotel, catching the tram to the laundromat, dropping off my clothes for someone else to wash because they won't let me use the machines, and then heading out into the city to do some sightseeing till my laundry is done.  Today I went into Viktualienmarkt to buy some souveniers and then decided to peek into Peterskirche and Frauenkirche, two of the biggest Roman Catholic churches in the city.  Each time I've tried to go into them previously there has been some sort of mass going on, and I feel bad walking in right in the middle.  Today I was able to catch both of them just minutes before masses started.  I don't understand why they have masses every night of the week and right in the middle of the day on a Saturday, but they do.  Both churches, by the way, were very pretty inside, but I didn't get any pictures.  Sorry.

After the churches, I visited the Residenz Museum.  The Residenz was the home of the Wittelsbach dynasty up until 1918.  The first buildings in the palace were built back in 1385 and were added to in the 16th, 17th, and 19th centuries.  The museum audio tour brings you through about 100 rooms full of old paintings, furniture, family treasures, and classical sculptures.  I was a little tired from my long week of work, so I wasn't super interested in listening to everything the audio guide had to say about each of the paintings of old rich people, but it was still cool to wander through and see them.  One of the most impressive rooms is the Antiquarium, a hall built in 1571 to house the royal family's sculptures.  This room is the largest Renaissance ceremonial hall north of the Alps and is the oldest surviving part of the Residenz (most of the original buildings were bombed in WWII and restored after).  The elector, or emperor, or kind, or whatever he called himself used to host meals and ceremonies in this hall, so that must have been a sight to behold.  One impressive piece of art at the Residenz is the grotto made out of volcanic crystals, colorful seashells, and a bronze sculpture of Mercury.  It was really cool to see all of the details made out of shells, and that's all I have to say about that.

Once out of the Residenz I went back to the Viktualienmarkt to get some lunch.  I grabbed a bratwurst and a beer and sat down in the biergarten to relax and people watch.  A few minutes later it started to drizzle, so I finished my beer, quickly picked up my laundry, and made it back to the hotel just before the heavens opened.  Phew!

The Antiquarium in the Residenz

The grotto at the Residenz

Paulaner am Nockherberg, Erdinger Brewery, and Nymphenberg Palace

This week marked the beginning of Starkbierzeit (Strong beer time) in Munich.  Strong beer time began back in 1651 when the Paulaner monks started brewing their starkbeir named Salvator.  They referred to the beer as "Flüssiges Brot" ("liquid bread") because it was so calorie-dense that it helped them to survive their 40 days of Lenten fasting.  This Salvator beer, which people today commonly refer to as a doppelbock, has a gravity of 18.3% and an alcohol percentage of 7.5%.  Traditionally served in 1-liter ceramic steins, 1 liter of the beer is equivalent in calories to 1/3 of a loaf of bread.

The tradition of strong beer spread around the city and the first public strong beer festival ("Starkbierfest") was held 100 years later.  The biggest and most traditional celebration takes place at Paulaner am Nockherberg, Paulaner's large beer hall in the southeastern part of the city that can hold up to 2,500 people at one time.  When we went last Friday night, it was packed wall to wall and we had a hard time finding a place for 6 people (me and the other PW people).  The atmosphere was very similar to Oktoberfest, or so I was told, but with far fewer tourists.  Loud Germany music, large soft pretzels, bratwurst, men and women dressed in tracht (dirndl and lederhosen), and, of course, lots and lots of beer.  I had a great time and am really glad that I got to go!

Paulaner am Nockherberg for Starkbierfest

In keeping with the theme of beer this weekend, on Saturday the same 6 of us got on the S-bahn (suburban train) to head out to the small town of Erding northeast of Munich.  In Erding is the world-famous Erdinger Weißbräu, where we had signed up for a tour.  The tour started off with being served a beer (The "Champ")  while being shown a video about the brewery.  We then went on a fairly quick tour of the brewery itself, which was pretty similar to other breweries I've been too.  Brewing beer is a pretty straight-forward process with not much variation, so I wasn't expecting anything different.  They did have a huge bottling line though, but, as it was the weekend, no one was working.  That would have been cool to see.  After the tour, and included in the price of the ticket, we were allowed an hour and a half to hang out at the bar.  They served each of us two pretzels and two weisswurst to go along with as many samples of their 9 beers as we wanted.  Now, in the US, when a brewery offers samples on a tour, you typically get around 3 7-oz samples.  Here, on the other hand, they served us full beers (your choice of a small 0.3L or a large 0.5L)!  I tried three "small" samples of the Dunkel, the Original Weissbier, and the Pikantus before calling it a day.  Friday and Saturday was enough beer for one week, never mind one weekend.

Erdinger Weißbier

Sunday, after dropping off my laundry at the laundromat, I went across the city to Nymphenburg Palace.  This palace, whose construction was completed in 1675, was the former summer residence of the Bavarian ruling families.  The entire grounds consist of a 490-acre park that, apparently, has beautiful gardens in the summer.  Unfortunately, today was cloudy and cold, so it wasn't as pretty as it would have been on a sunny, summer day, but it was pretty nonetheless.  I took the English audio-guided tour through the palace, and was blown away by the ornately decorated rooms and living quarters.  Although the amount of rooms you could see on the tour paled in comparison with the amount of rooms overall in the palace, the size of the place was just enormous.  In addition to the palace and the grounds, the museum included a display of the former carriages and sleighs of the royal families.  These were amazing carriages plated in gold and fancy fabrics.  Nymphenburg Palace was a pretty cool place to go.

Nymphenberg Palace

The ceiling in Nymphenberg Palace's great hall

King Ludwig II's coronation carriage

 More photos here!

Mercedes-Benz Museum

I didn't do too much last week, so I had nothing to write about.  Yesterday, however, I drove 2.5 hours to Stuttgart to visit the Mercedes-Benz Museum.  I was told by the guys at MTU that it is a very well-done museum, and they are right.  Just like the BMW Museum, the building was visually stunning on the inside.  The difference between this and the BMW Museum, however, is that Mercedes has a historical timeline throughout the museum that intertwined the history of the company with major world events.  It was pretty cool.  The cars were also pretty cool, but I think overall the cars at the BMW museum looked better, with a few exceptions.

Mercedes Simplex

Mercedes-Benz 500K

Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Gullwing

Lot's more pictures here!

Neuschwanstein Castle

Today we went outside the city again, this time to visit the famous Neuschwanstein Castle.  Neuschwanstein is a castle that was commissioned by Bavarian Kind Ludwig II in 1869 as a personal retreat.  After he died in 1886, the castle was opened to the public and has been ever since.  The castle, an example of Romanesque Revival architecture, has been the inspiration for many other castles and buildings around the world, most notably the Disney Castle.  The castle is located in the town of Hohenschwangau on the edge of the alps.  When you get into town, you have to buy tickets at the base of the mountain and then walk up to the castle.  It's about a 30 minute walk uphill the whole way, but it wasn't too bad for us.  The view from the castle was incredible, both looking up at the mountain and down into Bavaria.  We tried to get to the bridge where everyone gets the picturesque photos that you see of the castle on Wikipedia, but it's closed till May for maintenance.  Also, the weather was cloudy and slightly rainy, but the views were still spectacular.  The tour was pretty short as well, but the inside of the castle was very ornate and beautiful.  As we were walking back to the car, the clouds finally parted and the sun came out, leading to a great picture of the castle sitting atop its perch.  Definitely worth the visit.

View down into Bavaria.

View from behind the castle, almost from the bridge.

View from the town once the sun came out.

On the way back to Munich, we stopped off at Kloster Andechs, a monastery brewery well-known for its strong Dopplebock Dunkel.  Everyone at work told us we should go there, but that we should be careful because the beer was really strong.  However, the beer is only 7% ABV, which is lower than the stouts I usually drink back at home, so it really didn't have any effect.  For German beer though, it is stronger than most, since they are typically between 4 and 6%, so I guess I can't blame them for the warning.  The beer was good and the pretzels were the best I've had so far.

I love beer and pretzels.

More pictures here!

Dachau, Flugwerft Schleißheim, and BMW Museum

We had another busy weekend the past couple of days.  We started with dinner at Alter Hof on Friday night.  I ordered a rainbow trout, with cucumber salad, lemon butter, and potato rösti.  As it turns out, I got an entire fish!  That was interesting to eat, but it all tasted very good!

My Rainbow Trout from Alter Hof

On Saturday, Zach and I went to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site (KZ-Gedenkstätte).  It was an extremely somber experience to see the conditions in which so many people were held before and during WWII.  Overall, the entire memorial was very well-done, with a good audio guide as you walked around and a very thorough museum in one of the original buildings on the site.

Dachau Entrance Gate

"Work Sets You Free"

Dachau Concentration Camp
Camp Road

Afterwards, we headed into the shopping areas around the center of the city to walk around and window shop for souvenirs.  Nothing really caught our eye, but we did eventually go through the Viktualienmarkt, which is a huge outdoor market with lots and lots of food and fresh produce.  Unfortunately, we were on our way to dinner at that point, so we didn't eat anything.  We plan to get lunch there next weekend though!  Then we headed down to Paulaner Bräuhaus for dinner, where I got the "For Fellows" steak.  It was a 250g Bavarian steak seared on the outside and cooked to medium-rare perfection on the inside.  It had a red wine onion sauce with mashed parsnip carrots and potato fritters on the side.  What an excellent meal!  Kind of want that again right now...

Anyway, today we went north to the Deutsches Museum Flugwerft Schleißheim, which is an extension of the main Deutsches Museum with a focus on aircraft.  It wasn't super large, but it did have a pretty wide variety of airplanes to see.  My pictures didn't turn out too great, but I did get a couple good ones that I put in the Flickr album.  Since the Flugwerft museum didn't take a very long time, we then went to the BMW Museum nearby.  It was pretty cool to see a lot of nice-looking cars all in one place.  Too bad they're so expensive to own and come with a negative stigma in the U.S.  Oh well!

Flugwerft Schleißheim

BMW Museum
BMW 507

More pictures here!

Deutsches Museum

Last night, Zach and I decided to have an easy night, so we stopped by the hotel restaurant after work.  It... wasn't that great.  Much better than other hotels I've been to, but not as good as the restaurants we've been too.  Guess you can't win 'em all.

Today, however, we caught the tram nearby the hotel and made our way over to the Deutsches Museum, which is the world's largest science and technology museum.  We got there around 10:00 and made a beeline for the Astronomy floors, on which we spent about two and a half hours reading every sign and playing with every interactive exhibit.  We also found a computer that had an astronomy quiz.  We actually managed to answer 63% of the questions despite the fact that there were no English translations!  We were able to use a lot of context clues to figure out most of the German words, and on the rest we just guessed.  It was really fun.  After that we realized we needed to move a little quicker if we wanted to get through the whole museum, so we went to the Physics area and spent another hour and a half in what I would consider the coolest part of the museum.  I guess we didn't really move much quicker, but the physics area had hundreds of hands-on exhibits to demonstrate fundamental physics, like momentum, inertia, mass, conservation of energy, waves, aerodynamics, and much, much more.  What made it extra fun was trying to figure out what each exhibit was demonstrating because very few had actual English translations.  I think, once again, we did a pretty good job.

Fundamental physics.

The rest of the time at the museum we spent going through the Historic Aviation (Luftfahrt), Energy Technology, Metals, Machine Tools, Power Machinery, Foundry, Marine Navigation, Environment, Electric Power, and Nanotechnology.  We still didn't even make it through the whole museum, but we were able to hit everything we wanted to before we left at 4:30.  Afterwards, we were feeling very hungry (we skipped lunch) so we went back to Marienplatz to Der Ratskeller to get a nice hearty meal.  Both of us had the Grillwürstl Schmankerl, a "great sampler of all delicious Bratwursts we offer, like Nuremberg style Bratwurst, skinless veal sausage Wollwurst, smoked Beef-Beerknackbratwurst, Schnapps Bratwurst, grilled bacon, sauerkraut, [and] mashed potatoes."  Alongside a full liter of Löwenbraü dunkel, this hit the spot.  Once again, another great meal.

After catching the U-Bahn back to the hotel, it's now time to digest and prepare for some Munich sight-seeing tomorrow.  Gute Nacht!

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