En route to Tbilisi from Houston, I had a nine-hour layover in Munich. I decided to get out of the airport and see as much as I could.
Munich apparently has some really great museums, but I’m not a huge museum fan. I plotted out a walking tour that would take me to some of the city’s main churches and other buildings, plus some other miscellaneous things I wanted to see. When I arrived at the airport, I stashed my bag and took a bus into the city.
Overall impressions: It’s a beautiful city. Even with the old architecture, it felt very modern and clean (maybe even too clean—it bordered on sterile). Also, as a whole, the women I saw there were the most beautiful I’ve ever seen—tall, skinny, and gorgeous.
Note to self: Go back to Munich to find a wife.
View from the spire of St. Peter’s church: Frauenkirche (dual-towered church), New Town Hall (the big Gothic-style building), and Theatinerkirche (the yellow church in the background)
The New Town Hall
The mechanical clock of the New Town Hall. It moves every hour, though it was rather underwhelming.
Frauenkirche, completed in 1524
The interior of the Frauenkirche
Looking east from the tower of St. Peter’s church. You get a nice view of the Alps (25 miles away) when looking south from the tower.
The crazy/awesome interior of the Asam Church (aka Asamkirche or The Church of St. Johann Nepomuk), completed in 1746
A wall
Interior of St. Peter’s church
The bejeweled skeleton of St. Munditia, patron saint of spinsters (in St. Peter’s)
Max-Joseph-Platz and the Bavarian State Opera Building
Theatine Church (Theatinerkirche), Munich. It was completed in 1690.
The Feldherrnhalle. Completed in 1844, it’s a monument to the Bavarian army. From Wikipedia:“On Friday morning, 9 November 1923, the Feldherrnhalle was the scene of a confrontation between the Bavarian State Police and an illegally organized march by the followers of Adolf Hitler. When ordered to stop the marchers continued; the State Police felt threatened and opened fire. Four policemen and sixteen marchers were killed and a number were wounded, including Hermann Göring. As a result, Hitler was arrested and sentenced to a prison term. This was one of the efforts by the Nazis to take over the Bavarian State, commonly referred to as the Beer Hall Putsch.”
The Hofgarten, a pretty public park
Urban river surfing! This is the manmade Eisbach Wave on the Eisbach River. I’d seen pictures of people surfing this probably 10 or 15 years ago and had to see it when I realized it was in Munich. It was awesome—maybe my favorite thing in the city.
More surfing
Below is a video I recorded of the surfing (click here if you can’t see the video). For best results, click the cog icon in the bottom-right corner and select 720p.
The Bavarian National Museum
A street
The Maximilianeum, seat of the Bavarian parliament. It also has the coolest name of any building in Munich.
Munich’s two islands in the River Isar (outlined in blue). The smaller is Prater Island and the larger is Museum Island. Living on Cozumel for three months gave me a thing for islands and the desire to visit as many as I can.
The bridge from Prater Island to Museum Island.
A beach on the River Isar
A park on Museum Island
The Jusitzpalast, a courthouse and administrative building