Munich - Day 4 and stuff

Monday was the last day in Munich. Our flight wasn't until 7 in the evening, so we had essentially the whole day to play with. We headed up to the museum area (not the same, smaller one, we had been to the day before), most of which were closed on Monday. Basically, the ruling family of Bavaria, the Wittelsbachs, had managed to accrue vast quantities of art in various forms and decided to make a bunch of museums out of it. There was the Greek and Roman statue museum, some, um, other museums, and then three art museums - divided into old, new, and modern. The new was the only one open on Mondays, so that's the one we went to. Keeping in mind that 'new' was a relative term as the museum was over a hundred years old, the museum featured European art ranging from approximately 1800 to a little after 1900, with one of the representations of Van Gogh's Sunflowers (we've seen 3 of them so far, out of 8 or so), and a smattering of other impressionist paintings. I enjoyed the museum, but was slightly put off by the fact we were sort of being chased around by a group of about 30 5 year-olds.

After the museum we meandered through the not quite as old as the Marienplatz area streets, walking past the Residenz, the large Wittelsbach pad, and past the like, cutest ever giant yellow church. I think giant churches should be yellow more often. Then, after much ado, we returned to the Haufbrauhaus for lunch and so Mark could get a stein from the gift shop (let's not go into the days of debate this purchase involved). Being mid-day, it was a bit more subdued than the previous Friday and it was easier to get a seat. The band was there, and every so often really big tour groups came in, all walking past the band and stopping to take pictures. Coupling the longing for one last giant stein and the fact that it was mid-day on a Monday, we decided to get radlers to drink, aka, shandy. Apparently 'radler' is the word for cyclist and cyclists can't get plastered while riding around so they go for the half lager/half lemonade combo. I enjoyed.

Our following attempts at shopping were a bit uninspired so we ended up again at a bierhalle recommended by our book in the basement of the new town hall. It was a giant labrynth of rooms with low vaulted ceilings, and we had this strange little u-shaped narrow booth. The only other people in our are were these 3 American guys from different parts of our land, who were clearly finishing up a ski trip and were discussing the election. It's kind of funny hearing southern sorts say 'Obama'. Anyways, after that we went back to the hotel to pick our bags and headed off to the airport. With my spiffy new passport and accompanying visa, I had no issues getting back into the country. Although I think now the process is permanently associated with extreme anxiety.

So what's the deal with Munich? Well, I'm glad you asked. I found Munich to be a very nice city to visit, an excellent combination of history, culture, and fun. While obviously filled with it's fair share of tourists, you were still constantly surrounded by locals most places you went. People could generally speak some English, but you couldn't help but feel a bit guilty requesting they speak to you in it. In the 'things I found surprising' bracket, everyone always paid in cash at bars and restaurants. We got more than one sort of grown when we requested to pay by card in these situations. Then there was the confusion of trying to get around a lot of places - like when we couldn't figure out how to get out of the underground station by our hotel (this actually happened several times as we came out at different places), and then again when we were trying to figure out what the heck was going on at the Munich Staadtsmuseum and where we were supposed to be going at the Jewish Museum. At the Deutches Museum there were seemingly invisible doors leading to major exhibits, making them very difficult to find even with maps. It was a rather strange recurring theme in our minds - this whole lack of signage and clarity of process.

In the 'why don't they do this everywhere category' there were the escalators. At many of the stations, the escalators would a) stop moving when not in use and then magically motor up when you arrived at them and b) some reversed directions! We tried figuring out exactly how this worked, like if you pressed a button or just had to wait in a certain spot, but couldn't quite figure it out. I couldn't help but think of all those escalators in Las Vegas that just constantly run all the time even when nobody is around, and all the wasted energy. There's much more I could comment on, but those were my greatest observences. Make of them what you will!