We had a slower start to the day today and with breakfast out of the way, walked around the corner to check out Asam Kirche, a Rococco style church built in the 1700's by two brothers. We had seen the outside last night, and wanted to look inside too. It is probably the most ornate church I have ever seen. Not large, but almost every square millimeter is covered with carvings or statues of some kind (photo below).
We had decided to do a 3 hour walking tour today, and chose Sandemans. This tour is notionally free, the guides only earn tips. The company organize other tours that do cost, but these ones do not. We all arrived in Marienplatz at 10:45, and split into different language groups. Our guide was Severin, a cheerful guide, with very good English (the other half of the English speaking group was actually taken by an Aussie!) Severin told us many facts about Munich as we walked around to different sites, and did so with great humor, often using members of the group to help illustrate different things. See photo below where one person is acting the part of the river. Luckily, neither if us were asked to be the bridge! Here are a few pieces of information we learned today:
The New Town Hall, although it looks very old, was actually built in the early 1900's. The Old Town Hall was destroyed during World War 2, and then rebuilt. So really, the Old Town Hall is newer than the New Town Hall!
The glockenspiel in the tower is (and I quote) "the second most over rated tourist attraction in Europe". The bells are all out of tune, and it is very hard to tell what melody they are actually playing.
When the Church of our Lady was being built, they ran out of money, so went to the Pope for help. The Pope had a brilliant idea to raise the funds: anyone who came to this church and confessed all their sins (any sin), then donated a weeks wage would be given complete absolution........they soon had building back on track. Severin noted that the same deal is not on offer today.
Oktoberfest started as a wedding feast for the then king, but everyone enjoyed it so much they decided to have another party the next year .... and they are still doing it.
With the rest of the afternoon we wanted to go to the English Garden. This is not as simple a place as it sounds, it is an inner city park that is larger than Central Park in New York. It features a Chinese pagoda that is used as a huge beer garden, a beautiful stream that flows through the park, and apparently at one end, there is a surfing wave pool (we didn't find it) and a Japanese tea house and garden. The place is huge, it would take days to explore all corners, and we didn't have that much time!
We then decided to venture out to the Olympic village, another short train ride. Errol was delighted as the first thing we saw was the BMW Welt - here they display many models of BMW and Mini, and you can just open the door and sit in anyone of them - who could resist! We could also have queued to do the same with a Rolls Royce. Then upstairs the motor bikes were on display. We moved on to the Olympic Village, which was a major disappointment, it has really been let go. The swimming pools are in use, but several other buildings were in a state of disrepair or under renovation. One of the tennis courts actually had weeds growing in it.
Back on the train - we are starting to get the hang of the trains. Rested up for a bit, then went out for a late tea. It is still light around 7:30 - 8:00 pm, and there are always lots of people out and about.
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