Munich Day 2

Our second day in Munich was full of sunshine, beautiful views, and stellar street performers. It began with a group trip to The Duetch Museum, which is one of the largest science and engineering museums in the world.

I spent most of my time in the mining exhibit. The museum created a huge replica of a mine that you can walk through. It follows German coal mining through the decades and also highlights salt and phosphate mining. Hidden deep in the building’s basement, it was kind of eerie to walk through alone. The passages are narrow and the floors creaky, and the whole place smelled of coal. I felt like I was actually in a mine, and had to remind myself on several occasions that I wasn’t!

 

After my time in the basement I made my way to the museum’s roof, which doubles as a Sundial Garden. I checked out the sundials…sort of…but was really more impressed by the incredible view of the city that my six story climb had afforded me. 

Industrialism is a defining feature of the German landscape, especially in the Ruhr Region where I’ve spent most of my trip. But I felt like seeing century old towers beside decade old smokestacks kind of defined Germany for me. Its industrialism is not a mar on its otherwise historic and quaint cultural landscape. These smokestacks are as much a part of Germany as the now crumbling aqueducts are a part of Rome. I've come to see them as something beautiful—as history in the making. 

When we left the museum, we went to a special place on the Eisbach River where dams create artificial waves large enough to surf on, and watched some local surfers brave the waves. It was a cool little quirky thing that I’m glad I got to see.

We then ate in a shady corner of the Viktualien Market. It was sunny and breezy and perfect and the food was absolutely delicious! All pretzels should be head sized or bigger! Pretzel purity laws, anyone?

After that we decided it was time for more stairs! We climbed to the top of St. Peter's Church, a 306 step climb known as the Alter Peter. The view from the top was incredible but even more moving was our experience inside the church.

This is the view of Marien Platz from the very top of the church tower. Wow!

We decided to peek inside the church because there was a 15-minute wait to climb the tower. And within seconds of entering, it became my favorite church I’ve seen in Europe thus far. I have to say that the pictures I took do not do it justice. We’d been sitting enjoying the beauty of the church for a few minutes when we heard the sound of a choir coming from above. Expecting a sound system, I turned to see a full choir with an orchestra and organ playing above us. Sitting there listening, was sublime. I don’t know how to do the profundity of the moment justice other than to say WOW!

We eventually tore ourselves away from the church and made our way to the English Gardens which I’ve heard described as the Central Park of Munich. There we watched a few really talented street performers, and took a refreshing little catnap in the grass (walking can be exhausting!).

After that, we took the subway back to the hotel, which was honestly something of a feet for two suburban kids who speak no German. And that was the day! It was a lot of walking but I feel like there’s no better way to really see a city! If blisters are the cost of adventure, I am willing to pay my fare.