Palatial buildings and pretty lights.

Synopsis of day: A final day of walking through Munich.

Highlight of the day: The Antiquarium of the Residence, which was the seat of the House of Wittelsbach, which had control of Bavaria from 1180-1918. The room was filled with busts of Roman statesmen or influential women of antiquity, plus some fine wall paintings. Based on the grandeur of this room alone, the entry price to the palace was justified. 

Second highlight was the view from the top of the St Peter’s tower which overlooked the city. Jette and I walked up in time for sunset and to see the lights of the markets and the city. 

Lowlight of the day: Once again the room was swathed in light through the night and I was woken by the streetsweepers and noisy peeps outside. This is not a quiet hotel by any stretch.

Favourite photo:

Overlooking Marienplatz

Derek’s selfie of choice:

Derek at the Medieval Markets

Shameless selfie:

Inside the Antiquarium.

Historical Fact of the Day: Bavaria was declared a free state in November 1918, which is when the Residence was no longer used by the monarchy. The end of WWI really shook things up for the Germans.   

Cultural-shock moment: It was a good one, but walking through the staterooms of the palace and seeing portraits of past Dukes, Electors and Kings of Bavaria, dating back to the eleventh century was a stark reminder of how limited our knowledge of other cultures can be. I could name only several of these rulers, yet to the locals they have great significance.

Secondly, it is a great cultural shift to be able to walk into buildings which have been built and adapted across more than five hundred years. We can’t compete by any stretch.

New food consumed: A hot beverage recommended by our guide called Feuerzangenbowle, which was available at the markets. It was lovely and I’ll be looking out for it again in Austria.

Best purchase of the day: Entry to the Residence.

Random act of crazy: Shared between the Medieval Christmas Market and the sheer opulence of the Residence. The notion that all the treasures and wealth and many, many rooms could exist just a number of kilometres away from a place where people’s possessions were stripped from them and they were allowed one set of clothes and rudimentary bowls and spoons is a crazy indictment on the inequality of people.  

Something I want to remember:

Walking through the rooms of the residence. Some of the statues, tapestries and furnishings were divine.

Yesterday evening was the part of the tour so we started with an orientation tour of the city. We visited a number of places I had seen already from my own walks or from the Third Reich tour. When I had my own time I decided to visit the Residence, a palatial complex which was the summer residence of the Bavarian rulers. It was quite enormous and not very crowded, so most of the time I traipsed through the buildings and enjoyed the quietness and immensity of the rooms. The design was tasteful (except for the Grotto which was Gaudi-esque). 

The Antiquarium as indicated earlier was my favourite, but there were also some divine wall hangings, tapestries, parquetry and mirrors. One of the doors I saw had a beautiful inlaid design which I really liked. 

There were many rooms and corridors and I didn’t see the whole complex but it still took me several hours to make my way through the sections I did see. Much of the Residence was bombed during the war so there were many reconstructions. The primary chapel was so damaged that it was not reopened until 2003.    

As it had started raining while I was in the complex I made my way back to the hotel for a bit. My roommate Jette returned from her travails and we decided to head back into the city and explore a few of the markets Sonya had recommended. As it turned dark we took the twenty or so floors of steps up the tower. It was utterly worth it as the city lights, especially of the town hall and the Christmas markets were sparkling and entrancing. We stayed up there for some time and I was thankful that the sprinkling rain had petered out by that point. 

As the evening continued we headed back to the hotel to meet up with a few of the other girls from the tour and we went out to a bierhouse but the portions were a little more reasonable. As it was, I still didn’t finish my meal and ended up needing to head back earlier than the others, who continued the revelry into the night.