We woke at 8am local time all fairly well rested. Our hotel room was quite large with ‘artistic’ blue clouds painted on the ceiling and silver stag heads above the door and bed. God bless the Germans who are obviously smart enough not to electrocute themselves whilst drying their hair as there were power points in the bathroom – had not realised how much I missed this little luxury! We did not make it down to breakfast until well after 9am and found it extremely busy. Once again though Zac was in breaky heaven, no worries about his appetite at this stage.
It was a cold, wet start to the day with drizzle at times turning into snow. They had obviously had quite a bit of snow over the last week but we were pleased to have missed the worst of it at this stage of our travels. Our destination for today was the Christmas Market which was only a short walk from our hotel. There were quite a few small markets dotted around the city so we aimed for the one located at Marienplatz. It was still relatively early at this stage being only about 1030 (Markets opened at 10am) so it was a nice quiet time to have a good look around.
Marienplatz is the heart of the city of Munich. In the Middle Ages, the square used to be a market place as well as the place where tournaments and festivities took place. The square was originally known as Schrannen but it was renamed Marienplatz (St. Mary's Square) as a way to ask Virgin Mary to protect the town from a cholera epidemic.
The square is dominated by the New Town Hall (Neues Rathaus). The monumental, 79 meters high town hall was built between 1867 and 1909 in Flemish Gothic style to alleviate the overcrowded Old Town Hall (Altes Rathaus) nearby. Much to my delight there were gargoyles a plenty and also one impressive dragon scaling a doorway. Atop the tower was an enormous Glockenspiel or carillon. At 11 o’clock we were treated to the sight of the carillon figures performing the Schäfferltanz or cooper's dance, which was originally performed in 1517 at the Marienplatz to commemorate the end of the plague.
Glockenspiel with dancing figures
At the far end of the square stood the Old Town Hall. The original Old Town Hall was completely destroyed by fire in 1460. Between 1470 and 1480, the old town hall was rebuilt in Gothic style. The building was completely destroyed again during the second world war, but rebuilt afterwards following the original 15th century plans.
Beneath the shadows of these historic buildings lay the Christmas Market which was a Christmas decoration bonanza. I have never seen so many ‘build your own’ nativity scene pieces. We were to see this theme continued at all markets as no Bavarian (or Austrian) Christmas was complete without a Nativity Scene of some sort. We purchased a lovely small nativity all carved from a single piece of wood. We also eventually purchased two Nutcrackers for Zac and me (mine nearly 60cm tall), tea lights, ornaments and a Stein for Nathan. Yes, Nathan’s job as bag carrier just got a whole lot harder. On top of this were the gluhwein souvenir mugs. With every purchase of gluhwein (mulled wine) or kinderpuncsh (non-alcoholic version) you paid a few extra Euros for the mug. These could either be returned for a refund or kept as a souvenir. By the end of today we (ok mainly me) had collected 4. Abbey selected an angel ornament which she has decided to play with like a toy so we are none to sure how long it will last.
a little angel naturally!
Following our feast we walked off the after effects by perusing more markets. A great find was the fresh food farmers markets with lots of hanging rabbits and pork products on display. I also picked up my first cowbell of the holiday.
Considering how far we had made the kids walk we decided to take a hop on hop off bus tour with the idea of heading back to the hotel for a rest. The tour itself was a tad short on information though we did see some impressive buildings including Glyptothek (a collection of ancient Greek and Roman Sculpture, at Konigsplatz.
The Glyptothek
When we reached Odeonsplatz we had just passed a medieval looking market so opted to hop off for a look around. This was well worth the time even if we only had Odeonsplatz itself to look at.
Odeonsplatz is a large pedestrian square on the north side of Munich's central old town. The square is flanked on the East side by the Residenz, on the South side by the Feldherrnhalle and on the West side by the Theatinerkirche or Theatiner Church.
The most prominent structure on the Odeonsplatz is the Feldherrnhalle or Field Marshal's hall. Together with the Theatinerkirche, this building gives the Odeonplatz the appearance of an Italian Square. The Feldherrnhalle consists of a covered hall with three arches. A staircase at the central arch leads to the entrance which is flanked by two Bayern lions. The structure was designed in 1841 after the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence, Italy. It was built on the request of Ludwig I who wanted to honor his Bavarian generals.
On the west side of the Odeonsplatz is the copper-domed Theatinerkirche. The church was built in Italian high-baroque style after the San Andrea del Valle church in Rome. The current facade in late rococo style was only finished in 1768.
After a day of German eating, Nathan took the time to duck out during the evening in search of some fruit. Our concerns for scurvy were mounting!
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