Marly's Visit To Munich, Germany
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I travelled to Munich with Stuart, who has a website about the city, Destination Munich . Also joining us was Lisa, a friend of Stuart’s who was kind enough to hold me up and show me things.
Munich is one of the biggest cities in Germany and the capital of the state of Bavaria. A lot of clichés some people think are typically German are really only from this state, for example, the leather shorts (Lederhosen) worn by some of the men and the elegant “Dirndl” dresses worn by the women. First we went to a place called Schloss Nymphenburg, a big old palace complex. This was where the royal family of Bavaria, the Wittlesbachs, used to spend their summer holidays. Inside there was a really interesting collection of paintings called the Gallery of Beauties. One of the Bavarian kings created it to show off all the beautiful women in his kingdom.
There’s a huge park around Nymphenburg with forests, lakes and canals. We saw a few fish in the canal who were swimming around with the mouths above the surface as if they were trying to breathe air or something. Really, who would have thought there could be such a thing?
Then we went into the Museum Mensch und Natur, a natural history museum right next to the palace. It was really fascinating. There were paintings and models of giant insects and displays about what’s inside humans and what they eat in different parts of the world. I even saw a model of a big red kangaroo from back home in Australia. One thing I found deeply disturbing, though, was the display about the story of Bruno. Bruno was a big Italian brown bear, who, just like me, loved to travel. A few years ago he walked all the way across the Alps through Austria and into Bavaria. He killed a few sheep and other animals (a guy’s gotta eat!) and when the hunters couldn’t catch him he was shot. With a tear in my eye we caught a tram into the city centre.
We walked from a city square called Karlsplatz-Stachus, and through one of the old city gates into the pedestrian zone. There we saw a group of six men carrying a crocodile down the street. There are some strange things going on with the animals in this town, honestly!
We arrived at the magnificent main square, Marienplatz, to have a look at the town hall. It’s a stunning building, stuffed with Neo-Gothic sculptures and its famous clock, the Glockenspiel. It plays a nice tune and there’s a play of figures up the top. They dance around and then tow figurines on horseback have a jousting contest. In the Middle Ages they used to have real jousting right there on Marienplatz.
Then we walked down to Munich’s famous food market, the Vitualienmarkt, and met a guy from Paris called Nic for coffee. Coming home on the train we shared a bottle of Oktoberfest beer. The Oktoberfest in Munich is one of the biggest parties in the world: it ropes in between six and seven million people from across the world every year. The beer was great, but a little strong for me, I don’t know how I’d go drinking from one of those one-litre beer krugs they have at the festival! Thank you Stuart and Lisa for a great time! To find out more about Munich, visit Destination Munich , Stuart's website.
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