More than a week late: Wednesday's Trip to München

If you've ever seen, read, or heard anything about München, you've probably heard of Marienplatz. It is the hot spot, and it's most well known for the Glockenspiel. The Glockenspiel is a set of bells, complete with marionettes, set on one of the spires of the München courthouse, or Rathaus. The verb raten means to advise, so there you have it. Every day it chimes at 11 am, and gives a short reenactment of two popular 16th century stories. One of the stories has to do with a Duke's marriage, and the knight joust went on to celebrate the marriage. Everyone cheers when the two knights cross paths. The other story harks back to the days of the plague. The plague really struck München pretty hard, as did the war. There are virtually no older buildings in München because everything was so bombed out, but they rebuilt over the older buildings, since they didn't have enough money to completely start over. München is definitely not one of the prettiest cities in Germany, because of the fact that everything is fairly modern. In all honesty, I think I prefer the quaint, cuteness of Regensburg. It was interesting to be here again, period, and I thought about my visit with Ray and Ben. I think I had more fun with Ray and Ben, but I might have learned more this time. I also remember where I had my first Fanta, in München, which is actually very close to this courthouse.
We ended up taking a tour with this strange tour guide. She had an interesting accent, and really liked to roll her "r"s. She was weird, but I think I understood her well enough. She took us by some strange stores, but I think maybe the stores pay her tour guide company to advertise for them. That would be my guess. She took us to this lingerie store, where you could buy "pretty little somethings". It was just awkward. None of us knew why we were there. She also took us by this gelatto shop, and told us it was the best in the city, but I wasn't that impressed. I can't really describe why she was weird, but everyone thought so. We ended our tour at a Baroque church, and we were all glad to be rid of her. Even Orlando.
The outside of the church was a bright yellow,
and really Baroque, with lots of curves and swerves. I thought it was really pretty from the outside, but you would never guess what it looks like from the inside. Our guide told us before she left that it's known as the creepy baby church, or something like that, because all the sculptures inside have the proportions of a baby. She was right. It was odd, but I liked it. Normally Baroque churches have lots and lots of gold on the inside, but this one didn't. It was all completely white, I think something to do with the fact that the church was built in thanksgiving that some Duke or something finally had a child. Which is why everything looks like a baby. I thought was really pretty and different, despite the strange babies. A lot of people don't like Baroque art, because it's pretty over the top and a bit gaudy with all the gold, but I kind of appreciate it. The architects paid a lot of attention to light sources and made sure to put lots of windows near objects that they wanted to illuminate, to create an emphasis. They'd do this with a statue of one of the holy family, or a the patron saint of the church, for example. They still did this, but it was just a lot different since it was all white.

After the baby church, we all went to the HofBrau Haus for lunch. The München HFB is pretty famous, and we were excited to go there, even thought there is one in Regensburg, too. Well, we were all very disappointed by our visit. First off, we had a horrible waiter. After waiting for at least ten minutes before anyone even came to our table, our waiter walked by and literally threw some English menus down at us, even though we already had several German ones on our table. None of us needed the English menu. It took him forever to take any of our orders, and then we waited a lot time to pay as well. The food and the beer also wasn't that great. Even Orlando was really mad at the waiter. He told us the best beer was at the Augustiner brauerei, so we'll have to go there later I suppose. And then, Allison and I were looking for the bathroom, and we asked a waitress, and rather than saying anything she just stuck out her arm, palm open, and pointed in the general direction. All without saying a word. Germans are just weird sometimes. For example, if you are trying to go into a building, and someone else is exiting, people almost never do the courteous thing and let the other person go first. Someone always barges through. I just find it odd, and a tad annoying. Also, I don't think I've ever seen a man open a door for a woman, or even help her put on a her coat. Those are just standard occurrences in the US, but that never seems to happen here.
The next part of the trip has been one of my favorite things we've done so far. We went to an exhibit over the influence of Europe over Walt Disney's work. I had never really thought about it, but whenever you talk to an American, they will say that pictures of Europe look like a fairy tale. Well, now I really understand why. Almost all of our experience with fairy tales has been dictated by Walt Disney, and he strove towards the beauty of the European landscape. It was really interseting to see other artwork that Disney took influence from. There were three works there that really just made my mouth drop open. Here's one most of you probably haven't heard of, but there is a artist named Piranesi that MC Escher also took a lot of influence from. I had just studied Piranesi last semester, so this was pretty cool for me. MC Escher is the guy who did all the tangram artwork.
Here is a work by Piranesi..I don't think this is the exact one that was on display, but I think it is a very similar study.



And here on the left is MC Escher, maybe you'll recognize it.






Next, I saw this, which I didn't previously known the painter's name, John, Grimshaw, but had seen his work many times on notecards. This photo is not very good, but the painting was absolutely stunning. It encapsulated everything that it should in regards to a fairy. The paint literally sparkled. It was breathtaking.





But then, as I was walking past some other paintings in the room with the above, I noticed a painting in the next room that literally made my jaw drop. I didn't even bother with the rest of the stuff in the room I was already in. Lets just say, John William Waterhouse is kind of a big deal to me. I was in awe. I still can't believe I got to see one of his paintings. This photograph does it no justice. I stood in front of it for a good ten minutes. It was fabulous!



There was also some work by Edward Burnes-Jones, which I was excited about, but apparently I was just too in awe over the aforementioned, because I can't remember what it was. :) All in all though, it was a pretty great trip!