31 May 2016
I finally got to see where I am
The old architecture of Munich
This evening I was able to finish work on time, and have the night to myself, to splash around in the puddles of Munich and see where I actually am.
For the last couple of days all I did was walk out my hotel door, into the station, catch a train to a station underneath a convention centre, return home late on the same train and go to bed.
So I was excited to head off in the persistent rain.
The rain is threatening to be a problem for me, as there are floods all over France and its been raining here lightly for days, I wonder what state this has left the mountain trails in the Bavarian alps where I intend to head to on Saturday.
Back a few steps, Germans cant make coffee. I think they graduated the French school of coffee. What appear to be proper cafes have Nespresso machines. The only place I have seen with a person who actually makes coffee and does the milk themselves is Starbucks - much like Paris.
For breakfast your choices are cake, sausage, pretzel or chocolate. Or all 4. And possibly with beer. Beer is very popular, I think Munich invented beer.
At work I had a fancy lunch today, for which I consumed a vegan salad to combat potential future sausage combination meals. This is not news in itself, but the waitress was rude to the point of being funny. I could not work out if it was actually a joke or not.
When I ordered a diet coke with my lunch, the waitress called me a fairy, which I may well be but still. She then seemed to deliberately forget the food orders as she was taking them...for humor.
Then when the bill came she explained that failing to leave a tip will result in being banned from ever returning.
Anyway, Munich is interesting, its like Paris, all buildings have 5 floors. There are a lot of old buildings in the old city, as the name suggests, but the whole place is a tourist area with no cars, so all the old buildings are now modern shops.
There are also brand new buildings that have been made to look old, it must be a rule enforced by the city, some look ok, but others look badly out of place, as the pictures will show.
The main station merges 4 different types of trains - intercity, above ground intra city U trains, underground subway S trains, and trams.
I have discovered that a few of the stations are linked by underground malls such as this, useful when its raining as it is now, you can walk a couple of miles along here and get lost, as I did.
Just make sure you have a zen like control of your bladder, or 1 euro coins, as it costs a full Euro to buy the right to urinate.
Now we start to see old buildings. This is somewhere hitler did something - I have no idea, but he hung out here so one could assume.
This is presumably a church, under reconstruction of course, but it has no crucifix's. Such buildings are quite common, and usually have clocks. Munich loves clocks. But lots of buildings seem to be under perpetual restoration, so the clocks are stuck at 1 minute to midnnight.
Lots of buildings that appear to be churches have passages to courtyards such as this, where they turn out to be places to drink beer instead.
The ground floor of this is starbucks, burger king etc. Not sure whats going on above that floor.
Also Germany does not have a ground floor, instead it is level 0. Very logical.
Here is an example of a pre fabricated ancient clock tower. Note the brick lines are painted on.
I had a Mexican salad for dinner, yes really. It was ok, and quite cheap. I could have got a sausage taco if I wanted.
This is where Goebbels and Goring plotted to become secret lovers.
Also under restoration.
This street is the edge of the pedestrian zone of the old city, it is all the Gucci style shops. I believe they are basically all new buildings.
Quite a few facades have these elaborate statues depicting some kind of mythological tragedy. Which reminds me, there are lots of beggars in Munich around the station where my hotel is. Including a guy blowing randomly into a harmonica, he has a sign in English 'Is not just noise, is Greek music, is tragic, like Greece'.
Look what I found. A diet drink I have never before heard of. Its basically jaffa flavoured. Dear mezzo mix zero people, please come to Australia.