My Vacation: Munich
Part seven in a series on my journey through Europe to retrace my Great-Grandmother’s 1914 travel diary on the centennial of its writing
Like Daisy, I spent three wonderful nights in Munich. But unlike her pleasant arrival from Dresden, I reached Munich bleary-eyed after spending the prior night wandering the streets of Prague.
And this sleepless night was entirely unintentional. The train I booked from Dresden to Munich was supposed to be a sleeper train, but it wasn’t.
I ended up getting dumped in Prague by my first train and then immediately kicked out of the station by Czech police, left to wander Prague’s rainy streets for six hours until the station reopened and my connection arrived. If I find the time, I might write a post about this experience later.
Because of this night, very little happened my first day in Munich. When I got to my hotel room I passed out immediately and didn’t wake up until late in the evening. I then spent the rest of night writing, reading and planning for the next day.
Daisy arrived on July 15 and left for Venice the morning of the 18th, and it’s her activities on the 17th that I tried to follow. For the 16th, she wrote mostly about seeing an opera by Richard Wagner at Tonhalle, which I couldn’t visit because the building was destroyed during World War II. It still hurt to walk on my foot so I rented a bike and plotted out a route with the Royal Glyptothek as my first stop.
July 17
We visited first thing, the Royal Glyptothek and this I have described in the Fact book. If any other information is wished, Mary would be delighted to tell, for she carries with her the guide and can answer any question.
I enjoyed especially the aeginatian room where we saw the sculptures discovered in Aegina in 1811 near a Doric temple.
I found the Glyptothek easy enough, locked my bike up and went inside. King Ludwig I commissioned the Glyptothek in the early 19th century to hold his Greek and Roman sculpture collection, and according to the docent this makes it the oldest public museum in Munich. It was completed in 1830, and despite suffering significant damage during World War II it remains essentially the same as when Daisy first visited. The only major difference I noted was the absence of frescoes that adorned the museum’s interior prior to the war.
The sculptures of Aegina that Daisy described still exist, and they were easily my favorite ones in the museum. The centerpieces for the Aeginatian rooms are the East and West pediments of the Aegina Temple. They share a similar layout and general style, both depicting Greeks and Trojans at war. For example, the western one features Achilles and Ajax and the eastern focuses on their respective fathers, Peleus and Telamon.
What makes these pediments famous though, is that despite their similarity, they also represent a transition from the idealized style of the Archaic period to the realism of the Classical period, with the West pediment representing the former style and the eastern representing the latter.
This is most obvious in the way death is depicted in the western sculptures versus the eastern equivalents.
To the left is a dying soldier on the western pediment. Even though he has an arrow in his chest and is clearly dying, he reclines casually as if it’s nothing at all. Meanwhile, on the eastern pediment, we see a soldier die far more realistically.
He is slouched over, struggling to hold himself up, with his left hand slipping out of his shield. His expression of pain also runs counter to the western pediment soldier who, to me at least, looks like he’s smiling. I should point out that I have limited training in the classics, and I’m merely parroting our docent. But I thought this history was all pretty interesting so I took notes.
From the Glyptothek, I made my way to Ludwig Strausse and found the Staat Library, the Royal Church and the University. Compared to the Glyptothek there wasn’t as much to see at these stops. Daisy mentions them in the excerpt below though so I snapped a few photos for your reference.
This afternoon Mary and I took a walk through the mist to explore the city with our map as our guide we found Ludwig Strausse. We visited the Staat Library. Then the Royal Church, then the University.
From the University, I biked past the Sendlinger Tor on my way to the English Garden. Daisy wrote a bit more about it below, and the garden was easily my favorite part of Munich.
We walked through the Sendlinger Tor and found our way to the English Gardens. I wonder why they call this the English garden — there aren’t enough trees and shrubbery to call it English. But it is very natural and roomy and is worthy of its situation. Through it are two streams brought from the Isar. We saw the little power houses which pumps water to the fountains of the University.
As I biked into the English Garden more and more trees covered the path until finally they blocked out the sky, sheltering me in their lush green tunnel. I pedaled harder and the air carried a comforting chill that slid past my face and made my eyes water. Absent the birds in the trees and an occasional crunch of tires on fallen leaves the winding track was perfectly quiet.
I rode for what felt like a quarter mile before the faint sound of polka music broke the silence. I could see an opening in the trees ahead and as I rode toward it the music grew louder. When I reached the clearing I found a beer garden and stopped in for a drink.
My level of proficiency with German is amateur at best, and it certainly does not extend to the comprehension of sizes. I know “Groß” and “klein,” but past that I have to resort to hand waving.
Thanks to this particular beer garden though, I know one more size now: “Maß.” A full Bavarian Maß measures in at one litre, which is the equivalent of about three standard American beer bottles, and the mug itself is as big as your face. So when the bartender pulled one out I knew I’d made a mistake in communicating my desire for a quick drink.
I enjoyed my Maß of Löwenbräu so much that I went back for another, at which point I learned that German beer improves ones ability to speak the language, so I felt it’d be a travesty to not stay and practice a bit. Some singing and further drinking ensued.
Eventually I returned to my bike and left the English Garden. I rode on and saw the Schackgalerie, the Luitpold bridge, the Isar river, the Column of Peace, and the Maximilleanum. I had some drafts where I wrote a bit about them, but I like Daisy’s descriptions much better so I’ve included her full entry below. The original copy is below that, followed finally by the pictures I took of each place.
We felt very brave as we consulted our map and recognized the building, streets, etc. The Museum Shacks Gallery [Schackgalerie], the fountain and on to the Luitpold bridge. We raved over the Isar river — It came rushing on and on, an object seen up the stream soon rushed# out of sight under the bridge — the water though usually green was now very milky# looking. They said “this was the time for the melting of the snow of the mountains just 20 hrs. off” — Germans never would tell distances by ### measurement, but always by time. Just across the bridge and on a very high embankment was the Column of Peace erected after the Peace treaty with France. The figure is very striking as it stands so high above its surroundings. There were beautiful approaches# to it. In front was a pond with an interesting fountain, but the most interesting of all was the color effect on the side of the approach# of the column by mosses and water flowers grown in the large niche there and fed by the dripping water. We went on toward the Maximilleanum — enthused over the fall and the island but more over the Maximilleanum. We went up the walk to the right and met “the American” then went on into this huge palace up to the top and on the veranda we could see the mountains around. We could see Munich as it lay in the Valley separated by its river. We could now understand why the towers of the Frauen Kirche stood as an emblem for München. How like a guardian it stood watching its city.
The Maximillianum was very wonderful. Its great height, its extensiveness, its furnishings are wonderful. It is no longer furnished as a royal palace but is more like a gallery with its pictures. I have heard it is the school for civil service training.
We crossed the bridge Maximillian and went home through the city. In all the shop windows on the streets the München Maidens or the Frauen Kirche was found as a mark for Munich. But we hurried home and were just a little late for dinner.
