2010

And....here's a larger view of the portal seen in Picture 3, although techically I don't know if this is really considered a portal.

More flowerboxes and statues....

As opposed to the Neues Rathaus, this older Rathaus, on the same square, is genuinely medieval, constructed in about 1310, although as with the New City Hall, construction continued for many years, not being completed until 1394. It was redesigned twice, in 1470-1480 when it was rebuilt in late-Gothic style by the architect Jorg von Halsbach, and again in 1861-1864 in Neo-Gothic style, being completed only 10 years before the city government was moved to the New City Hall. It had to be rebuilt again in 1945-1974 to repair damage from World War II, and now exists in its form post-1974.

The current Alter Peter Kirche, constructed in 1368, is the oldest church in Munich, but actually replaced an even older church constructed on the site in 1290, which in turn had replaced an even older one from 1158, leading some historians to believe that it may have been the starting point for the city. The spire, which is clearly not gothic, was added in the 17th Century. This photo, incidentally, is gloomy because it was raining (notice the umbrellas). This was what the weather was like for most of my visit.

Donist is a restaurant very close to the two town halls, and was where I had lunch. The interior decorations are clearly modern reproductions, for the most part, but the roof beams appear to be originals (they may just be excellent copies), and the building seems old enough. The food here was really rich and the beer was okay too, being a house brand by the looks of it, although Hacker Pschorr (the brand advertised in this picture) probably made it. I don't know much about that. In general I liked the place.

Here's the Donist beer I mentioned earlier. I'm obviously not claiming this is a great photo, since it's a cameraphone photo, but I figure it's not too bad for what it is. I'm not aware of whether this is technically considered a separate beer from Hacker-Pschorr, or not.

Here's the menu. It reminds me a little bit of some Czech cartoons. :-)

Although Donist had its own beer mugs and beer, Hacker-Pschorr's promotional material and advertising was everywhere, as in the writing on the wall (There's probably a joke there, but I'm missing what it could be right now), and as in this coaster.

The St. Michael-Kirche is one of the largest and best known buildings in the old city centre of Munich, but although the famous bell towers were uncovered when I visited (visible in the distance on the right), the front portal was covered over by scaffolding, screwing up my photo. Needless to say, I took this with my cameraphone so that I wouldn't waste film on it.

In spite of its Baroque-like appearance, the Burgersaal Kirche was consecrated in 1778. The building is older, dating to about 1710, which would explain its appearance. A Wikipedia article is available here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%BCrgersaalkirche_%28Munich%29

The Karlstor is a medieval gate connecting Neuhauser Strasse with Karlsplatz. I haven't been able to get a date of construction, other than that it was part of a city wall constructed in about 1285.

This is the fountain in Karlsplatz, on the other side of the Karlstor.

I think I had read somewhere that DB rented out bikes, but I had never actually found one and photographed one before. This one wasn't too far from the Karlsplatz.

The Oberlandesgericht looks like a vintage 19th-Century factory, but in reality it's a court of appeal, which makes sense since it's right next door to the Justice Palace. I haven't been able to find out if its still in operation, though, as it appears to be under reconstruction.

This is one of the trams operated by MVG, which is the Munich transit authority. I don't know a lot about the system, but this appears to be an R3_3 Class. This was taken on Prielmayerstrasse.

Here's another tram on Prielmayerstrasse.

Constructed in 1890-1897 in Neo-Baroque style, the Justice Palace in Munich houses several different courts, including District Court I, and also houses the Bavarian Department of Justice. One of the most famous cases to be tried here was that of the White Rose activists Hans Scholl, Sophie School, and Christoph Probst, who were subsequently guillotined for distributing anti-war pamphlets.

Like most railway stations constructed between the 1940's and the 1980's, many people would consider Munchen Hbf to be ugly. I would argue, however, that since it has been fairly well-maintained, and has fairly clean lines, it isn't as ugly as some stations of its era and style.