Munich!

The BOY says:

We spent rather little time while in Munich, perhaps just over 2 days. We arrived on Sunday night and couldn’t do much but have dinner and retire to our hostel room for ‘Cluedo’…..

The next day however, we took a long expedition (2 hour train ride) out of Munich city to a small town called Fussen in order to get to the famous Neuchwanstein Castle. This was the ‘fairy-tale’ castle built by the ‘Mad’ King of Bavaria, King Ludwig II. Apparently, when Disney was designing their iconic Sleeping Beauty castle, they modeled it after this particular one. Neuchwanstein was truly a sight to behold. Situated on the foothills of the Swiss Alps, it was literally a castle in the clouds. To top off this fairytale experience, the girls were obsessed with taking a horse-drawn carriage up to the gates of the castle to arrive in true Cinderella fashion. “Insert yawn here.” For me, the horses kind of stank, the carriage didn’t really look quite impressive and I could have walked faster then the 2 poor horses that’s been dragging fat tourists uphill all day. We eventually got to the castle gates, albeit somewhat late but managed to pop in just before our dedicated admission time expired for the tour of the castle interior. Though far from complete (due to King Ludwig’s sudden, untimely and somewhat questionable death), the completed sections of the castle interior is one of the most opulent ones in existence. Solid gold decoratives, numerous tapestries and paintings of Wagner’s Operas and even a man-made grotto. This was truly a castle of castles. We were, as many have already guessed, not allowed to take any photos of the castle interior. Is it really because the camera flash damages the paintings? I think they just want monopolize the photos and sell it to tourists like us. It probably wasn't the best day to see the castle cause it was snowing/raining extremely heavily, which explains the somewhat blurry pictures.

Castle Neuchwanstein, a fairy-tale castle in the clouds

The other less famous castle, the Hohenschwangau.

Horse carriages to take you up the hill!

A section of the castle up close

The castle shrouded in the mist, now it looks kind of haunted.

After the tour of the castle, we took a walk to up the mountain trail to Mary’s Bridge, a metal bridge across the mountain valley. This was a nerve-wracking experience crossing the bridge because it was snowing ever so heavily and the metallic bridge was really slippery, and it creaks. After snapping some photos here, we went down to catch a bus back to the train station and thus was the end of our adventure here at the alps.

Goon walking up the mountain trail with a snowball on her head.

Goon and Mary's Bridge.

Goon in the forests, look how tiny she is.

The next day, we went on a free walking tour of the city because firstly, its free and secondly, our train to Prague only departs at 4.44pm in the afternoon. Our Canadian guide brought us to all the major sights within the city area. An especially interesting place is the Frauenkirche or church of our lady, which is rumored to have been built with the help of the devil. Long ago in ancient Bavaria, the people decided to build an extremely grand and impressive place of worship. So they came together and started construction on the Frauenkirche. This naturally angered the devil and he decided to destroy this grand building before anyone could use it as a place of worship. So he walked into the front door of the church ready to raze it to the ground when he realized that there were no windows at all. So he thought to himself, that if this church were completed, it would be a church of darkness and nobody would ever think of using this place. So the devil summoned the architect and promised to help him build it if he would not put any more windows into the building. The architect agreed and the church was built in record time. (I can’t remember how long but it was really quick, hence giving the story credibility) When the church was completed, the devil came back to gloat only this time, he entered through the side door. Lo and behold, he saw streams of light coming in through numerous windows, choirs singing and everyone was happy and joyfully worshipping the Lord. The devil summoned the architect and demanded to know why he went back on his word. To this, the architect calmly led him to the front door and showed him into the church and sure enough, the devil could not see a single window from the front door. (This is really true because the pillars of the church block the windows from view if you look from the front door) The devil, having been outsmarted by a mere human architect was mad with rage and stamped his foot hard on the ground and vanished with a puff of smoke. To this day, the imprint of his foot can be seen at the front door of the church. Nice story?

Frauenkirche

The front door of the Frauenkirche

The devil's footprint?!

Notice that there are no windows?

The Frauenkirche is one of the few buildings still intact after World War II. The church was spared from being bombed by the allies not because of religious reasons but because the twin towers served as a landmark and reference point for the allies to target their bombing missions and thus, the pilots were ordered not to destroy it. Most of Munich’s other sights are recreations after the war but perhaps the most accurate ones in Germany as Hitler had a soft spot for Munich and ordered photos of Munich’s buildings taken before the war in order for reconstructions to be as accurate as possible. He did so as Munich was where he initially rose to power and the birthplace of the Nazi regime.

The Rathaus, the new town hall.

The old town hall

St Mary's Statue

St Peter's Church

The Munich Opera House

After the tour, we quickly went back to collect our luggage and headed to the train station where a 6-hour train ride would take us to our next destination, Prague.