The Soprano usually steals the limelight, it's no different in this case. Munich proved to top the rest of the other places we've been due to the ambience, safety and food. The Christmas spirit hung densely in the German air, and instead of worrying about our belongings, everyone seemed to be having a good time mingling in their little clicks, no threat spotted, or felt. The only other place which gave us a greater peace of mind was Matera. And as for the food... Are German sausages really that "legendary"? U betcha! No matter whether its bratwursts, frankfurters or whatever-wurst, they all tasted delish! Still, I prefer the red ones compared to the greyish ones but I'm sure you'll find the one sausage which will make ur stomach groan in happiness. They were other delish local foods too, which I've to regretably put you on hold till my last post.
Our main purpose of stopping by Munich (located in the state of Bavaria) was due its proximity to Neuschwanstein Castle, more prominently known as the castle by which Disney's Sleeping Beauty was inspired from. Neuschwanstein was one of the many castles built by the late King Ludwig II, sometimes called the Swan King or the Fairy Tale King because of his obsession with both. A little bit of trivia here, is that King Ludiwg was declared insane. He was an introvert, and spent a huge bulk of his personal fortune building 2 palaces (Linderhof Palace and Herrenchiemsee) and a castle. I had initially misread that the nearby Castle Hohenschwangau was also built by him, but apparently it's his childhood home and was a medival knights' castle bought by his parents. And Nymphenburg Castle was where he was born. His downfall was caused by his cabinet of ministers who conspired against him. Despite being in debt, he insisted on getting more loans to realise his opulent architectural designs. And because his ministers did not allow that, he considered dismissing the entire cabinet and replacing them with new members.
I'll leave the rest of the reading to you, you can check it out at wikipedia. In the end, Ludwig drowned... cause of his death, unknown (possibly due to murder).
I love fairytales, castles, so-so. But I'm not obsessed with them. It's important to put this down because while I didn't expect much from Neuschwanstein, it proved to be the most memorable part of my honeymoon. Watching the snowcapped Swiss Alps right in front of you (less than half a klick away) at a nearby scenic spot of Neuschwanstein Castle, was superbly airy-fairy. As a matter of fact, the entire compound where both Castles are located was off-the-charts scenic. Even though upclose Neuschwanstein wasn't as white as I had imagined (it was rather greyish), the beauty of its humble loneliness sitting on a mountain top shed across the entire region.
It was quite a tiring upslope walk to the top, with horse-carriages galloping up and down the slope at times, tempting tourists along the way. There was the given horse-poop laying all around, so we were particular careful with each step we took (actually it's not that exaggerated, we were able to smell the poop on close proximities). However I wasn't that tempted because I felt the experience of walking up, then down the slope was memorable on its own.
Tickets into the castles have to be bought at the foot of the mountain (impt to take note that they don't sell tickets at the entrances of the castles), and they come either solo, where you'll be able to simply buy the entrance ticket for Neuschwanstein, or bundled (all 3 castles, including Linderhof).
We figured we would only have time for 1 castle, so all we bought was for Neuschwanstein. And it's so "exclusive" that you'll have to commit to a particular timing. There's no such thing as free-and-easy in the castle, all visits in the castle are by guided tours. Thankfully, there were many timings for the guided tours but in different languages. So we had to plan the timing for an English guided tour since it would take a person around 40 mins to climb up the mountain from the ticket booth (as advised by the staff at the ticket counter). There were buses going up which could save tourists some time and efforts, but unfortunately weren't running during winter, probably due to the slippery grounds.
Let's just say it wasn't worth entering. Tour guide's English was chui-max, it was so difficult to understand his heavily disguised English-German accent that I shut out midway. Only managed to catch bits and pieces of crucial words. Even though I say it's not worth, you'll have to enter the castle. Heard the castle isn't complete, so there wasn't much to see, and we moved from sections to sections so quickly that I couldn't soak in the late King Ludwig's lingering sentiments. We were like little sheep being hurried along from field to field... bbbbbaaaaa.....
The souvenirs was quite exclusive, at least they looked so, and we did indulge in a few over there. Down the village of Hohenschwangau, lies Lake Chiemsee, the freshwater pre-alpine (forming part of the Alps) lake. Gorrrrrggeeeooouusss. Simply GorrrrrGeeeoouuusss. Left me spellbound, the only song ringing in my head back then was Coldplay's Para, Para, Paradise...
It was a truly magical moment, and qualifies to be one of the entries in my imaginary book of "Gerard's recommendations for anyone's top 10 Bucket's List", which I just made up 10 seconds ago.
No surprise that after our visit by the time we returned to Munich, it was the "usual" dark city.
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| Hohenschwangau Castle |
The Marienplatz is Munich's central square, and there lies the tower of the New Town Hall which houses the Glockenspiel. In fact, by definition, it doesn't seem correct. The Glockenspiel is a percussion instrument that is composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. I think it's more like a Carillon (musical instrument consisting of at least 23 bronze, cup-shaped bells).
Well, perhaps the Glockenspiel was hidden. What ever it was, it was a large-sized musical clock that when it chimes (only 2 different timings daily; 11am and 5pm, also 12pm during summer) and like the Astronomical Clock of Prague, has moving bits which would keep you entertained for a good 15 mins. Remember to stay throughout the "show", because there's 2 parts of it, more literally, the top and bottom part.
The chimes re-enact 2 scenes from the 16th century, the top half - the marriage of the local Duke Wilhelm V and in celebration, a horse jousting between 2 knights, 1 representing Bavaria, the other Lothringen (a region in northeastern France). I recall seeing a familiar matrix dodging-bullet scene during the 2nd or 3rd round of the moving figurines. The Bavarian knight always wins...
As for the bottom half, it shows the cooper's dance (Schaffletanz). It's a traditional dance which dates back to the 15th century to bring fun and joy to the grieve-stricken citizens when a plague was rampant. It was led by a citizen from the Cooper's trade (barrel maker), hence the name. This tradition is re-enacted every 7 years on the Marienplatz. Not sure which year which date, which timing the next one's gonna be but we were not that Jackpot lucky to witnessed it.
While I'm at it, lemme digress a little with another small trivia. We also noticed their cute code of arms cast on their manhole covers. Munich's native name "Munchen" means "by the monks' place", derived from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city, hence the cutsie representation of them on their code of arms.
On our 2nd day there, we explored the local streets passing by several local attractions. Even went for mass at the Cathedral of our Blessed Lady, the city's largest church. But our main destination was the English Garden, where we spend most of the day there. It's like a muddier version of Singapore's Botanic Gardens, very open, very bustling, due to what looked like an "exclusive" local Xmas market set up near the entrance. Actually, the English Garden was super huge, and the Xmas market (Beer Garden actually) was located at the largest park area called the Chinesischer Turm.
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| Cathedral of our Blessed Lady |
The English Garden is supposed to present an idealized view of nature, containing a lake, Gothic temples, bridges, picturesque architecture and gentle sweeping lawns set against a backdrop of trees. Though we didn't see all of these (apparent there are, spotted all over the ginormous compound of the Garden... if you ask me, it's a sparsely populated forest), we did see locals jogging, bringing their dogs, graffiti covered bridges and a couple of duck-fested lakes. It was the first time (I think) that we saw this intriguing punkster looking duck... and we found out that it was actually... MANDARIN DUCKS! Sua-ku we were, but I'm sure no living Chinese-born Singaporean who has never seen a live picture of a mandarin duck would actually relate it to the wooden ones we folks would normally see being sold at Fengshui shops as well...
Epic lightbulb moment.
The Xmas markets in Munich easily lived up to their reputations. Even though we were only at 1 city in Germany, I dare confidently say that Germany has the best Xmas Christmas in Europe, in the whole world! An ice-skating rink, pro-buskers, brightly-lit shop fronts (closed though) with Germany's characteristic wooden toys and clocks on display, even a life-sized pyramid windmill which serves food at its base! Imagine that! B...E...A...UUU...TII....FUULLL!!! Period. Need I say more?
"Dear Munich, I have a feeling I'm going to see you again in the near future.... And I hope by then, you won't still hold the top spot for selling the most expensive bottled water in Europe (2.95euros for a 2L bottle). Because right now I'm just holding on to that excuse to check out the rest of the world first before heading back to see you. Hope you don't spoil my plans. Sincerely, a Smitten Singaporean Swain."
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