Family reunion in Munich!

We’ve arrived in Munich to focus on some architecture and World War II sites, which I’ll get to in a minute, but first you need to see this German sporting goods store called Globetrotter. It has the largest collection of tents, camping gear, fleece and jackets etc. a la REI, but with about ten times the stock. In addition, they have an entire mini-lake to try out the kayaks:

And they have a cold room, where you can really test out the parkas (pic not mine):

Before we get started, I also want to show you my breakfast here at the Platzl Hotel. It’s an adorable buffet, full of German delicacies and I’ve decided to start each day with a massive pretzel (and other assorted items!):

Our first sight of the day was the Residenz Palace. This is the largest palace in Germany, with 130 rooms. It served as the seat of Bavarian government from 1508 to 1918. It was interesting to wander the palace and see that almost every sign had a note saying that it had been destroyed in World War II and rebuilt. It made me wonder exactly how much of Munich was destroyed. Here’s the Residenz Palace Antiquarium in 1944:

And here it is today:

I don’t know how many of the 130 rooms we saw, but we wandered for two solid hours. Here’s a few of the highlights. The first picture is the Grotto Courtyard from 1583, with hand laid shells:

And then this is the Green Gallery, from 1731, built for celebrations:

And the Queen’s Writing Room, with desks for every mood:

This ornate and gilded room featured an extremely stressful piece of animal attack art that Ron appreciated:

And then look at this room. It’s from a section of the Palace called The Stone Rooms, built of marble and marble stucco with inlays. In the 1700s, these were the most exclusive rooms in the Palace. The rooms were completely destroyed in WWII: (pic not mine)

In another section of the Residenz, the Palace Treasury holds over 1000 jewel and gold-covered items. Like this 1806 crown for the King of Bavaria: (pic not mine)

And this cool chess set:

The requisite old tweezing set – perhaps less valuable, but no less interesting:

We left the Palace and did a little wandering on our way to the Nazi Documentation Center. Here’s Ron with some gorgeous Munich architecture in the background – the Town Hall, from 1867:

And me, with a wall of cheese:

The Nazi Documentation Center is located on the site of the Brown House – the former headquarters of the Nazi Party. It’s only been open since 2015:

The museum does a really good job of documenting the political and social world of Munich after 1918 and gave me a better understanding of how Munich became an early breeding ground for Nazi hate and fervor. One angle I felt was really well covered was the opportunities the Bavarian government had vs. didn’t have to derail the movement before the momentum became unstoppable. There’s interesting footage of Munich by 1945, when the city had been 50% destroyed and had been struck by air raids 71 times. I’ll keep the rest of my thoughts to myself – as a Jewish American, having just looked at hundreds of concentration camp pictures in the museum, I’m not sure I can convey my mixed feelings about the destruction of the city.

I’ll leave you with these lighter sights from our wanderings. The first is a non-sanctioned Michael Jackson Memorial, superimposed onto the memorial to Orlande de Lassus, a Franco-Flemish Renaissance composer. The memorial sits in front of a hotel where Michael Jackson stayed once. We sat there for awhile, watching this woman further decorate and tend to it:

And then here’s a shot of the happy traveling family: