May 16 - Munich, Germany

Karlstor
Karl's Gate is a recreation of the original, which was destroyed in 1857 by an accidental explosion of gunpowder that was to be stored in the main tower. The new tower was constructed between 1899 and 1902. The original was a part of a fortification of the city, which was constructed between 1285 and 1347 and had a moat and all! The current tower is actually larger to allow for modern transportation (ie. horse drawn carriages and the occasional electric tram). It's interesting to see and is the entrance to the old downtown, which is a lot of fun to see and hang out in!

Marienplatz
Marien Square has been the main square in Munich since 1158. In the Middle Ages, markets and tournaments took place here. It's usually packed with people due to the convenient location and all the shops around the area. Today, Marienplatz is dominated by the new city hall, which was constructed around the turn of the 20th century. On the new town hall's tower (Rathausturm) is the Glockenspiel, which dates back to 1908 and depicts two separate stories from Munich's history: the first is the wedding of Duke Wilhelm V in 1568, which ends in a joust between knights from Bavaria and Lothringen, and obviously the Bavarian nights win. The second is from a legend of a plague that hit the city between 1517 and 1519; in order to raise the spirits of everyone in the town, the barrel makers would dance through the streets, which has since become a Bavarian tradition and is reenacted every 7 years. There's a small show that the Glockenspiel plays through, though it wasn't when I was in the area, so I didn't see it.

Frauenkirche
When I went to visit the Cathedral of Our Blessed Lady, it was after a small lunch and a couple beers, but since I was in Bavaria, it's okay to go to church after having been drinking... Well, they were actually having mass when I showed up, so I decided to take a seat and join in, which means I've been to mass in English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German now. It's a modest cathedral. The exterior is being restored, so I couldn't see what that looked like, but it was nice and fun to hear a service in Deutsch.

Residenz München
On my way to see the Residence Palace of Munich, I ran into a beer and music festival (of course), so I stuck around there and listened to the live music (and had a beer). German's really like house music, and as such, there was a synthesizer as a part of the band. I've gotta say, it would be very interesting playing in a band with a synthesizer!

After enjoying the festival for a while, I decided to continue on and check out the palace. It's a huge complex, and I hardly saw anything, though I wasn't able to enter it by that time. Interestingly, the palace became a public museum in 1918 after the end of the Bavarian rule, but was severely damaged during WWII. Most of the palace wasn't reconstructed until the 80s, but in a simplified manner, and the frescos and several artifacts were lost. I could definitely go back and spend more time checking out the palace.

Munich was very fun and I definitely enjoyed it a great deal! The Bavarian beers are amazing! I really enjoyed the Augustiner Bäu München Edelstoff, specifically. There were also several bachelor and bachelorette parties going on, and I participated in a bachelorette party activity where I had to cut out a drawn on shape from the bride's shirt. I got free champagne and a muffin, plus the girls were fun, so it was totally with the €3! Hopefully I'll be able to make it back sometime to enjoy this amazing city with some friends and locals! Especially to drink more in the streets, which is legal there!