Munich -Day 2

Our second day in Munich started out with a rush as we slept in and needed to catch a certain bus. We were traveling with Rosi, Andreas' aunt to go to the cemetery in order to pay respects to family members that have passed away. It was in a large forested area, with many of the graves within the trees...totally unlike Canada were it's just a large field with headstones. This was actually very peaceful and beautiful. Andreas told me that they go there every all saints day and at christmas as well. There was a small chapel in the forest near his grandparent's graves and he remembers playing in it when he was a child. His aunt Angela said she remembered being in the church with her great-great grandmother so it was 50 years old at least (which really isn't that old here!). i forgot to mention that yesterday when we were in the church, we went down into a crypt and there were stones there saying the people were buried as early as 1222!

So, in the graveyard, the ladies cleaned up the graves with a small rake they had brought and Andreas planted a newly bought flower plant. It struck me while walking out of the cemetery how we don`t really have any kind of tradition at home such as this one that SO many people follow. There is something comforting in tradition. I felt quite at peace and even though there were a few ghosties around, they kept to themselves.

Afterwards, we went to a very traditional Bavarian resturaunt for lunch and met up with Angela`s daughter Veronica and her husband Helmut. Thank god Andreas is fluent in German as I wouldn't have had any idea what to order! I ended up having these traditional German noodles that are not very noodle like at all....kind of look like midget french fries. I think I had the Bavarian version of poutine (spelling...sorry, NO clue where the question mark is on this keyboard!) My lunch had fried onions, bacon and cheese on it! hehehe Thankfully I ordered a salad as well or else it would have been carb overload!

We parted company with the rest of the family and took the underground train with Rosi to downtown Munich again and left her to the rest of her day. Andreas and I went to a place called Residenz Munich which is the large semi-enclosed area where the rulers of Bavaria lived for almost 700 years. It took us awhile to figure out how to actually get into some of the buildings where the museums were! We walked around a lot in the courtyards and one could easily imagine being there several hundred years ago where the lamps were oil lit and there were horse drawn carriages instead of bikes and cars! They have done a beautiful job on the restoration of the place and we took in the Residenz Treasury which has one of the most important collection of jewelry, crystal, crowns, swords and christian art in Europe. It was totally unreal! The crowns we saw that belonged to the Queen of Bavaria were unbelievable. All diamonds and rubies...puts the crowns of Queen Elizabeth to shame. I would imagine it would be bloody heavy to wear though!

We also visited another church right across from the Residenz and it was badly damaged during the second world war. They have restored it fully and the entire place is carved with leaves, cherubs, and religious figures in some kind of white stone. Truly breath-taking!

We have been wandering around on the streets again, amazed at how many people are around. We are really glad we came here when we did and not in the summer or around Oktoberfest! Would have been mad!

We are off to the countryside tomorrow to visit a small, traditional Bavarian town. Looking forward to it...perhaps there might be a castle nearby? (found the question mark!) hehehehe
Having fun, sore feet but SO worth it! Pretzel count today: 0, Beer: 1