Some sights from Munich

So I'm way behind considering that I've been to many cool places in the last week and I keep promising pictures! I blame it on having no internet (or very spotty connections) while staying in hostels in Munich and Nuremberg, on being too busy while I was in western Germany, in Berlin for the second time, and getting settled in Krakow. Here are a very few pictures from Munich where I was January 26-28. I already briefly wrote about the things I saw, so this mainly a picture post.



These first few are from the Residenzmuseum. This is the porcelain cabinet just off of the Hall of Ancestors. Beautiful room despite the opulence.
















This is from that room of reliquaries I mentioned in my last post. This is the case holding mummified infants. There are two in the bottom section and one in the top section. They don't look very gross since they're wearing pretty clothes and the exposed bits are obscured by something gauzy. I still think it's pretty gross, though.






Each of these cases holds a mummified hand...my pictures didn't turn out very well because I had to photograph through the glass of the museum display case.










Again with the glass of the display case, but I figured the gold dishes were worth a photo anyway. Talk about fine dining.











There were many many beautiful inlaid tables like this one on display, and I have lots of pictures of them! The designs are beautiful.










The Kaiser hall (Kaiser Saal in German) where people could have audiences with the ruler.














The museum had a very impressive collection of porcelain from China and Japan, which was apparently a big commodity for several hundred years. Mom, look at all the blue-and-white!










A really old tapestry. I had to post this one because of the Polish coat of arms in the middle of the tapestry. It was made in Persia in 1601-2 and commissioned by King Sigismund III Wasa of Poland. It was acquired in 1642 by the Wittelsbach family (the royalty of Bavaria who lived in the Residenz) when one of the Electors married a Polish princess.













I love this: a lacquered screen from China.












The Antiquarium! Huge and beautiful. I think this was originally built by one of the kings to house things from antiquity (hence the name) although later rulers also used it as a banquet hall. The main floor used to be higher but was lowered when the room was converted.









This is the Glyptothek, an art museum. I didn't go in it but I took a picture of the area because this huge square, Konigsplatz (it extends far to the right of where the picture ends), was converted by the Nazi party in 1938 to become the city's main parading ground and venue for celebrating the cult. I didn't know before going to Munich that it was where the Nazis started and where Hitler began his rise to power.





The Propylaen at the west-ish side of Konigsplatz. My Germany guidebook says its the "symbolic gateway to the new parts of the city." I thought it was cool because it's a pretty neo-classical structure. It's also one of the reasons why the Nazis turned Konigsplatz (behind it) into their main public venue. The neo-classical design of the Propylaen, the Glyptothek, and some of the other nearby buildings apparently appealed to the Nazis as an appropriate backdrop for the party parades, etc.

Neues Rathaus, the New Town Hall on Marienplatz. I wish I could have seen the carillon, which my grandparents recommended, but I missed the times!

Felderrnhalle. Aside from being a cool-looking yellow building, is where Hitler made a preemptive grab for power in 1923. He declared the overthrow of the Bavarian government and forced the State Commissioner, commander of the Bavarian Army, and the chief of the Bavarian police to join a provisional government. These three guys quickly realized that Hitler couldn't do much to enforce their cooperation, though, and revoked their participation in the provisional government. Hitler ignored this and staged a demonstration which resulted in the deaths of several demonstrators, policemen, and a bystander. His imprisonment as a result of this attempt at grabbing power is when he wrote Mein Kampf, which was so successful that his "minimum of 5 years" sentence became less than one year.

I have so many more pictures than this, obviously... Munich was definitely worth the visit. Most of the city looked exactly like Berlin but the history was so different and fascinating. I wish I could have had more time in the city and had done some research beforehand so that I knew a bit more about what I was seeing at the time and why it was important.