Oktoberfest Part 2

Continuing from where we left off in Part 1...

I was a little worse for the wear when I woke up the next day at my hostel. Not just from the beer, but I also felt like I was coming down with a cold. On top of that, I apparently attempted a midnight snack of sausage; but my now mustard-covered jeans seemed to suggest I failed in that endeavor. Whatever, I was on vacation! I checked my phone when I woke up, and there was a message waiting for me from one of my classmates. Luca had made it to Oktoberfest after all, and wanted to meet up. He was already at the festival, but I let him know I'd get back to him as I was planning on seeing some cultural stuff that day. That, and I had to nurse a looming hangover. I wanted to go see some things like the local Renaissance art gallery and a big palace called the Residenz, but first I needed to get some greasy food and caffeine into my system. I headed off in the direction of the museum quarter, enjoying the beautiful day and the fine weather in just jeans and a t-shirt. You'll notice in the photos that there are lots of locals lounging about on grassy lawns, basking in the sun.

Saw this on the way, right next to the seedy kebab shop where I got some good greasy food. Can't fault them for false advertising, I suppose!

Near the museum quarter - this was just in the middle of an intersection, and didn't seem to have anything particular inside of it.  After some research, I found out it's a monument to the old Bavarian army

The Antiquities Museum

The Glyptothek, a statue and sculpture museum. I really wanted to see it, but ended up not having the time

A detail of the Glyptothek, and some Germans enjoying the fine day

My destination, the Alte Pinakothek. Notice more sunbathers, and also the parts of the building destroyed during the war

Everyone was out in force, relaxing, reading a book in the sun, and even playing soccer on the lawn of the museum

I finally arrived at the Alte Pinakothek after a long hike across the city. The museum is full of paintings from the pre- to late-Renaissance periods. It wasn't terribly expensive to enter, and had the bonus of free audio guides and even no restrictions on taking pictures (except flashes, of course). I enjoyed it so much that I spent much longer there than I originally planned, preventing me from seeing some other things in the city that day, but it was worth it and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who travels to the Munich area.

This super trippy 15th century painting by Hieronymus Bosch depicts scenes of almost sci-fi/fantasy-like demons torturing newly risen naughty souls after Judgement Day - souls from all walks of life, demonstrated by the red cardinal's hat towards the upper left

An amazingly detailed painting by Albrecht Altdorfer, depicitng Alexander defeating Darius in battle. The entire painting is massive and pretty epic, but this detail shows how incredibly minutely the artist depicted hundreds if not thousands of individual soldiers on the battle field.

A quick snapshot indicating how big the museum is - look at all the doorways disappearing off into the distance

A lamentation of the Christ painting by Botticelli (the same guy that did the 'Birth of Venus' painting)

A Virgin and Child painting by Luca Signorelli - the same artist who did the famous chapel paintings in Orvieto's cathedral, where I did my summer abroad several years ago, and which was very influential on Michelangelo's work

An annunciation work by Filippo Lippi, who is the father of another featured artist in this museum...

A work by his son, Filippino Lippi - my favorite Renaissance artist

Detail of a Holy Family painting by Raphael

Another by the senior Lippi, this time a Madonna and Child

Another Madonna and Child, this time done by some guy named Da Vinci

A lamentation painting by Marco Basaiti. This one felt almost modern to me, not sure if it was from the colors, style, or what

A Peter Paul Rubens painting, showing damned souls and their tortured expressions

Another Rubens painting, this time showing the slaughter of innocent babies by King Herod's men, and the mothers desperately trying to defend them

I was thoroughly impressed by the museum, and spent hours there enjoying all the paintings. Afterwards, I made the executive decision to head for the Residenz palace museum instead of the Glyptothek. Along the way, I snapped a few photos of interesting things I came across on the walk through what seemed like a more refined part of the city's business district.

Here, a cool globe fountain sculpture

Some great northern European style architecture

I think this dude is pointing the way to the nearest beer hall

Closer to the old city center now, this loggia caught my eye and reminded me of a similar building in Firenze. I came to find out later that it's modeled on precisely that building

I took this photo because it was the biggest, widest street I'd seen in about a year

I followed my map to the Residenz, the giant palace home of Bavaria's royals, but unfortunately it was the back side of the building with no entrance. It was a blessing in disguise, as I got to see the impressive royal gardens

The palace. Again, note all the locals out, enjoying the sunshine. This will become significant later on.

A gazebo in the middle of the gardens. The impression was so stereotypically German - immaculately kept paths and gardens, complete with 'keep of the grass signs', plus there were street musicians - but instead of accordions or guys playing a saw with a bow, there were full ensembles of pianos and string instruments, wafting classical music through the air for passersby to enjoy

While I wandered around the perimeter of the giant palace, looking for the entrance, I came upon this little garden hidden away from the world

The front of the Residenz - unfortunately, with restoration curtains

At least they have a sense of humor along with the restorations - here are some royals peeking out

Some buildings on the square, of course complete with a beer hall

The opera house on the opposite side of the square

I entered the Residenz, but unfortunately it closes fairly early and I would have only had about 30 minutes to go through - and the place is so huge, it would definitely take more time than that. So, I decided to save it for tomorrow, and instead try to get in touch with Luca to meet up at Oktoberfest. The only problem was, both our phones were dying, so trying to get a hold of each other ended up just being a game of phone tag. I wandered around some other areas of the historic city center while waiting to hear from him.

Here's the world-famous Hofbrauhaus. I stuck my head in to see what it was all about, but it was pretty early and there wasn't much action, so I didn't stick around

I was getting hungry, and decided to search around for a local dish suggested to me by the crazy Australian guys I met in Granada a few weeks before. They said it's called eisbein, a whole ham-shank slow roasted and dripping with goodness. I wandered all over the downtown area, checking out menus, but couldn't find it anywhere. Little did I know that while it IS called eisbein, the local variation is known as schweinshaxe, and is readily available. Doh! Oh well. In any case, I managed to receive a message from Luca saying he was still at the festival, but without a reference to his location. I decided to head over there anyway, and hoped that I could get in contact with him during the long walk to the grounds.

All of a sudden, the sky started getting very dark. Apparently, sudden storms can descend upon the city without warning from the Bavarian Alps, and I, in just a t-shirt and with no umbrella, got caught in the torrential downpour when I was only about two blocks from Oktoberfest. So much for the beautiful weather that had all the locals out sunbathing! I managed to find a spot under the ledge of a building that protected me from the rain, and hoped it would pass soon. It didn't, and what must have been thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of revelers started streaming out of the festival park towards the train station. They were all wasted, and perfectly content to dodge cars in the rain; however, I was dead sober, and not so willing to increase my chances of getting sicker by letting myself get soaked to the bone.

I still had no word from Luca, so when the rain let up a little bit, I managed to stick close enough to the buildings to make it back to the nearby train station without getting very wet. I was still intent on succeeding in my unknowingly-doomed search for eisbein, and I knew I could make it back to the historic city center virtually all the way via the underground passageways, so that's exactly what I did. I wandered around for a bit with no luck, and had to settle for something else to eat. The rain let up, and I finally got another message from Luca saying which tent he was in, so I decided to give it another go. On the way, I stopped at a beer cart outside the train station to try and catch up with some cheap beers, since I knew my buddy already had a full day's head start on me. The guys running the beer/hot-dog cart took a break while I was standing there enjoying a beer, and they proceeded to do some kind of crazy shot that was in a little plastic bottle which they banged several times rather forcefully upon the counter before tearing the top off and downing it. I asked what the hell it was, and they told me it was a local kind of thing. They were nice guys, about my age, and I chatted with them a bit about Oktoberfest and what they thought of it. I figured they'd be annoyed at having so many drunken tourists in their city every year, but they were pretty cool with it. I think I'd be annoyed, but seeing as it's the world's biggest festival, I guess the money it brings into the economy is worth the yearly inconvenience.

I continued over to the fairgrounds, but of course when I showed up at the door of the Hofbrauhaus tent there was a line about 100 people wide and ten deep to get in. The bouncers didn't seem like the friendliest guys either, and I could tell there was no way in hell I was going to get in. I sent a message to Luca telling him I had a snowball's chance in hell of getting in, and started to head back out of the park, ready to call it a day. Of course, that's when the skies opened up once again, and I sought shelter under the awnings of a sausage stand. I hoped to wait it out again, and where better could I ask for than next to an endless supply of awesome spicy sausages slathered in hot mustard? I had a couple links, but the rain still persisted. After waiting there for a good 30 minutes, I decided to just give in and make a run for it. I got pretty wet, but I at least had dry clothes waiting for me back at the hostel. A bit of a sad ending to the evening, but I had more stuff to see the next day, so getting to bed early wouldn't hurt.

I had a hard time sleeping that night, as my cold got progressively worse, and I woke up early the next day feeling like hell. But it was my last day in Munich, and I wasn't going to let a damn cold get the best of me. I still wanted to tour the Residenz, so I got myself packed and checked out, then headed to the downtown area again. I was dying to try some weisswurst, so I made the trip once again to the Viktualienmarkt.

You can tell it was a bit of a soggy day

I found a little stand with a place to keep me out of the rain while I ate. Weisswurst, as the name implies in German, is a white sausage, and is typically eaten for breakfast as it is an uncured kind of sausage. Traditionally, it's served with a pretzel, sweet mustard, and beer - but I shied away from the beer, given the state of my health at that moment. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you weisswurst:

Mmmm

After breakfast, I headed over to the Residenz palace, passing the Altes Rathaus again. What a shame to think it was completely destroyed in the war, but the reconstruction work is amazing.

Altes Rathaus

The Residenz wasn't far off, and soon I had entry ticket in hand and I was heading towards one of the several museums inside, the Treasury. This museum houses a grand collection of all the precious items in gold, jewels, and more that were the property of the Bavarian rulers and kings from the time of Charlemagne to the end of the line after the First World War. There were some pretty amazing things, and below are some highlights.

This was the personal prayer book of the unfortunately named Charles the Bald, the grandson of Charlemagne

Lots and lots of diamonds

Precious stones

A jewel-encrusted statuette of St George, used as a reliquary for some of his bones

Each of the major pieces (cross, pedestals, pillars) in this set are carved from a single block of flawless crystal

Gilded and bejeweled ceremonial swords

Crown with plenty of rubies (and diamonds, of course)

That's a lot of pearls

A sword from the Napoleanic era - notice the big 'N'

The Bavarian Crown Jewels

Those are some humongous pearls

A drinking stein made of amber

Weird little bear with a rifle - guess there's no accounting for taste, even with royals

A collection of carvings from rhinoceros horns

A baby rattle used by one of the princes, sporting a real badger paw

After going through the Treasury, I made my way to the another part of the museum, which is more or less the main exhibit; the Residenz palace itself. To say the building is humongous would be an understatement almost on the scale of the palace itself. Amazingly, huge tracts of the building were destroyed during the war, but reconstructed to exacting specifications. Luckily, everything in the building that wasn't nailed down, or at least could be pried up, was moved to a secure location throughout the war, so after the rebuilding it was refurnished again just as it was before. What started out as a relatively modest palace in the historic city center was built upon and expanded by successive generations of the Bavarian royal line, leading to the behemoth of a building that stands there now. I think it took about four hours to walk through the whole thing, and I even had to cut it short near the end because I needed to catch a train back to Italy.

An inner courtyard featuring a badass statue

When I am rich, I am buying this statue. It's Perseus killing Medusa, and water flows from both her disembodied head and her decapitated body. I'm thinking it would work pretty well as a cherry Koolaid fountain

Another part of the courtyard, featuring grotto-like sculpture and architecture

This giant room is the largest Renaissance-era hall north of the Alps

Another view of the hall. The Duke/Prince/Ruler used to host lavish banquets and would sit at a table on the raised dais at the end of the hall

Another large inner courtyard

This room featured a giant perspective fresco on the ceiling, which looks perfect if you're standing in the exact center of the room, right below the chandelier

A statue I knew previously from the Pitti Palace in Firenze - Antonio Canova and his workshop made several productions of this figure, the Venus Italica

An interior view. Man, those royals sure were crazy about doors back then

His and Hers throne room

The big private church onsite. Notice the difference in wear on the bricks, showing areas damaged in the war

That's one helluva mattress

A big ol' hallway full of portraits of dead guys

Royals were also crazy about mirrors, as they were quite expensive and a way to showcase wealth

The mirrors also added the illusion of depth, making the already huge palace seem even more enormous

It was about this point when my camera battery died, but I still had a good deal of the museum to see. It was getting into the afternoon, and I needed to catch a train back to Verona where I would switch again in order to get to Bologna. I saw as much of the palace as I could in the time I had, then hightailed it back towards the train station. I was still feeling pretty miserable, so I stopped along the way to get some juice drinks loaded with vitamin C, and of course one last leberkase sandwich. I also made sure to bring a pretzel with me to eat on the train. Despite the obvious superiority and quality of the German trains, it wasn't such a pleasant ride due to my worsening cold. I managed to get some sleep though, which unfortunately meant that I missed a lot of the amazing Alpine scenery on the return trip. I didn't have to wait very long during my layover in Verona, which was a blessing, and even though I slept on the train I was still more than ready to crawl into bed and nurse my affliction when I got home. School would start back up again shortly, and I didn't want to miss the first day back, so I spent the next few days just relaxing and trying to get better. It really was a helluva trip, despite being sick for two of the days. I'm very happy that I had the good fortune to go and be a part of such a wonderful tradition, and I was especially glad that I got to meet some cool people along the way.