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x_losThere's nothing much from Wednesday night. We just got in, made it to the hotel, grabbed completely okay nearby Turkish food because it was all that was open and Right There, and fell asleep.
My one observation is that I can certainly tell you why orange coke has only been auf Deutschland seit 1973, and that is because Jaffa Coke sucks. Some friends and my sister say there are better brands than Mezzo Mix, but perhaps some things simply don't need either mezzo'd or mixed.
***
We started a bit late started late due to Katy being quite pregnant.
Sendlinger Tor Market / Christkindlmarkt am Sendlinger Tor:
A small market you walk through to get to the main drag from our hotel, which on the first day had a weird, unpleasant smell for some reason. Many groups of German school kids are led around to check out the city's markets. Katy got a waffle thing with apple sauce and cinnamon. Smallish.
***
Lion's Tower Market / Sternplatzl at Rindermarkt:
A small market off the main drag with good food and good crowd movement. One of my favourite experiences. For a lot of these, you can come too early and nothing is open and the vibe is dead. But you can also all too easily come too late and things just aren't enjoyable because it's heaving and hard to see what's there. Munich could get a lot better at nudging crowd distribution into a better shape for these events.
The Christmas pyramid:
Fire punch, roast pork and cheese noodles.
Katy's Kinderpunsch. There was very good seating in this hut, as in many of them. The hut was well-decorated, with fur trimmed velvet curtains. Tasty and pretty free gingerbread came free for snacking with your drink.
Flammlachs in der simmel, a really lovely, salty flame-roasted salmon in a roll:
***
Munich Christkindlmarkt in Marienplatz square:
My one observation is that I can certainly tell you why orange coke has only been auf Deutschland seit 1973, and that is because Jaffa Coke sucks. Some friends and my sister say there are better brands than Mezzo Mix, but perhaps some things simply don't need either mezzo'd or mixed.
***
We started a bit late started late due to Katy being quite pregnant.
Sendlinger Tor Market / Christkindlmarkt am Sendlinger Tor:
A small market you walk through to get to the main drag from our hotel, which on the first day had a weird, unpleasant smell for some reason. Many groups of German school kids are led around to check out the city's markets. Katy got a waffle thing with apple sauce and cinnamon. Smallish.
***
Lion's Tower Market / Sternplatzl at Rindermarkt:
A small market off the main drag with good food and good crowd movement. One of my favourite experiences. For a lot of these, you can come too early and nothing is open and the vibe is dead. But you can also all too easily come too late and things just aren't enjoyable because it's heaving and hard to see what's there. Munich could get a lot better at nudging crowd distribution into a better shape for these events.
The Christmas pyramid:
Fire punch, roast pork and cheese noodles.
Katy's Kinderpunsch. There was very good seating in this hut, as in many of them. The hut was well-decorated, with fur trimmed velvet curtains. Tasty and pretty free gingerbread came free for snacking with your drink.
***
Munich Christkindlmarkt in Marienplatz square:
This is the big one, with origins in the 14th century, and it truly is prodigious. The offerings are pretty varied: honey chestnut puffs, latkes with applesauce, handmade wreaths, beautiful many-coloured lebkuchen, apple fritters, etc. During the week-day, big alleys on either side enable people to move past the market very easily. This is a bit less true at busier times.
The stalls are so decorated, among the most individual, effortful and well-done I've ever seen. 'Stall game' is a whole new category of Christmas market evaluation for me.
Hot Eierlikör punsch and heiß Apfel designated driver punch. Both were amazing, and I liked the atmosphere. It might be important to time your visit to big, central or overly-contained markets to the least busy time, and to hit small markets in the evenings and/or on weekends.
Nativity scenes around the Rathaus:
A nativity scene comprised of rocks:
Got Katy a fresh auszogne. They fry the auszogne from dough in front of you:
A nativity scene comprised of rocks:
Got Katy a fresh auszogne. They fry the auszogne from dough in front of you:
A little dude loving life:
***
Viktualienmarkt Christmas Market:
Borough Market for Munich but a bit less hipster, a medieval food-sale area moved ever-so-slightly off the main square in the early 19th c for being too big now (and, presumably, too full of meat smells without adequate drainage). They decamped with their large 'get food here' maypole.
A nearby bakery, where you can see them frying sweet auszogne:
If I went back, I'd give this more of a daylight peruse. It was a nice market we didn't explore all of. The Kinderpunsch here came in a mug from a market in one of the last two cancelled years, which they must still have to use up.
***
Munich Stadtmuseum:
This was a bit oddly organised. Highlights included the Morris dancer sculptures, as promised, and an absolutely surreal guide option you could access by hitting the button on the floor, which would ask personal questions, command you to dance, and generally seemed to have been designed by Darren Nichols. I was a bit disappointed by the lack of sound framing for the domestic spaces I'd been most interested in. That mid-century Bourgeoise development with its associated aesthetic style--I don't have like, a good over-view of that now? I have some bits of information about 19th century Munich sex work and rents, but little structure to hold these pieces of information in or understand them via. Also, there just weren't that many such rooms. I can't help comparing this to similar exhibits in New York and London and finding the result meh. It's not even a hard sort of exhibition to set up, actually, I could source research drawings and pieces for that myself (literally: a growing number of German auction houses are on Saleroom, and middle-class or working-class pieces aren't that expensive).
Cute weird little cafe we went to after the Munich City museum, where Katy got fresh orange juice, which is absolutely everywhere in Munich:
***
Die Münchner Feuerzangenbowle am Isartor:
A very tiny Christmas market in a remaining guard-tower chunk of the city wall, organised around one thing only: Feuerzangenbowle, "is a traditional German alcoholic drink for which a rum-soaked sugarloaf is set on fire and drips into mulled wine. It is often part of a Christmas or New Year's Eve tradition. The name translates literally as fire-tongs punch, “Bowle” meaning “punch” being borrowed from English."
A very tiny Christmas market in a remaining guard-tower chunk of the city wall, organised around one thing only: Feuerzangenbowle, "is a traditional German alcoholic drink for which a rum-soaked sugarloaf is set on fire and drips into mulled wine. It is often part of a Christmas or New Year's Eve tradition. The name translates literally as fire-tongs punch, “Bowle” meaning “punch” being borrowed from English."
I thought this drink fine, but not astounding. The space was the right size for the offering.
One last of the tor itself:
We checked out a couple of drindl stores en route, because I am predictable.
Munich Residenz:
I'm not interested in the actual building, because I hate Baroque art a lot. It's too posh, and it does too much. Imagine thinking the Victorians really pulled it back!
We got fine but not astounding spätzle with fried onions here--really, I think we just came too late in the day. On a Thursday night, the crowd was too big for us to easily move, see everything, make the best decisions about food and linger. This market does, however, do The Most with its popular, unnerving series of dioramas, which are absolutely the last thing you see before you die:
***
Munich Advent Spectacle and Medieval Christmas Market:
Whether you're going to like Munich's Medieval Christmas Market depends entirely on two things:
a) whether you like Ren Faires, and
b) when you go.
It gets crowded on even a Thursday evening, and the space, like several Munich (in its wisdom) chooses to use for Christmas markets, is not at all ideal for the level of foot-traffic. This is also true of the Residenz market, and all the weirder as I could throw a rock from the middle of both and hit a MASSIVE empty fuck-off park behind the Residenz. Who do you have to blow to use that venue, with its infinitely more elegant modes of egress and circumnavigation? Whoever it is, pucker the fuck up.
Anyway, you got your medieval cosplay, you got your medieval-designed huts, you got your spit-roast suckling pig.
Everything comes in dorky clay goblets, bless. Lokis Bauber is slightly herby alcohol free drink, good for the schwanger among us. Why is it called this? No idea. I guess you want to be sober while giving Loki a haircut? Is it something to do with this story? "Further in Skáldskaparmál, Snorri relates a story where Loki cuts off Sif's hair as a prank. When Thor discovers this, he grabs hold of Loki, resulting in Loki swearing to have a headpiece made of gold to replace Sif's locks. Loki fulfills this promise by having a headpiece made by dwarfs, the Sons of Ivaldi."
Another way of serving a Feuerzangenbowle, the flaming sugar punsch.
There were also dudes making chimney cakes, which consist of layered dough cooked as it turns on a big spike.
***
Bavarian National Museum:
This is open late, to 8pm, on a Thursday, but going that late is a mistake. Yes, it's uncrowded, but I was so tired I didn't linger or enjoy some really, truly interesting elements. Some things I wanted to see were closed for renovation (the Medieval, 19th century and Jugendstil collections). I was left with a lot of Baroque, which again, is an international posh-people style, early Trumpian in vibe. I could see that anywhere taste was absent and extracted wealth abundant in the 18th c, I hardly need make a special trip.
There was also a guard who--you run into this a lot, where someone has better English than you have German, but not much better, and their dogged efforts to shepherd you along actually confuse matters further. Were the Bavarian costume galleries I'd primarily come to see also closed, or did this woman just not understand what I wanted?
The temporary exhibition on the history of hats was good: I had an idea of what a Regency hat was like from pictures that wasn't quite accurate, when I actually saw examples up very close.
I'd also come to see the set-up farmhouse parlours, with the bauernschrank painting I find so interesting. These were great, and I had the wing all to myself. You rarely see examples of that kind of ceiling and wall panel painting outside of central Europe, and the positioning of the benches, tiled stoves, himmelbetts etc. was illuminating. I could have done with more of this!
The vast exhibition on the history of nativity scenes in the basement was fascinating, with an exacting guide. This deserved several hours I couldn't give it. Like, I cannot convey to you how many of these dioramas one eccentric man collected and donated, the absolute labour involved, like a doll house times a thousand. Also includes weird highlights, like 'massacre of the innocents' nativity scenes. I'd watch a documentary on this collection now; I'd listen to the audio guide in full today. If I'm ever back in Munich, I'll make due time for this, and approach this museum when my energy is higher (and, hopefully, when more wings are open and that woman guiding me away from looking for the Mode section is not on duty!).
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Date: 2022-12-05 10:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-06 09:39 pm (UTC)Lol the rock nativity, idk why it happened but I'm glad it did.
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Date: 2022-12-06 06:13 pm (UTC)I've been to the one in Düsseldorf (fine, nothing special I guess, also kinda weirdly placed throughout the city centre) and Aachen, which is very well know for being awesome. I always love visiting the one in Aachen, but it's also important to better come throughout the week, not the weekend, and start while it's still light outside... It gets extremely crowded! Usually combined with a trip to Lindt Chocolate factory to buy lots of stuff on sale, but it is also very very crowded.
Loved the nativity made out of stones, how cool!
I'm still kinda shocked that even in musuems the English wasn't all that good... I'd expect them to cater to foreign tourists better.
I love to look at Dirndl, there are so many beautiful ones! My mother has several for the village's Oktoberfest. They of course weren't all that expensive, like those designer Dirndl you can buy in Bavaria (and Munich most of all XD).
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Date: 2022-12-06 09:43 pm (UTC)The museum English was very hit and miss, like for SOME exhibitions or in places/with audio guides it's excellent, but then basic captions can be missing and sometimes the audio symbol is its own scavenger hunt. And the staff--are mixed, as well. Though possibly I invited some confusing interactions myself throughout the trip by coming in in bad German, so they tried to meet me there.
Folk costume is so fucking cool, the Ethnographic museum in Warsaw was AMAZING for this. Honestly I'd properly wear a lot of traditional clothing, if I thought I could get away with that. As-is, thank god for the UK's significant mid-1900s clothing revival, because I can occupy Collectif stuff actually shaped for my figure without occasioning comment.
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Date: 2022-12-09 05:38 pm (UTC)