Odds and Ends Around Munich

Here are some of the odd ball photos of things I've discovered
wandering around Munich. Above is the symbol of Bayern, a monk!
found inside the Rathaus in downtown Munich. The Rathaus is
the large central municipal building that looks like a Gothic Cathedral.
Somehow, thismonstrously huge building survived the bombing of World War II.

As I poked my nose into various halls and side rooms, I came across
this truly bizarre stained glass window depicting George Washington
and Benjamin Franklin. In the middle are the words "Liberty."
It is worth noting that downstairs from this window ( and there was another
depicting Abraham Lincoln , Thomas Edison and Andrew Carnegie) is a small memorial to the 1000 Jews who were taken away to Dachau from Munich in one fell swoop in, I believe, 1943. It is the only public memorial to the Holocaust outside of the museums that I have found. Maybe the stained glass was put in after the War? Not sure.

Behind my house here is a very old cemetery called Nordfriedhof. It is a very large and very flower and candle covered place. Right now it is sporting a Christmas motif and looks very festive. In the center are some very ancient gravestones surrounded by what appears to be large patches of open grass. When you start walking the lawns however, you find hundreds if not thousands of small plaques in the ground with just a name and date of death. These are the Munich residents who died in the bombing during the War.

These really amazing flowerpots are part of the annual memorial to the war dead set across the lawns. There must have been at least 12 of these scattered about. The plaques are spaced about 12 inches apart across the whole lawn-maybe 5 acres or more.

Just really liked the juxtaposition and composition in this one. This is outside looking in to the cemetery.

 Inside one of the fabulous art museums here.The Neue Pinakothek.

One of my favorite gargoyles. I think they also serve as drain pipes for the rain runoff.

A variation on the theme in Munchner Freiheit.

                                                                           Lake Starnberg

                                                                  More Lake Starnberg

                                                                     Along the Isar

This strange lifesized cow found in the ViktraulienMarkt that has US dollars shellacked into it's legs.

Protesting the use of Circus animals

At the Stadt Museum-I think it's an old handpainted Circus poster

Right Place at the right time for this.

A rebuilt church to the south of Munich-nice light.

Fishing the Isar

Every army had to have a drum cannon-my guess is you could hear this thing 20 miles away

One market we visited was selling just household products including one stall devoted just to bras.

A Christmas Market and Gluwein stand under the crucifix inside SendlingerTor, part of the original medieval walls that surrounded the city.

Paris! (pt. 2)

We've entered the Louvre-Venus De Milo attracts a crowd.

Okay-here's the mob scene around the Mona Lisa.

Despite the "No Flash" signs everywhere, everyone is shooting away in full flash-fortunately for Mona, they have her behind protective glass.

A sliver of Christ's cross. We tried to spot the crown of thorns at Notre Dame but the room was closed that day.

"The" throne for Napoleon. In his quarters. Not that big actually. And his bed was rather small as well.

"Mercury"

"Victory"

Michelangelo!

Paris! (pt. 1)

Taken on the Eiffel Tower

 

 

Wondering who's idea it was to build the black monstrosity.

It looks great up close-they painted it just a couple years ago. The very best restaurant in Paris (I'm told) is the "Jules Verne" which is located inside the Eiffel Tower. A reservation takes three months in advance to get.
The view is to die for. We took the stairs for a modest 4.50 euro and not the elevator for around 20. Didn't need to get to the very tip top-and there is lots of historical stuff to see as you ascend.

Looking up into the thing-it really is a huge erector set. I was told it was supposed to have a skin or facade but everyone liked the bare metal. It's made from pig iron-one of the very last large constructions before the introduction of steel.

A slight variation on the theme-an exterior skeleton wrapping a large building-somehow got around the strict zoning, which was probably the most creative part of the whole thing.

They have this thing for trimming trees into boxes-saw it in other places in Paris. Not sure what it means or where it started or how they do it-but it looks really different.

A little street art.

#12- Chopin died here.

One of the great fountains.

On this site, Marie Antoinette was publicly beheaded. There is now a very large and very old obelisk on the site, with diagrams showing how it was removed from ancient Egypt and re-erected in the middle of Paris.

A lovely garden sculpture-there are actually many of these throughout the park just West of the Louvre.More of that crazy topiary.