Yes, I'm trying to work thru my backlog of travel posts….so please bear with me.
After a caffeine break at Dallmayr, the Missus was ready to tackle the rest of our "stroll"….. right up the street is Max-Joseph-Platz, named after Maximilian I, the first king of Bavaria whose statue is the centerpiece of the square.
The square also houses the National Theatre and the Residenz, once the royal palace of the House of Wittelsbach which once ruled over large swatches of Europe; Bavaria, Sweden, Greece, Denmark, even the Holy Roman Empire!
We headed up to yet another huge square; Odeonsplatz. Which is crowned by the Feldherrnhalle ("Field Marshals' Hall"). But first there was something I wanted to see; a street named Viscardigasse. Notice the gold cobblestones in this pedestrian only street.
When Hitler came to power, he created a memorial to the "first matyrs of the Third Reich" in the Beer Hall Putsch. All Germans were required to do the Hitlergruss (Nazi Salute) upon entering the Odeonsplatz. Viscardigasse became an alternate route where people could avoid having to perform the salute. The street is also known as Drückebergergasse ("Shirker's Alley"). The cobblestones memorialize this act of civil disobedience.
The Odeonsplatz was created by the House of Wittelsbach. The Feldherrnhalle looked looked quite familiar to us.
The other structure that got our attention was the Theatinerkirche which was built in the latter half of the 17th century.
If we hadn't already done so much on this day, we'd have visited….but man, we'd already done quite a bit.
We walked pass the Residenz.
And the striking Bavarian Chancellery…..
To what was once the royal garden of the Wittelsbachs; the Hofgarten.
It's a striking, relaxing, and elegantly beautiful green space.
There was a wonderful pianist playing in the Pavilion of Diana; which is in the center of the park.
One of the enjoyable parts of this visit was coming across interesting memorials and landmarks. I was curious about that rather simple stone memorial above. I took a photo and looked it up when we got back to the apartment later that evening. I found out that this is the memorial to the Trümmerfrau ("Rubble Women") who helped to clear and reconstruct Germany and Austria after all the destruction of World War II. And while there's some disagreement about the amount of women and such; I still found it quite touching.
I also noticed the fountain to my right….which seemed to have Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf on it. Turns out; it's called the "Wolfsbrunnen" (Wolf Fountain) which was created in 1904 by sculptors Heinrich Düll and Georg Pezold.
From here we headed down the very busy and quite touristy street known as Platzl, with the required Starbucks, Hard Rock Café, and a place that was recommended to me by a couple of folks. A famous beer hall named Hofbräuhaus. It was quite busy….
And quite touristy; which is not a bad things since; well, we're tourists, right? But this was a bit much for us….it seemed like every cliché was in fine form here; the Tyrolean Hats? Check. Lederhosen? You bet? It was just kind of overwhelming for us….. I guess Augustiner-Keller is more our speed.
We decided to head on back to the apartment and figure out where to stop for dinner. The Missus had fun doing some shopping along the way.
We made our way back to the apartment and relaxed for a bit. We weren't super hungry and I basically wanted some snacks and a beer (or three). There was a brew pub that we kept passing everyday named Schiller Brau, located in the MK Hotel München City. It would turn out to be just what we needed after a fairly busy day.
I was quickly told that the special beers are brewed onsite……..and I got a Helles; the Missus Weissbier. I really enjoyed the lightly hoppy, hazy, full bodies Helles.
We started with the "trio of spreads".
Which came with a nice, slightly dense pretzel. We both loved the slightly funky "cheese spread" (Obatza) which had some onion and a bit of smokiness went really well with the pretzel. The apple lard spread (Griebenschmalz) was a bit on the lighter side, but fine. The potato salad was routine and filled out the trio.
One of the reasons we had dinner here was that the Missus saw that the place had a special for the evening……white asparagus. She was still thinking about how much She enjoyed what we had at Plachutta Wollzeile in Vienna.
This was prepared quite simply; which we believe was for the best as we could really enjoy the sweet-slightly bitter-vegetal flavors. The texture was firm but not chewy……simple is best sometimes, right? The potatoes were perfect in texture…and heck; we didn't even use the sauce.
As this was our last evening in Munich; I have sort of a tradition of having a beer (or two) back in our room/apartment. So, I went ahead an bought two bottles of the Helles. In what was a very nice gesture; our Server gave us two Schiller Brau bottle openers as a gift.
One of which I carry with me when we travel. It reminds me of the joys of traveling and all the amazing folks we've run across over the years. I was just looking at it wistfully earlier in the week. It's resting right now; but hopefully soon I can put it to use again.
Schiller Bräu
23 Schillerstrasse
80336 Münich, Germany
Thanks for stopping by!
