Wunderschön!
Our hotel is ideally located in the city and the shop windows have some cute displays.
This morning, fortified with a bayerische Frühstück - Bavarian breakfast - we had a small surprise when we stepped outside.
It had snowed overnight!
Thankfully, we hadn’t planned to go very far, in fact, we’d thought of visiting the Residenz, which was just a few hundred yards along the street. We had all come prepared with good shoes/boots and warm coats, so we headed out towards Max Josef Platz once again and through the gates to the ticket office.
Once inside, the cloakroom attendant advised against leaving our outdoor coats with her, saying that the temperatures in the building were not very warm. Sure enough, the staff in each room were well wrapped up and we were perfectly comfortable walking around in our coats and scarves too.
The whole Residenz complex is remarkable and there’s a huge number of rooms to discover, each one lavishly decorated and altogether breathtaking in detail. There’s a great overview in this video:
What immediately caught my eye was the quality and the range of the craftsmanship in every room. Every door was different in style and the decorative details were beautifully incorporated.
So, whilst my Hero and our son discussed history and the characters who featured in the story of this place, Amy and I marvelled at the patterns, the colours and the masterpieces on show.
The works of art, the gilding and the chandeliers
not all of which were made of crystal. (We thought this one might be made from shell)
I loved the marquetry floors,
the extraordinary stone inlay work
and was delighted to see the trompe d’oeil wall painting too.
There were rooms filled with silverware
and cabinets of fine porcelain.
Not all of this was as it seemed, though. One room was filled with white structures and alongside were what appeared to be the moulds from which they had been cast.
Something I had not come across before and which I’d like to know more, because such things would not have been made from porcelain but from sugar!
My word. The labour and skill involved in creating such ephemeral things - or maybe they were not quite as ephemeral as I first thought? One thing’s for sure, they’d soon become very cobwebby in this house!
One room was particularly focused on the artists and craftsmen working in the Residenz though, and I enjoyed looking at large images such as this one, even though by now I was beginning to feel a little weary.
Reading small, densely printed pieces of German text at these times becomes a challenge, however interesting they are.
Vitrines such as this one tell a more immediate story about the process of restoration and the challenges faced by those working here.
Actually, we had just spent ten minutes sitting gazing up at this remarkable brickwork, in what had been the spectacularly decorated Court Church of All Saints. Seeing it now, it was hard to imagine how it was originally, until we saw an image nearby:
Alongside the “Before” image, and with the current reality right there in front of us, was another photograph, of the heartbreaking catastrophe that became of that fabulous interior.
We agreed that there are times when it’s good to recognise the “bones” of a structure such as this. That, although it would be fabulous to see the interior restored to the original grandeur, it’s actually pretty remarkable to leave it as it is currently and to recognise the fantastic architecture built in brick. It reminded us of Westminster Cathedral, another example of a fine “unfinished” brick interior without plaster in places.
By now, though, we were all flagging a bit and ready for a spot of lunch. It had continued to snow during the morning and so thankfully, we didn’t have to go far to the nearest Wirtshaus!
After the perfect lunch of pumpkin soup, a pretzel and a hefe weissbier, the youngsters decided to spend the afternoon in the hotel spa, whilst my Hero and I pottered on a bit further.
Seeing someone carrying a bag with the logo on it reminded me of the wonderful felt shop that was just down the street.
It’s right opposite the fabulous Dallmayr, Munich’s answer to Fortnum and Mason and equally interesting to wander around.
But with the streets still icy underfoot, we decided that we might not go too far. The thought of the hotel pool was warm and inviting as well!
Though my Hero is carrying a Dallmayr bag as evidence of our slight extravagance, that didn’t stretch to this wonderfully stylish and beautifully made cashmere jacket in the window of the gentlemen’s outfitters opposite. €1300 seemed a little too much of a splurge!
Our plans for the evening were to meet dear friends at the Wirtshaus In der Au where we had some catching up to do. It’s almost fifty years since I met Birgit and her brother Bernd when they were children and ten years since we last got together around a table. Bernd brought photo albums (and Elias, his son!) and whilst Birgit and Elias went off to the theatre together, the five of us shared lovely memories of happy times with our extended families. The single most memorable image in both our family albums is this one
taken on the front lawn of our first house in Avening, Gloucestershire on the afternoon of the Live Aid concert. Bernd and his friend Daniel were travelling in the UK and spent the weekend with us - they were 18 and Edward just 6 months old.
It was a wonderful evening. Birgit and Elias returned from the theatre and rejoined the conversation which could have gone on well into the night. But with a toast to our parents, who would all have joined in the fun and the chatter in spite of their language differences, it was time to say goodbye.
Or maybe “Auf Wiedersehen” ?
