Munich: Cars & Churches!

We left Krakow on an early flight; and as expected, the immigration people gave us a hard time (again). Sigh. They even asked for our accommodation details! We were LEAVING the country!! How was that relevant? Hmpph.

Anyway, we got to Munich safely, left our backpacks with the storage facility, and then went back into the city to do some sight-seeing. We had a quite a lot of time that day, as our flight back home was only much later that night.

The first place we wanted to visit was the BMW Museum. We headed for Olympiazentrum, and when we got there, we were shocked to find that the place was packed! Hmmm, that seemed a little odd. It started to snow a little, and we rushed to join the queue, which we presumed was heading for the museum. When we got to the entrance, we realised that we were at something far more exciting- it was the opening weekend of the new BMW Welt!

The place was PACKED with people! Adults and kids alike were gawking at the beautiful cars, checking out all the different features, learning more about the technology, and playing with all the interactive stuff. It was quite an experience!

Hydrogen-powered BMW

The building itself was an architectural marvel. Hubby was busy snapping photos, and it was so interesting to see how this building of glass and steel appeared so incredibly fluid. After all the excitement, we finally managed to find out where the BMW Museum was. It turned out that it was undergoing refurbishment, and there was only a temporary exhibition set up instead. Oh well; at least we were there on the right day to see the new BMW Welt! That was most definitely the highlight of the day! :)

Leaving Olympiazentrum, we headed back into the city centre. Starting from the famous Marienplatz with the towering neo-Gothic Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall), we spent the rest of the afternoon walking from one church to the next. Altogether, we saw 5 churches that afternoon- Heiliggeistkirche, St Peterskirche, Frauenkirche, Michaelskirche and finally, Asamkirche! Talk about church fatigue.....

The late-Gothic Frauenkirche, with its 16th-century twin onion domes

Asamkirche was particularly memorable- it didn't seem like much on the outside, but we were taken by surprised by the opulence inside. It was a small church compared to the others; but scarcely an inch of that space was left unembellished.

It was a Sunday afternoon and all was quiet in the city centre. Not even a single shop along Kaufingerstrasse (the shopping street) was open, so we had to be contented with window-shopping, heh.

The evening was almost upon us, and it seemed like the right time to leave the Munich city centre and head back towards the airport. We were sad as our wonderful holiday was finally drawing to a close, but at the same time, it was nice to be heading home.

Well, as they say- all good things must come to an end. Hopefully, there will be opportunities for more good things in the future!