Munich Weekend Part 3b

In which I spend my Saturday afternoon very enjoyably and in a much less depressing manner than my Saturday morning.

So needless to say I was in need of a good cheering up after Dachau. I headed towards Schloss Nymphenburg. I had to switch from the S bahn to the tram at the railway station anyway so I stopped there for some lunch. Oh my gosh. I had this sausage wrapped in bacon with some melted cheese, on a roll. Oh my gosh. I can not begin to describe the level of deliciousness involved here. Juicy, crispy, fatty, greasy, cheesy meaty heaven. Ahhhh. If I get a choice about my last meal, that is what I want.

Schloss Nymphenburg is a nice quiet little pick me up. I was rather tired to go gallivanting all over the grounds as I perhaps would have under normal circumstances, but I did do the main castle. It was sort of interesting, as it was just a summer home for the Bavarian rulers. I mean, what better way to relieve the stress of living in an ornate palace in the city than by slipping off to a slightly smaller ornate palace on the outskirts of town? Anyway, it did have one rather unique feature: the Gallery of Beauties. King Ludwig I had the court painter do  a collection of 36 portraits of beautiful young women, from a variety of social classes. All the way from a shoemaker's daughter to his own daughter. (Also included are his two mistresses). He wanted them painted in such a way that you could not tell of what social class they were. So you couldn't be distracted either by their rags or their riches.  All you were to see was how beautiful they are. People came from all over Europe to see his Gallery.*Side note: this must have been like getting a fashion shoot. If a girl got picked, she came to the palace, got completely glam-ed up, and when they were done she got to keep the dress as a gift. People thought he was great for glorifying virtuous female beauty, but I bet his wife had a different view.

When I got done here, I took the metro to the Konigsplatz stop. It's supposed to have some really awesome Grecian looking museums and a nice little green space in the middle. I wouldn't know; the whole thing was blocked off for some event. Don't these people know better than to inconvenience me? Well, I then went over to the Englisch Garden. I don't know what's particularly english about it; a more accurate name might be "Large Park of No Distinguishable Nationality", but that probably wouldn't attract as many people. I walked around a lot. It's a very pleasant park, despite its lack of nationality. There's a chinese pagoda that you sort of have to see while you're there and it happens to have a nice out door cafe-type set up next to it. And there happened to be a traditional band in lederhosen playing on the pagoda, so I happened to decide to have dinner there. It was fun. I had knodel, which I pronounce "kuh-noodle", even though I know that's not remotely close to right, and a ginormous pretzel. Huge. And delicious. A very good meal, with good music. After dinner I walked some more and then headed back to the train station.

The ride home was pleasantly uneventful. The people in my compartment were very nice and no one snored. We arrived back about 45 minutes late, so I missed the direct from Koln to Paderborn and had to take one switching in Hamm. So I got back a bit later Sunday morning than planned, but it was all good. It's not like I had anything planned. Besides sleeping of course.