I rented a bike from the shop down the block to explore Munich’s extensive park, the English Garden, located  nearby.  Designed to resemble a natural landscape, its mature forests, wide meadows and rich water features were nevertheless meticulously maintained.

I hadnt ridden a non-electric bike in a couple of years, but the exertion felt good as did traveling the wide paths meant for both walkers and riders.

I came upon the artificial surf break I’d read about, lined on both sides with people and their boards waiting for a shot. None lasted more than a few seconds:

Signs in German and English proclaimed the Germans’ love of nature and their commitment to environmental action, though the translation of Habitat as “Lebensraum” had sinister echoes of the Nazi rationale for invading their neighboring states.

The meadow adorned with wildflowers reinforced the point that lawns are useful for sports but should share space with less artificial landscapes.

I sat on a bench for a while to watch locals enjoying the lake.

Looking for a cup of coffee I exited the park across from a building whose design lured me into its courtyard. It was was the home of “Munich Re,” the worldwide Reinsurance Company that insures other insurance companies for their losses. (more…)

I was longing to visit the Alte Pinakotek ever since I saw its collection mentioned on reproductions of paintings I saw in high school. The austere Renaissance style of the building seemed appropriate to house its  grand collection of  “Old Masters.”

The succession of galleries shrinking to a vanishing point gave an impression of limitless depth.

This portrait greeted us as we got out of the elevator.

We were looking for its most famous treasure, the self portrait of Albrecht Durer which served as the museum’s logo.

The understatement in the caption, “touches most viewers,” gained meaning as I stared.

as it seemed to do for others in the room.

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Jan proposed that we begin the day with a visit to the special exhibit entitled The Blue Rider: A New Language, at the Lenbach Haus, one of Munich’s modern art museums.

She was drawn by the painting of that name by the early 20th century artist Franz Marc she had encountered during her 1964-5 undergraduate residence at Stanford in Germany.

The exhibit highlighted the work of women artists, who have been previously overlooked. including wives and partners of the the famous innovators like Marc and Kandinsky, Here is one by Gabrielle Munter:

These included a powerful set of prints

The Blaue Reiter itself took prominence.

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The warm rain upon arrival in Munich didnt deter us from walking to the City Center after checking in at the small Hotel Concorde, located on a quiet street within proximity of major attractions in all directions.

At the Viktuallienmarkt or central farmers’ market (“open every day since 1807”) as the weather cleared, we enjoyed supper from a take-out fish restaurant at a tree-shaded table. It was too late to browse the market’s array of offerings but we could appreciate the 150 foot tall urban version of a traditional maypole.

Looking up, we were drawn by several baroque church steeples outlined against the sky, every  step opening dazzling new perspectives

Rounding a corner a new prospect came in view

and unfolded

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Next morning, before checking out I tried to cram in an ascent of the Kapuzinersberg. It started in a tunnel through the building to its base

and ascended past walls of the cloister built in 1600

signage about its geological formation

and episodes of its history (more…)

Next morning Jan and I went separate ways, she to the Residence museum a few steps from our lodgings, where the young Mozart and his family lived from 1773 to 1787.

I on a tram to Untersberg, the high peak visible throughout the City.

There I boarded the gondola rising 5000 feet to the summit ridge.

The early ascent offered views of the river valley and mountains containing the City marked by the Hohensalzburg Castle.

To the south unfolded the high Alps

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Because of  the excitement of first impressions and the discomfort from a cough and sore throat, I couldnt sleep that first night and found some comfort in the crucifix mounted on the wall near the bed.

Breakfast at the seminary was opulent: choices of fresh fruit, yogurts, cereals, eggs, smoked meat, fish, vegetables, breads and pastries and coffees.

The morning was spent browsing  shops, churches and a cemetery nearby. We crossed the river for dinner at an ancient biergarten and then wandered through old-town streets searching for the Residenz, the palace and cathedral complex where we had tickets for a concert. At one of its grand entrances a guard blocked our way because the place was being used for a rehearsal for the bigger concert at the upcoming annual Mozart festival.

Once again Jan’s cane convinced him to conduct us through barriers and arches to the correct location–a small stone floored l-shaped room holding an audience of about 50 people. The two young musicians entered unceremoniously, took up their period instruments and played a sequence of three Mozart Violin sonatas.  Their closeness and the bright acoustics added to the enchantment of the music.

Afterwards, we emerged into the cathedral plaza bustling with natives and tourists out for a summer night stroll.

This Rezidenz housed the single head of church and state, the prince-archbishop, Colloredo who hired Wolfgang as a child prodigy as part of his retinue.  But as a mature and widely recognized genius, Mozart quarreled with his boss and left Salzburg to live in Vienna where he was employed by the Emperor Joseph II, but nevertheless suffered poverty and died a pauper at age 35.

It felt good to get on the train in Regensburg heading for Salzburg and start our own itinerary for the second week of the trip

We didnt know what the place we selected to stay in for three nights called “Gaestehaus in Priesterseminar”–Guesthouse in the priest seminary–would be like, but it sounded intriguing.

When the taxi from the train station pulled up in front of the cathedral facing a plaza in the center of the old city, we thought the driver was lost.

But the number on the majestic portal was correct.

After checking in at the reception desk we approached our room on the second floor through a courtyard graced with fountain and formal garden.

The elevator was modern and the room itself  light and spacious, but with an austere flavor–no tv, minibar, decorations of any sort–looking out through heavy double paned windows on a restaurant plaza below.  Adjoining it on the corridor was a closed doorway with a sign indicating that the rest of building was reserved for the seminarians.

Eventually I came across more information :

Archbishop Johann Ernst Graf von Thun und Hohenstein, who was nicknamed “The Donor”, is responsible for the construction of the Trinity Church and the seminary. A three-part complex was built in 1693 according to the plans of the later imperial court architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. The Trinity Church was the celebrated architect’s first sacred building. Since 1699, the seminary has been the training centre for prospective priests of the Archdiocese of Salzburg.

I was curious about unusual conglomerate stone which formed the pillars of the arcade surrounding the courtyard and the steps leading off  it down to a crypt.

It turned out to be a typical feature attributable to Salzburg’s geological environment:

… at the northern rim of the Northern
Calcareous Alps, within a basin overprin-
ted by glacial activity during the latest ice ages. As
a result, parts of the city hills are composed of
Mönchsberg Conglomerate which has been inten-
sely exploited as building material for monaste-
ries, churches, palaces and fortifications for many
centuries… The material was quarried since the Roman times
till the middle of the 20 th century.

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Next morning we debarked and taxied to a hotel near the railroad station.  I braved a rainstorm to wash clothes at a laundromat using rudimentary German to get a kind customer to help negotiate the protocols for payment.

Now fully independent, we checked out the railroad station from which we were to depart the next day and the nearby city park.

On the tram back downtown for dinner, we met a gaggle of girls in their cups on a bachelorette party celebrating the engagement of one of them.  In answer to the question about their hats, they said “Cows..she’s marrying a farmer!”

The old City Center was bustling with another celebration–a Gay Pride parade.

We watched and listened and then darted into a shady courtyard adjacent to the Cathedral where we found a charming brewery restaurant.

For this last portion of the cruise, I was up before dawn hoping to spend more time with the river on its twisting trajectory.  The sunrise through the moving shoreline trees reflected on the surface of the water flowing in the opposite direction.

Around one turn a grandiose architectural monument modeled on the Parthenon in Athens came into view. It’s called “Walhalla,” the incongruous Wagnerian name of the Hall of the Germanic Gods. The edifice was conceived by King Ludwig I of Bavaria in 1807 and constructed between1830 and 1842 as a Hall of Fame filled with busts of “laudable politicians, sovereigns, scientists and artists of the German tongue“–part of the effort to create a unified nationalist identity.

Soon we glided into Regensburg and docked within view of its Old Stone Bridge, built by the City in 1200 to facilitate  trade between Europe and the Orient and repeatedly destroyed and reconstructed. Since its graceful arches were too small to allow for the modern commercial vessels plying the river, a parallel bypass canal now accommodates them and the crossing is reserved for pedestrians and bikes.

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