Easter is a very important holiday in Bavaria. All of the shops are decorated and the bakeries make lots of special treats.
I made my special treat as well - platzak. It is Ken's grandmother's recipe for a pineapple coffee cake. It is incredibly yummy and a family favorite.
Once again our friend Georg invited us to join him for the afternoon. This time he was accompanied by his son Killean.
I am always amazed when young children are multi lingual. Killean is learning to speak three languages - German, English and Romanian.
We met at the Chinese Tower Biergarten and enjoyed the afternoon sun and some fine food.
After a lovely Easter afternoon we walked home through some of the park we had not seen before. We even found the "beginner wave" for the city surfers.
Each turn in the path provides another beautiful view.
And it looks like Munich is starting joining Paris with the lover's locks on the bridges.
A few more twists and turns and we were at our local surfer spot.
A short stroll past the Bavarian National Museum and we were home in time to enjoy a beautiful sunset from our front window.
Palm Sunday dawned cool but sunny. We set off to church and were quite surprised by the start of the service. Across from St. Anna parish church is the St. Anna Monastery. The congregation gathers in front of the monastery for the traditional opening prayers.
You might notice that there are no palms. Instead people carried branches of greens mixed with pussy willows and tied with colorful ribbons. Everyone brings their own. Following the opening prayers the congregation processes across the street and into church for the mass.
Once inside the restoration of the altar fresco was complete and uncovered. Through the haze of incense you could just make out some of the detail.
In the afternoon our friend Georg gave us a tour of Munich. He picked us up in his car and for four hours drove us all over the city. This was both informative and very helpful. To get a sense of size and placement in a new city makes getting around so much easier. On top of that, Georg is quite the historian as well. He told us about each area we visited and pointed out the better known sights and their significance to Munich history. We even had our first glimpse of Nymphenburg Palace.
As we drove around, one of the odder sights was a tribute shrine to Michael Jackson.
At the end of our tour we stopped for a traditional Bavarian dinner in Au. Outside the restaurant we found a car that would make anyone want to go hybrid.
A lovely dinner followed by a stop for gelato and our introductory tour was complete. Thank you Georg.
Our local parish church is St. Anna im Lehel. There are actually two churches across the street from each other. One is the parish church and the other is a monastery church. This post is on the parish church. The monastery will be a later post.
The interior is spare yet beautiful. The center altar paintings were being restored when these photos were taken.
The church is very old and beautiful - and it is also very COLD. You have to dress for church in layers. And at some point the Mass in German will begin to be recognizable.
Even though it was March when we arrived, the weather was beautiful. A few days even reached into the 70's. On one such day I decided to take a walk in English Gardens and get my first experience of the Chinesischer Turm or Chinese Tower. The original tower was completed in 1790 and modeled after the "Great Pagoda" in the Royal Botanic Gardens in London. On July 13, 1944, the original tower burned down after heavy bombing, but by 1952 a new tower, true to the original was erected.
The tower is 25 meters high and 19 meters wide at its widest point. The tower is surrounded by a Biergarten that has seating for 7000, the second largest in Munich. On most days in good weather it is quite full.
After exploring the tower area, I took a short stroll through the nearby parts of the park. It was a lovely afternoon and there were even some harbingers of spring.
