Munich–January 25, 2017
Only a couple of museums today. The first stop was the Spielzeug (Toy) Museum in Marienplatz. On the way there, I got these pictures of wall art:
Yet another old building (I am getting a bit tired of seeing them, so unless something is really eye-catching or spectacular, I won’t be putting too many more such pictures here.)
When I got to Marienplatz, I saw a whole group of people waiting to take pictures of the clockwork figures on the Rathaus [city hall]. (See video) As I said yesterday, it is probably one of the most over-photogaphed places in all of Munich.
Toy Museum
Herewith some pictures, including somewhat creepy-looking dolls, adorable teddy bears (including some originals from Steiff, plus a bit of history of Margaret Steiff, who founded the company), and, of course, an obligatory display of Barbie dolls:
Kunsthalle: Spain’s Golden Age
This museum had a display of Spanish art; here are some of the works on display. (The third one is King Philip IV, not Fred Gwynne.)
I really am tiring of seeing all the religious art, but this full-sized sculpture of Christ was quite something:
Miscellanea
On the way back to the hotel, this statue of a man:
How on earth this memorial to Michael Jackson came to be at the base of a monument to some other dude, I got no clue. But here it is for your astonishment and viewing pleasure.
These rude, colorful gnomes got a laugh out of me:
Pet Peeves
- Lots of people here smoke. There are restricted areas for smoking, but still, far more of it than in California.
- This one trips me up every time I go to Europe, and yeah, you’ve seen me write about it before: lots of stores have doors that are push to enter, and pull to exit, which is an incredibly bad idea on every possible level.
Signage
A pet peeve in general, not just in Europe: people using spurious foreign characters and accent marks to show how pretentious they are (and probably how much they can raise prices because of it).
I had to laugh when I saw this one; you can get stickers for graffitti from a place that specializes in it.
Here is a cute way to do an umlaut over the O. The store appears to be some German equivalent of Victoria’s Secret, so the bow is very apropos.
Speaking of which, this is a store with that name. It’s the store where I saw the rude gnomes.
This coin locker at the Kunsthalle is in need of updating; it still is asking for 2 Deutsche Marks (it turns out it really wants a one euro coin).
Finally, this clever logo for the German Travel Bureau (Deutsche Reisebüro).
Hotel Sign
Text reads: Don’t dream about your life; instead, live your dream.