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:

Colorful abstract mosaic with seagulls Two stick figure graffitti Heart with white person silhouette on black background at left, black silhouette on white background on right. Head of African woman with eyes closed Sculpture of woman leaning over a round object (wheel or stone)

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.)

Engraved “GEGR MDCCCIII” with sculpted woman on either side Two rows of four sculptures

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.

People with cameras ready to take pictures of clockwork

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:

Teddy bear playing horn next to two toy horses Display case with many toy trains Display case with many toy cars, motorcycles, and airplanes, plus two zeppelins Toy robots and orange flying saucer Display case of Barbie dolls with two Ken dolls Toy birds Toy cat wearing green top hat Display with seated original Steiff teddy bear Teddy bear with confused/quizzical expression Toy wind-up bear and woman carrying stack of dishes Toy woodworking kit Collection of somewhat creepy dolls, one in lederhosen. Paper soldiers of World War One era Wind-up toy showing cowboy being bucked off horse Toy insects Toy Mutt and Jeff

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.)

Sculptures of two saints in priestly garb three musicians philip fourth still life with books old woman and boy still life with flowers

I really am tiring of seeing all the religious art, but this full-sized sculpture of Christ was quite something:

Full-scale sculpture of dead hrist lying on back

Miscellanea

On the way back to the hotel, this statue of a man:

Larage sculpture of man made of corrugated cement Sculpture of man made of corrugated cement

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.

Michael Jackson memorial at base of monument Monument with man standing atop Monument showing original and Jackson memorabilia at base

These rude, colorful gnomes got a laugh out of me:

Purple, blue, and orange gnomes giving the finger

Pet Peeves

  1. Lots of people here smoke. There are restricted areas for smoking, but still, far more of it than in California.
  2. 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

Sign “MARIEN” with reversed R and accent over E

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).


Sticker “My name is” from graffittishop.it

I had to laugh when I saw this one; you can get stickers for graffitti from a place that specializes in it.


Sign hunkemöller with a bow as the umlaut

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.


Sign: “Apropos The Concept Store”

Speaking of which, this is a store with that name. It’s the store where I saw the rude gnomes.


Coin locker asking for 2 Deutsche Mark coin

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).


Letters DER with luggage handle over E

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.

Words in thick thought balloon