An Interesting City, Some Great Beer, and Another Fancy Seminar Room

June 12th, 2018

A few posts lately have mentioned our recent trip to Munich, but none has done it justice.  So now I will try.

Ten years ago, Glenn and I were invited to visit and be affiliates at CESifo, a research institute in Munich.  We spent January there, taking the girls out of school in the US and renting an apartment in Munich for the month.  Glenn and I worked during the day while the girls explored (half with a sitter who could take them on adventures, the other half on their own near the apartment).  Kate was only four, but the other girls have very fond memories of Munich, as do Glenn and I.  I have especially enjoyed visiting Munich since then.  

So we jumped at the chance to go back this year, with Glenn presenting a seminar at Ludwig Maximilians University and me presenting at the Munich Summer Institute.  We also have very dear friends in Munich, Klaus Schmidt and Monika Schnitzer, both faculty at LMU.  (We have known Klaus and Monika for close to 30 years, when they visited MIT as postdocs while Glenn and I were still graduate students.  We have had the good fortune to overlap with them on sabbaticals and leaves and visits a number of times, in Palo Alto, Boston, and Munich.  They have three lovely daughters, approximately the same ages as ours, which made spending time with them over the years even more enjoyable.  None were in Munich for this trip, though.) 

Kate and Glenn catching up on social media in the Englisher Garten

River surfing on the Eisbach Wave

We arrived in Munich on Friday night.  Our hotel was north of the Altstadt, in an area called Schwabing.  It is between Giselestrasse and Universität stops, not far from where we lived ten years ago.  On Saturday, we strolled through the Englisher Garten, down to the Altstadt.  We saw the main square there, Marienplatz, the site of the unreasonably ornate neo-gothic town hall.  We also visited the Frauenkirche, a huge double-towered church nearby, and the Viktualenmarkt, the old food market.  Finally, we took the subway back north to our old neighborhood and walked past our apartment building and some restaurants we remembered.  We also visited the lovely church where we attended mass ten years ago.  The ceiling was just as spectacular as I recall.

Die Frauenkirche

Symbol of Munich, the Muenchner Kindl

At the Viktualienmarkt

Inside the Frauenkirche

Maypole

Church where we attended mass ten years ago

On Sunday, Klaus and Monika picked us up and took us to Chiemsee, about an hour outside of Munich.  Ludwig II (also known as Crazy King Ludwig) started building a magnificent palace on an island there near the end of the 19th Century.  It was meant as an homage to Louis XIV, the famous Sun King who had ruled France two centuries earlier.  (Louis XIV is often revered by monarchs because of the near-absolute power he wielded as a monarch.  I guess they admire that kind of thing.)  As such, it was a near replica of Versailles, but with even grander rooms, more ornamentation, and more over-the-top detail and materials.  It was, however, never finished.  We saw several finished rooms, which were breathtaking, as well as the unfinished sections with exposed structural beams and brickwork.  The unfinished parts have recently been turned into gallery space for contemporary art, a use that I think suits the space beautifully.  We saw some Basquiat and Warhol, and a huge sculpture constructed out of beeswax, which perfumed the whole gallery.  In some ways, I preferred the unfinished parts.  

The fountains were also replicas of those at Versailles

We then drove back to Munich and enjoyed a delicious and relaxing dinner at Klaus and Monika's apartment in Muenchner Freiheit, just north of our hotel. 

I'm not sure if I'm in the minority, but I really love German food.  In addition to everything that I have eaten at Klaus and Monika's over the years, I love weisswurst and mushrooms and root vegetables and soft pretzels and crunchy seeded loaves.  On the night before we left, we ate at a German restaurant whose menu featured many seasonal and local ingredients.  I had a cold radish and yogurt soup with strawberries to start and a knödel with foraged mushrooms and fresh herbs as my main course.  And beer, of course.  I love the beer, especially helles and weissbier. 

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not mention that the room where I gave my presentation on Monday was in the Residenz, the royal residence dating from 1508 that occupies a large chunk of land between the Altstadt and the Englisher Garten.  And the hall had tapestries.  I think that's a first:  I have never presented in a room with tapestries before.   

Another fancy seminar room

And here are some portraits hanging right outside the conference hall.