Last Days in Munich

Sunday mornings mean going to church for our family….no matter where we are…so I do my best to find a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints meetinghouse in the city we are visiting.

On this Sunday morning before Christmas Eve we traveled by S-Bahn and bus to a chapel in southern Munich. There are two locations for the 4 wards (congregations) that meet in Munich and we were going to the same one that Mark and I visited last February on our first trip to Munich…but this time we understood the transportation better and so our walk was much shorter!

After exiting the S-Bahn, we climbed some stairs, walked across a bridge and waited for the bus.  Our planning was great because we waited only a few minutes before the bus arrived.

The streets were very quiet on this early Sunday morning...

 After a short bus ride we got off and walked about 5 minutes to the Munich chapel.

This is an international congregation, and many of the members from the U.S. had returned home for Christmas….so the congregation was smaller than normal, though the small chapel was nearly full. They announced that the church service today would be shortened to one hour.

We sang Christmas songs, listened to beautiful music, and then the First Presidency Christmas devotional was replayed.  We had attended the devotional in person while visiting Melissa in Salt Lake City earlier in the month.  But I was happy when they announced it was going to be shown…I knew we could be more attentive since we were not contending with jet lag this time.

The Christmas messages and music were beautiful…I loved being in Germany so close to Christmas!

As an added treat, Melissa surprised one of her former college professors who was still serving a church mission in Munich with her husband.  Melissa enjoyed visiting with Sis. Coverston....She and her husband were so kind to us and invited us for lunch after church.  They fixed a delicious lunch and we loved the homemade broccoli soup and bread..and our visit together.

Thank you to the Coverstons for their kindness!

They drove us back to our hotel…and we changed into warmer clothes. There were still a few   daylight hours so we walked around the center of Munich again and saw some of the old and beautiful churches in this area.

This is Peterskirche (St. Peter's Church).  It is the oldest church in the area and was rebuilt after it was nearly destroyed during WWII.  It is the final resting place of former Bavarian monarchs King Ludwig II and his brother Otto.  

Mark and I had learned of the "Swan King" or "Mad King Ludwig" last February when we visited his castles….one of which, Neuschwanstein, was the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland.  Ludwig II was the designer of beautiful castles but he had quite an eccentric life…and a sad ending as well.  At least his final resting place is in a beautiful church.

Munich's churches show a great contrast in style.

One of my favorite scenes in Munich….

On our walk we encountered this band on one of the street corners.  The violinist played concert-quality music, and the accordian sounds like several instruments in one.

They attracted quite a large crowd and we were all entertained for a while…but because it was cold we needed to keep moving.

Frauenkirche is in the background and to the left of the Rathaus (city hall) tower in the center of the picture. The onion-shaped domes are characteristic of Munich's skyline. I didn't realize that these two domes were part of one of Munich's well know churches.

After we made our way over to Frauenkirche we found that there are many stories about this church…an interesting one is about the "devil's footprint" inside.

One of the legends about the footprint is that the devil made a deal with the builder to help finance the church if there were no windows. The builder tricked the devil and built a small window whose view is hidden because of the large alter and columns. When the devil discovered he had been tricked and there was a window that kept him from entering the church…he stomped his foot in the foyer and went outside in a fit of anger.

The legend also says that when he rushed outside he put his "fury" into the wind which blows constantly around the church.

Walking through the pretty lit Christmas market streets….

 ….I loved the details they add to the arches, windows and buildings.

A small choir was singing on the Rathaus balcony in the picture below…they were singing Christmas songs in German and though it was cold it was a treat for us to see and hear.

We had wanted to attend a Christmas concert but were not in time to purchase tickets…this small choir singing Christmas songs in German was good enough for us….it was a new experience and we enjoyed.

We have loved our visit to Munich with Melissa…tomorrow would be Christmas Eve and we would be returning to Warsaw early in the morning….

 ….a good thing because the stores all close by 2 pm and Melissa informed me she needed to go Christmas shopping for her Dad!