A glimpse of Munich

So here's a really big post!  Lots of pictures over similar subjects.  A while ago I got a chance to take a bus tour through Munich, and here are the resulting pictures.  It was a bit before Christmas, and I also visited some museums.  Enjoy!

Picture taken from the bus of one of the many majestic museums!

Here shown is the eternal flame in Munich, in memorial of all of the victims of Nazism. 

As always, more Churches!  This one was right across from the Royal residencies shown in the next picture.

The royals residencies!  The entire complex is huge, with over 90 rooms open for visiting.

Hooray for statues and monuments!  This was right in front of a place selling Weinachtsbaume!  Christmas trees!

Another angle of the monuments shown in the previous picture.

Beginning the tour of the royal residencies!  This was a very majestic, very old theater.

That entire thing is made out of Coral. :O

This long hall held the sculptures of many important historical figures.

Quite impressive, oder?

Needless to say, there were a lot of them.

There were thousands of them.

This is a small painting below the stairs at the end of the hall.  I found it quite interesting, for reasons I find difficult to explain.

Well that's some interesting architecture!  Wait a minute....

Some artist thought he was real clever with this ceiling.  It seems obvious in the pictures, but I swear, it's really convincing when you're standing there.

See?  It's best when you stand right under that chandelier though.

That's a tapestry.  There were hundreds of incredibly complicated and amazing tapestries on the walls.

Small recreation of the entire complex.

So many plates!

Some king's special chapel.  

Royal sets of arms!

The hallway showing all of the different important peoples that have resided there over a time.

Next, and more interesting: The royal treasury.  Every single thing in that treasury had a deep and complicated history to it, which people can listen to through the audio tour, by entering the numbers provided with every item.

Crowns and scepters, and swords of course.

More crowns and pieces of historical jewelry.  Most everything there were many times older than the United States as a country.

The Church in Marienplatz!  Yes, that Christmas tree is very crooked.  This was another, smaller, Weihnachtsmarkt.

.....What are those!!?

Gah!  It's Perchten!  For those of you yet unacquainted:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Christian_Alpine_traditions#Perchten

Best picture I have to represent the awesomeness that is German Christmas.

Nuremberg Christmas Market!

I know it's over already, but Christmas in Europe is just too awesome not to talk more about.  So here's another Christmas market in Nuremburg!  The biggest one in the world!

Of course I have to include pictures of Churches.  I've said before that pictures can't capture the majesty, and I'll say it again: Pictures really can't capture the enormity and grandiose of European cathedrals. 

"Charle's Bridge".  Hey, wasn't there another one of these in Prague?

Majestic monument.  One of many.

The house at the end of the bridge there is where the local executioner lived in ages past. 

The sign on the executioner's house.

More churches!  There are too many to put on this blog, really.

Albrecht Dürer a very famous German painter and artist from Nuremburg.

More church!  And a giant Christmas tower for the Christmas market!  Also you can see St. Nikolaus in the sign there.

Kinderweihnacht!  For the children.  But also very pretty.

I said it was the biggest one in the world, didn't I?  And among those booths are some of the tastiest drinks and foods you'll ever find.

Another shot of the church and more of the Christmas market.  Look!  Christmas trees!

It just gets prettier as the night goes on.

This is called Feuerzangenbowle!  Pretty, isn't it?  Also very interesting.  They're burning rum over a cone of sugar to caramelize it and mix it with mulled wine.  Very fun to watch.