Munich Day 5
This was to be our last day in Europe before returning to San Luis Obispo. Jan suggested we spend it at the Bavarian National Museum. She was motivated by its large collection of Tilman Riemenschneider woodcarvings, some of which, like the Franz Marc Blaue Reiter, she’d been taken with during her 1965 stay at Stanford in Germany.
We caught the Tram at Mariannenplatz, at first confused by its name’s similarity with Marienplatz, the city’s central square. Across the street rose St. Lukas, a Lutheran rather than Catholic church, whose combination of Baroque and Art Nouveau styles reminded me of the Prinzregentstheater we were in the previous night.
Getting off at Maximillianstrasse, we waited to cross the street next to a young family in Bavarian garb on a Sunday Spatziergang who allowed me to take their picture.
Before entering the museum we stopped for lunch at its garden cafe.
It was still a long walk to the front entrance of the complex dedicated to the decorative arts and culture of the medieval and early modern periods.
Once inside, we got sidetracked by a labyrinth of exhibits of ivory carving, painted porcelain, filigreed silver and other gewgaws of the super-rich during the 18th and 19th centuries before we got back on course to the 15th.
to the displays of limewood carvings by the master and his school
Most were unpainted portraits of ascetic apostles and saints, but a few were vibrant and fleshly.
The Hairy Mary Magdalene offered a combination, illustrating the story of the former prostitute who followed Jesus and after his death became a desert hermit. When the only outfit she brought along rotted off, her body grew hair to protect her modesty, but the carving still revealed tender breasts.
Back at the hotel, we tried unsuccessfully to check in online for the next day’s British Airways flight and readied to leave early in the morning.