Wednesday, 3 August. After breakfast at the hotel, we found our way to McGraw Kassern, Headquarters of the Southern Area Command (SAC), as well as the EES garage. We planned to drop the car off at the garage, but they had no record of our reservation. They would not be able to make any repairs. The best they could do was to squeze us in for 15 minutes to change the transmission fluid. Surprisingly, after an hour or so of driving, the transmission seemed much improved. Then we located the SAC JA office and looked up Major Carol Minis, who had been at Fort Meade with us in 1956. We talked until noon and then ate lunch with him as he told us a lot about Germany. (He was Jewish and, understandably, had no love for the Germans.) We also arranged to go out to dinner with the Minis' that night. A military bus took us to the big PX on Prinzregentstrasse. We spent about two hours in the Bavarian National Museum across the street and then began a walking tour through the center of the city. We walked by the Haus der Kunst (modern art exhibition) and the Prinz Carl Palais without going in.
We saw the Hofburg, largely in ruins, and were very impressed with the large and beautiful Hofgarten in front of it. We walked by the Feldherrnhallen, a war memorial, and the Resident Theater.
The streets were so jammed from here on that we could hardly walk. We went to Marienplatz to watch the Rathaus glockenspiel, where life-size figurines emerge from the bell tower of the New Town Hall in a 15-minute show. Afterward we went in to go up to a viewing platform with great views of the city.
By this time we had already noticed the rudeness of many Germans in pushing ahead regardless of who was first, but the ride up was an entirely new experience. It took two elevators to get up to the platform. The first one held about six people. When we got off, we did not realize there was a second elevator and we lingered while all the others rushed to it. That elevator only held four people, and we could not get on. As we patiently waited for it to come back, the first elevater brought up six more people. Most of them stood behind us. The door of that elevator opened outward, so we stood a little to the side so it could opened without hitting us. A large German man from the later group walked around every one else and stood against the door. Then he began pushing against me, apparently trying to get in front of me at the opening. I casually leaned my right arm against the door to block him, but he just kept pushing harder against my arm. I could not believe anyone could be so rude. The fact that I was much smaller and looked about 15 years old probably did not help. Finally, I suddenly let my arm fall for just a second, then very forcefully put it back. Of course, when my arm dropped, he fell forward because he was pushing so hard. When I put my arm back, my elbow struck him very hard right in the solar plexis. He gasped, looked me in the eye, and stepped back two feet. And he stayed there. Needless to say, he did not get on the smaller elevator when it came. It was a nice sunny day, and the view from the Rathaus was great. Next we walked to the Frauenkirche, symbol of Munich. This Cathedral was dedicated in 1494 on the site of a 12th century church. We were surprised at its modernness, both outside and in, since it has been there for centuries. It had been severely damaged in World War II and had to be rebuilt. From there we walked to Karlsplatz and the Stachus, Munich's main shopping district. Darrell wanted to get a new camera case at the large Leica dealer there, but the store was closed. It was after 1800 by then. We took a bus back to the hotel and dressed for dinner.
The Minis’ picked us up in their Karmann Ghia convertible. The top was down, and we nearly froze to death on the drive. The place they took us to was some distance from the center of town and not frequented by tourists. Them was a pianist singing German songs and the food was delicious. Darrell raved about the great German food until Carol pointed out that the meat he had was Ungarisher Rostbraten (Hungarian roast beef). We stopped for coffee at an Italian bar on the way back to the hotel. We really appreciated the Minis' hospitality. |
