Muenchen | Bayreuth | Weimar
I slept for barely two hours; I had stayed up late to pack (since I returned so late last night =__=;;) and woke up at 4 Uhr. Geez.
We caught the 5.05 Uhr train leaving Munich, made a transfer at Nuernberg and reached Bayreuth at around 8 Uhr. There I headed straight for the cemetery. I was rather astonished by myself that I was still able to recall the route after a year. However, unlike last year, I did not come empty-handed.
Before 10 Uhr we reached Haus Wahnfried by bus. I had a long hearty chat with the old lady at the Liszt Museum. Nothing much has changed; perhaps only the huge portrait at the entrance seemed new.
Liszt-Haus
It was still early so I wandered into the garden of Haus Wahnfried. Was only there to snap photos, since I didn't do a good job last year. Now everyone can see Wagner's grave. Whatever.
Haus Wahnfried
Haus Wahnfried: the gardens...
...where Richard and Cosima Wagner and their dog (bottom picture) was buried. Ya, this is the grave. No engravings, no tombstones, just like that.
It reads "Here lies and watches Wagner's Russ (the dog's name)." -__-;;
If one is crazy like me to travel from Bayreuth to Weimar, let me advice that he/she must be prepared for a heck of train transfers. It was so last year, and it was still as troublesome this year. We had THREE transfers to make - that means carrying our luggages and running like mad up and down the stairs to different platforms. x___x
(12.07 - 12.57 Uhr) Bayreuth - Lichtenfels
(13.03 - 14.08 Uhr) Lichtenfels - Saalfeld
Saale(14.25 - 15.01 Uhr) Saalfeld
Saale - Goeschwitz
Saale(15.10 - 15.39 Uhr) Goeschwitz
Saale - Weimar
Yeah, we died.
Checked into Hotel Liszt (again ^__^;;) at 18 Uhr and the room was grrrrrrreat! So big for three person, yahooooo! Mum and I decided to take a walk around Weimar. Of course, everything was already closed after 7pm, but we didn't want to waste the time when it was still bright (the sun sets around 10pm here). So, we passed by places like Liszt-Haus, Park an der Ihm, Theaterplatz, Franz Liszt Musikhochschule, Gruener Schloss, etc.
Park an der Ihm - Liszt monument :)
Park an der Ihm - Shakespeare monument. Last year it was badly vandalized so I couldn't take a picture, but I guess they finally gave him a bath, haha.
Goethe's garden house, obviously closed, but last June I was inside, looking at the original manuscript of his Erlkoenig *__*
Franz Liszt Musikhochschule (doors opened to all!)
Sorry if this is a bad shot. My bad... :( In front of the Franz Liszt Musikhochschule
Awesome!
Found on a wall: reads "Here once stood the house, wherein J.S. Bach lived from 1708-1717" Next sentence - "F. Bach was born here on 17. Nov 1710 and P.E. Bach on 8. March 1714"
Okay, call me lame if you like. Liszt Rd and Schubert Rd as you can see. Hehehe.
I soaked in the tub that night. My first tub after staying at so many hotels. Haha. The bath took two hours. *hides*
Muenchen | Oberschleissheim | Starnberg | Muenchen
Schloss Oberschleissheim at 10 Uhr. The name refers to a family of castles - made up of the
Altes Schloss,
Neues Schloss and
Schloss Lustheim. I wasn't especially interested in seeing what was in those castles, so we hearded straight for the magnificent gardens. The largest garden compound is situated between Neues Schloss and Schloss Lustheim, and how beautiful and spacious it is!
We have arrived!
First step into the gardens
Oooo... greeeeeens...
The back of Neues Schloss
The gardens
Neues Schloss
Notice the building faraway behind the fountains? That's Schloss Lustheim
BUTT UP! XD;; A female swan feeding
Schloss Lustheim
Incredibly spacious
Finally a closeup of Schloss Lustheim after a looong walk. Strangely doesn't look like a castle to me; isn't it small compared to the massive size of the Neues Schloss?
I walked to the end of the castle compound and saw this - isn't the design cool? So looooong, lol.
At 14 Uhr we were back in Munich's city center, me getting roses for tomorrow's occasion (I'll explain in the next post). It seems that my parents were rather restless so I suggested heading to Starnberger See, a lake far out from Munich where I've visited alone last year.
Starnberger See ("See" means "lake" in German)
The docks
The lake, the swans, and the cold...
We spent a rather long time in Starnberg and I barely made it in time for the Munich's opening celebration (they called it "
Festspiel Nacht") of the Munich Opera Festival, which was held at 20 Uhr. I reached Marienplatz at 19.45 Uhr and I ran like crazy to the celebration venue,
Fuenf Hofe, a huge shopping complex equivelent to our own Ngee Ann City.
I attended the narration of
Alice in Wonderland (in German of course), which was obviously another publicity method for the new opera premiering tomorrow night. Sigh... I would like very much to get tickets for it, but we will be leaving Munich tomorrow morning. T__T After listening to a chapter's narration, I caught a performance of early love art songs done by two sopranos and instrumentalists (oboe, keyboard and cello if I recall correctly?) and the presentation was quite interesting. The
Festspiel Nacht was really very happening; there was always different performances taking place at venues all around
Fuenf Hofe, and I had a hard time deciding where or which performance to attend next. Outside of the shopping mall
avant garde piano music was being played - by a composer apparently - and it seemed like he was rather being well received.
I queued for more than an one hour, but it was worth it - I got to see Kent Nagano conduct! The programme was very interesting, and still I see Germans not really to accept unconventional music. I hope that's due to the cause that the concept and intention behind the modern pieces wasn't properly explained to them. It was all good fun though. It started to rain and I managed to reach the hotel at around 23.15 Uhr, two hours later than I'd expected. Haha.
Muenchen
[Sorry I lost the momentum of the posting. Uploading the pics on blogspot is a pain in the ass! >:EEEEEEEE So after three days in vain I turned to Photobucket, which proves a friend. ^__^]
8.30 Uhr at the Hochschule and found out that there wasn't any need for me to take the theory section. Was that a good or bad sign I had no idea, though I prefer to be pessimistic. So, this is the start of my holiday. :D
We decided to take a morning stroll around the Koenigsplatz area. Mum always wanted to see what was at the end of the street and we found ourselves at
Karolinenplatz. Out of boredom I suggested walking an entire circle around the monument (of some kind), and
sighted Frauenkirche, looking as majestic as ever. We didn't know we were still so close to the city center. ^__^;;
Then it was time to check in into another hotel. I really didn't like the previous one anyway, so I was fine with this arrangement. At
Karstadt to buy some hiking maps - I was having plans to be adventureous again... XD Then at
Ludwig Beck where there was such a huuuuge collection of classical recordings, but I could only grab a Liszt volume recorded by Leslie Howard... because the cds were pricey here, and I should spare a thought about how much weight we were going to carry home at the end of the trip. This was just the start of the journey!
If there's something I'd recommend doing in Munich, that would be tryig out the Viktualienmarkt's "Krustenbraten". I'm quite sure only one food stall at the Markt sells that, and it's rather expensive for its size, but it's heavenly. Personally I prefer it to the famous Schweinhaxen.
The May Pole at Viktualienmarkt -
it's too tall so I had to split it into half.
Another pic from ViktualienmarktGiant shrimps! :OWe walked our way though unfamiliar streets and alleys and reached the Bayerisches Staatballett... and located
Schuhbeck's beside the Ballet House! I have read about it before in a travel itinerary but soon forgotten about it. Everyone got to taste their home-made ice cream, but they also have their on chocolate and spices shops sandwiching the ice cream one. The queue was crazy.
Getting lost - I thought the little figure is rather cute, whatever it is up there forWe discovered a spacious and cool opening admist the hectic city center! I believe it's called Alter HofReally loved the apartments at Alter HofBayerisches StaatballettSchuhbeck's ice cream!!!!!! Is love ^__^Along Maximilianstrasse we walked passed the Muenchner Kammerspiele and then Schauspielhaus, and realized that the street caters not only for the rich (you have Huge Boss, Doir, blah blah shops along Maximilianstrasse) but also for performing arts lovers. Out of curiosity we wandered down the other end of the same street (opposite of Nationaltheater). Mum wanted to check out a curious-looking building and I reckoned it was at the other side of the river. We never came to find out - it was really very far away. -__-;
Muenchner KammerspieleSchauspielhaus - nice lovely poster there, isn't it? *__*LOLI finally entered a bookshop I've been dying to visit since last year, and although it did not have the Liszt books I thought it would have, I found some really cool biographies and books about music and theatre there. :D
We crossed the Nationaltheater and Odeonsplatz to take the subway train to the
Universitaet stop, I having challenged everyone to finish covering the whole length of the Englischer Garten before sunset. Ahaha, we did it in three hours! It killed our feet totally. I absolutely did not expect us to end up at the
Studentenstadt subway station; that's waaaay further than I thought we would have walked! We covered an entire transport network zone. ^__^;;
Finally took the subway home, but not before ending the evening with a stop at the Hauptbahnhof - Currywurst for dinner. Yay!
//
Poster advertising the new opera "Alice in Wonderland", which will be premiered on the opening night of the Munich Opera Festival, an one-month event. Another one with Kent Nagano below.
This is the only pic I managed to upload for the whole of three days!!! >:EEEEEEEEEE (Sorry to be making a fuss at Nagano's poster though, oops...)
Even more Opera Festival posters alongside the Nationaltheater buildingEntrance of the NationaltheaterAn even grander shot of the entrance. The opera house is HUUUUGE alright?The flags read "Munich Opera Festival"We sighted
Radio Bus Nr. 1 and
Radio Bus Nr. 2 on our way to the subway station because Lang Lang is performing on Saturday night
here and
look the stage is being set up!Englischer Garten is huuuuge to contain everything a Garten should have |
the greens |
the torrents |
the Biergartens |
the feathered | and lastly
the waters :D
Muenchen
[Temperature: 19 to 25 degrees]
Today was the day we had to move out of the current hotel into a new one (at Karlstrasse) nearer to the Hochschule.
Very little was done today - my regular visit at MM and dinner (Scampi Salat) at Marienplatz.
The waiter lied to me "Scampi" is fish! Luckily it turned out to be a delicious prawn dish.
This is how scary Marienplatz on a Saturday can get. Eeeeeeks! Crowds! >.<
Muenchen
[Temperature: 19 to 23 degrees]
At 9.30 Uhr I went to the Hochschule but the Pruefungsbuero was unfortunately closed! To think I even woke up so early for that... =___=
Practised again at MM at noon and when I was done, strolled from Neuhauserstrasse to the Nationaltheater (around a 30 mins walk). I was actually intending to get myself a ticket to the opera but was too lazy. But I finally found the tiny speck of movitation today, lol.
I had thought that the Abendkasse would be where I should get my tickets - never did I realise that it's only opened a few hours before performances. So walking along the length of the Nationaltheater I was astonished to see how huge the theater really is! Finally we reached the Box Office, which is a surprisingly modern building of glass (stark contrast to the historical Nationaltheater stone building), and bought my ticket to
Die Zauberfloete! But all was not joy: Expectedly the seats were almost filled, and what was left were 123 and 17 Euro prices. I got the 17 Euro standing ticket; because I don't love
Zauberfloete enough to spend a bomb on it. In the end I was mistakened as a "Studentin" (German "Student" means English "uni student") and I was asked to pay only 10 Euro. :)
And we all opera lovers know the SOLE purpose of attending a
Zauberfloete performance. Kikiki~~~~ *_____*
A long stroll in the Hofgarten, till it started to rain. Sheeesh! When we reached Weinstrasse for dinner the rain stopped again. This time I intended to eat "German" so I ordered Fischfillet mit Kartoffelnsalat and for everyone's dessert, Germknoedel mit Vanille Sosse. *___* Even more yummy that yesterday's dinner!
Hofgarten: Right, center and left
We took a train to Koenigplatz and walked all the way to the end of Karlstrasse... which in my opinion was a crazy thing to do. It was getting dark and we were all getting tired. Boo...
Muenchen
[Temperature: Amsterdam - ca. 10 degrees; Munich - 17 to 20 degrees. Summer? You gotta be kidding.]
Arrival at Amsterdam - around 6.25 Uhr local time. At 7.25 Uhr - our transfer flight to Munich and we reached Munich's city center at about 10.40 Uhr. I headed straight for
Movimento Muenchen to book the rooms, then joined my parents at Marienplatz, where I intend to gather information about upcoming concerts in Germany (not just Munich) from the Rathaus.
The famous Neues Rathaus...
...and Marienplatz
From 14 - 17.30 Uhr I was at MM. They had an Ibach grand. I rather like the touch, though it was rather soft except till the low registers, and the room had good acoustics. :)
For dinner I had Schnickennudel mit Salat, and it was unexpectedly yummy. Love the salad dressing too!
Weinstrasse - a street next to the Neues Rathaus, with a whole stretch of cafes with yummy menus fooood :D
...this cafe offers cheap German food!
