Hello lovelies!
Oh my goodness, I feel like a posting champion. Thankfully, Doctor Who and Buffy the Vampire Slayer keep me entertained during the rather tedious process of adding pictures to posts. And once that's done I get to do the fun part! Explaining!
Our next destination was....dun dun DUN...Munich! We left for the Copenhagen airport bright and early in the morning and after some desperate last minute Danish Krone spending in the form of pretty postcards and VERY palatable pastries at the airport, we boarded our plane. Kun-Wei wasn't feeling very well so I naturally took total advantage and nabbed the window seat. :) If you are wondering what the flight from Copenhagen to Munich looks like, look no further!
This church is actually really cool. Mainly because of it's crazy cool history. Also, take note of this perspective of the cathedral from this angle. Note, perhaps, the apparent lack of windows on the sides from this view point. Spoiler: It's going to be important in a few pictures.
This cathedral suffered major damage in World War II. The roof caved in and one of the towers was destroyed. After the war extensive reconstruction was needed to restore the cathedral to its former glory. It required both labor and money, and for their help...um...helpers got their family crests and little signifiers on these little discs on the ceiling. Included among these disks is one that has a Jewish star. What? Welp, here's the awesome story. Folks at the Cathedral of Our Dear Lady got word of the ransacking of Jewish establishments before they were set to occur and approached leaders in the Jewish community to tell them about it and agreed to take and safeguard important documents and objects. After the war was over, the Jewish community was actively involved in the cathedral's reconstruction as a thank you. I really like that.
Yeah, that's really all I have to say.
This is...dun dun DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNN...the Devil's Footprint!!!!! AHHHHH!!! Ok, so, to start the story: the Frauenkirche was build quickly. Remarkably quickly. Almost...tooooooo quickly, in fact. Local legend has it that this awesome speed was achieved with the help of the ol' Scratch himself and his minions. See, the Devil went down to Georgia... Oh wait, nope, wrong story (ok, I'm sorry about that joke but...it's staying). Ok, for realsies, the Devil apparently visited the architect when the Cathedral was in its early stages of development. He stood where I was standing when I took the above picture and he noticed a lack of windows in the building. So, being the Devil, he decided to make a deal. He told the architect that if he (the architect) didn't add any more windows to the Cathedral, he (the architect) could borrow the Devil's helper buddies at night to finish the Cathedral real quick like. See, the Devil figured that this would be a fantastic way to make the Cathedral all dark and dreary and, well, devilish. He figured that people would enter the Cathedral and want to worship him instead of God due to the whole dark and dreary and devilish thing. So, the Devil's minions built the Cathedral in record time and when it was finished, the Devil visited the Cathedral and the architect to see the finished result of his dastardly plan. And what did the Devil find? A bright and lovely Cathedral that would definitely not help him in the slightest! Naturally, the Devil was enraged and said something along the lines of "WTF, man?" to the architect. The Devil saw a ton of windows all over which seemed like a breach of the agreement. The architect then took him to the point that he had originally pointed and said something along the lines of "See, you done got tricked! Oh snap!" This made the Devil very angry. In fact, it made him so angry that he swelled to three times his size and stamped his foot in anger, leaving this footprint.
Of course, if you actually see the footprint, you may notice that it's a bit small to be a super big Devil's footprint. In fact, I think it might have been slightly smaller than mine. There are two possible explanations:
1) This footprint actually belonged to the architect, or, more likely...
2) The Devil is super tiny naturally, like a hobbit or leprechaun or fairy, so swelling to three times his natural size made him roughly the size of a modern female human.
Ok, I know that I've already been generous with the story time but I've got another one for all ya'll! YAY!! Ok, so, on the doors of the Alter Peter there is a sign with some rules. You've got your self-explanatory no drinks and no ice cream cones. Presumably the ice cream cone rule can be extended to all food. You've also got a pretty understandable no hat rule. If God wants to non-lethal lightning bolt some pearls of wisdom into your head, the thin cloth of a hat may cause unwanted interference or even full blockage. There is also a sign with an "X" through a dude's pants with his pockets full of...oh man, I'm almost embarrassed to type it...ok, his OWN HANDS. Yep, that's what I'm saying, NO HANDS IN YOUR PANTS IN THE CHURCH! Kun-Wei and I giggled at this for sometime. Our tour guide noticed this too. A while back she dragged a church usher out to the sign and asked him what the deal was. He looked at her and, in all seriousness, replied, "The Devil is in your pants." So...that left her with the question "What the hell could have happened in that church to inspire that rule. I would like to hear that story." So would I, Sonja, so would I.
Wanna hear something crazy? All of the states of Germany weren't unified until 1871. That's right, we beat the Germans by almost a hundred years on the whole becoming a country issue! Hells to the yeah.
And on that happy note, I leave you until my next post.
Much love and cheers!
Miss, Pardon my intrusion. I just thought that anyone who puts "Alliteration" as an interest in their profile deserved a comment! I too love alliteration, allegory and allusion! Enjoy your trip if you're still there! I was stationed in Germany and many other countries while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps years ago.
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Thank you so much for the lovely comment! Alliteration, allegory and allusion are all excellent things to love. :) I'm in England for two more weeks and will be sure to enjoy the rest!
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