Verona wrap up

Our train back to Germany left at 5pm, which gave us most of a day to explore Verona.

Because we had just left the cool mountains, and because the forecast for Verona was for temps in the mid-90s, we headed out early for a walk to Castel San Pietro, on the east side of town across the Adige river, for some views of Verona before the sun rose too high.

Like the rivers in southern Bavaria, the Adige was also high

We headed back down to our pension for breakfast. The fossils were even larger in the Verona sidewalks than in Trento.

Naturally, we continued walking after breakfast. Our first stop was the train station, where we stored our backpacks for the day. Then it was on to Basilica di San Zeno on the west side of town. The basilica was consecrated in 806 and largely renovated in the 12th century.

The crypt

From San Zeno, we walked back toward the old town...

...to the 14th-c. Castelvecchio. The castle houses a museum of historic municipal and ecclesiastical art and other property, and visiting gave us an opportunity to climb around the ramparts.

St. Cecilia

A very expressive crucifixion

This nursing madonna dates from the end of the 13th century. The charming smiley face indicates mama is happy...

...while in this depiction of the crucifixion, the frowny face indicates the witness on the left is sad. 

We then headed to the Dom...

...and then to the Renaissance botanical gardens, Giardino Giusti.

By the time we left the gardens, we were dehydrated and flagging. We had planned on ending our touristy day by climbing the 368 steps of the 84m-high Torre dei Lamberti, but then we decided we had already climbed San Pietro, climbed the hill in the botanical garden, and for goodness sakes, just crossed the Alps, so we bailed in favor of swinging by a Spar grocery store for our second Italian experience of stepping into a designated rectangle on the floor to have all items auto-scanned in one fell swoop.  

WATER

We had purchased two 24-hour "Verona Cards" at the Basilica di San Zeno, which got us free or discounted admission to assorted sites throughout town, and we were determined to get our money's worth. So instead of climbing the tower, we swung by the 13th-c. Basilica di St. Anastasia.

Out of time and energy, we walked back to the train station, collected our bags, and took a train north to Germany.

A December day in Munich

Before heading to H's, we gifted ourselves with an overnight stay in Munich, in a pension near the Englischen Garten. We set out mid-afternoon, walking through the garden and tempting smart crows with bits of apple. We passed through the Christkindlmarkt at the Chienesischen Turm--where basteln, roasted chestnuts, and Gluehwein were, unsurprisingly, the bulk of the attractions--to the Monopteros built by Leo von Klenze in 1837.

Monopteros

View from Monopteros. Dome on the left is the Residenz;
twin domes in the center are the Frauenkirche.

Carly is traveling with us

We continued on through the garden...

past the Residenz. On our way, we had a brief altercation with the bishop St. Nikolaus and his henchmen, shown huddling here:

S said, to the crony to the bishop's right, "Krampus?" The crony replied, "Nein! Klaus!" and swatted S on the behind with a straw broom. We think, post-googling, that he was supposed to be one of a crotchety host of Pelznickeln--literally, fur-clad Nicks. Krampus is an entirely other harbinger of Christmas terror. German folk legends are not for the faint of heart. 

We continued on into old town Munich and paused for a tasty Vietnamese dinner. (When in the bustling metropolis, do as the bustling metropolisians. We have another two weeks to feast on Kaesespaetzle mit geroesteten Zwiebeln.) Then it was on to Alten Peter; we climbed the 299 steps to the top of the church tower for some great views.

St. Peter's church all decked out for Advent

Look! On the horizon! It's the Zugspitze, Germany's tallest mountain!

The Viktualienmarkt down below

Nifty shadows on the exterior wall, cast by light
shining up through the iron grill work.

View of the Heiliggeistkirche, with the
world's biggest mobile ferris wheel in the background (installed April 2019).

The Frauenkirche (L) and the tower of the Neue Rathaus (R) above Marienplatz

More nifty shadows

This sign was at the top of Alten Peter, and was probably installed to demonstrate that tourists don't read signs. The exterior walkway at the top of the tower is pretty narrow--about a meter wide at its widest--and the boards are a little springy, and the ground is a long way down, so the sign is attempting to direct tourists to walk around the top all in the same direction. But why do that when you could pile up in both directions on the beautiful Marienplatz side of the tower?

This next sign provides some history of Alten Peter, which was originally a three-nave Romanesque basilica in 1050. The sign skips over how it went from basilica to the current gothic church--the interwebs put that between ca. 1181 and 1278--but it does include details about multiple fires and a lightning strike. In 1951, the church was restored to its "old [gothic] form." The bells date from 1382, 1605, and 1720. 

A view from the street to the top of the tower, ~96 meters up.

Afterward, we browsed the Christmas market in Marienplatz with several hundred other tourists. When a choir and brass band began performing from a balcony of the Neue Rathaus, hundreds of cell-phone cameras simultaneously turned north to begin filming. I didn't get a good photo of that phenomenon because the crowd was so big and we were in its midst, but imagine the photo below multiplied 20 times, and you get the idea.

From there, S and E took the U-Bahn to the Christkindlmarkt in Schwabing, near our hotel, while I walked the distance (to see more sights and get more exercise). En route, I passed this window dressing at a Louis Vuitton store...

...as well as the sign below in Schwabing. It looked to me to mean something like "people are required to appear before a judge here" or "people will be compressed into confined spaces here," but S says it means "meeting point."

After three Christmas markets in one day, we expect tomorrow morning will involve a museum or two before we continue on to Steinebach am Woerthsee.