424: Grüß Gott

The first thing to remember when travelling to Munich, or indeed anywhere in Bavaria, is that they don't much say Guten Morgen (Good morning) or Guten Tag (good day)  but instead use Grüß Gott (God's greetings). I flew to Munich (or München as it is called in Germany) on Friday. As you've no doubt gathered by now I pretty much love travelling

especially to Germany, where they have some of my favourite 'fast food' . Not forgetting German beer, of course.

I had an ulterior motive for going to Germany this time - I went to see an Andre Rieu concert in the Olympia Halle in Munich. I guess you either like this type of 'light classical' music or you don't. He tours all over the world with his Johann Strauss orchestra. It was the third time I've seen him live, once in UK, once in Poland and now in Munich. Here are two pictures of the concert venue. I'm perhaps the only person left in the world who won't take pictures of the group/act/turn while they are on stage performing so I took these pictures as the stadium was filling up and then turned my phone off.

On thing I had forgotten is that Bavaria, in February, usually means snow. This time was no exception but it was mostly on the fields, there was almost none on the streets of the city.

As well as going to the concert I took the opportunity to re-acquaint myself with what is, perhaps, Munich's most famous tourist attraction - the rathaus glockenspiel. Three times a day, at 11:00, 12:00 and 5:00 (in the summer), the 32 life-sized figures start to move and the bells chime. It is a re-enactment of 2 stories from the 16th century and you can read more about it here.

I also took a few pictures of the tourist 'tat' available to buy in the shops. Or it would be available if it weren't Sunday. German shops don't bother opening on Sundays. In fact they only open on Saturday afternoons on the first Saturday of the month. 


My video clip, to finish, has to be an excerpt from an Andre Rieu concert. This particular clip has a pantomime bull chasing a woman dressed in red all around the concert hall. Cheap laughs but people of a certain age lap it up.