The funny thing about Munich is how it seems to vary from
feeling like a village (as the people of Bavaria like to call Munich) to a world class city. Life's little pleasures still have a place in this town. You might find vases of flowers in a mundane little coffee shop or a tiny candelabra where something more ordinary would suffice. This brings a feeling of civility to your day; it makes you feel at home. Let us give you an idea of what we mean.
Saturday mornings have become our food shopping day and, as usual, we headed to the Victualienmarkt with plenty of grocery bags to do our shopping. But first, we decided to have a coffee and a little treat. We each purchased what we wanted (goulash soup for Deb, her fave, and a Café Latte and croissant for me) and found our
way over to a small table by the window. It
was quite nice to sit there and just enjoy the space, and the hustle
and bustle of the shoppers all around us. As we were leaving to head to
the Viktuelienmmarkt to complete our shopping, we noticed the following candelabra just sitting on one of the common
tables in the shop. It is this attention to detail and
this desire to make everything nicer and cozier that really impresses us both, that brings the niceties of life to one's day.
Then on to the Victualienmarkt. It seems everyone heads here to do their food shopping and enjoy the company of other Muenchners. The Victualienmarkt is an outdoor food market located just off Marienplatz, Munich's central gathering place. You will find dozens of little stalls here, all occupying one large outdoor space. It is hard to tell where one stops and another begins. Just follow your nose! There are shops for olive oil, for jams and jellies, wine, meat, vegetables, and for so much more. When you get too hungry to keep shopping, there are food vendors offering breakfast or lunch AND BEER, NO MATTER THE TIME. Big tables in the middle of all this hubbub offer conviviality and plenty of outdoor air. When our shopping was done, or rather, when we couldn't possibly carry any more, we headed up to Marienplatz which is the main city center. On a weekend it does indeed seem like all of Munich has come out to see the sites and to shop.
Wandering across the plaza, Deb noticed this
fresco on the side of one of the buildings. I, Mark, had never actually noticed it
before and Deb snapped a great shot. It turns out Saint Onuphrius was an ancient
hermit from the fourth century who grew up in a monastery and then spent the
next 70 years of his life living in the deserts of Egypt and devoting himself
to God.
As we headed home, we came across a typical Munich scene, a mini event. A small crowd was gathered outside Dallmayr's, Munich's most exclusive gourmet shop, admiring the most recently arrived head turners of the day. The flashy red one, a gorgeous Ferrari, seemed to be holding everyone's attention. Parked just behind it was a black McLaren MP4-12C super car. While the Ferrari got all the looks (or most of them), the McLaren would have left the red beauty in the dust.
On the weekends, all these super high-end
cars come out of their garages for a quick run to the super market. As we said earlier, it is the little and the big things that always keep you smiling.
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