MUNICH – Germany, Day 7

A relaxing day exploring more of Munich.  Today’s destination was Viktualienmarkt.  Munich is a colorful city.  I was especially impressed with all of the floral adornments; in the parks, window boxes, etc.

Viktualienmarkt

The Viktualienmarkt is a daily food market and a square in the center of Munich, Germany.  It developed from an original farmers’ market to a popular market for gourmets. In an area covering 22,000 m²(240,000 sq ft), 140 stalls and shops offer flowers, exotic fruit, game, poultry, spices, cheese, fish, juices and so on.

Most stalls and shops are open during the official opening hours (Monday to Saturday 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.); but the Biergarten doesn’t open until 9 a.m. Many stalls close at 6 p.m., before the standard closing time. There are special opening hours for flower shops, bakeries and restaurants. -wikipedia

The market is a must see if you are in Munich.  It is an absolute explosion of color and aromas.  There will be more photos when we returned to the market later in the week.  The beer gardens here can get busy and are a bit more expensive.

Viktualienmarkt @ 2:15

Dinner at Ratskellers

The English menus here were great; they included pictures of each appetizer, entree, dessert, etc.  Everywhere else we dined had English menus or English descriptions directly below the German.

We were seating in the Noah’s Ark area of the restaurant.  The vaulted painted ceilings were beautiful.  It was pretty dark in this space and smartphone photography was bit challenging.  The picture of my meal doesn’t do it justice so I will not include it.  The food here was very good as was the services.  Top notch establishment; highly recommend it.

The six vaulted arches of Noah’s Ark (painted in the 1920’s) tell the story of enjoyment associated with drinking wine in forty-eight presentations. In addition, the main painting on the front of the Noah’s Ark, as Noah beached with his ark on Mount Ararat and dismisses his pairs of animals.

The painter Heinrich Schlitt had shown much humor in the design of the naive depictions. Georg von Hauberisser, the architect and master builder commissioned by the then administration and the councilors, also designed the Ratskeller, in keeping with the romantic spirit of the time in the Gothic style of the XVI. Century. -Ratskeller.com

 

There was much discussion over this painting.  You may notice on the left side of the image there is an odd looking animal.  There is both a camels and lions in the painting; there there is what appears to be a camel-lion directly below the pair of giraffes.