Day #14: Munich

I did end up going to Munich last Saturday, though I did not like it as well as Salzburg. Mass was at the Frauenkirche, The Church of the Blessed Virgin. Fr. Brad got to wear papal vestments kept at the church for the Pope when he visits. After Mass we got to look around the Church. It had been damaged during World War II during the bombing, but it was rebuilt, not restored. Which means that the new windows were in a modern style. I would have liked to see it with the original altar and the original design. There was a relic of Pope Pius X, author of "On Sacred Music," Tra Le Sollecitudini. He was an amazing man! 
Next we went on a tour around the city. We saw the Glockenspiel, this huge fancy clock with figures that move when the clock strikes. At the end of their little act there's a little golden bird that flaps its wings - that is Fr. Brad's favorite part. He wanted us to cheer when it happened. We also saw the Church of St. Peter's and the Church of St. Michael's. St. Michael's contained a few relics from St.s Cosmos and Damian. This church was the center of the Counter Reformation, and thus was home to the Jesuits. It was a beautiful church! St. Peter's was built similar to the St. John Lateran Church in Rome, as in it had the twelve Apostles lined along the sides, each holding the instrument by which they were martyred (save for St. John, of course).The Church also contained the remains of an early Christian martyr, a virgin saint who supposedly is the patron of young girls seeking husbands. Elizabeth, Christopher, Brandon, and I climbed the tower of St. Peter's for 1 euro to get an amazing view of the city! It was quite a climb, but the structure was well stabilized - much better than the last bell tower I climbed. :-P
After returning to solid ground we grabbed lunch and went to the Deutsches Museum, the largest museum of science and technology in the world. They had a neat ship exhibit and a couple exhibits on musical instruments - they had one with a whole bunch of organs, and there was a lady there playing one of them. I also saw an exhibit on ceramics, in honor of my mom. Most of the descriptions were in German though, so I couldn't read as much about them as I would have liked.
On the way back to Munich Brian sat next to me and we had a theological discussion on veils (and not just the ones girls wear), more like veils in Scripture and in the Church today. When I returned to the hotel I watched part of Master and Commander in German and part of an opera they had live on TV. I love Master and Commander, sooooo classy! They play Mozart, too. ;-)