The Island of Delos

17 July 2012

My week touring the Greek islands didn't feel complete without a visit to Delos, one of the small islands off Mykonos. 

Once the centre of the political world, it is now an archaeological reserve with ruins as far as the eye can see, and unfortunately, acres of dry grass that obscured various monuments, murals and carved marble remains. Progress is slowly being made in clearing away this organic matter, but given the size of the site and the state of the Greek economy, this will take a while. In the interim, one requires a good camera, a better imagination and an appreciation of the bits that are visible. 

A Weekend in Munich

With the conference over, we headed back to Munich, for Dad to continue on to Geissen and Mum and I to stay and meet up with Tegan and Andy for the weekend. Mum and I had both independently spend time in Munich before, so there was less necessity to race around seeing as much of the city as we could. This meant that ultimately it was a weekend to spend with Tegan and Andy, with little concern for the city in which we found ourselves.

 

 

Tegan and Andy have very different tastes and habits to Mum and I, waking late (it was their weekend) and preferring modern art galleries to those whose content predates the 20th century.

Tegan being a Boar

Tegan being attacked by a Cat... fish

So, after a late breakfast, and rugging up against the cold, we headed out through the main mall, ultimately in the direction of the Victuals Market.

On the way Mum did manage to steer us into St Michael's Kirche, a church with more historical connections than I anticipated.

 

Also, like much of Europe it was badly damaged in the bombings of World War II.

It is here that mad King Ludwig II is buried, after his murder/suicide/? and where Augusta Amelia (Princess of Bavaria) erected a monument to her husband Eugene de Beauharnais upon his early death and where they are both buried.

 

While I was aware of the existence of both Ludwig and Augusta, I was unaware of the connection between them, and with their mutual relative Ludwig I. She is the aunt of Ludwig I (of Lola Montez fame) who is the grandfather of Ludwig II. Joining the dots is one of the most satisfying things about history particularly when these dots seemingly belonged in different worlds.


The Victuals market is one of those places that would be extremely dangerous if I had access to a kitchen whilst staying in the city. There were stalls filled with cheeses, buckets of marinated olives and semi dried tomatoes. Vegetable stalls, bread stalls and a smattering of Christmassy stalls selling real fir wreaths bags of dried Christmas spices and Advent candles in anticipation of that weekend.

Actually the market near the Chinese Tower

Last time I had been in Munich with Chloe, seven years ago we’d obviously done a lot of walking as this time I felt comfortable finding my way around and weaving through the crowded Christmas markets. I don’t know whether it was just a little later than we realised but though the Christmas markets officially opened at 14:00, we never seemed to be short of Christmas decorations to look at or the smell of Gluhwein wafting past our noses.

Having indulged our eyes (Tegan and Andy bought cheese for later) and eaten our fill of German sausages for lunch we headed out from the shelter the buildings gave us from the biting air and decided to walk along the river towards the Englischer Garten.

It was picturesque with a few unusual and unknown monuments and buildings poking through the barren trees, but it was also bloody cold. 

Thankfully the English Garden had a surprise Christmas market around the Chinese tower where we could indulge in baked apples and hot chocolate before beginning the long walk back to our hotel, stopping at the Christmas markets for carols and more shopping.

The Chinese Tower with Tegan's beanie in the foreground

The Monopteros (reminiscent of the Temple of Love at the Hameau, Versailles)

Christmas Lights, Carols and Markets at Marienplatz

We were supposed to head out for a nice dinner that night, but having collapsed on our beds we had great difficulty mustering the energy to return to the streets and sit though dinner.

Thank goodness for Kebab shops with Baklava in the window.


Our second day started as late as our first though this time we headed in the direction of the Art Galleries (through the central Botanical Garden).

As Botanical Gardens go though, they were pretty uneventful though I later learned that a bigger, better garden existed further out from the city centre.

Just beyond the 'Botanical Garden' is the museum plaza where the Glythotek, Altes Pinakothek and Neues Pinakothek are all situated, in addition to a few other Classical inspired buildings.

 

 
Disinclined to spend precious time within, Tegan and Andy were more inclined to muck around for the cameras, including a delightful game of air ping pong using large leaves for paddles.

As Tegan and Andy hadn’t been there before and have an inexplicable liking for modern art I thought they might like to visit the Pinakothek der Moderne (while I popped next door to anything older). In dire need of decent coffee (one thing breakfast did not do well) we stopped, during which I was entreated to join them in visiting this gallery over any other.

Let’s just say ‘thank goodness entry was only €1’
My pessimistic attitude was not helped by the presence of security personnel who told you off for swinging on the chairs clearly designed for swinging on. If they were not supposed to be used and misused (as chairs are) by the public, they should have been displayed elsewhere.

As I do not see how a photo of a car is considered art worthy of putting in a gallery, this gallery is wasted on me.

 
There was a  small section of the gallery that looked at the evolution of some style designs including Edwardian chairs which I was more enthused about, but even this ridiculed but a piece of 'art' of a sawn log (complete with bark) with a few old chair backs stuck into the top of it.

Tegan and Andy had to head off in the early afternoon to make their way back to Berlin in time for work the next morning, and so having waved goodbye to them with promises to see them next weekend, Mum and I turned our feet in the direction of the Bayerisches Nationalmusuem.

And stumbled upon this along the way:

Seeon Abbey

Surprisingly, our first few days were spent together... kind of.

We traveled over to Europe together in time for a conference Mum is attending at Kloster Seeon, just south of Munich (as she puts it).

Having arrived at 17:00, long after the sun had sunk below the horizon, we didn’t gain a very good idea of what this Abbey and its surrounds actually looked like. Supposedly, it’s an abbey on a small island in the middle of a small lake. At least that’s what Google told us. 

 

The abbey is unusual, a mixture of corporate function centre and old cloister with modern monochrome lines mixed in with the occasional vaulted ceiling, wood paneled ceiling and useless sundial fresco.  

 

In the reception hall the grey stones of the vaulted ceiling have been left bare standing out against the white wash of the walls. 

And more time was spent at breakfast leaning out the window looking at the quaint old features and photographing the ceiling than eating I think. 

 

 
  

Something about this abbey has a connection with Eugene de Beauharnais (son of Empress Josephine of France) though I’ve yet to work it out. In amongst the history (all in German unfortunately) displayed along one of the lengths of the cloister is the family tree, dating back to Josephine, and the nearby café is named after the title of Eugene’s wife.

 

Leaving the island of Herrenchiemsee early on Friday we had time to make a loop around this particular lake and attempt to photograph the Abbey across the water, through the ever-present mist and fog. It was a pretty though again the camera had some difficulty distinguishing the silhouettes from the fog. 

The village of Seeon (as separate from the Cloisters) was quaint and picturesque with the suitable winding road scarcely wide enough for one car let alone the dual carriage way it was supposed to be. One got the impression that it was one of those towns that became a popular ‘beach’ resort in summer, but the remainder of the year,(including when we were there) it was more like a ghost town.

The one last place of note at Seeon Abbey was the church. 

 

Opened only from 10 until 5, I was worried that we would miss it, but on the final day had time to pop in for a glimpse before we made our way back to Munich. 

 

After the opulence of the day (Herrenchiemsee) it was delightfully simple; flat white washed walls lightly painted with vines and pseudo-trompe d’oeil.