New Town Hall – Under The Harvest Moon

In January 2001, I dragged Kevin to Munich with me. Since he was stationed in Germany, I wanted to make sure that the boy did some sightseeing before he went back to the US. At that time, we had been together less than a month and didn’t know we would get married 15 months later. It was cold. And we both froze our tailbones off. But we still had a lot of fun.

First, we went to the Frauenkirche, Munich’s Cathedral. Kevin was fascinated by how big this church is in real life. He also enjoyed looking at the stained glass window. Each of them was telling stories through pictures. At the Marienplatz, we saw the Old and the New Town Halls of Munich. https://under-the-harvest-moon.com/2025/10/21/the-old-town-in-munich-germany

The fun part was climbing the 306 stairs of the 298,5 feet (91 meters) tall “Alter Peter’s” clock tower. At 183,7 feet (56 meters) is a platform, where Munich’s old town can be viewed 360°. My knees were almost buckling due to the height. But this didn’t stop me from shooting photos across the roofs of Munich’s old town and Viktualienmarkt. The Alps can be seen from that point as well. (Unfortunately, I can’t find them anymore. I hope they are somewhere deep in a box and have not been tossed away during one of the moves in the last 20+ years.)

In August of 2000, for my 27th birthday, I took a trip to Munich alone. Since we had the Bavarian Ticket, which could be purchased for less than 20 Deutsche Marks (about $11) from Monday to Friday (on the weekends, we just had to pay about $5 more to have the weekend ticket where we could travel with certain trains through all of Germany on Saturdays and Sundays) I began to make this a tradition to go to Munich more often.

On my first trip, I just enjoyed walking from the train station to the central square (Marienplatz). In that area, there are a lot of historical buildings to see. There is the Old Town Hall and the much bigger New Town Hall. If you come to visit at 11 am and 12 pm (local time), you can watch the Rathaus-Glockenspiel. From March to October, it can also be witnessed at 5 pm. The clock reenacts the scenes of Munich’s history twice daily. The first scene tells the story of the marriage of Duke Wilhelm V to Renata of Lorraine in 1568. And the second scene is the Cooper’s Dance (Schäfflertanz).

Frauenkirche (Munich’s Cathedral can be reached from Kaufinger Strasse to get to Frauenplatz, which sits northwest of the central square. At Frauenplatz is also a fountain with stairs where you can rest your feet in the hot Summer. You just have to share your space with the locals, the rock pigeons. And yes, it can get warm in Germany.

The German Hunting & Fishing Museum was very interesting as well. I was allowed to capture a photo of the taxidermied Eurasian Lynx. It was prohibited to capture photos in the museum. I believe they have changed the house rules since the use of smartphones. The museum is located in the former Augustiner Church on Neuhauser Strasse.

That day, I just strolled around and had some good ice cream before I took the subway to the Nymphenburg Palace, the birthplace of King Ludwig II.

… to be continued …

Tag: New Town Hall

The Old Town In Munich, Germany 2001

The Old Town In Munich, Germany 2000