DAY 104 SATURDAY JULY 7 CROWN JEWELS

We caught the U5 train into the main station and walked through the car free area of Karlsplatz and came across a large church with a strange facade.

Renovation work was happening behind the scaffolding and meanwhile, in order not to disappoint the thousands of tourists coming past here everyday, an accurate screen of the facade was hung over the scaffolding.  We subsequently saw other buildings with the same arrangement, which keeps the city looking charming.  We went inside and found it was the Jesuit Cathedral of St Michael and it was quite similar to the Baroque Cathedral we saw at Mondsee on Day 100, only bigger and even more ornate.

We learned that one of the popes excommunicated the Jesuits for a while but they were returned to the fold. Many biblical representations were present and Lyn liked Jacob's ladder.

Someone was playing beautiful music on the huge organ and many people were praying so we sat and listened for some time. It was quite moving.

Nearby we found a shop with hundreds of beautifully made cuckoo clocks.  We would love to have one of these but the cheapest were 400 euros and the best ones several thousand.
The town was so full of people it felt like we were starting the City to Surf in slow motion.  People told us there would be big crowds everywhere in Europe but we did not expect Munich to be even more congested than Salzburg.

This street was nearly a kilometer long and there were others just as crowded.  More tourists than Edinburgh we reckon.

.A vertical sundial this large was something of a surprise to find in the middle of the city.
We passed the new town hall and could only fit 20 percent of it in a photo.

The old one was very different in style and housed a toy museum.  Good choice.

 We found the only places to sit were in alfresco cafes and we had packed a lunch so we sat on the steps of a statue in Max Joseph Place next to the Residenz.  The name Residenz sounds quite homely, but in fact this is the largest building in the inner city and it took us two full hours to tour the Treasury, which occupied less that 10% of it.  The Treasury is actually a museum which houses all the crown jewels and precious possessions of the Bavarian Royalty since the beginning of the middle ages.  The number and size of the diamonds, emeralds, rubies, pearls,etc. decorating the ceremonial wear was astounding to us and we wondered whether the Hermitage would put this in the shade.  Here is a sample representing St George riding over the body of the slain dragon.

And here are some of the knights of St George emblem badges.

We were still reeling from the extravagance of the display as we crossed over to the main residential section of the palace. The guide warned us  that there were 90 rooms on display, all containing tapestries, paintings, furniture etc. that would never turn up on Antiques Roadshow.  We decided a fresh start on Sunday morning before the crowds arrived would be a better plan, so we walked back through the crowds to the Station and spent some time reserving seats on trains for the next two weeks.
We were told that the Glacier Express (reputedly one of the most scenic in Switzerland) was fully booked on the day we scheduled it but could be booked the following day.  So we rushed back to the hotel and spent an hour fighting the Booking.com website making a change in our hotels.  After 3 emails of complaint to them they eventually apologised for not following our instructions, but told us we would have to rebook ourselves to counteract their mistake.  We were now used to the Ubahn and had a 3day ticket so back to the station and secured 2 window seats on the Glacier Express.