Too many churches?

It's easy to become a bit flippant about the incredible cathedrals here. Within a square kilometre or two in Munich's "Old Town", there are several of breathtaking proportions, mostly originally built around 1200 or so. All were at least partially destroyed during World War 2, and some of them several times before that due to fire, but all have been paintstakingly restored for us to admire. As usual with old buildings, a lot of them here are undergoing various degrees of restoration, but in some clever situations, they have draped the building concerned with a massive painted shroud, outside the scaffolding, in exactly the same image as the building itself. From a distance you'd hardly know the work was going on.

Along with many hundreds of other tourists, we watched the glockenspiel do its thing at 11am at the Neu Rathaus (Town Hall). I remember it from our other visits here in 1975 and 1988 ...

Today we got a bit footsore tramping around the Old Town, admiring churches and old buildings. We also saw the Jewish Museum, but it was a bit disappointing as it was only concerned with the Jews of Munich. At least it was dual-interpreted in English, so we could understand it all. One thing that struck us was the fact that Jews have been persecuted pretty much for as long as there is written record of history (AD).

The Christmas markets are operating at full blast and chock full of tourists, so everything is very crowded. There are also heaps of police around as there is a very big football game in town tonight, Bavaria vs Basel (Switzerland), so the place is heaving with young men with their football colours on. I think we'll pass on the game ...