11:09 p.m. - June 27, 2002
Mad Munich Museum Mania Continues
I am so accomplished. I finally located a copy of Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera). Of course, I felt really stupid because I should have thought of this one store, Ludwig Beck, which has the hugest classical and jazz section I've seen in any store, ever. That's the only music they sell, anyway. So I found a whole bunch of different versions of the production, so I ended up with two different versions--one is a selection (but I didn't know it was abridged till I got home) and the other is the complete operetta plus an aria that is not performed, ever. So I'm happy. I've got Mack the Knife in its original German.

Anyway. After running to Ludwig Beck, I went to the toy museum next door, where there's four rooms full of toys, and a special "100 Years of Teddy Bears" exhibit. That was actually pretty cool, even though I thought it would be really dorky. It wasn't dorky at all. it was really interesting because it had examples of teddy bears from different countries and the trademarks of those bears, design, the history of the Steif bear (which is one of the most collectable bears). That sort of thing.

After the toy museum, I wanted to go to the Residenz Museum, so I went to the Residenz and couldn't find the museum. So I decided to go to the Egyptian collection in the building, which was okay. I guess the weirdest part was the fact that there was some weird art exhibit interspersed with Egyptian and Coptic sculptures--so when I saw shelves of what looked like dessecitated pigs, I was not sure if that was for real or not. Especially since the pigs were in glass enclosed shelves, and on top of the shelves were jars of wieners. It was totally weird.

The other part was the small room of sarcophagi, and it freaked me out because the room was so small, and I was very close to the cases because of the room size. So one, it's the claustrophobia. The other part that freaked me out is that the tops of the cases were all painted, so it looked like there were a bunch of eyes just staring at me. I left really quickly. It wasn't easy to ignore all those eyes.

Since that was the last room of the museum, I went to try and find the Residenz Museum, and I was walking around Hofgarten when I remembered where the Residenz Museum was--right by the Opera House in Max-Joseph-Platz. So I went there. Since I actually had time, I bought tickets for the royal treasures and the Residenz Museum. Anyway, I was supposed to see the royal treasures first, so I went there, taking my time looking at jewels and very valuable forks, mirrors, crowns, etc. They really were gorgeous, by the way. Anyway (and this part is great) I got to the last room of the Royal Treasury, and I see that there is a bar-type door, so I go over to see if I can push or pull it open. It's locked.

The female museum guard looks my way and says, "Moment", so I wait a while, thinking that this is totally weird, and did the Royal Treasury close already? And I'm starting to feel stupid standing there, looking like an exhibit in a zoo or something, only standing in front of crowns and fancy-schmancy things.

So I wait and wait, and I figure out that what happened was that someone touched a glass case somewhere in the Royal Treasury (not me), and set off an alarm, which would then call the police over. But I think--not sure about this--they couldn't let me out till the police came (?) or until they could figure out what the heck they were doing.

Anyway. The male museum guard lets me out, and he's grinning at me (I'm grinning too because this is such a weird situation). The female guard is laughing her head off, so I start laughing, and the male guard who freed me from my cage said something to the effect of, "So that was like a prison, eh?" That made me laugh even harder. It honestly has got to be one of the most bizarre experiences of my life.

So I get to go to the Museum (finally) which really isn't that impressive. It was interesting, though. My favorite parts were the silverware/plate settings just because it was so ridiculous. There was a long table like display with 82 gold plates set, with little, I think finger bowls, above each plate, and 4 stacks of more plates. (I didn't count how many plates were in the stacks. I'm guessing at least 10). I counted the other plates, though.

One of the most awesome things I saw was this fountain made completely of seashells and coral. It was so cool. And also, I was told to go to this room full of heads. Not like in Heart of Darkness, all on spears or something, but rather, busts of Greek and Roman people. It was really quite beautiful.

Another cool part was this collection of reliquaries, which were also really disturbing. I'm wondering if the bones of long dead people do not appreciate the fact that their bodies (or what remain of them) are scattered all over the world, bits and pieces of them enshrined in little pieces of glass. But the freakiest one was a skull. I swear, it was most of the top skull, and you could see the eye sockets and nose socket and the upper teeth. It was sort of covered in some sort of sheer cloth and decorated with pearl strands on the crown of the head and the teeth. Very scary. Underneath the compartment for the skull are other compartments. One compartment has something that looks like part of a pelvis. Now that was just scary.

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