Munich

I realize this blog seesaws between Rick Steve Europe and epic adventure travel a la Ewan McGregor in Long Way Round.  So here's my last chapter of civilized travel on the European continent before I head back to Mongolia and wrap it all up with some dusty, edgy adventure travel.  I will carrying lots of dead weight in the form of preppy button downs and loafers.  Life is hard.

I was lucky enough to have a friend living in Munich, and so I found myself here one beautiful weekend in July.  Now, Munich is understated in a lot of ways, which usually puts it below people's radars.  The city's claim to fame are its Christmas markets.  That sounds great if you are 40, or 70, but it's not exactly comparable to Rome, or London, or Paris when it comes to energy and intensity.

So why is Munich cool?  One word: livability.  The city might be one of the most pleasant places to live and work in the world.  It's like the world's most perfect pedestrian city.  It has all of the cafe culture of Paris without any of the traffic, or attitude.  It has killer public transportation, but great roads, anyway.  The parks are big, easy to get to, and you can drink beer in them.  It has Europe's good architecture without the bad new stuff.  It has all of the high-class jobs of New York or London without all the grime and models and bottles culture of those finance capitals.  The unemployment rate is low.  People are well dressed.  There is more to eat than just wienerschnitzel and pretzels - I happened to have a fantastic Ethiopian dinner.  It is so civilized it hurts.  Should I go on?  You get the idea.  Switzerland has met its match (probably because Munich is right on the border of Switzerland).   It's like the Germans fixed one problem at a time until there was nothing left to fix, and then they delivered the world a model city.  

Now, if it sounds a bit boring, well, it is.  It is a city of engineers, consultants and financiers (also similar to Switzerland...).  The city's most famous employer is BMW, and its home to many top-tier consulting firms as well.  But does it need to be exciting?  If your idea of a good evening involves a couple of pint of hefeweizen, crushing some brats, and just hanging out in the company of good looking people, this is your city.  It's no New York, but then again, it doesn't have New York's faults either.   

I wrapped it up with a trip to the BMW Museum, where you can let your tongue wag over generations of the world's ultimate driving machine.  

The Vatican

What would you spend money on if you were the single most powerful entity in the Western world for, oh, at least a thousand years?  Would you staff armies and expand your empire?  Fund religious studies through monks?  Or create what is undoubtedly the world's finest art collection?  Well, the folks at the Vatican tried number one and number two for a while, but after visiting the Vatican, it's clear their passion resided in the third.  The stuff on display is breathtaking, and by all accounts, its only a tiny sliver of what they have locked up in their warehouses.

The cathedrals of Florence, Venice and Sienna (and forgot about France - JV) aren't much more than a French-sized appetizer compared to the riches on display at the nerve center of global Catholicism.  St. Peter's basilica has a floor plan the size of three and a half football fields.  It is four hundred feet tall.  Imagine an indoor pro football stadium built of marble, covered in gold, and decorated with artwork by the most famous artists in the world.  And that's just the church!  Vatican city goes on and on.

To be fair, among the "center of religion" city states the Vatican isn't that bad.  I mean, look at their company.  The Inca's sacrificed people, children actually, to guarantee better weather.  The Egyptians burned through thousands of slaves to build giant tombs to themselves.  Chinese rulers aren't a lot better - there's the guy who wanted an army of terracotta warriors so he could be a general in the afterlife, and then he ordered all the artists buried with the terracotta warriors so no one else could replicate his army.  Then you've got the head of the Ottoman empire with his sprawling palace, hundreds of concubines, all guarded by eunuchs so that he knew his children were really his children.  I mean, go to Macau and take a look at some of the stuff China's richest person has collected.  We're a little more sensitive to these kinds of things today, sure, but the Vatican was just one power competing for influence with its neighbors to the North, and to the East.

At the same time, you can see how Martin Luther and some of the taxpayers of the day were a little fed up with "government spending" and thought maybe they could get a direct line to God without the fees and surcharges funding acquisitions of Renaissance artwork.  It puts Palin's "bridge to nowhere" in perspective.

(Oddly?) the Vatican is also happy to facilitate your own conspicuous consumption in its gift store.  Do you need a Ferragamo tie for your next Catechism, or maybe an Hermes scarf?  They've got it all, and because of its tax status its duty free!

Literally every square foot of your Vatican tour will be the most over-the-top foot of artwork you've ever seen.  The biggest, best maproom, where the most powerful people in the Western world would debate the politics in their empire.  The best sculpture collections - not just of Christian art, but also of art from the Greeks, the Romans, and the Egyptians.  The Sistine Chapel is mind-blowing.  The list goes on and on.

People's reactions?  They vary. Some people of the faith come and are turned off by the arrogant service and ostentatious wealth.  Others come and find a new pride in their Catholic heritage and the institutions that have supported the faith for thousands of years.  Either way, it's a place worth visiting, no matter what you believe, just to see the seat and heritage of one of the world's major religions.

The view over the exit of St. Peters.

More crowds, St. Peters.

The view directly up.

A view down the middle of St. Peters... you get a sense of the scale of the place.

Brilliant lighting of the main section of St. Peters.

The high vaulted ceilings of St. Peters.

More frescoes, the vatican museum.

The tapestry room, Vatican museum.

The altar, St. Peters.

Following the crowd through one of the sculpture and painting rooms... they are all a blur by this point.

Crowded!  Come back in January...

Roma

They say if you make it to Rome and you still like Italy, push on, otherwise, pull up and go home, because it only gets more intense.

Rome is certainly intense, a rewarding, but exhausting place to visit.  Most people head straight for the Colosseum, the Roman ruins, and the most famous museums.  If you can get away from the crowds (and there will definitely be huge crowds in the summer), the side streets are a great place to get away and get a feeling for Italy off the tourist trail.  Like just about everywhere on the Euro-package tour circuit, it's probably a lot more pleasant to visit off season, even if the weather is more challenging.

We had our share of travel frustrations in Rome - slow rental car agencies, broken elevators, and overpriced food - but it's something you just have to expect when you get there.  They say the Swiss welcome travelers, the French tolerate them, and the Italians scam them and, well, I wish it wasn't true, but it kind of was in our experience.  Be careful of places to exchange money - we wound up paying a whopping 25% fee on a $1,000 exchange.  The fees were all in plain site, except they were in Italian and no one would have thought they were cumulative and summed to 25%.  Of course, once you get off the package tour trail all this stuff disappears, but unfortunately very few people ever do.

The highlights for us?  Soaking up the energy of the city as we walked around, especially near the main shopping area.  There are thousands of people and their fast-paced, fashionable energy is contagious.

Strolling through the old Roman Forum - definitely top of the list.  Another reminder of how civilizations come and go...

And finally, the food.  The further South you head the better the values are and you can wine and dine for a bargain.  Hang out in a cafe, enjoy your wine or espresso, people watch, and let the hours go by.  You'll be in the company of a lot of locals doing the exact same thing.

Late night in Rome.

Lights near the fountain of Trevy.

Crows near the fountain of Trevy.

The famous fountain.

There's a touristy t-shire for every taste and budget.

The Colosseum.

Rome wouldn't be Rome without broken elevators...

The Forum

Chilean Health Food

Here's a long-lost post from the depths of my blogger archive... like a message in a bottle!

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Chilean food rocks.  Follow the truckers and you'll be happy... today's gem of a lunch included a big, hearty serving of biscuits, with lard,  lamb ribs (with the fat on the bone), potato and corn soup, and beef tripe with chilies and rice.  Damn.

Chilean food is delicious in a Mad Men, heart-healthy be damned kind of way.  Those truckers looked they knew a good meal when they saw one, and you wouldn't catch any of those guys eating a salad at Panera Bread.

And then on-the-road meal number two was another killer guac, hot-dog, mayo churrasco, served out of an old container.  Man vs. Food, where are you?

Gourmet.  Follow the truckers.