A walk in Munich

It was around 5 o'clock when I stopped in MarienPlatz to watch the glockenspiel in the tower of the old town hall. The square was humming with the voices of onlookers, gathered around clutching their cameras, waiting for the ever-punctual display of antique chronographic genius. The scene reminded me of medieval scenes of people gathered to watch a hanging, or public flogging. The clocks around the square stuck in unison, then the tower of the old town hall started to clatter out its tune - An interesting sound, suffering rather from age, tricking out as a seemingly endless, seemingly tuneless clanking of metallic objects - kind of humerous in their struggle to strike out any recognisable melody. The display lasts for about ten minutes, delighting hundreds of tourists with animated figures on rotating carosels, either jousting on horseback, or twirling a traditional Bavarian dance.

I stood up at the end and found a path through the grinning faces and camera bags to the road leading down the left had side of the town hall. This is a great walk - lined with colossal buildings, most of them bearing statues aand gargoyles, which watch sedately over the trendy fruitbooters and evening strollers below. This is a far cry from the streets around HauptBahnhof, those noisy avenues of smut shows and kinos, fast food and cheap hotels.

I walked down to the English gradens, almost dreaming, surrounded by trees and flowerbeds, until I reached a small octagonal structure with stone archways and a fountain on each wall. Inside a Russian musician was playing a tragic ballad from the Volga region, then he put down his guitar and started some Joplin on his violin.. I think I was there for about half an hour, wishing every city could be like Munich.