Now I'm in Munich???

So, my tour of north-central Europe continues now in the great region of Bavaria. Actually, most of today was spent a little further west, in the city of Ulm, Germany, but I'll get to that. Also, I realize that this is my second Look-what-I-did-today post, and I'm sorry that I'm not my normal scintillating, exacting self, but whatever.

One thing I am definitely thankful for is that I live in Washington DC and take the metro to work. If not for that, I would have been totally lost this morning trying to get to the main train station in Munich, Die Hauptbanhof. I took the subway (U-bahn) and I would have been totally confused if I didn't understand that the lines are named by the direction they are heading in. I would have thought "What? I don't want to go to Nuperlach-sud! I want to go to the Hauptbanhof!" But, because I take the Red Line in the direction of Shady Grove everyday, I understood what the signs meant. Whew. Also, I think it would be very easy to take the U-bahn without paying. I paid of course, but I'm just saying.

Now let me tell you a little about the Munich train station. It is friggin huge. I mean, like Union Station times three. What's different about the train station here is that you don't line up at a set of stairs and then walk down to an individual platform. All the platforms are just sort of, there under one HUGE roof. It's kind of cool. Anyway, without even asking for help and without signs in English, I managed to get on the correct train to Ulm and everything. It was pretty cool. That's what good signage does, I guess. Gets you to where you need to go, regardless of language. Well, maybe leaving out languages that don't use the Roman alphabet, but who cares about them????

So on to Ulm. Ulm is a pretty cool city with, get this, the TALLEST CATHEDRAL IN THE WORLD. It was actually pretty awe-inspiring. I've never been in a "real" cathedral before, you know, one that is more than 50-years old. This one was about 800. The only disappointing thing about was that the incredibly tall spire wasn't built until the 1870's or in other words, almost 400 years after the pinnacle of gothic cathedral architecture. But aside from that, the church was incredible. I went inside and was stunned, speechless at the complexity and vastness of the thing. Incredibly tall arched ceilings, detailed statues of saints to pray to, exquisite stained-glass windows. It was a very moving experience. It's hard to understand the love and the dedication that went into such a building. Each stone hand carved by master masons. Each pane of glass stained by a master craftsman. Each gargoyle and filigree painstakingly carved from raw stone by some forgotten artist. Wow. And over all this was the sheer hubris of the medieval church. What sort of organizational and spiritual fortitude would it take to conceive of such a thing? It goes beyond words. I can't understand what would drive such a project. Was it love for Christ? Was it self-aggrandization? Was it to bring the community together in a way nothing else could? Was it a vain grasp at the heavens? Maybe a little of each? Anyway, I'm out of superlatives to use, so, if you ever find yourself in south-western Germany, check it out. Also, try to be there at Christmas time because the Christmas Market in front of the Cathedral is awesome.

One final not about Germany: They may think that they are somehow inherently different from the rampant consumers in the US, but I'm here to tell you that I don't think it is so much a difference in type as it is in magnitude.