a deal with the devil.

I am pretty sure that I saw every single building in Munich today.

Well, okay.

Maybe not.

We did visit some pretty sweet ones, though.

For the sake of my time and your sanity (or my sanity and your time?), I’ll just tell you about one for right now:

Die Frauenkirche, or the Church of Our Lady, is a gothic style church in the heart of the city’s historical center. Unlike most Catholic cathedrals, it isn’t built in the shape of a cross, but a large rectangle with two massive towers at the front. Most of the churches here look like that, actually; it must be a gothic Bavarian thing.

(Pause: today I ate a Bavarian cream donut in Bavaria. Unpause.)

Anyway, the cool part about this church is the legend attached to it. It goes like this:

Munich had outgrown its first Catholic church, so in 1468 a new one was commissioned. The builder finished the cathedral in just 20 years, which is like, warp speed for builders in the fifteenth century, and of course the only way he could have possibly finished in that much time was to make a deal with the devil for some help.

The contract said that the devil would help the builder finish in record time with one condition: the church couldn’t have any windows. It was a brilliant plan by the devil; who would want to go to a church without any windows? The builder finished the church in the allotted 20 years, and the devil came to inspect. He walked into the front door, in between the giant towers, and stood in the entrance. Looking up, he noticed the light: it was everywhere, but he couldn’t see any windows. Infuriated, he stomped his foot, leaving a burnt indentation in the tile floor which can still be seen today. Running out of the cathedral, he swept up the wind, and to this day, it is extremely windy around Frauenkirche.

Here’s the secret: the church does have windows. The builder was such a clever man that he designed the massive pillars inside to hide the windows from the entryway, tricking the devil into helping him finish but adding the necessary windows.

Cool, eh?

I took some pictures, but my camera’s four stories up and this internet connection couldn’t handle them anyway, so maybe later!

Welp.

As my feet are sore, my body tired, and my mind overwhelmed from all of the activity today, it’s time for bed (plus we’re hiking around the castle Snow White’s at Disneyland was modeled after tomorrow).

Gute Nacht!