U3/U6 Giselastraße - 3/96

Ahahaha, well, if you are like my husband and I, you probably won't visit Giselastraße for the trendy high life vibe of Leopoldstraße or the boutique lined Hohenzollernstraße, but rather stroll the residential areas where the older buildings reside or spend the day lazying around in Englischer Garten. 

The sunny Saturday morning took us straight to Hohenzollernstraße. Although not one of the top 10 things on my list, I can't just ignore it on my adventures, right? I don't think I have ever seen such an accumulation of shoe and lingerie shops. Truly a lady's paradise! There are small shops selling quirky household things, kiddy boutiques, clothing galore (I read somewhere it's not the mainstream kind of stuff, but I won't really be able to tell). There was one shop that really stood out to me: 'Tea and More'. I remember my first time in Hohenzollernstraße, there were about 3 or 4 shops we actually entered and 'Tea and More' was among them. Apart from the place smelling like a dream, they sell the most purdy tea sets. Fine and delicate with the most intricate designs, looking like it was taken right from 'Alice in Wonderland', but also new trendy, minimalistic styles or something so casual you will want tea and cupcakes while watching a Sunday night movie in your jamies. They don't only sell tea sets. You can also restock your tea cupboard or pick up some tea making necessities. (patriot's note: no tea beats SA rooibos =P)

For us the interesting places were all hidden in the nooks and crannies of Hohensollernstraße. So keep your eyes peeled! A really nice find was the costume shop! The amount and variety they had available was just crazy! From Victorian dresses to animal suits, to Roman and Indian belly dancing costumes to wedding dresses and tuxedos! All handmade! I simply have to track down a couple of costume parties in Munich! 

Continuing up the street we came to Das Kinderzimmer, a toy shop, which sells many.. erm does one call it 'classical' toys? (hand puppets, wooden train sets, large wooden castles etc) The wooden interior with the roof-high shelves stacked with little oddities gave it the real treasure chest feel! We were also lucky enough to meet the owner. He was very keen to talk and show us around. He said he had started the shop 50 years ago and it was the first toy shop in Munich for educational toys. I should have been less people shy and asked whether I can sketch his shop and get a full interview, ahahaha! He said he isn't around the shop that often anymore, it's mostly his son's business at the moment.

Right on the border of our day's adventure we found a really creepy looking tall green house, isolated on a hill, in a really creepy looking corner of some park. We tried to get into the park but couldn't, unless I suppose we went through the Beschleunigerlaboratorium..  which was right outside our borders for the day.     

Fine me here

We sauntered into more quieter areas and came to Leopold park with a statue of, what I thought would be Leopold himself, but it turned out to be a statue of Anton Ažbe, a painter. A mysterious man who's unremarkable life story can take one to a quiet place of melancholy. He founded his own school of painting and trained four great Slovenian impressionist artists and many Russians, but he himself never realised his potential. Although a socialite among people and a humble man, lending money to students in need or offering free tuition, his private life was quite sad. He was crippled from birth and had a peculiar fashion sense along with a manicured chestnut mustache which made him the object of much ridicule among cartoonists and young boys in the streets. He was an alcoholic, a chain smoker and lived on a couch in a workshop among paintings of his students. He was a lonely man and died in August 1905 of cancer. His story was somehow obscured and turned into urban legend - there's one quote from Leonhard Frank (a student of Ažbe) on wikipedia: "Nobody ever saw his paintings. Nobody knew if he ever painted at all. Nobody knew his past. One chilly December night, intoxicated with cognac, he fell asleep in the snow. He was found dead in the morning. Nobody knew where he had come from." - wiki

We exited the cool, dark park and found ourselves again blinking in the sun on Leopoldstraße. We watched a squirrel trade branches and found a bunch of shoes hanging in a tree! I would've drawn that, but in all likelihood it won't be there in a week's time! (Maybe I'll go back and check =P) Leopoldstraße is a buzz of roadside cafe's and restaurants and many times you will find people on the sidewalks selling off their old books and DVD's.
We went over to the Walking Man - a HUGE white statue of well.. a walking man. If my memory serves me correctly then it represents the busy people on Leopoldstraße. By this time we were hungry and decided to go to the Block House restaurant since they claimed they have the best steak in town. Well, I don't know about the 'best in town', but that was certainly the best I had in a while. The waiters were friendly and could speak English, always a plus! They also have multilingual menus - even French and Spanish I think.   

We didn't go to Englischer Garten. If that's your destination then Giselastrße is your stop. (Well okay.. depends which part of the garden you want to see.) I am hoping to join a Japanese tea ceremony in the garden in April, so I'll do a post about the whole park then :)

As for what I decided to draw for the challenge postcard: Car spotting! We saw so many rich-man cars! And why not, Schwabing (the area there) is after all "the place to see and be seen". 

Yes, the picture is only half done, and it'll probably still take me some time to get it done, but don't worry, I'll have it up here when it is ;)


Places of interest:

Block House
http://www.block-house.de/
Leopoldstraße 32
Google maps

Breuer Costume hire
http://www.kostuemverleih.com/

Hohenzollernstr. 22a

Google maps

Englischer Garten
Google maps

Leopoldpark
Google maps

Tea and More
http://www.teaandmore-online.de/
Hohenzollernstraße 36
Google maps

Walking Man
Leopoldstraße
Google maps