Day 3, Munich/Switzerland 2024

I woke up around 5:30am. Remarkable, since past jet lag usually had me up around 2:30am. I chatted with Mike, showered and headed out the door. I had a really bad bout of sciatica a week ago. I couldn’t stand for me than 5 minutes without being in pretty bad pain. I was concerned it was going to affect this trip. The doc put me on a 5 day course of prednisone and today I was on my feet for hours and walked around 7 miles with no pain. YAY!!

All of that walking (and tramming and subwaying) took me to a few of the filming sites from the film Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The first stop was the neighborhood where Bill’s Candy Shop (featured at the beginning of the film where a candy shop owner sings “The Candyman” while doling out candy) and Where Charlie finds the coin and buys the winning Wonka Bar.

It was a beautiful and chilly morning and walking through this quiet neighborhood where a childhood movie favorite of mine was filmed felt incredibly special. I just walked around and soaked it in for a bit.

A couple of trams and subways later and I arrived at my next spot. (Good lord, Munich is so easy to navigate with public transportation.)

Not knowing exactly where these sites are or whether I’d recognize them made it kind of like a treasure hunt. While hunting I saw this down an alley…

…I nearly squealed with delight.

At the beginning of Willie Wonka, children rush out of their school and to a candy shop. The film crew used St. Sylvester Catholic Parish as Charlie’s school. Here’s a clip from the movie.

And here’s some video I shot at the site.

I found a rentable electric scooter so I wrote it around the neighborhood a bit and then took it back to the subway station. (When I hit a cobbled street I stopped riding. Electric scooters on cobbled streets don’t really work well.) A subway and tram ride later…

…And I ended up at the Chocolate Factory. Well, technically it’s the Municipal Water Authority of Munich. I’m so glad I made it to this filming site. It looks like they might be getting ready to tear down this last little bit of what’s left of the wall keeping thieves like Slugworth out of the Chocolate Factory.

Getting to see and touch this little bit of filming history was very special to me. So much has changed (of course) in over 50 years but I could still recognize the arch and the circle hole window that’s left in scenes from the movie.

So glad I got to see it before it’s completely gone.

The change they are making looks like a good thing as it opens things up to a beautiful parkway through the government buildings where lots of people were out walking with their children and their dogs. By this time it was only around 11am. It was a very busy morning! I headed back to Marienplatz where I’d started my day and it was crowded. Super crowded!

I grabbed a Wurst for lunch and made my way back to the hotel.

I’d asked for a few extra pillows before leaving the hotel.

I took an hour long nap, then took another 1/2 hour nap (oh, jet lag) and then headed out to look for coffee. I somehow ended up at the Freitag Store. I managed not to buy anything and finally found a little coffee place to grab an espresso. I wanted to join an online Zoom meeting so I ended up grabbing an early quick dinner. And dessert.

This part of Munich is full of beer halls and they tend to spill out onto the streets. Last night navigating the drunks was enough for me plus I’m pretty wiped out from a wonderfully busy day. I’m calling it an early night.

Good night to you. Thanks for following along!