Finishing touches at the library

Yesterday, Benny and I got up and ready. We had breakfast of Nutella sandwiches and apples and Petra dropped us off at her shop, from which we walked the rest of the way to the train. When we arrived in Pasing, I left Benny there to explore and I went on to the library, with the understanding that he would meet me later for lunch.

When I arrived at the library, I had about an hour to put some finishing touches on my rough draft of the paper before we went on a tour of the library at 11:00. Our tour was directed by a former director of the library who was instrumental in helping to develop the historical collection of the library, with some of the holdings dating back to the 1800s. He showed us the museum upstairs, which we had all seen, but he pointed out some of the interesting pieces, such as one of the first printings of the Robinson Crusoe books, and also told us a bit more about some of the illustrators highlighted in the exhibit. After that, he took us to the stacks, in the basement of the castle, where they hold approximately 580,000 books in over 130 different languages. The shelves are rather intriguing, as they move at the push of a button, so that they are stored essentially spine to spine, so that there is not a lot of room taken up between shelves for walking room. He shared with us several interesting facts about the library collection, including the fact that the collection is entirely dependent upon donations, primarily from publishers, and private donors.

Additionally, most of the historical collection was made up of the donations of a few private donors who had an interest in childrens books, such as fairy tales or adventure stories. Some of the books are popular titles, such as Alice in Wonderland and Mary Poppins. He also shared with us some titles which were popular in other countries, but when an attempt was made to publish them outside the country of origin, the popularity did not continue to the outside countries. Some of the most interesting books in the historical collection were those that were novel (pardon the pun) for their time, including one of the first interactive books with sound (made with a series of bellows, pipes, and strings) and those with movable parts. There were also some of the first color illustrated books, which he explained were done by hand by primarily women in a small publishing house.

When we left the stacks, we went upstairs to a small room that housed the table where Jella Leppman, the founder of the International Youth Library, sat with colleagues to orchestrate the beginnings of the library. There was also a series of books by Eric Kastner, a very popular childrens book author, as well as posters from the movies that were based on his books.

When we finished the tour, it was time for lunch, so I found Benny outside and we went to the cafe. Lunch was calamari stuffed with rice, parsley, and covered in a creamy tomato sauce, or gnocchi with fresh Parmesan cheese and tomato sauce. I ordered one of each for us, and both were very tasty. I forgot to take pictures, though, so no photos of the food.

After lunch, we went back to the library, where Benny took some pictures of some of the exhibits and did a bit of reading before I was ready to leave. We left the library and went to Marienplatz, where we found the botanical gardens again (which Petra has since informed us are the old ones, she says the new ones are much more impressive) and I had hoped to take Benny to the beer garden there. However, due to the slight rain, it was closed, so we walked through Marienplatz and explored some of the stores, a church, and saw the glockenspiel, although it was not going off at the time we saw it. We did find the JA Henkles store, which was a lot of fun, since we have some of their kitchen tools at home. We discovered a whole array of items we hadn't seen at home, and before we leave, we may pick up a few things from there.

Leaving Marienplatz around 6:00, we went home by the S6 and had dinner of salami, tomato, and brie sandwiches on some crusty and yummy rolls that we'd picked up at the discount bakery. Benny had also chosen what we thought was a cheese pretzel, but we discovered that it also had salami and pineapple, so it was a wonderful addition to the meal also. (The great thing about being here is that we can walk off all of the carbs we eat during the day, so I don't feel badly at all for eating all that bread!) We visited with Petra and the girls a bit in the evening (they were all watching the Michael Jackson funeral), and put together a tentative itinerary for Benny for his time here. At about 10:30, we finally went to bed, knowing that it would be another early morning.