Sherlocking in Munich

Me and Richard Kiederle beneath the Angel of Peace statue

One of my favorite Sherlockian stories to tell is how I acquired my Inuit translation of The Hound of the Baskervilles. For those who are not familiar with it, here is the short version. My friend and fellow collector of foreign translations, Takahiko ENDO emailed me, asking if I had ever seen an Eskimo translation. When I answered no, he replied, telling of a fellow in Germany who had a picture of one on his website. That German Sherlockian was Richard Kiederle. So when I found out I was going to be working in Reutte, Austria, I quickly checked out my proximity to Richard. As the ways of a Sherlockian would have it, we were practically neighbors. A quick message of the Facebook and a face-to-face meeting was set for Munich, Germany on Saturday, August 30.

Life-Size Statue of Sherlock Holmes

We have looked at each other's pictures posted on Facebook but never met so Richard chose the spot beneath golden statue, The Angel of Peace (Friedensengel). He said he would be wearing a deerstalker. It was a no-miss opportunity. Needless to say we found each other without a problem. Right off of the bat, Richard handed me a large bag full of German anthologies with Canonical stories tucked away in each volume. He also gave me a hand-size puppet of Sherlock Holmes. This was really special because later in the day, I lost Finger Sherlock and Sock Monkey.

Richard lives nearby so he is quite familiar with Munich. We headed off to find some local books stores. All of a sudden I stopped and pointed up. It was another golden statue but this one was a life-size one of Sherlock Holmes. It was up on a wall in front of a private investigator's office. Even though he knows the city, he did not know this existed. It was just one of the many pleasant surprises we fell into that day.

We found several used bookshops but not a single one held any translations of Sherlock Holmes. Richard remembered there was a bookshop that specialized in mysteries but it had changed locations. So in this day and age, who needs phone books? We were able to find the shop using Richard's Smartphone. We found it was at the corner of Reichenbach Strasse and some other strasse but who remembers that one? 

By the time we left the bookshop, we were getting hungry. Richard insisted that we go to The Hofbräuhaus am Platzl. This is a beer hall originally built in 1589 by Bavarian Duke Maximilian I as an extension of the Hofbräu brewery. The general public was admitted in 1828 by Ludwig I. We found a table in the beer garden and each ordered a beer. Each glass was the size of a small barrel. We ordered the traditional pork and potato dumplings. The entire day would have perfect except when I got ready to photograph Finger Sherlock and Socket, as we had been doing all day, they were both missing. Richard backtracked our meandering way from the The Hofbräuhaus am Platzl back the Kriminal bookstore but came back empty handed. I could not let this darken a marvelous day so I wrote it off as they decided they needed to live in Germany for the rest of their lives, so said auf viedershen!

Drinking and carrying on at The Hofbräuhaus am Platzl.

Richard and I finally said our good-bye in English and in German, vowing to meet again before too long. Another great Sherlockian adventure.

Happy Blogging!!