20m Away from the Holy Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict's Visit in Munich
Besuch des Papst Benedict XVI in München
9. September 2006

This is the biggest event which happens in this week in Bavaria. The Holy Pope Benedict XVI visits his homeland Bavaria. He wasn't born in Munich, but he hold the position as Bishop of Munich and Freising for a moment and therefore he has a special relation to the people in Munich.
It starts with the visit in Munich and I took this chance to go to the city and hope to be able to see him.

I missed the mass in the Marienplatz already, however I found out that the Pope is still meeting german politicians in the Residenz München, therefore I went directly to Odeonsplatz and walk there. Surprisingly it wasn't full at all and I even could stand directly behind the barricade.

From the entrance of the Residenz the Pope will walk about 100m towards his "papa mobil" and I hope I can see him there. However on both side of the red carpet are completely barricaded by the people from many different traditional Bavarian association and they are blocking the sight and make it hard to get the picture of the pope.

Waiting... and waiting... and waiting.... Well... I was waiting until around 8 pm. So the sky was dark already and it makes more difficult to get a proper photo because the lack of light. While I was waiting, I could see the German's President, Horst Köhler and the Kanzlerin Angela Merkel. After a while, finally the Pope himself walk out of the Residenz accompanied by Bavarian Minister, Edmund Stoiber. Well... however.. with shutter speed 1/20 all I can get it just a blurry pic of the Pope.

Luckily I still chased him and managed to get a better pics while he was getting inside his papa mobil. Hehehe.. thanks to the rotatable view, I was still able to get some acceptable pictures of him.

In overall.. the excitement was great... It's just nice to be able to see him in the short distance... and to see the excitement of the other spectators....