Cozy, Museum-Filled Munich

Collin and I arrived in Munich after kicking the pants off of Vienna! While we were there, we saw everything we could and somehow remained in good spirits. But when we got to Munich, I wasn't interested in seeing another palace or another German WWII camp. I just wanted to relax. Luckily, our plan all along had been to meet up with one of our very good friends in Munich because he is studying abroad in Germany (little did we know that he is closer to Paris than to Munich).

So after getting into our overbooked hostel in the evening, we met Dan from Florida in our room, went to have a cheap Italian dinner on the corner, and came back to try to get some sleep. Unfortunately, the front desk was having some difficulties with their bed planning, and roughly 10 people came to our room throughout the evening thinking that they were booked for our room.

Finally, after a single non-English-speaking Korean guy stood perplexed in the middle of our room for about 20 minutes, I decided to go down and get the whole thing worked out. Apparently, one of the guys in our room was booked for another room, but the front desk gave him a key to ours, leaving the guy who was booked in our room bedless. Luckliy, we'd met and remembered all of the names of the people in our room and were able to get to the bottom of it.

The next day, after sleeping in until 12:30, I got up to Collin who was already ready for lunch after having gotten up at 7 am to make sure we had access to the laundry machines. So we mosied to lunch after filling out some postcards we'd been saving. We went to have schnitzel in Germany for the last time. And I suppose the positive way to look at this little anecdote is to call it a lesson-well learned.

We looked at the prices quoted above the cash machine and saw meals for about EUR 6. But as we were ordering, the woman behind the counter reccomended that we sit at a table outside and wait for the waitor. That sounded like a swell idea because we had time to spare before Dennis arrived at the train station from the other side of Germany. After we ate a heaping serving of schnitzel, we left and got back to the hostel only to look nonchalantly at the reciept and find that we spent more than twice what we had expected. We ran back as soon as we could, and the lady explained that the sign above her head refered only to take-away meals. We stood there frustrated and helpless. Although in the states, I would have made a scene, saying that that was false advertising and absolutely unacceptable, I couldn't communicate it effectively enough through our language barrier, and if we had looked at the menu on our table, we would have known better than to sit and eat and expect a fair price.

We walked away with a new lesson learned: always make sure you are ordering from the eat-in menu prices.

After shrugging it off, knowing that there was nothing left to do, Collin went upstairs to take a nap, and I waited in the lobby for Dennis to arrive. It wasn't long before a lean, mean, German exchange student machine was standing at the table where I was sitting. I have never seen Dennis so skinny. I don't know that anyone has ever seen Dennis so trim. He looks INCREDIBLE! He is so thin--like a different person.

We sat in the lobby for a while and caught up our lives past and future. After about an hour, we decided to get Collin up and ready for the Biergartens in the English Garden in Munich. Dennis had just finished telling me that there are TONS of non-alcoholic beers in Germany and that he drinks them all the time. I was so excited and couldn't wait to tell Collin. We had been interested in tasting a German beer, but were so dedicated to our sobrieties that we kept it in our minds as an impossiblity.

After getting Collin out of bed, we went downstairs to meet Dennis' friend Ben, who was his German TA while they were in high school. Ben taught Dennis some of his first German words, and they were best friends while Ben lived in Portland. Ben is in the German military and is stationed in Munich until he moves to Arizona and then Texas in the next few months.

It was lucky for us that Ben lives in Munich because he was able to give us a really relaxed and authentic feel for the city. We left the hostel and headed straight through the center of town, where beautiful music was being played in finely manicured gardens under gorgeous gazebos. He showed us the beautiful Town Hall, Marienplatz (pictured above), and a few car showrooms on the way including Aston Martin and Mercedes Benz.

When we arrived at the doorstep of the English Garden, we anticipated quite a few sights to be seen. The English Garden hosts a few nude sections that we couldn't wait to get our eyes on--despite having been told that the only naked people in them are the ones who shouldn't even be naked in private.

I only saw one old naked guy, and he was facing the wrong way. But what was even more impressive was the beauty in which he was standing. The Garden has a huge network of clear streams that flow through the enormous, lush, green park. There are waterfalls and duck ponds, huge fields and private lawns. There are horse paths and bike paths and hundreds of people gathered around the streams. It was the most magnificent sight.

After we reluctantly passed the inviting waterfalls with people up to their necks in cool water, which we desparately wanted to sooth our sweating selves in, we headed to a big pagoda that stands in front of a large biergarten. On one of the wooden pagoda's balconies, a small band was playing authentic Bavarian drinking music, which lulled us happily into the crowded bier bars where we were determined to find a non-alcoholic beer mixed with lemonade (a staple of the Bavarian biergartens). Finally, guided by our lovely Bavarian guide Ben, we sat down and took a few photos of each other with huge beer mugs that are only used in the part of Germany that is Bavaria.

We slowly finished our beer and kept our eyes peeled for men in leiderhosen (sp). After we sat under trees with some late-afternoon sun shining through the leaves, Ben told us that he was taking us to a Bavarian restaurant that is known across Germany as one of the best! We made our way back through the huge park, and I listened to all three guys restrain their anger as each one of them suggested alternate routes to our destination.

We made it without anyone getting his feelings hurt. There were huge pork knuckles on rotisseries in the windows and white tablecloths and real flowers on the tables. The high cieilings with chandeliers warmed my heart immediately. Although I usually don't complain at all about any sort of food whatsoever, I was dying for something that wasn't wrapped in foil.

The host asked me to choose the table, and I found one that suited me perfectly. After we sat down, we found our waitor to be a charming, chubby fellow who identified himself as a New York-Canadian. I was determined not to pay for another serving of water, so I politely and somewhat coyly asked him "If I buy a Coke, would you let me have some tapwater." It worked! "Only if you give me a smile." I, of course obliged him, and he brought us four glasses with ice water as well as extra ice (you have no idea what a godsend that is after weeks of begging for just a drop of ice to put in the three ounces of soda they give you).

After a small appetizer of coarse mustard cream cheese on bread and pretzels, our food arrived.

Collin and Dennis both got pork knuckle, which is actually just a pig thigh. Collin got a 1/2, but Dennis got ONE WHOLE PORK THIGH! It was huge, it was juicy, it was tender, and it was magnificent! It was so fun to watch them eat it (not to mention to help them finish it). After this great Bavarian meal, the guys and I headed out, and we were on the hunt for some gelato. Now, I know everyone says that even the ice cream we had in Vienna would not compare to gelato, but from what I have had so far doesn't even hold a candle. We are heading to Venice next, though, so maybe I will be happily surprised.

Collin is has already blogged for what we did today, so keep readin'.