Munich

No, I'm not going to write about the recent movie with the very hot Eric Bana...unfortunately...but about our time in the city! After an exhausting 5 full days back at work, I'm finally ready to write about our trip. It didn't start out well: we got to Dulles Wednesday afternoon with 2 hours to spare before our flight departed, but because of ridiculous lines and inept United Airlines, we almost missed our flight. We ended up literally running to our plane, and I think we were the last people to board. My mood was unimproved when I realized that not only would I start the 8 hour flight all hot and sweaty, but Zach and I weren't even seated together! Fortunately, the girl next to Zach was flying alone, so she traded with me. None too soon, because the couple with a baby seated next to me was going to try to talk me into giving them my aisle seat! As if!!! The flight was otherwise pretty comfortable, and I had free alcoholic beverage tickets thanks to a coworker who's a double-platinum-elite-diamond-encrusted frequent flier.

We walked around a little on Thursday and just got acclimated to the time change. Our hotel was nice, but hot. I called the front desk to tell them our air conditioning was broken, and they told me that's because there is no air conditioning, but they could bring us a fan. I found out later that it's extremely rare to find a hotel, restaurant, or store in Germany with air conditioning! Note to self: future trips to Europe (or really anywhere outside the US--why are we the only ones who appreciate the frigid gloriousness of air conditioning??) will not take place between June and August. It was in the upper 80s most of the time we were there. No wonder the Germans got cranky and tried to take over the world twice. Why else would Russia look enticing? Eating outside is almost mandatory, because it's just too stifling inside. At restaurants, the indoor dining room would be deserted, and all the customers would be eating on the front patio. Oh, and none of the hotels we stayed in provided washcloths, but prior experience in England and Italy prompted me to pack my own!

Our first German food was a tasty dinner in a restaurant under the Munich Rathaus (town center), the Ratskeller. The big selling point for us was that it was supposedly air conditioned. The next day we learned that you're not supposed to eat the giant pretzels on your table, because they're not free like chips in Mexican restaurants. They are probably also recycled from the last customers that didn't eat them.

Friday we picked up our car. The guy who showed us all the features and explained driving regulations was the quintessential charming German. If we hadn't just bought a car, we totally would have bought one from him, even though he wasn't selling them. He explained things like the glow-in-the-dark release handle inside the trunk (cut it off first if we planned to lock anyone in there) and how to turn out the headlights for mafia meetings. We also met another pair of Aggies who were picking up a car! The male did post-grad work at A&M, and the female graduated the same year as we did. They got the same car we did, but in black. After getting briefly lost, we had a little picnic lunch near a small lake we stumbled upon. Car pictures are here.

That afternoon we met Zach's sister, Stephanie, and her boyfriend and did a doubledecker bus tour of the city, walked around, looked at some churches, watched some guys in lederhosen performing a dance with whips, drank some beer, had dinner, and drank some more beer. We went to the famed Hofbrauhaus, and it was pandemonium because of all the world cup fans (oh yes, and like all indoor spaces, very very hot). There was always some group bursting into song or doing a group cheer. Such national spirit and crazy attire! It was a United Nations of sorts, where we saw a representative from Mexico (sombrero) chatting with the representative from Sweden (flourescent blue and yellow business suit). The Italians who sat across the table from us were friendly. My three words of Italian came in handy, as I was not only able to greet them, but also to say goodbye. They looked somewhat shocked and disappointed when their Weissbrauten arrived looking exactly like two bloated white sausages in a pot of hot water (I tried some later in the week, and it's actually very good).

Pictures from Munich are here. Tomorrow I'll post about our next destination, Bamberg.