A Visit to Munich AND Grandma drinks a beer!

Marienplatz Glockienspiel

Today brought us a spring day at the end of January. Such a treat! Steve had some flexibility in his schedule so we took his mom to Munich for the day. We timed our arrival at Marienplatz perfectly to see the Glockienspiel. This is good information for the future, take the 10:16 train!

Next we walked down to the Viktulienmarkt to see the fresh food and flower markets. We of course walked Kay through the lane of souvenir shops leading to the Hofbräuhaus and showed her the massive bier hall.  We strolled through, checking out the locals at their Stammtisch - an informal regular meeting. Some even have signs over their tables marking their spots.  

Afterwards we headed to Steve's favorite brewery restaurant the Franziskaner. We sat in their winter biergarten, an indoor room in the restaurant decorated like an outdoor biergarten. It was really a cute room. Lunch was terrific and not only did Kay have her first wienerschnitzel she also drank a radler. A radler is a mix of half beer and half lemon-lime soda and was invented by bicyclists as a refreshing, "nutritious" drink to have during a bike ride that would still leave them sober to finish the ride. The german word for bicyclists is radler and it eventually became the name of the drink.

Now that we had been fortified we walked past the Opera House and Residenz (yet another palace) to Odeonsplatz. Odeonsplatz is an important place in Munich history. Hitler's first push to power in 1923 was ended here, then during WWII this same spot became a kind of shrine and when passing through people were required to give the honor guard the Nazi salute. Apparently this is when rubbing the noses of the gold lions outside the Residenz became a tradition to show support of the monarchy. 

We also went inside the Theatinerkirche which stands on Odeonsplatz.  It is a beautiful and amazing, I'm waiting to find a church that isn't!

The last part of our journey took us to the Frauenkirche, the church with the famous onion dome towers. There are some different stories about the black "devil's footprint" in the front of the church. One says that the devil made a deal with the builder not to put any windows in the church but the builder positioned the windows so that they weren't visible from where the devil stood.  When the devil realized he had been tricked he stamped his foot making the footprint (which by the way survived WWII) and rushed outside leaving the wind that blows furiously around the church. We can certainly attest to the crazy wind around Frauenkirche!

Our last stop of the day was at Karlsplatz. This wasn't a site seeing stop but instead we were looking for a craft store. And hooray we found it. While it still isn't an American style craft store it is the best one so far. For the moment Idee is my new go to place!

We think we showed Kay quite a bit of the city and she even added a new hat to her collection for her "Red Hatters" lunches! It was a full day in Munich!

Buccheim Museum

Today was a dreary, rainy day which foiled our plans for shopping in a cute, nearby town. Instead Kay and I headed for the Buchheim Museum der Phantasie (Buchheim Museum of Imagination) a little way down the lake in Bernried. The museum not only houses the art of Lothar-Günther Buchheim but also his personal art collection.  Wikipedia states the collection is valued at 300 million dollars.

Entrance to the deck leading out to the lake. 

Lothar-Günther Buchheim was an artist and an author.  During WWII he was a member of a propaganda unit reporting on the war.  Much of his job was documenting the action on a U-boat.  You could see from the art that this influenced his work immensely. Kay and I had to rely on sight because there weren't any English translations!

The museum is deceivingly large and the collection is fairly diverse. We enjoyed walking around and interpreting everything on our own. We ended our visit with soup in the cute little cafe inside the museum. Perfect on this day!

Schloss Linderhof & Oberammergau

Grandma, Stefanie & Rachel

Today took us to Schloss Linderhof and Oberammergau.  Schloss Linderhof is one of "mad" King Ludwig's castles. In fact it is the only one he ever finished and the one where he spent the most time. Although it is the smallest of his castles it is incredibly ornate.  It even includes a hall of mirrors. This is an amazing room and when you look into the mirrors you feel like the room never, ever ends.

A small extra bit of information, Ludwig's most famous castle is Neuschwanstein. This is the castle that Walt Disney used as the model for the Sleeping Beauty castle.

Although it was well below freezing it was a glorious day. The sky was blue, the sun was shining and the mountains were visible. The paths along our drive were filled with cross country skiers and snow shoers!


There is a small downside to visiting Schloss Linderhof in the winter. The gardens are covered with snow, the fountains are covered up and most of the grounds were closed off for safety. However, viewing the grounds full of snow was quite enchanting. And? It means we have a reason to visit again. The biergarten on the grounds looked quite nice! Actually, we also have a second reason, the boys opted out of our trip today, their loss.

After touring the castle, exploring the grounds and of course taking pictures we drove to Oberammergau.

We have visited Oberammergau before (Oberammergau) but we thought Kay would also enjoy the little village.  Plus we were hoping more of the cute little shops would be open.

Pilatushaus

Unfortunately not as many stores as we hoped were open but it is still a picturesque place to explore and a wonderful wood carving shop and an outstanding Christmas store were open.  I now have my eye on a new Christmas spinner as well as a cuckoo clock!  The girls also found a candy store that was open.  They were thrilled.

We had read in one of our tourist books to look for Lüftmalerei which are paintings on the fronts of the buildings done in an illusionist style. The Pilatushaus is painted in a way that the columns develop a 3-D effect as you get closer. I actually think Steve's picture captures the effect.

Steve, Grandma, Stefanie & Rachel

Once we were done shopping we walked through the rest of the town ending at Alte Post for a traditional Bavarian lunch.  We were not disappointed.  Traditional Bavarian food is delicious and after spending the day outside on a cold, snowy day it is absolutely marvelous.  We even sat next to a typical Bavarian Kachelofen which is a wood burning stove.

Grandma's Here!

Stefanie, Rachel, Grandma, Dominic & AJ
outside St. Ulrich

Steve's mom arrived on the 18th of January to visit for a month. She is escaping the Ithaca winter by joining us in Munich.  Escape might be the wrong verb... Everyone is so excited to have her here. And, she reads the blog, so hopefully she will enjoy being featured!

We started out her visit with AJ's basketball game, church, and a visit to our town's temporary ice skating rink. If you missed that post, see it here: Ice Skating

One might think the ice skating would have been the coldest activity we did; but, one would be mistaken. Turns out it is church. Our church isn't heated. There are heaters under the pews but they don't seem to ever be in use. It wasn't even warm on Christmas Eve.  Another ex-pat told me churches in Germany aren't heated. However, please don't hold me to that.  My experience is limited to our church. It is not. Although everyone clapped after the homily last week and the priest was rubbing his hands together while he was talking about how cold it was(we understood that part!) so maybe, just maybe, he said something about heat?

And did you catch that?  We go to church in GERMAN.  We are hopeful we will someday understand more of the mass. For now we follow along with an English missal on the iPad and a prayer sheet with English and German prayers side by side. For an English mass we can head into Munich, but our church is a 10 minute walk from our house.  So easy.

We survived church but as you can tell from the picture at the top, everyone was pretty cold when we were leaving.  It probably wasn't the best way to welcome Grandma. Although we did end the day with a fondue dinner so hopefully we redeemed ourselves!

Starnberger Eiszauber

AJ, Missy, Rachel, Grandma & Dominic (Stef is talking to a friend!)

We have decided that the Germans are good at winter.  I'm not talking about plowing roads or dressing properly or heating houses. Although they are pretty good at that. They are good at enjoying winter.

It doesn't matter if it's cold, people get outside. They go for walks, they take their dogs, their kids, their babies. Really.

In fact they seem to manufacture outdoor activities to guarantee outdoorsy-ness.

For the past two weekends an "ice skating rink" was built in the church square (Kirchenplatz) of our town.  We were a little surprised to find it wasn't an ice rink but a manmade plastic rink. However, that wasn't stopping herds of kids from "skating". Rachel and her friend found it hard to skate but still had fun for over an hour on the "ice".

Next to the rink are half a dozen food stands manned by local restaurants selling tasty food and of course gluhwein.  If you don't know about gluhwein, look here: Christbaumarkt.  Also on the square?  Three giant teepees filled with tables and chairs and portable heaters.  It's cozy, and a good place to have a snack.

The first weekend Steve, Rachel and I walked into town to enjoy the skating, treats and to meet friends.  We live about 30 minutes from the center of town and walk along a path to make our hike a little shorter.  It's a pretty walk although a little more challenging with snow and mud.

Teepees on the Kirchenplatz

The second weekend we brought all the kids with us plus Grandma for lunch and ice skating viewing.  No one skated but they enjoyed burgers and crepes and gelato.  I know, gelato? Really?  But again, enjoy winter, stay warm in the teepee and eat gelato.  It just works, although I'll take a warm nutella crepe any day!

Sledding!

Dominic, Rachel & AJ

Rachel in action

Dominic returning for another run.

Dominic, AJ, Rachel and Steve took their first runs in the snow. The picture may be a little deceiving. We live at the top of a very big hill. Where they sledded (is this a word?) is about a 10 minute walk from our house.  We are lucky there are great bike trails and open land everywhere!

They did not go to the very bottom of this hill but it was still a great place to sled and it sure looks impressive!

AJ

They had a great time and Steve came home and ordered two more sleds after checking out what the competition was using on the hill.  I suspect these will not be the last of our sled purchases.

You may be asking yourself, "But, where is Stefanie?".  Does it surprise you at all when I answer, "shopping with a friend"?  I thought not.

Happy New Year!

Fireworks exploding over our house

So we had heard the rumors, we saw the fireworks in every single store. When we asked where to go to see the fireworks everyone said just walk outside. What? We didn't understand. Yes, I know the words were clear, we still didn't understand.

Throughout the evening we heard a smattering a fireworks. No big deal. However right before midnight things changed.  The fireworks started in earnest and not just over the lake. Everywhere.  Every driveway, out in the street, in people's backyards. Everywhere we turned from our deck, from our windows from our driveway from our front gate we could see fireworks.

Sparkler Fun!
Rebecca, Dominic, Rachel, Stefanie, Olivia & AJ

Back - Stefanie, Rachel, AJ & Dominic
Front - Rebecca & Olivia

The neighbor boy was shooting them from a milk carton in the street. Around the corner people were shooting them from their front yard. These were not small displays or just a few shots.  These were real fireworks. Spectacular to watch and hear!  Oh and the sparklers?  3 feet long and they last five minutes.  They are not fooling around here!

We had a great night with my cousin Scott, his wife Joanie and their girls. A fun time welcoming what we hope will be a wonderful and very happy 2013. We also hope it will bring you, our friends to our door!  Happy New Year!!!

Dominic

Stefanie

Rachel

AJ