A Visit from Smarty

After living in Arizona for the last 4 years we have missed that experience of watching summer turn into fall.  However, we got the full experience of the seasons changing this year in Munich.  We were swimming outdoors in August and then wearing jackets while watching the trees change colors in September.  That nostalgic and homey feeling of the fall season commenced with a visit from my big brother Seth and his wife Marty in early September…aka Smarty!

I was so excited about their visit that I dragged Julie to the airport unnecessarily early to greet them.  Their flight status said delayed, but I didn’t care because I figured there was the chance they would make up time in the air.  So contrary to Julie’s request, I said let’s just go anyhow.  And then as we were on the train to the airport I got a text from Seth saying their flight from Rome was just about to take off; which means we left before they did!  My goofball brother later told me he fell asleep immediately when they boarded and when he woke up he thought they had landed in Munich already (when really they had not even departed yet).  So we got to know the Munich airport really well as we had about 2 hours to shop.  We ended up stocking up on some discounted Christmas décor before their arrival.

We started their visit off right with our traditional Bavarian beer garden feast, catered by Aunt Ellen and Uncle Rüdiger, and joined by dozens of friendly bees.

Later that night, we went out for dinner and beers at the Hofbräuhaus, and met up with our friends Eddie and Laura.  Also an older couple visiting from Maryland joined our table and jumped right in our conversations, and they were so lively it was a big surprise to Eddie at the end of the night when he found out we didn’t know them beforehand (I guess he thought they were our other guests).

Saturday we gave them the city tour and did some shopping.  And although we have done this for all of our other guests, it never gets old showing off all the cool sites and stores which are so unique to Munich.  We even bought ourselves a little Bavarian Nutcracker figure to join our newly purchased discounted Christmas décor.

Saturday night we cooked dinner at home and went back out to our local beer garden.  We arrived to find everything closed because of the colder weather...boooo!  We didn’t let that stop us though and we brought our own food and drinks from home instead.  Seth and I ran home to grab the supplies and we returned to see Marty and Julie talking with an older couple.  We were joking that they looked just like the couple from the night before and as we got closer we realized it WAS!!!  We pointed them in the right direction as they continued there trek to the train station to go home…or perhaps stalk us a little bit more?!  

We spent the night catching up on lost time together and reminiscing on old memories while sitting in the cold underneath dim floodlights in the middle of an empty park.  It was the simplest of activities, but being so far from family it is these kinds of moments that we really love when we have visitors- just to have some familiar human contact.

Sunday we walked through the English gardens, made it to a biergarten that was actually open, and strolled along the Isar River.  We forced them to see the river surfers, something they were neutral about but we kept pushing on them until our route somehow crossed paths with them.  We had to cut our ventures short when Sadie started limping and her natural puppy-dog face became even more pathetic looking.  We still made our detour to Oktoberfest to see how the construction was progressing just one week before the opening (with Julie and me carrying the little princess).

We had a family dinner at Aunt Ellen and Uncle Rüdiger’s charming German house just a few kilometers from ours.  But before we ate, we meandered through their neighborhood to see more of the cute town of Pasing.  We strolled through the really quaint ‘Klein Gartens’ where people can rent out plots of space and are required to maintain a beautified space enforced by ridiculous HOA-like mandates.  The whole scene felt like a fairy tale.

Then sadly, after two and half days in Munich, we had to say goodbye and send them on their way to the rest of their Euro vacation.  Thanks for visiting us Smarty, we miss you guys already!

Gaudi, Gaudi, Gaudi

Our summer travel lineup has come to an end as we recently returned from Barcelona.  We are so fortunate to be here and to have the vacation time to travel all over Europe.  And I mean alllllll over.  In about 5 months we have been to Passau, Regensburg and a few trips to the Alps here in Bavaria, UK/Ireland, Prague, Annecy and Paris, France, Sardinia, Italy, Berlin, and now: Barcelona.  And wouldn’t you know it, just as we were leaving Barcelona our bodies finally caved in and became sick.  Nothing serious thankfully, just cold-like symptoms that took about a week shake.  Although we know we are incredibly lucky to travel so much, travelling this much can be really stressful and I know I am looking forward to several months straight at home.

Just like Paris is permanently branded by the Eiffel Tower in every facet, the city of Barcelona has completely adopted the brand of Gaudi the architect.  And sadly we had never heard of him before this trip.  He often uses colorful mosaics in his designs, and so much of the city is illuminated with glistening mosaics on building walls and roofs along with just about every single souvenir imaginable (even mosaic looking t-shirts!).  Everywhere you look, Gaudi designed it, Gaudi is selling it, and Gaudi is running this town – 86 years after his death.  Ok, the owl isn’t Gaudi, but whatever.

We arrived in Barcelona Friday afternoon and met Sandy and Gary (Julie’s parents) at their hotel.  They, along with other friends from Texas, were getting adjusted before setting sail on their Mediterranean cruise two days later- hence the reason we were in Barcelona.  We didn’t waste any time and headed straight for the most visited site in Barcelona – la Sagrada Familia Basilica.  This is clearly Gaudi’s most famous work, although he died in 1926 and it is still under construction until ~2026.  This is probably my favorite church of the many, many that we have seen here because it is so incredibly unique.  Just like some other tourists from Harlingen, TX told us, it feels more like an art project than it does a church.  But this was just the start of our Gaudi adventures.

We spent the evening visiting with all of our visitors from Texas at a hotel roof top swimming pool/bar (their hotel, we were too cheap to stay there).  A setting sun and a glass of sangria as we looked over the city made for an absolutely perfect evening.  But the real show came later that night when we went to the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc.  I heard this was a cool sight, but I really wasn’t expecting something that rivals the Bellagio fountain show in Las Vegas (apparently, what it’s based on).  I’ll let the pictures do the talking on this one.

On Saturday we stormed the city on one of those big, red, hop on/hop off tourist buses (or the HO-HO as Gary liked to call it).  Although we see these in every city we visit, this was a first for Julie and me.  We got a pretty thorough introduction of the city as we rode for over an hour until hopping off at one of the last stops- Parc Güell designed by Gaudi.  The park is very beautiful and brilliantly designed, except for all the tourists (like us) there!  The imaginative designs made it feel like a magical world.  Very cool, minus the crowds. 

We continued our HO-HO touring further out from the city and trekked our way to the highest point of Barcelona called Mount Tibidabo.  Here we found unbelievable views of the whole city and coast.  There is also a family fun park at the top of Tibidabo, which was quite the surprise, and so here we were able to enjoy some good ol’ Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.  After soaking in the sights and views for an hour we caught our bus back home to freshen up for dinner. 

Overall, I would say these tourist buses offer a great preview of a city (best for your first day somewhere new, or if you only have 1 day in a city and want to see it all), but they don’t provide the ideal way to fully experience a place.  For us, the experience of traveling is also about the unplanned stuff that you stumble upon.  You miss out on this experience if you only fly through the city on an upper decker bus.  Luckily, we still had two more days left!

On Sunday we strolled through the gothic district of Barcelona before wishing farewell to Sandy and Gary for their cruise.  We made the obligatory stop for churros and chocolate….yum!  Sorry Costco, you offer a good value but your churros just can’t compete with these.  And then the parents were gone….finally!  No, just kidding of course- we always really enjoy the chance to see our family. 

We spent the rest of the day exploring the city on foot, finding the best deal possible on our Gaudi lizard ornament, and taking breaks in cafes and parks.  Barcelona is one of these cities, kind of like Paris or Rome, where you feel like you can walk forever in any direction and always find something cool to see.  What really makes it special though is the combination of this city charm with the Oceanside/beach culture.  We topped of the night with some delicious Tapas.  I ordered two Budweiser beers just out of nostalgia- they were absolutely delicious.  Don’t tell Germany otherwise they might revoke my residence visa.

Our last day on Monday felt sluggish from the start.  We took some more strolls through the city and stopped at an incredible food market (puts our famous food market in Munich to shame).  Later we made it to the beaches which were really quite impressive considering the industrious activity nearby.  This is not your average stop in Galveston.  We soaked in some sun for about 30 minutes until realizing that today we both were just not feeling well.  So we took shade under a beach bar and had a few drinks along with quite tasty lunch.  Eventually we gave into our fate, went back to the hotel, and spent the evening watching trashy MTV show in English!  And although our bodies quit on us and kept us from exploring Barcelona on our last day, it was a lot of fun to taste trashy American television again while eating a footlong (I mean, 30 cm) Subway sub.  Sometimes the things from home really feel like home, especially when you are sick.  We caught the flight back to Munich the next day, ready to welcome our next string of visitors!

American Sports Come to Germany

It’s pretty clear that the spectator sport in Germany is soccer (Fußball), and only soccer.  The regular club season is about 8 months long from mid-August to mid-May.  The summer break in between is all about international soccer (this summer the EURO championship and Olympics).  However, if you look really closely you can find that there is a sporting world outside of soccer.  And that’s exactly what Julie did about 3 weeks ago, when she found a small print ad about baseball and American football games here in Munich (probably a size 8 font footnote in the margin).

Ah what the heck, we set out on a Saturday with our other American friends to watch the baseball game first.  Our hometown Munich Caribes (more on the name later) were playing their final game of the season.  Our concerns about tickets and seating were alleviated when we arrived to see we could each have a bleacher to ourselves.  There were 4 sets of dilapidated bleachers and about 8 fans including us. 

We settled in behind home plate and soaked in our dearly missed national pastime.  It was a wooden bat league, which meant that most of the game consisted of small ball- a bloop here, a stolen base here, a balk there.  And while there were clearly some good athletes out there, the overall quality was on par with junior college team.  Hey not bad, considering I don’t know any Germans who even understand the rules of baseball.

We talked with the club’s marketing person/assistance coach, an American named Doug, who explained to us the structure and history of the club.  Our Munich Caribes play in the 3^rd level of competition in Germany (akin to AA baseball in America in rank – not necessarily skill).  The team was founded by players from South America and Caribbean area, hence Munich Caribes.  And currently, the team is mostly internationals of which 4 or 5 are Americans.

At the end of the game we hung around to get some memorabilia.  I think we may have been the first people to ever ask to buy something though because they really were not sure if they had anything to sell or not.   After 5 minutes of rummaging through an old shed Doug came out with a stack of hats.   I couldn’t resist the throwback letter ‘M’ and the thought of being one of the first real team fans so I bought 3 hats, one for me and for each of my two brothers.  

Our purchase caught the attention of some of the players.  We met the team’s catcher, Mateo from San Antonio!  I’m not sure who was more curious, us wondering how he ended up here playing baseball or him wondering how we ended up there as fans.  It’s always a cool feeling to run into someone from America who is here getting lost in Germany just like us.  He was a really nice guy, so nice he invited us out to party with the team later that night (more on this later).

The baseball game turned out to be a lot of fun.  Next up, we marched over to the American football stadium to watch our Munich Cowboys!  Love the name.  We could tell right away this was a more serious operation than baseball because we had to buy tickets to enter, and even more telling - there was a line.  Immediately we felt like we were transported back to high school (except Julie who never went to any high school football games).  The stadium and atmosphere felt just like a high school football game with the flags, banners, and streams of people wearing the home colors.  Supposedly this was even the homecoming game!  

We hopped right in line and bought our team shirts and settled in with the crowd chanting ‘Defense Go....Defense Go’.  It was a pretty impressive display, considering we had no idea this existed, with maybe around 1,000 fans.  The first series of game play pretty much summed up the quality of competition, which clearly was not the best.  The opening kickoff was a penalty, Munich went 3 and out losing 5 yards, and the subsequent punt was fumbled by the other team.  I think 3 extra point field goals were missed so the final score was kind of odd. 

Perhaps I am being too harsh though, because Munich is the worst team in the league of 8 teams.  It’s worth noting our favorite team name is the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns, who are not to be laughed at as they sit in first place! There were clearly some talented athletes but it is easy to see the lack of experience of the teams as a whole.  Must be how MLS soccer looks to Europeans.

Both baseball and football games made it a successful American day - it was now time to party!  Being the spontaneous types (ok, normally we are not) we met the baseball team at an Irish bar downtown.  I wore my new Caribes hat which was an instant conversation starter (thanks Eddie for  ‘forgetting’ to wear yours), and I think they really appreciated our fanship because they bought us the first round of drinks.  They even invited Eddie and I out to practice on Wednesday.  Yeah man, sure, that’s just the booze talking…

We learned that most these guys were college ball players and wanted to keep playing while traveling abroad.  They all work day jobs because clearly the ticket sales are not providing any kind of salary.  I talked with one of the German players who said he started playing in high school.  It sounds like there is not much in the way of Little League, but there are young adult leagues here and there.

After enough drinks we reached that point where going to a club at 1 a.m. sounded like a good idea.  Yeah, let’s all go pay a 10 buck cover charge to pack in like sardines with a bunch of creepers.  Sounds fun!  And although the club turned out exactly like described, the whole night was an absolute blast.  We made it home and asleep about 4 a.m., which is something we only do like once a decade.

Later we learned they were serious about us coming out to practice.  How sweet is that!?!?   So Eddie and I headed out to practice on Wednesday feeling like Smalls from The Sandlot.  We had the wrong clothes and no glove/gear.  The team welcomed us in, gave us some gear, and then I could not believe it- we were actually playing baseball in Germany.  We caught fly balls for about an hour, shagged batting practice balls, and then got our turn at the plate.  And we both looked pretty good out there, especially considering there were some others who were there for their first time ever playing baseball.  I felt like Craig Biggio out there.  The next day though, I felt like I had been run over by a truck.

It was my first time hitting with a wooden bat and hopefully not the last.  I hope to make it to more practices when I have the time.   Who knows maybe I’ll see if I can get on a team (although probably one of the lower divisions)?  The problem though is that I don’t really have the time.  A 1.5-hour commute each way to work kind of limits my chances.  But I’ll definitely make it out when I can because playing baseball is living the good life.  Stay tuned for more on the Munich Caribes (maybe)!

In the meantime, it’s back to Fußball and FC Bayern Munich!