They landed around lunchtime on Tuesday, so I took them for some tried and true good jet-lag lunch food – döner kebap over by Rotkreuzplatz. This is the same place we have taken a few other guests – including my mother, who took this awkward photo of one employee with the döner:
Noah made it home early from work, so we picked up some chicken from the Tuesday chicken cart and headed over to Hirschgarten’s biergarten for dinner and beer. We all Noah lucked out in that Hirschgraten was showing the UEFA Dortmund vs. Real Madrid semifinal game on the big screens. Stacy and I started with our backs to the screen, but had to eventually turn around - it just became too creepy to have all those faces staring our way.
The next day the pups got to join us for a pizza picnic in Hofgarten followed by bocce ball in the Englischer Garten. Sadie became obsessed with a woman riding horse around us – I had to keep her leashed up or she would have tried to become friends with the horse – and most likely fail miserably. And while I kept her from that danger, it might have been my fault one of the bocce balls hit her in the face. I have never felt so guilty in my life – I think I was more upset about it than Sadie was.
We spent the evening over at Frühlingsfest for more chicken and beer, and again… Noah was able to watch the UEFA FC Bayern vs. FC Barcelona semifinal game in the beer tent! The place definitely had a different atmosphere with the game playing (as we were there the Saturday before with some international friends… and 1 authentic German), but it was a very happy one with FC Bayern winning 3-0 and clinching a Germany vs. Germany UEFA cup final. We also got surrounded by a German boy band ‘flash mob’ – but not sure how flash mob it really was when there isn’t much room between the tables for their few dancers. And a huge shout out to Stacy and Adam for partaking in the traditional Lederhosen and Dirndl! Now they really need to come back for Oktoberfest to get their money’s worth out of it!
Thursday we stayed in the city center spending money… what else can you really do in bad weather? We continued our theme of daily German food at Zum Franziskaner – this time treating our guests to an eclectic combination of Weißwurst, authentic Wienerschnitzel, and Kaiserschmarrn. While all three authentic German/Bavarian food on their own – I don’t think they really go together. But no one complained.
We switched things up for dinner and went to a Greek restaurant. Our old Munich friend Laura joined us, so Noah and I were able to toast her goodbye (again) at dinner. She found a job in Cincinnati and was here in Munich to finish up her last 2 weeks at Intel. That just means her and her soon-to-be husband need to come to Munich on vacation, instead of business trips.
Our plans for Friday originally included walking through the Partnachklamm Gorge, as we had heard cool things about it. We even pre-booked one of our car sharing vehicles for the day. Unfortunately for us, they decided to ‘close’ the gorge for the week for maintenance, and it would open again Saturday. But we had a car for Friday – not Saturday! We decided to be resourceful and just find another place to visit with the car. Solution: Eibsee and Zugspitze!
We began with a nice 7km hike/walk around the Eibsee – a lake at the bottom of the Zugspitze mountain (which, by the way, is the highest point in Bavaria – the mountain, not the lake). Here we made fast friends with the ducks, who clearly are used to people feeding them. At one point we stopped to look at the lake on a small hill, and this little duck came walking all the way up the hill to try to beg. Impressive little climber! We also found a rock shaped like Texas, so naturally I had to stop and give it a photo shoot.
For our guests’ last day in Munich, we decided to focus on the biergarten experience (again). We first went into the city center to hit up Viktualienmarkt – the large open market near Marienplatz – to pick up a nice lunch spread. After a quick detour to see the Hofbräuhaus, we hopped on the Ubahn up to Olympiapark, where Rita and Sadie cuddled in the small space between the seats.
Once there, we somehow managed to hit up two separate biergartens. We did split them by stomping around the park grounds and making it to the highest hill there for some nice views of Munich and the Alps. It was also nice that Stacy and Adam had one day of beautiful weather in Munich – how we wish it was every day! Sadly this marked the end of their Munich leg, and we woke up Sunday to an empty apartment. Well, not too empty – we had two waggly little dog butts to greet us in the morning.
In 9 days, Hotel Weiss will welcome my parents, and we will do it all over again!
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