Whirlwind Weekend in Munich
Even though I had only seen her once since we graduated from college, my friend Abbie generously hosted us at her apartment for a weekend in Munich. Thanks to the wonders of Facebook, I knew that Abbie moved to Munich a year ago to work as a scientist. (Isn’t it fun to say that someone is a scientist? And she really is). I thought it would be fun to see her and to take a little foray into Germany en route from the Czech Republic to Slovenia. The whole weekend was a whirlwind, starting with us blowing into Munich Friday afternoon and ending with us blowing out of Munich Monday morning, complete with a mad dash to jump on the train only seconds before it started moving.
 |
| From Munchen |
In between those times, we had a lot of fun hanging out with Abbie and hearing about her new German lifestyle. She passed on some of the insights about Germany that can only be gained from living there instead of just passing through. It was nice to have our own personal tour guide. She made sure that we got a proper tour of Munich, which included visiting a beer garden, walking through Englischer Gardens, seeing Munich’s may pole (a giant pole neighboring towns used to steal from each other), and rubbing the well worn noses of three lions outside a palace for good luck. On Saturday, we hit the autobahn in Abbie’s car to visit the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site (more on that later) and a monastery with tasty beers brewed by monks. (We learned, by the way, that there is no such thing as The Autobahn, just many autobahns).
As we walked around Friday evening, it seemed the whole city was abuzz. The late day sun was still shining, and apparently it had been the first really nice day in ages.
Hailing from Pittsburgh, of course I love rivers. One of my favorite things about Munich was the river was so accessible to everyone. It ran right through Englishcher Gardens (what we would call a park) and was almost like a big stream. Although Germans apparently have a lot of rules, we learned that they don’t always follow them, as demonstrated by the groups of teenagers frolicking in the water close to a sign forbidding swimming in the river. (Including one group of three boys signing Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver, despite being a long, long way from West Virginia).
In the grassy areas next to the river banks, kids were taking advantage of Germany’s lax alcohol laws to throw a riverside party.
Further on down the river, we watched the river surfers navigate the rushing waters on their surfboards.
Bikes are prevalent everywhere in Europe, but it seemed everyone had a bike in Munich. People sailed past us on their bicycles, dinging their bells so we would get out of their way. No matter how many times I accidentally walk in the bike path, much to the chagrin of bikers worldwide, I always have a delayed reaction to the dinging bells.
We had visited a beer garden in Prague, but it felt more like we were crashing someone’s backyard cookout than a public gathering place. Munich’s beer gardens are notorious places, always situated under big chestnut trees, with big crowds drinking giant 1 liter beers. We ate pretzels, currywurst, and a cheese dip at what Abbie said was a proper beer garden: one with long benches and shared tables, covered with chestnut trees, where you could bring your own food if you choose to do so.
And of course we drank giant beers (we are both German, after all), and learned the proper way to cheers someone.
Besides the good weather, we suspected that everyone’s good moods had something to do with it being the opening weekend of the World Cup. The soccer fever was everywhere.
Most of the cars and houses proudly displayed German flags. We watched the United States tie England at a cookout at Abbie’s apartment with her group of friends, a fun crowd hailing everywhere from Germany to Portugal to New Zealand. Their excitement over the World Cup was contagious. There was a mixed group in terms of who was rooting for and against the United States, mostly due to whether a US win would benefit their fantasy soccer teams or not.
Being avid American football fans, it wasn’t hard for us to get into the World Cup, so we tried to learn as much as we could from Abbie and her friends to prepare us for the next month. Like most Americans, we know very little about professional soccer. I think Abbie’s friend Katrin is right: without commercial breaks, soccer will never make it big in the United States. I will say, although the commercial breaks during football games at home border on the absurd at times, it is nice to have one now and again for a bathroom break, particularly when drinking giant beers. (Seriously, it is easy to get quite tipsy when you are drinking beers by the half liter, as many of the German beers come. I find it amusing that when Germans feel they have had too much to drink, they don’t stop drinking or start drinking less. Instead, they just water down their beers with lemonade – a tasty drink known as a Radler). The next night, we watched Germany beat Australia 4-0. Even to our novice eyes, we could tell that the German players had much fancier footwork than the American players.
And of course I would be remiss to mention three other favorite aspects of the weekend: Abbie’s homemade chocolate chip cookies, Floyd, and Mr. Monk.
Thanks, Abbie, for giving us a window into life in Munich and for sharing your stash of imported chocolate chips and your kitties.
What a wonderful weekend you must have had! I am so pleased you got to Germany and thankful to Abbie for showing you a good time. My observations: in all those groups of people, drinking all that beer, I was hard pressed to find even one overweight person. Could it be the bike riding? And, also, the river surfing: whichever of you taking the pictures got awesome action shots, I felt I was right on that board with them. Good thing I wasn’t, though. It looks a little scary. 🙂 Glad you had such a nice time.
Love the pictures, it is fun to read about the weekend, these postings are a great way to remember the trip 🙂 have fun in your next country I hope that the rain leaves too!!
It is not fair! The Europeans have good food and are skinny. We (on this side of the same ocean) have to run and exercise daily and watch what we eat just to achieve the same. Need more sidewalks and more public transportation and definitely more vibrant urban environments, not just flourishing suburbs. In Europe the real estate prices decline as you move away from the urban areas. There is no suburbia. It is either city, farm land or a rural area with small isolated villages. Living in the beltway of Paris is more expensive and more desirable and it is also safer. Completely opposite to here. Why such big differences. I thought it all started from Europe…