We stopped just outside of Munich in the town of Nymphenburg to see Castle Nymphenburg also known as the Residence. I had been there once before in the summer time, which was much better because the flowers of the garden (the best thing about the Residence in my opinion) were in full bloom. This time of year, as you can imagine, everything was dead, but that didn’t stop Keith and I from taking the best picture the world has ever seen.
Wow, what athletes!
Aww. Sarah and I.
Anyway there are plenty more jump photos where that came from, as it seemed to be the theme of our trip. After the Residence we headed into Munich. The hotel was quite awesome, I must say. I was expecting a sub-par hostel, but I was pleasantly surprise with the place. Not only was it located nicely, but it had a freaking bath tub, and a bed that was more comfortable than that which I have at home. We arrived around 4 o’clock in the afternoon and we were free to do what we liked. Keith, Sarah, Gita, Sarah-Jayne, Helen, and I hopped a bus to Marienplatz, where we checked out the Christmas Market and then ate at the Weissesbrauhaus. The Weissesbrauhaus is an authentic Bavarian restaurant- the type of place you imagine when you think of Oktoberfest. The food was excellent, but I was so hungry at the time that a stuffed animal would have been an adequate meal in my eyes. The prospect of having a bubble bath was just too much for the girls to handle, so after dinner we explored Munich in the hopes to find something with which the girls could make their bubbles. It was an early night for everyone due to the next morning’s early wake up, but that didn’t stop Keith and I from taking a couple of silly pictures.
We had fun in our room.
The next day the group took a tour of the city. It was good fun and I was able to take many nice pictures. We ate lunch at the cafeteria of the Munich Technical Institute, which was pedestrian at best, but was also free so I can’t complain. We then visited the art museum of Pinakotech der Moderne. The art was cool enough in it’s own right, I suppose, but after visiting the Pompidou Centre in Paris, it just didn’t match up. That night Keith, Sarah, Gita, Sarah-Jayne, Helen, and I dined with one of the advisors from the trip. She was a very nice older woman who told us some interesting stories of her experiences living under the Nazi government. She was only young at the time, but lived in Munich, which was the birth place and heart of the National Socialism. Thus, she had many stories to tell about the party’s early days and it’s rise to power.
We drafted some more kids for the cause.
Check out the German lady to the right, she is amazed by the vertical bounds we break.
The next morning the group visited Dachau Concentration Camp, which sits a couple of kilometers outside of Munich. The camp was converted from an abandoned gunpowder plant into a prisoner camp in March of 1933. Dachau wasn’t the first prison camp built by the Nazis, but it was the first concentration camp and was the model for all concentration and death camps which followed. The camp’s primary use was for the incarceration of political prisoners. From 1933 to 1945 over 200,000 prisoners from 30 different countries were housed behind the walls of Dachau.
It was a very cold Saturday with a rain/snow mix falling from the sky most of the day. After the visit to Dachau we were free to do what we wished. I went on my own to visit the Christmas Markets in the city. Along the way I stopped at a music store, where I played on a drum set for the first time in 4 months. It was bliss. I could have stayed there the entire afternoon, but I thought I’d better get some shopping done. The weather, as I mentioned, was horrible. It wasn’t bad enough to be freezing outside, but the cold rain completely soaked my hair as well. I finished my shopping and then returned to the hotel and had myself a hot shower, it was lovely.
Keith, Sarah, and I met up with Gita, Sarah-Jayne, and Helen for dinner later that evening. The restaurant, which was Helen had spotted earlier that day, was a nice Tahitian joint and with a very interesting decor, if I may say so. However, to say the service was abysmal would have been a compliment. We waited 15 minutes until the waitress acknowledged our exisitance, but being as we weren‘t in a rush to eat, we managed to overlook it. After ordering our drinks we waited another 15 minutes before they were brought to us and started to become a bit flustered. We ordered dinner nonetheless, but as we were ordering we were told that all the vegetables had run out. This should have been when we left, but it was mighty cold outside and we all had our hearts set on Tahitian cuisine, so we stayed. Helen and Sarah-Jayne ordered an appetizer and were pleasantly surprise to find when they bit into it that it was still frozen. At this point we were ready to leave. We beckoned the waitress to tell her about the frozen hors d'oeuvre and to tell her that we would be leaving due to the frozen food and god-awful service. We were then told by the waitress, quite condescendingly, that we could leave, but that we would be paying for the food which we ordered. The waitress took the appetizer back to the kitchen to reheat it as we pondered what to do. Gita, Keith, Sarah, and I had made up our minds; we would run from this terrible restaurant and never look back. Helen and Sarah-Jayne on the other hand needed some convincing which came in the form of their second frozen appetizer. The time to act was upon us, we needed to make a move before the main course was brought to us. We began to clad ourselves with our jackets and scarves in preparation for the dash to freedom. On three we jumped from our seats and sprang towards the door, but there was one problem. The automatic door to exit the restaurant was moving slowly, too slowly! Were our plans to be foiled by a mechanical mishap? No, we couldn't go out like that. Keith, wedging his hands in between the doors, facilitated their open and we all sprinted out of the restaurant and down the street, not stopping till the waitress and our would-be Tahitian treats. Such vindication works up an appetite so we headed to Pizza Hut for some good ole' American slice. Pizza Hut never tasted so good and the service was fit for a king.
The next morning we left to check out the Deutsches Museum, which was cool in it's own right, but wasn't really my cup of tea, to be fair. I spent most of the time gabbing in the cafe. I did, however, check out the planetarium, but it's tranquility made sleeping to suitable of an option. We had a group dinner that afternoon at another Bavarian-esque restaurant and then made our way home.
All in all, I give the trip two thumbs way up. A lovely time had by all and I finally lived out my dream of running from a dinning establishment without paying. Amazing.
A few favorite pictures from the trip:
Coming to a town near you.
Grr?
Merry Chritmas!...?
jlk
