My Last Day

Work was pretty uneventful today after having worked some pretty long days in the past three weeks, and that was nice because it gave me time to come back to the hotel, get some room service (it was raining so I didn't go out), pack my suitcase, and reflect on my trip.  I'm very excited to be leaving tomorrow morning, but it's not without a little bit of that bittersweet feeling.  I've really enjoyed my time here in Munich, even though it was four weeks longer than originally planned.  Munich is a great city with so many things to offer that I didn't even get to do nearly as many things as I would have liked.  Looking back though, I have no regrets about any of it.  I saw a lot, ate a lot, went to a lot of new places, and just generally enjoyed all of the time I've spent in Bavaria.  I could easily see this being a place I could live and feel comfortable in, if I learn a little bit more German, of course.  Don't worry though.  It's a bit too far away from family for me to really want to do that, but it's nice to think about in case candidate X, Y, or Z gets elected.  I'd much rather go here than Canada like what everyone else says.

Also, I probably haven't mentioned this very much, if at all, but I really liked all of the people I got to work with at MTU.  Everyone was super friendly and had such a different, more positive attitude about their work that really made me happy to work with them.  On top of that, everyone always loved to strike up conversations that didn't have to do with work.  Most of the time it was asking me what I had done that past weekend and what my plans were for the next one.  They were full of tips and suggestions for where to go next, and all of those suggestions turned out really great for me.  I will miss all of them, especially their very great, accented, and sometimes goofy English.  One of my favorite phrases is when they tell me "we'll see us later" instead of "we'll see you later."  I love it because it's the literal word-for-word translation of the German phrase of the same meaning ("Wir sehen uns später") and almost every single person said it to me the same way.  Of course, I can't knock them too hard because my German skills were terrible, but let's not dwell on that.  They were also very amused that one time I did the Arnold Schwarzenegger impression ("I'll be back" and "Hasta la vista, baby").  Glad I could make them laugh.

Anyway, enough rambling.  This was the best business trip I've been on yet and could have even qualified as a vacation with the amount of sight-seeing I was able to do on the weekends.  I had a great time, but I'm so glad to be going home.

If you made it through to the end of my trip with me, I really appreciate you reading and hope you enjoyed.  I'll leave you with one parting quote from the great Sheriff Bart:  "Auf Wiedersehen, baby."

Final Weekend

I think it’s safe to say that mountains are my favorite geological feature.  It’s no contest really.  The ocean?  Ordinary.  The desert?  Drab.  The plains?  Plain, really.  But mountains, oh how they take my breath away!  Rising up out of the Earth and towering thousands of feet over you; mountains make you feel small and truly appreciate nature.  That is why my final weekend in Germany was so incredible.

I started off the weekend with a two-hour drive across the Austrian border to Salzburg.  I had been told by many people of Salzburg’s beauty and history, so I had been wanting to check it out for a while.  I also wanted to tick a third European country off of my travel list, so Austria was the easy choice.  The drive was beautiful, once again through the Bavarian countryside towards the Alps.  The nicest part about Salzburg, in my opinion, is the scenery.  The city is nestled right into the edge of the Alps, so it has mountains all around.  This was, of course, a strategic decision during the city’s formation because the mountains provided natural fortification against ruthless invaders.  In fact, within the city limits are two big hills (I would only call them mountains if I were from Kansas) that have the remains of the old city wall and an old fortress.  These fortifications allowed Salzburg to withstand armies many times the size of their own with just a minimal fighting force.  My first goal of the day was to hike up one of the hills, called Kapuzinerberg, to get the full 360 degree view of the city.  This particular hill was not the one with the fortress on it, because that one has been heavily touristized and is not as tall.  The hike was nice and fairly easy, and the view at the top was gorgeous.  Up and down only took me about an hour and a half, so that left me with plenty of time to explore the rest of the city.

Part of downtown Salzburg from part-way up Kapuzinerberg

Looking south from Kapuzinerberg over Salzburg

The downtown area of Salzburg lies in between the two city hills with the Salzach river cutting it nearly evenly in two.  This layout makes the city feel very small and cozy.  Many of the old buildings and streets are still standing too, so the streets are not even wide enough for two cars, adding to the small and cozy feeling.  The coolest part is that most of these streets and plazas have been made into pedestrian zones.  I love when cities do this!  It creates areas where pedestrians can roam and not worry constantly about their safety.  This draws people to those areas, helping to support businesses, restaurants, and museums, and it results in a much quieter, more relaxing visit.  So, I walked around here for a few hours, had some ice cream and a bratwurst, took some pictures, and enjoyed the sunshine.  Along the way I stopped into Mozart’s Birthplace Museum, the house in which he was born and raised.  That was pretty cool and worth the visit.  I also went inside the Dom zu Salzburg (Salzburg Cathedral), which was gorgeous.  I love visiting churches in the cities I visit, especially the Roman Catholic churches.  They’re always so different from one another but also so similar in many ways since, well, they’re all churches.  After wandering back through the flowery Mirabellgarten, I hopped back in my car and drove back to Munich for the night.

The Salzach

Salzberg

Mirabellgarten

The next day I drove all the way back to Berchtesgaden, where I had toured the salt mine, to visit Königssee (King’s Lake).  This lake is the only way into the Berchtesgaden National Park, an 81 square mile park located just south of the town.  Several mountains are prominently located within the park, the most famous being Watzmann, the third tallest mountain in Germany at 8901 feet.  There are several lodges located within the mountains, so this is a popular location for backpackers to plan multiple day trips across the peaks.  However, if you do want to do this, you need to buy a ticket for a boat ride out to a stop halfway down the lake to start your hike because the shores are really just cliffs with no way around.  It truly is a secluded area barely touched by mankind.  The lake itself is so closely surrounded by the mountains that you can barely see any of it from the northern end, where you have to park your car.  You don’t realize how beautiful the area really is until you’re on that boat and turn the first corner to see the length of the lake open up in front of you with the mountains rising up out of the pristine water on either side.  Part of the way down the lake, the boat stops and the driver plays a trumpet, using the echoes from the cliffs to create a nice song in the form of a round, before continuing the journey once again.  The boat took me, and several hundred other tourists that day, to our stop at the St. Bartholomä (Bartholomew) church that is located on a small peninsula about three quarters of the way down the length of the lake.  Kirche St. Bartholomä is a Roman Catholic pilgrimage church that was built in 1697 on the site of another chapel that had been there since 1134.  The church has two onion dome towers, a red domed roof, and a view that’s to die for.  Next to the church is an old hunting lodge that is now a restaurant and biergarten.  Thankfully, the weather was warm and sunny, so I got to sit outside with a couple of beers and a plate of Wiener schnitzel.  After my meal, I walked around some of the hiking paths on the peninsula, but didn’t go very far because I didn’t have proper hiking shoes.  My only regret about the trip was that the sky was very hazy, so my pictures didn’t turn out super clear.  Thankfully they’re good enough to portray the beauty of the place, but I’ll have to come back again to get some better ones!

View of Watzmann from Königssee

Kirche St. Bartholomä

Kirche St. Bartholomä

Me getting in the way of an otherwise beautiful view of Königssee

Sunday was one of the most relaxing days of my trip and was definitely my favorite day so far.  I also believe that Königssee is the most beautiful place that I’ve ever been to and is the most beautiful place on Earth, though I would love for you to prove me wrong.

Link to Flickr album for so many more pictures!

Andescher am Dom

I haven't tried any new restaurants lately, but I noticed a new one the other day that piqued my interest.  As I was going past Frauenkirche on Saturday I spotted a familiar Andechs beer sign, the same monastery brewery I had visited back in February.  The food and beer there were excellent.  I had the lamb fillet with thyme sauce, green beans, and roasted fingerling potatoes.  Es var wunderbar!  I think I'll have to try going back there in the last 10 days I have in Munich.  Did you read that carefully?  10 DAYS LEFT!

Salzbergwerk Berchtesgaden

The town of Berchtesgaden is nestled way in the southeast corner of Germany right on the border with Austria.  Closer to the city of Salzburg, Austria than Munich, Berchtesgaden is perhaps most famous for being the site of Hitler's Alpine retreat the Eagle's Nest (Das Kehlsteinhaus).  You may know of Berchtesgaden and the Eagle's Nest from the final episode in HBO's Band of Brothers series when Easy Company captures the town and takes advantage of the large stores of wine the German officers had collected.  The Eagle's Nest has been one thing on my list that I most wanted to see while in Germany, but it is, unfortunately, closed till the middle of May for renovations.  Not to be deterred with at least visiting the town, I found that the main industry in the area is the Salzbergwerk, a salt mine, and they do tours!

The two-hour drive to get there was an experience in and of itself.  The first half was on the autobahn (speed!) and the second half was along some of the most scenic roads I've ever driven (gorgeous!).  In fact, I'm pretty sure that if I'd driven these scenic roads in the summer that I would have crashed from not paying enough attention to actually driving.  Thankfully, it's still winter, so the trees were bare, the grass was brown, and there were no flowers.  I can just imagine it though, and it makes me want to come back when it's warmer!  These roads were basically the picturesque roads you see in pictures of the Alps.  They wove up, over, and through the mountains, making hairpin turns with steep drop-offs, and then meandered lazily through the stereotypical Alpine villages.  I couldn't get any pictures for you because I was driving, so you'll have to come on your own sometime!

I did make it to the salt mine just before the doors opened for the first tour, so I got my ticket and English audio guide (basically a little phone you hold up to your ear that speaks to you in English), pulled on my complimentary coveralls, and boarded the miner's train.  One small aside, I had my first experience of having to take a picture of a large family with their phone.  I knew what they were asking me just from context clues, but once I started counting down from three in German, I realized that I had no idea what Germans usually said for pictures!  "Do they say 'cheese' too?  I know that word in German, but would it be really weird for me to say that?  Maybe I should just say 'zero.'  Crap, I don't know how to say that.  What about 'go'?  Nope, don't know that one either."  I settled with saying nothing.  I said "3, 2, 1" and then took the picture.  They were all smiling by 1 anyway, so I think it went okay.

Anyway, back on the train.  It took us deep into the mountain to what is known as the Salt Cathedral.  This was a huge room that was once filled to the brim with water, which dissolved the salt in the rock walls, leaving a salty brine which could be pumped out and evaporated, leaving behind pure white table salt.  This, if you didn't already know, is the standard technique for salt mining.  Huge shafts, some are 400 meters deep, are drilled into the earth and then pumped full of water.  The filling process takes 1 year (1 YEAR!) because the water dissolves the salt in the rocks and seeps outward to create large cavities, much like the Salt Cathedral.  Once each hole is filled, the brine extraction process takes another 30 years (30 YEARS!) because they are constantly pumping out brine and pumping in new fresh water to dissolve more salt.  It's a very impressive process, especially considering it all used to be done by hand.

The from the Salt Cathedral we took a miner's slide down to the next floor level.  The slide is apparently a standard way for the miners to move down floors.  They use elevators to go up, and maybe some of them actually do use elevators to go down.  All I know is that if I had slides at work, I would use those every single day because that was a ton of fun.  After checking out some of the mining equipment and walking through old tunnels, we emerged at Mirror Lake.  This is a shallow, yet long cavity filled approximately half-way to the ceiling with clear, salty brine.  The water was as still as glass, and you could see the lake bed perfectly.  We technically weren't supposed to take any pictures on the tour, but I snuck one in before the tour guide made it into the room.  Don't tell!

Mirror Lake at Salzbergwerk Berchtesgaden

One quick boat ride across the lake with some sort of laser light show (yeah, this is a tourist attraction) and the tour was nearly finished.  We hopped back on the train and got dropped off at, you guessed it, the gift shop.  Really fun tour, definitely glad I did it, but I'm still bummed I didn't get to go to the Eagle's Nest.

Bonus:  I went for a run in the Englischer Garten today and stopped by the Eisbachwelle, which is a standing wave in the river caused by a low dam.  People surf on it year round (burr) while spectators watch from above.  Looks fun!

Surfing the Eisbachwelle in the Englischer Garten

Residenz Museum

Today was a laundry day, which isn't as bad as it sounds.  My typical laundry day involves me sleeping in, having a nice breakfast at the hotel, catching the tram to the laundromat, dropping off my clothes for someone else to wash because they won't let me use the machines, and then heading out into the city to do some sightseeing till my laundry is done.  Today I went into Viktualienmarkt to buy some souveniers and then decided to peek into Peterskirche and Frauenkirche, two of the biggest Roman Catholic churches in the city.  Each time I've tried to go into them previously there has been some sort of mass going on, and I feel bad walking in right in the middle.  Today I was able to catch both of them just minutes before masses started.  I don't understand why they have masses every night of the week and right in the middle of the day on a Saturday, but they do.  Both churches, by the way, were very pretty inside, but I didn't get any pictures.  Sorry.

After the churches, I visited the Residenz Museum.  The Residenz was the home of the Wittelsbach dynasty up until 1918.  The first buildings in the palace were built back in 1385 and were added to in the 16th, 17th, and 19th centuries.  The museum audio tour brings you through about 100 rooms full of old paintings, furniture, family treasures, and classical sculptures.  I was a little tired from my long week of work, so I wasn't super interested in listening to everything the audio guide had to say about each of the paintings of old rich people, but it was still cool to wander through and see them.  One of the most impressive rooms is the Antiquarium, a hall built in 1571 to house the royal family's sculptures.  This room is the largest Renaissance ceremonial hall north of the Alps and is the oldest surviving part of the Residenz (most of the original buildings were bombed in WWII and restored after).  The elector, or emperor, or kind, or whatever he called himself used to host meals and ceremonies in this hall, so that must have been a sight to behold.  One impressive piece of art at the Residenz is the grotto made out of volcanic crystals, colorful seashells, and a bronze sculpture of Mercury.  It was really cool to see all of the details made out of shells, and that's all I have to say about that.

Once out of the Residenz I went back to the Viktualienmarkt to get some lunch.  I grabbed a bratwurst and a beer and sat down in the biergarten to relax and people watch.  A few minutes later it started to drizzle, so I finished my beer, quickly picked up my laundry, and made it back to the hotel just before the heavens opened.  Phew!

The Antiquarium in the Residenz

The grotto at the Residenz

More Sightseeing

Last weekend, Timothy, a friend of Nell and me, visited from London, so I took him around to some of the highlights of the city.  We walked around the city center, went up into the St. Peter's Church tower, meandered through Viktualienmarkt, and then made our way over to the Museum District.  I hadn't been over there before, but Timothy (an architect) wanted to see a few of the museums because he has learned about them in school and used them as influences in some of his projects.  It was pretty cool going from the old part of the city with classical architecture into the Museum District with much more modern buildings.  We didn't actually go into into any of the exhibits in the museums because of the limited time frame, but maybe that would be something to do in the future.  One of my favorite sights was the Lenbachhaus museum.  Nell's great-great-grandfather used to be the groundskeeper for the garden, which is pretty in the winter and probably gorgeous in the summer.  It was pretty cool to be connected to Nell from such a long distance!

Lenbachhaus garden

On Sunday, Timothy wanted to see the Alps, so I took him down to the Neuschwanstein Castle.  A few inches of snow had fallen overnight, so the drive and view from the castle were beautiful.  That definitely made my second trip worth it.  Later in the day we visited the BMW museum because Timothy's a huge fan and used to own a couple.  Even though the weekend was filled with things I've mostly done before, it was really fun to take someone else around who'd never been there before.

Zum Brünnstein

Tonight, a couple co-workers and I went to a new place for me called Zum Brünnstein.  This place is a traditional Bavarian restaurant with quality food and a lot of local regulars sitting around playing cards.  My eyes were a little bigger than my stomach, so I ordered a bowl of goulash and a Wiener schnitzel.  I don't regret it though because both were delicious!  The place was also decked out for Easter.  They had Easter bunnies, Easter eggs, and lambs everywhere.  I also saw an Easter bush (decorated with eggs) and an Easter nativity scene, where Jesus was replaced with an Easter bunny baby.  It was great.

Paulaner am Nockherberg, Erdinger Brewery, and Nymphenberg Palace

This week marked the beginning of Starkbierzeit (Strong beer time) in Munich.  Strong beer time began back in 1651 when the Paulaner monks started brewing their starkbeir named Salvator.  They referred to the beer as "Flüssiges Brot" ("liquid bread") because it was so calorie-dense that it helped them to survive their 40 days of Lenten fasting.  This Salvator beer, which people today commonly refer to as a doppelbock, has a gravity of 18.3% and an alcohol percentage of 7.5%.  Traditionally served in 1-liter ceramic steins, 1 liter of the beer is equivalent in calories to 1/3 of a loaf of bread.

The tradition of strong beer spread around the city and the first public strong beer festival ("Starkbierfest") was held 100 years later.  The biggest and most traditional celebration takes place at Paulaner am Nockherberg, Paulaner's large beer hall in the southeastern part of the city that can hold up to 2,500 people at one time.  When we went last Friday night, it was packed wall to wall and we had a hard time finding a place for 6 people (me and the other PW people).  The atmosphere was very similar to Oktoberfest, or so I was told, but with far fewer tourists.  Loud Germany music, large soft pretzels, bratwurst, men and women dressed in tracht (dirndl and lederhosen), and, of course, lots and lots of beer.  I had a great time and am really glad that I got to go!

Paulaner am Nockherberg for Starkbierfest

In keeping with the theme of beer this weekend, on Saturday the same 6 of us got on the S-bahn (suburban train) to head out to the small town of Erding northeast of Munich.  In Erding is the world-famous Erdinger Weißbräu, where we had signed up for a tour.  The tour started off with being served a beer (The "Champ")  while being shown a video about the brewery.  We then went on a fairly quick tour of the brewery itself, which was pretty similar to other breweries I've been too.  Brewing beer is a pretty straight-forward process with not much variation, so I wasn't expecting anything different.  They did have a huge bottling line though, but, as it was the weekend, no one was working.  That would have been cool to see.  After the tour, and included in the price of the ticket, we were allowed an hour and a half to hang out at the bar.  They served each of us two pretzels and two weisswurst to go along with as many samples of their 9 beers as we wanted.  Now, in the US, when a brewery offers samples on a tour, you typically get around 3 7-oz samples.  Here, on the other hand, they served us full beers (your choice of a small 0.3L or a large 0.5L)!  I tried three "small" samples of the Dunkel, the Original Weissbier, and the Pikantus before calling it a day.  Friday and Saturday was enough beer for one week, never mind one weekend.

Erdinger Weißbier

Sunday, after dropping off my laundry at the laundromat, I went across the city to Nymphenburg Palace.  This palace, whose construction was completed in 1675, was the former summer residence of the Bavarian ruling families.  The entire grounds consist of a 490-acre park that, apparently, has beautiful gardens in the summer.  Unfortunately, today was cloudy and cold, so it wasn't as pretty as it would have been on a sunny, summer day, but it was pretty nonetheless.  I took the English audio-guided tour through the palace, and was blown away by the ornately decorated rooms and living quarters.  Although the amount of rooms you could see on the tour paled in comparison with the amount of rooms overall in the palace, the size of the place was just enormous.  In addition to the palace and the grounds, the museum included a display of the former carriages and sleighs of the royal families.  These were amazing carriages plated in gold and fancy fabrics.  Nymphenburg Palace was a pretty cool place to go.

Nymphenberg Palace

The ceiling in Nymphenberg Palace's great hall

King Ludwig II's coronation carriage

 More photos here!

Mercedes-Benz Museum

I didn't do too much last week, so I had nothing to write about.  Yesterday, however, I drove 2.5 hours to Stuttgart to visit the Mercedes-Benz Museum.  I was told by the guys at MTU that it is a very well-done museum, and they are right.  Just like the BMW Museum, the building was visually stunning on the inside.  The difference between this and the BMW Museum, however, is that Mercedes has a historical timeline throughout the museum that intertwined the history of the company with major world events.  It was pretty cool.  The cars were also pretty cool, but I think overall the cars at the BMW museum looked better, with a few exceptions.

Mercedes Simplex

Mercedes-Benz 500K

Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Gullwing

Lot's more pictures here!

Neuschwanstein Castle

Today we went outside the city again, this time to visit the famous Neuschwanstein Castle.  Neuschwanstein is a castle that was commissioned by Bavarian Kind Ludwig II in 1869 as a personal retreat.  After he died in 1886, the castle was opened to the public and has been ever since.  The castle, an example of Romanesque Revival architecture, has been the inspiration for many other castles and buildings around the world, most notably the Disney Castle.  The castle is located in the town of Hohenschwangau on the edge of the alps.  When you get into town, you have to buy tickets at the base of the mountain and then walk up to the castle.  It's about a 30 minute walk uphill the whole way, but it wasn't too bad for us.  The view from the castle was incredible, both looking up at the mountain and down into Bavaria.  We tried to get to the bridge where everyone gets the picturesque photos that you see of the castle on Wikipedia, but it's closed till May for maintenance.  Also, the weather was cloudy and slightly rainy, but the views were still spectacular.  The tour was pretty short as well, but the inside of the castle was very ornate and beautiful.  As we were walking back to the car, the clouds finally parted and the sun came out, leading to a great picture of the castle sitting atop its perch.  Definitely worth the visit.

View down into Bavaria.

View from behind the castle, almost from the bridge.

View from the town once the sun came out.

On the way back to Munich, we stopped off at Kloster Andechs, a monastery brewery well-known for its strong Dopplebock Dunkel.  Everyone at work told us we should go there, but that we should be careful because the beer was really strong.  However, the beer is only 7% ABV, which is lower than the stouts I usually drink back at home, so it really didn't have any effect.  For German beer though, it is stronger than most, since they are typically between 4 and 6%, so I guess I can't blame them for the warning.  The beer was good and the pretzels were the best I've had so far.

I love beer and pretzels.

More pictures here!

Busy Week

This week was very full of activity, but I was too lazy to write about any of it.  But now I'm back, and I've written.  Tuesday was the last night of Fasching/Fastnacht/Karneval in Germany, which is the Christian celebration leading up to Lent.  Germans treat the last night of Karneval as a huge celebration, with people dressing up in costumes and going to big public celebrations.  Apparently kids even go door-to-door getting candy, so the whole night is very similar to how we treat Halloween.  Zach and I planned our dinner near Marienplatz so that we could walk through to see the celebrations.  It was wild.  Marienplatz was packed with people shoulder-to-shoulder and people were just standing around drinking beer in costumes (seemed as though live music had just ended).  The one very odd thing, though, was the prevalence of full-body animal onesie costumes.  It was almost like a Furry convention.  We ended up going to a new (for us) restaurant called Weisses Bräuhaus, which is right next to Marienplatz.  It was extremely busy, as expected, and full of more people in costumes, as expected.  The food was not very good at all, and neither was the beer.  So that was pretty disappointing, but the costumes, music, and people singing were enjoyable.

The next day was Ash Wednesday (Aschermittwoch).  Zach and I had a late review to get approval to test our engine (we passed), but I was still able to make it out in time to get to church at Theatirenkircke at 19:30.  The church was very big inside, with lots of ornate decorations and architecture, but there were probably less than 50 people at the mass.  Everything was in German, of course, so I didn't understand much of what they were saying, but I was able to pick up a few words like "Jesus Christus," "Mein Gott," and "Gesundheit."  I did know what was going on, since it was the same format as any other Catholic mass, but it was difficult to even think the prayers in English when everyone else around me was speaking German.  I did totally nail the Our Father though!  One thing that was distinctly different, and maybe it was just this particular church, was how the congregation went up to receive ashes and communion.  Instead of filing out of the pews row-by-row, everyone went up as one large group to the altar.  Along the entire front of the altar is a long kneeler where everyone kneels, the priest goes from one side to the other giving ashes/communion, and then more people fill in on the kneeler until everyone has had their turn.  Overall, pretty cool experience, even though the homily and readings were meaningless.

Interior of Theatinerkirche
(Not my photo.)

Thursday was a wild day.  Work was pretty busy because we got a lot of hardware delivered, so there was a lot more work than there has been.  On our way back to the hotel after work, we turned onto the hotel's street and immediately saw that the street was full of police and news vans.  A police officer stopped us, but let us through when we informed him we were staying at the hotel.  He told us the only place we could park was at the hotel's parking garage, so we headed that way.  As we turned into the garage's entrance, another police officer stopped us, asked for our IDs and then made us get out of the car to search it.  We had absolutely no idea what was going on and were a little uneasy because it was unclear whether something bad had happened.  Once the officers cleared us to enter the garage, I decided to ask them why they had stopped us, and they told us that there was some big international Security Conference going on in Munich, and lots of politicians were staying at the hotel.  Once inside the hotel, we were amazed at how full it was with TV cameras and people in suits.  It was crazy.  I'm so glad the hotel warned us that this would be going on.

We successfully made it out of the hotel once again for dinner, and headed south, past Sendlinger Tor to a Greek restaurant called Thalassa.  The reviews online were great, and we totally agreed!  We both got plates that had an assortment of Greek foods that were all very delicious.  Mine had souvlaki, souzouki (meatball), gyro meat, a lamb chop, rice, tzatziki, and a salad.  It was a lot of meat, but it was all so amazing!  I was stuffed, but once I got back to the hotel I felt like I wanted more.

My Greek dinner at Thalassa.

Today at work, we were sitting in our office when one of the MTU Test Engineers came in, a little excited, and said, "Your pet arrived from Florida!  It's a baby alligator!"  We were both a little confused, until we realized she was talking about a lizard that had made its way into one of the shipments we had just received from Florida.  It was alive, but moving and breathing very slowly.  Everyone in the department was very excited and kept referring to it as a baby alligator.  It was really funny, especially when we saw Melanie (the one who told us about it) carrying it around in a box showing it off.  I told them they should kill it so it doesn't invade their local populations, but I think they all thought I was joking.  Oh well.  I tried, local lizards.  I tried.

Our pet baby alligator from Florida.

Tonight, we made it back to the hotel without police checkpoints (unexpected) and then headed into the city to get some souvenirs and dinner.  Since Zach is leaving Monday, we wanted to get one last dinner a Der Pschorr.  By the way, it's not actually pronounced Derpy Score, it's Der Peeshore.  We had a very huge meal, starting with a cheese plate, middleing with the beef medallions, and ending with the apple pie/fritters dessert I've raved about before.  Such an awesome meal and a great way to end the work week.

Derpy Score Again?

Yes.  It's the greatest place, so we went again.  This time I got the Bayern Ox Spare Rib.  When I say "rib" I mean "rib" not "ribs."  That might not seem like much to you, but, believe me, this rib was enormous.  The oxen must be humongous around here!  It came with a side of rosemary potatoes, grilled onion, tomatoes, bacon, horseradish, and a delicious BBQ sauce.  The meat fell apart at the touch of the fork and was extremely tender, as a good rib should be.  Definitely one of the better meals I've had thus far in Munich.

My spare rib at Der Pschorr.
(The lighting was bad at this table.)

Dachau, Flugwerft Schleißheim, and BMW Museum

We had another busy weekend the past couple of days.  We started with dinner at Alter Hof on Friday night.  I ordered a rainbow trout, with cucumber salad, lemon butter, and potato rösti.  As it turns out, I got an entire fish!  That was interesting to eat, but it all tasted very good!

My Rainbow Trout from Alter Hof

On Saturday, Zach and I went to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site (KZ-Gedenkstätte).  It was an extremely somber experience to see the conditions in which so many people were held before and during WWII.  Overall, the entire memorial was very well-done, with a good audio guide as you walked around and a very thorough museum in one of the original buildings on the site.

Dachau Entrance Gate

"Work Sets You Free"

Dachau Concentration Camp
Camp Road

Afterwards, we headed into the shopping areas around the center of the city to walk around and window shop for souvenirs.  Nothing really caught our eye, but we did eventually go through the Viktualienmarkt, which is a huge outdoor market with lots and lots of food and fresh produce.  Unfortunately, we were on our way to dinner at that point, so we didn't eat anything.  We plan to get lunch there next weekend though!  Then we headed down to Paulaner Bräuhaus for dinner, where I got the "For Fellows" steak.  It was a 250g Bavarian steak seared on the outside and cooked to medium-rare perfection on the inside.  It had a red wine onion sauce with mashed parsnip carrots and potato fritters on the side.  What an excellent meal!  Kind of want that again right now...

Anyway, today we went north to the Deutsches Museum Flugwerft Schleißheim, which is an extension of the main Deutsches Museum with a focus on aircraft.  It wasn't super large, but it did have a pretty wide variety of airplanes to see.  My pictures didn't turn out too great, but I did get a couple good ones that I put in the Flickr album.  Since the Flugwerft museum didn't take a very long time, we then went to the BMW Museum nearby.  It was pretty cool to see a lot of nice-looking cars all in one place.  Too bad they're so expensive to own and come with a negative stigma in the U.S.  Oh well!

Flugwerft Schleißheim

BMW Museum
BMW 507

More pictures here!

Derpy Score (Round 3)

Because Der Pschorr is our favorite restaurant, we went back for a third time tonight.  Once again, Zach got the Bavarian Ox medallions (no surprise there).  I, on the other hand, decided to try something new, so I ordered the Crispy Half of Bavarian Duck with a humongous potato dumpling and apple red cabbage.  The duck was amazing!  Definitely the best duck I've ever had, out of the one or two other times I've ever had it.  Take a look at the picture below too, because it was a ton of meat.  The potato dumpling and apple red cabbage were not very great though.  We finished off our meal, once again, with one of the best desserts in the known universe... the Der Pschorr apple pie.  To add to the description from last time, these are basically a circular slice of apple covered in donut batter and lots of sugar.  Frankly, the only thing that beats these for dessert is Hood's Moosehead Lake Fudge ice cream.  Seriously.

Der Pschorr Bavarian Duck

Der Pschorr Apple Pie

Seehaus (Round 2) and Spatenhaus

Last night Zach and I headed into the Englischer Garten to once again eat some great seafood at the Seehaus.  This time, we switched meals, him getting the Heilbutt and me the Skreifillet.  Again, both were delicious, which wasn't a big surprise.

Tonight we tried out a new place called Spatenhaus an der Oper (Spatenhaus at the Opera), which is on the western side of Max-Joseph-Platz on the opposite side from the Bayerisches Nationaltheater (Bavarian State Theater or National Theater).  This is the first time we'd been to Max-Joseph-Platz even though it's right between Marienplatz and Odeonplatz, and it was actually really pretty.  The square was designed in the 1820s to the south of the Residenz.  In the center stands a statue of Maximilian I Joseph, the first king of Bavaria, who wrote the Bavarian constitution in 1818, the first of its kind in Germany.  The National Theater is modeled after a Greek theater, which is evident in the columns lining the entrance-way.  I tried to get a good picture of the National Theater, but I only had my phone.  I'll have to get a better one with my DSLR later.

Max-Joseph-Platz and the National Theater

Anyway, the restaurant.  We went here specifically because we're trying to go to all of the different brewer's restaurants, and we hadn't yet been to Spaten.  The food was pretty good, we both had a Bavarian sausage plate, which had sausages similar to the ones we got on the sausage plate at the Ratskeller before, and a Spaten Dunkel.  We were both starving and the food really hit the spot.  The restaurant itself was really cool inside.  It had some wooden floors and ceilings, white walls, and lightly-stained wooden tables and chairs.  It felt like we were really in Bavaria, which is good because we were.  The ceiling in part of the restaurant also had a pretty mural painted on the ceiling.  I got a couple pictures but not of the whole thing because I feel awkward taking pictures over people's heads while they're eating.  Good place to eat though; we'll have to go back.

Spatenhaus an der Oper

Spatenhaus an der Oper

Link to Flickr album

Hofbräuhaus

The Hofbräuhaus is probably the most well-known tourist attraction in Munich.  We were told by every single person at work who'd been to Munich that we have to go there.  Period.  Knowing that it was such a touristy place, we kind of avoided it for the first two weeks, but eventually gave in because we felt obligated.  Well, let me just start by saying this was probably the most memorable, weird, funny, and amusing meal we've had yet in Munich.  It was definitely worth going this one time.

The Hofbräuhaus began as an inn and brewery founded by Wilhelm V, the Duke of Bavaria, in 1589.  The whole entire building is rather large, and the many rooms and halls can fit over 2000 people.  According to my guide book, they serve 10,000 litres (17,600 pints) of beer every day.  We were told by every co-worker that the painted ceiling in one of the halls was actually painted over an old swastika, and that you could see the swastika bleeding through the paint.  Zach and I couldn't see it, but maybe we were just looking at the wrong ceiling.

Interior of the Hofbräuhaus. (Not my photo.)

Saying this place is a tourist attraction is a bit of an understatement.  There are countless numbers of people dressed in traditional Bavarian garb.  Lederhosen and dirndl dresses were prevalent with staff and customers alike, but it didn't stop there.  There were many people also dressed in odd costumes of all sorts.  We even saw the Pope!  To set the ambiance, there was a nice band playing traditional Bavarian music who where rudely interrupted in the middle of the night by another band that marched in through the front door playing very loud music and chanting drinking songs.  This band was dressed like a mixture of hobos, former German military, and Mad Max characters.  We had absolutely no idea whether or not they were affiliated with the Hofbräuhaus, but it was entertaining.

All of the tables were long beer-hall style tables, so you had to sit next to people you don't know.  We ended up sitting next to two women who were from LA on a 24-hour layover in Munich.  They first started talking to us because Zach had a Michigan shirt on and one of the women loves Michigan a lot, as she told us many times.  She referred to us for the rest of the night as Michigan and Boston.  She, along with just about every other tourist, wanted lots of pictures with the people dressed up in the traditional Bavarian clothes.  At one point I had to actually get up out of my seat because people wanted to squeeze in on my bench to take pictures.  Thankfully I was already done eating, so it was amusing rather than disruptive.

Oh yeah, we had food there too.  I almost forgot.  I had the Brewmaster steak of pork with sautéed onions and Bavarian-style potatoes au gratin.  That meal, along with the gigantic soft pretzel and liter of Hofbräu Dunkel (that was the smallest size they sold after 6 pm), was actually pretty good.  Not sure if we'll actually go back there because it was a pretty crazy dinner, but at least the food was good!

Skiing the Alps

At the recommendation of PW and MTU colleagues alike, Zach and I drove south to Garmisch-Partenkirchen to ski at the Garmisch-Classic Ski Resort.  There were three mountains at this resort, Zugspitze (2962 m), Alpspitze (2628 m), and Kreuzjoch (1719 m), so it was much bigger than any other place I've skied.  We started with a couple runs on the smaller Kreuzjoch and ended the day traveling near to the top (probably just shy of 2000 m) of Alpspitze.  It was incredibly fun, even though I ended up with quite a few bumps and bruises from my many spills.  Zach's much better than I am, so even though he was the first one to fall (HA!) he never fell again.

Skiing aside, the view was spectacular.  I never ever thought I'd even be in the Alps, nevermind skiing at the top of the mountains, so this was a fantastic experience.  Here are some pictures to prove it.

Don't worry, Mom.  I wore a helmet!

More pictures on Flickr

Friday Evening Sunset

We managed to get out of work on the earlier side of things today, so we beat the traffic and actually made it to the hotel in time to catch the sunset.  The sky was perfectly clear and the entire scene was gorgeous.  Nothing much else to say about it; just check out the pictures.

Link to Flickr album