Guarding precious goods

 

As the sun comes out in Munich, so do the bikes left on the street: locked to poles, street signs and just secured at the tire so that they can't be ridden away.  Munich is a very safe city-the only crime I hear about is an occasional bike theft (or as in the case of the Hub-the theft of the light on his bike--the nerve!) or bikes being tipped over by those that have been over-served as they stumble home.

So I thought that it was cute that this tiny bike had so much protection...considering that it could easily be lifted up and taken away....

Made me wonder if a lesson in taking care of one's things was being taught.  All in all, a good practice to start early, I guess!

March 12, 2011: the ice cream shop re-opens!

March 12th was a pretty big day around here...our favorite ice cream shop re-opened for the Spring and Summer season!  This stand closes during the winter months, when other gelato/ice cream places start selling Lebkuchen (a gingerbread like spicy cookie for the winter holidays).  This one, though, stays true to it's calling and just closes down until the sun starts to come out and the snow gets all melty.

We went on the first day that they were back in business, and even though they only had a few flavors ready, they had my favorite chocolate ice cream!  We have several really good gelato places here in Munich, but this is the real deal-ice creamy goodness.  And, look below: the cup it comes in is a cone!  Awesome!

When you buy a scoop (Kugel) you also get a little taste of another flavor to try that they scoop up with your spoon-here I have chocolate with stracciatella (which is sort of like chocolate chip).  YUM.  See how happy I am with my long lost ice cream friends?  By the way, the shop is located on the corner of Theresienstrasse and Tuerkenstrasse.  Expect to see flavors like Milk and Mint (with chopped mint leaves), Ginger chocolate, Pistachio, Lemon Basil (with chopped basil leaves) and Vanilla with Amarena Cherries.  Oh, also expect to see a line.  It moves fast, I promise.  And, it is so worth the short wait!

Spring ahead!

A couple of weeks after the States have already changed their clocks, we "Spring Ahead" here in Germany this Saturday night/Sunday morning.  This week we have had highs in the 60's (F) to welcome in the official start of the Spring season...so what's a girl to do?  I know that I need to store these sunshiney days in my mind for when the cloudy part of spring comes along.  But, for now everyone in Munich is happy and walking around town with smiles on their faces, the cafes have set out their sidewalk tables and chairs,  I've seen the first naked sun-worshipers in the English Garden, and the Biergartens have opened!  It is too nice outside to stay inside and work. So....why fight it, right?  Prost!

Australia Part Three: Sydney (the final chapter)

We climbed the bridge! It was so cool! I couldn't hold it in for the entire post...so up at the top goes the photo and I can gush and go on and then get on with it!

When planning our trip to Sydney, we were very conflicted about whether or not we would climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge.  After all, it is probably the most touristy thing that you can do in Sydney.  So, we asked everyone we met along the way, in all the parts of Australia that we visited, if they had done it and if it was worth it.  Not one person suggested that we skip it....so we thought "What the heck-we are tourists, let us be touristy!".

The bridge climb takes about 3 hours, start to finish.  You get trained on how to hook your harness and you get to practice climbing before you head out.  They furnish you with the really flattering jump suits that are designed in colors that blend in with the bridge-there are cars driving under you the entire time you are on the tour...

Everything is clipped to you-sunglasses, hat, a cable that tethers you to the bridge, a radio pack with a headset so you can hear the information from your tour guide.  You are instructed to remove everything from your pockets, any clips or barrettes from your hair, dangly earrings, and gum from your mouth.  You can't bring your own camera up there (wouldn't want any slippery fingers dropping a camera from that height onto the road below...), but they stop and take several posed pictures for souvenirs.  You climb up to the top of the bridge and walk over the arch to the middle cross section, coming back down the other side, to the place where you started.  We really enjoyed ourselves-sunny day + fun group (including 6 Americans from Atlanta) + spectacular views.  I guess the lesson we learned is that sometimes things are touristy for good reason.  The Harbor Bridge Climb is definitely in that category of a must-do.

One day we took a ferry out to Manly Beach.  In the picture above, you see the examples of the new and old versions of the ferries in Sydney.  The one that we took out to Manly was one of the old ones.  A 30 minute or so ride and we had some great views of the bridge and the Opera House there and also on the way back.

Manly Beach is lovely.  I have to say that we did go to Bondi Beach as well, just to check it out and make the comparison...let me tell you, there is none.  I don't even have any pictures of Bondi.  Manly, though, is worth the trip.

There is a walking path over to Bronte Beach, on which we took a leisurely stroll, looking at not only the amazing views of the water, but also at the expensive real estate that owns a little piece of that view, dreaming of someday owning a little piece of paradise for ourselves...

This sign was a good reminder for us Americans who naturally veer to the right

We lucked out and took the right ferry to coincide with sunset...gorgeous sights and colors...

Can you see the people on the bridge just to the left of the flag?

Opera House at night from the ferry

On our last day, we walked around the city, hitting a few street markets, including the one at Surry Hills which happens on the first Saturday of the month.  Basically a flea market in a cool part of town, it was fun to look at other people's junk!  We stayed in a section of Sydney called The Rocks-a wonderful old part of the city situated near the bridge and also the harbor, so we saw the Opera House everyday.

We decided to stop on our final evening and have a drinkie at the Opera House Bar, which over looks the bridge...and if you look closely below the bridge, you will see Luna Park, Sydney style!  (in the Melbourne post I made mention of this....take a peek!)

We loved Sydney-there were times that we wished that we had devoted more time to our visit there.  Everywhere we went we met friendly people who were....just.....happy.  A lot of them had come down to work for the summer, several had moved from the UK-pretty smart to leave the wintry, wet UK for sunny, happy Sydney.  I don't know if we will ever be able to get there again....but I sure hope so!

Australia Part Two: Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays

We left Melbourne, with koalas and beautiful scenery in our minds, headed to the Great Barrier Reef to do some snorkeling.  We had about a week left after we left Melbourne, and we knew that we had to fit in a trip to the Whitsundays...I mean, if we were this far away from home, we had to get there!

So we started to formulate what the week would look like and looked into flying out of Sydney, which we did.  Ok. Our trip was starting to take shape-the next big decision was should we go to Hamilton Island for 4 days or should we give Sydney that extra day.  In the end, we decided that we would give the relaxing, dreamy island the extra day, and although I loved Sydney, I am glad that we did.

The Hub had just been through a tiring week of presenting and motivating in his training sessions.  He had a pretty big meeting that he would have to be at the day following our return to Munich.  So, the Islands won out.  We made the decision to stay on Hamilton Island, which is the island with the airport.  When we flew in, I didn't want us to have to spend the first day (or our last day) getting from one island to the other.  Staying on Hamilton Island allowed us a very smooth transition from plane to waiting transportation right to the hotel.

And, when we opened up our room and looked out of the glass doors onto the balcony, this is what we saw:

Seriously....paradise. There are hundreds of cockatoos that live on the island.  Most of them hoping for a treat from a tourist.  There are signs everywhere cautioning you not to feed them, though...gives them indigestion, and plays with the natural balance of man and bird.

 The Hub was so excited about seeing some reef and Clownfish, that he went right in just across from our hotel, the reef in the view from the window.  He was sad, though, because it was overrun with seaweed, and not much in the way of colorful coral.

 We took a snorkel trip on our first full day on the island-a half day trip.  We snorkeled right off of this beach: Chalkies Beach.  The reef was so close that we just walked in from the sand and put on our flippers.  It was very shallow and on this stop we didn't see any Clownfish, but we did see a lot of beautiful corals in pink hues.

After our snorkel time, it was on the boat on off to this gorgeous white sand beach that reminded me a whole lot of Destin-Whitehaven Beach. You can see our boat behind me here:

 The next day we took another half day snorkeling trip and this time I got a few pics of us in our really sexy stinger suits.  We were in Australia at the tail end of jellyfish season, and everyone on every dive trip we took wore the suits...on this trip, we found a bunch of Nemos!

 The last day we took a full-day trip on a boat with some SCUBA divers...it took us 2 hours to get to the edge of the Reef and the snorkeling was amazing!  Again, we found some clownfish, and again we saw amazing coral-this time, the coral was on plateaus and also had some terrific cliffs and drops for us to explore under the water.

I took this from the dive boat: I didn't know that there could be so many shades of blue and white...

 So as we enjoyed our last sunset on Hamilton Island...

 And the last Hobie Cats were rented for the day....

 Something you should know is:

Sometimes snorkeling isn't so pretty!  We are on to our last stop of our Australia trip next: Sydney.

Australia Part One and a Half: The Great Ocean Road

Our last day in Melbourne was the first day of the Hub's true vacation...no more meetings or colleagues needing his time, all of the dinners were finished and his training wrapped up.  So we decided to do something big for our last day: The Great Ocean Road.

The inspiration for this stunning, winding cord of road was US1 in California, the Pacific Coast Highway.  The Great Ocean Road was built by the returning Veterans of the Great War, WW1.

 

Here's the Hub at Bell's Beach, where they have the famous waves and an even more famous surfing competition every Easter:

Our tour took us to places where koalas nest and eat a whole lot of eucalyptus...and where we got to see and feed some gorgeous and hungry birds:

And we got the chance to do a small Rainforest Walk, in search of the dreaded carnivorous Black Snail!

But the highlight of our tour was when we took a helicopter ride over the rock formations that lead into the famous 12 Apostles-also rock formations...but there are only 9 of those apostles left!

In the picture above, we are holding a photo of what the London Bridge rock looked like before the first section collapsed.  There is a great folklorish story about the collapse...apparently you used to be able to walk out to the end of the rock formation.  Soon after Lexus filmed a print ad campaign where they drove cars out onto the rock to be photographed, the first arch fell through.  When that happened, a couple was stranded out there and the media frenzy started.  They hid their faces, though, from all of the news cameras and didn't want their identities released.  The story goes that this married couple were not actually married to one another, but to other people.  They had gone for a romantic drive down the Great Ocean Road and were in the wrong place at the wrong time while they were wronging their spouses....oops.

Our trip was a day-long, 13 hour event, and it was the perfect way to say goodbye to Melbourne.  Next up, the Whitsunday Islands and snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef!