Olympic Hopes

 

Take a look who was staring back at me when I rounded the corner in the Sendlinger Tor Ubahn station... none other than Mark Spitz.  He won 7 Gold Medals in Swimming here in Munich in the 1972 Summer Olympics.  This record would stand until 2008 when Michael Phelps won 8 Gold Medals for swimming in the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Munich is one of 3 cities to make a bid for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, with the Bid Committee in Germany headed by Figure Skater Katarina Witt (also a gold medalist!).  The other Bid City Candidates are Annecy, France and Pyeongchang, South Korea.  The winning city will be announced on July 6th.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which is south of the city of Munich, will host the Skiing events.  There is a lot of hope for Munich to become the first city to hold both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.  The Bid Committe has big name sponsors like Lufthansa backing it, and we have seen posters and props for the bid quest all over the city and the airport.  I don't know if we will be here in 2018, but it would be a fun time to be living here!  Stay tuned, I'll keep you posted on the announcement!

Happy National Pretzel Day!

...in the US, anyhow....

Pretzels are a staple to the Bavarian diet-snacked on whilst having a Mass or two in the Biergartens, or filled with sandwich fixin's...the pretzel figures prominently here.  School kids grab a buttered pretzel from the bakery on their way to or from school. Babies mouth them before they sprout teeth.  Here they are soft and large and slightly salted.  They are the perfect, delicious food on the go.  They invite sharing. The subtle saltiness leads you to stay for one more beer, and they help soak up that beer in your tummy.  They are the perfect partner for Obatzda or Weisswurst.

Monks are credited for the invention of the Pretzel, baking strips of dough folded over to represent a child's arms folded in prayer.  It makes sense that they invented the pretzel as they were the ones making the beer!

Pretzels are readily accessible here in Munich-in restaurants, at the Biergartens, in our bakeries, at the train stations-I have even seen ones that are frozen and ready to pop into the oven so you can have them fresh (maybe on a Sunday when things are closed here...)!

There is a lot of good information about the lovely pretzel on the  Wikipedia page.  Have a look, and then go get yourself a pretzel and celebrate!  Although, as you have probably figured out, a pretzel a day around here is a normal thing!  Happy Pretzel Day!

Tickets to Ride

Did I mention that our Ubahn station got new ticket machines?  Yup, 2 of the 3 ticket machines have been switched over to the newer, fancier touchscreen variety.  I love, though, that they are easing us into the process by leaving one of the old machines there....wouldn't want to shock anyone into having to use the new machines.  I was in the station the other day and watched which machine the customers would buy their tickets from...and out of the ten people I saw approach and buy from the machines, 8 used the old trusty one.  People took a precursory glance and poked at the new machines' screens, but tickets were bought from the one they knew and trusted.  I get it. 

Change is good, but hard.  I am not so good at change...although I guess picking up and moving to a foreign country where I didn't know the language and leaving friends and family and my career behind might suggest otherwise.  But I am firmly in the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" camp. The difference, I think is that our move was an adventure...the familiarity with the ticket purchasing process is a comfortable convenience.  One that helps you get on your train on time.  Good news for me:  the machine that dispenses the monthly tickets that I buy is still the same.  I'll keep you posted.....

MediNait

I would like to introduce you to my new best friend:

NYQUIL!

Aaaaaaah, Nyquil....well, at least the German equivalent. 

So, the Hub returns from a week of traveling and business meetings with a nasty cold, revealing that one of his colleagues who sat next to him on the flight to Sweden and then in their meetings has been diagnosed with pneumonia. This colleague was nice enough to cough all over the Hub and share the nasty little germ that turned into his pneumonia.  Gee, thanks Buddy.

Let's just say that last weekend, the first gorgeous weekend of the year incidentally, was a wash.  The Hub was laid up in the apartment, all pitiful like, and I was Frau Nursemaid.  Don't get me wrong, I hate seeing him sick and would do anything to help him get better.  I even went to the Apotheke for him! Even with my strong opinions (read fear) of the Apotheke and having to blurt out all of your ailments to the Pharmacist person (in German) as detailed in this previous post .

We really needed to get him well as quickly as possible because he was headed back to the States this week for meetings and stopping off to see his mom who is in her eighties.  Getting her sick is not an option.  He can't even have a sniffle when he goes to see her.

So, off to the store I went...and look what I found lurking on the shelf behind the Pharmacist person...our old friend Nyquil.  Now, you can change packaging, you can call yourself MediNait and your maker Wick, but you can't hide that beautiful blue/green hue...

Of course, the Pharmacist person told me that this product was to suppress his symptoms and also sold me some foul tasting stuff to solve them.  But out of the store I skipped, with the goods in hand.  The Hub spent a weekend in bed and took his medicine when I doled it out to him and was able to travel for the whole week, including his trip to the US at the end of the week.

Leaving me behind, with his cold, of course.  Ugh.  At least I have the Nyquil to myself.....