May=Visitors: part zwei

The second half of May brought us a little more sunshine and another set of visitors...this time it was my former boss and his partner.  They arrived just 6 days after my parents left, and we had a hefty travel agenda ahead of us:  Salzburg, Vienna, Prague...and King Ludwig's castles.  In the picture above, we are having delicious wurst on the street in Vienna.

So....first on the agenda was a little sightseeing here in Munich.  We covered all of the basics...we visited a beer garden, the English Garden with it's surfers and the Asam kirche.  The idea was to keep them outside and awake on their first day...

The following day it was time to hit the airport for the missing bags and head out to Salzburg on the train for the day....but only one of the suitcases came...Delta had left one on the tarmac in Atlanta-Ugh!  We got to Salzburg a little later, so we tried to maximize our time and took the Sound of Music tour, starting at the Mirabella Garden and on to sights like the famous gazebo and the houses that the movie filmed...which are actually spread out all over the city.

On the tour, we stopped at this summer luge that you speed down hillside curves..so fun! You get pulled up backward, then pick up your cart and start at the top.  I hadn't ever done this before, but they had and were old pros. It was the highlight of the tour!

The next day it was time to pack the bags and head out to the airport once again for the missing bag (it finally came!) and then travel to Vienna overnight.  We ran into a street market outside of St. Stephen's, went to the opera and saw a performance of Salome', and went to Prater Park (a little amusement park withing the city). Steve went on the swing ride, while Nick and I were too chicken!

Next, their friend Trula came to meet up with us...we kept her awake for the day in the same manner-outside in the fresh air visiting sights in Munich and then to Dachau...after a good night's sleep it was on to Prague.  We boarded the train  in Munich and transferred in Plizn to a smelly, old Czech train and 7.5 hours after we began our journey we arrived! (btw, our return trip was on a lovely German train that took only 6 hours...gotta love that German engineering!)

And then we were back to Munich...with just enough time to visit Neuschwanstein and for our second set of May visitors to be on their way home to the States. 

The week went by in an instant...throughout the entire time, I kept saying..."Next time, 2 weeks!"  and I mean it...so for all of you who are coming or want to come, 2 weeks, okay?

May=Visitors

They say that April showers bring May flowers.  This year, May showers brought us lots of visitors!  And ugh!  did it rain...I think that we had over 20 days in May in a row with rain. Who would have thought?  Last year, May was balmy and warm-I remember, because our container had not arrived yet and all I had were woolies because March had been so blustery that is all I packed. In 2009, June was the bad month-not this year, May and June did a secret rainy swap.  Blah.  Thank goodness we had lots of family and friends here to keep us cheery!

In the beginning of the month my parents came to town.  Here they are cheesing it up for me at Andechs-note the crispy pork knuckle in the foreground?  We had a lovely time, but not lovely weather...so we did some Munich things that we could enjoy indoors:  the Residenz, and a visit to Nymphenburg Schloss, the palace that is within the city limits. My parents were such good sports:

But, I did get to spend Mother's Day in Italy with my Mom...which was wonderful!  While they were here, the Hub traveled for business during the first week.  We went to Bolzano, Italy for the weekend in the middle and had nice weather there.  During the second week, the rain in Munich didn't let up-but we didn't let that stop us-off to Salzburg for a day, to Garmisch to visit the highest peak in Germany, the Zugspitze and then a trip to see the castles-Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein.

My mother even got into not one, but 2 cable cars...although she is afraid of heights!

And we bought dad the bavarian-style hat I had been wanting to get for him...

He is looking pretty dapper, huh?  All in all, a good trip.  It was great to have them here-to show them our place, a little of my German skill, and what our life looks like on a daily basis.  We took it easy that first week and then ran around during the second, sending them home a little worn out, but with a lot of great photos and memories! 

Chirp, chirp.....

In my not so distant past life, I was a District Manager for a major kitchen and home retailer.  I had 10 stores in 3 states and 2 time zones.....so the weekly conference call was an important way to get the same message across to all of my stores and management teams.  But, I never wanted it to be a one-way call.  Ideas and inspiration from the stores was something that I was always looking for.

During a call, when I would ask a question, for status, or just input there would some times be silence.  I would say, okay crickets...someone needs to give me something here.  That's when the participants would stop writing the schedule for the next week or filing their nails or eating their lunch that they pushed off until the conference call time slot and again become a part of the call.

So now I say to you.....okay crickets...I have noticed that you haven't been commenting lately...tell me what you want to hear about (or don't want to hear about!)...if I have been writing about traveling too much or haven't been posting enough...let me know. If you want more pictures or fewer pictures or more words or fewer words...let me know. In several posts I have asked questions thinking you might respond and also because I am really interested in what you think.  

If you lurk about reading and haven't signed up as a follower yet, please know that here, following is a good thing! And, your comments can be left too-just leave me a signature to let me know you stopped by and what you are interested in knowing!

Give me some feedback-I definitely don't want to make this a one way conversation, although the nature of a blog is somewhat one way directionally...but I am interested in blogging about what you want to hear about!  Let me be your ace reporter if I can.  Looking forward to hearing what you want to know about!  Thanks, in advance to you all, dear readers!

Weisswurst

We have recently gotten the chance to experience Sunday Morning Weisswurst with some friends.  Weisswurst is a breakfast tradition here in Germany-served until noon usually, with pretzels, beer, and lots of the sweet, brown mustard.  I wasn't so sure that I was going to like this wurst, as I am typically a red wurst lovin' kind of gal...but I decided to give it a try.

I especially liked the formality in how it is served...in a tureen like container:

When you order it, you generally order it by the two's...and it comes still in the almost boiling water!

You can't eat the skin off of these-it is too thick and tough.  There are a variety of methods to peeling a wiesswurst properly...I have provided a link below.  Suffice it by saying that my attempts were not nearly as efficient or pretty, but the wurst was pretty delish. The place where we had it controls the timing of the availability by the chimes of the clock in the central square at Marienplatz.  Once it hits the last stroke of 12, the weisswurst is off of the menu for the day. (we have rules....)

For those of you who are interested in reading about proper technique...here is a website that you can look at so you can be an expert when you visit:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A412534

good luck trying the Zuzeln method...I am certain that this takes years of skill and practice!

Recycle-rama

I mentioned in the previous post the canvas re-usable shopping bags of choice of the Hub.  They are my favorite too, until I get one of those darned baskets...here they are in use-for real!

This time the bottles are empty...mostly wine bottles because the beer bottles have a deposit on them called a Pfand that we get back in the form of credit at the grocery store.  But, the wine bottles don't have this deposit, so it is off to the recycling center I go.  All in the day of the Hausfrau, after all.!

There are actually 2 recycling centers very close to the house, but I prefer the one on the other side of the old cemetary.  I like the scenery...and it is situated on a really pretty street.  We almost lived on this street, and every day I bring my recycling (read...empty wine bottles...) I thank my lucky stars that we didn't. No, not because the cemetary is there, but because of the way my bottles clank and crash and make a horrible racket as they descend into the pit of the recycle bin with a final crash at the bottom.  The other bins are located in a more university focused area, and they just aren't as tidy...you see a lot of leftover debris collecting at the base of the other one...car batteries, clothing and other various items that don't fit into the bin categories.  This one in the residential area is kept pretty tidy...

We frequent these two bins the most...because the wine bottles are sorted into either in to the brown glass bin or the green glass bin.  But there is also a bin for clear glass, cans and some plastics to sort into. 

I appreciate that they take their recycling seriously here.  I don't mind at all swaggering down the street laden with the empties of days gone by.  In fact, I seem to wait until I can't carry any more before I head to the bins...and I place them in the bins as gingerly as I can.  I feel a little badly for the neighbors-although there are posted times that you can put the glass in the bins...not too early or too late...but when they come with the truck and empty the bins...sheesh!  You can hear it happening blocks away.  I might recycle on a more regular basis if I lived over here, but am glad that we decided to live elsewhere.

Oh, and by the way...I am beginning to think we are winos.

A tisket, a tasket...I really want a basket...

Okay, so I may embellish a tiny bit here, but not about these fabulous baskets.  I covet these baskets.  I want one of these...I mean I really REALLY want one of these...one that will fit into the back wire mesh basket on my bike that I can pop out for picnics (yeah, right) or for marketing. I want to skip to the market and pretend I am Judy Garland or someone in a musical....too much Glee?  Maybe...but take a look and you decide for yourself.  It's the little things after all.

One of the things I really admire about our host country is that they are very environmentally conscious.  There are markets dedicated to Bio grown foods and household products...(a bit more rustic than the Whole Foods we are used to...but who really needs to buy LeCreuset in their Bio market-really?) and in the regular markets there is a well stocked Bio section of produce and other goods.  The idea of re-usable market bags and baskets is alive and well here.  You see men and women skipping off (ok, not really skipping) to the market with baskets that look like they should be in the Easter Parade.  Not my man, though...the hub is very particular about his market bags. He doesn't like anything with decoration-just plain canvas, thank you very much. I bought a few here at the "drugstore" before our things came, and apparently, they were a little too girlie.  He won't use them.  I have since moved on to these great ones I found at Ikea-all cotton, long handles (which he won't use over the shoulder, but I do), and will hold as many beer and wine bottles as you can stuff in them!

I don't fault him in his market bag choosiness...after all, he doesn't mind walking to the market with a woman skipping next to him flailing a new lovely basket, right?

No Bikes Allowed?

I walked past this on my corner last week and it just cracked me up...someone had placed a sign saying "Standing Bicycles is forbidden" on this cluster of bikes.  You see these signs everywhere in Munich posted on the buildings in the city...typically on facades of apartment buildings and businesses.  But, it often doesn't work.  Bikes are parked EVERYWHERE in the city.  We are lucky that we have a special room for them in the basement of our building, and many other buildings nearby have a little spot for them in the courtyard.  With all of the people concentrated into small spaces, though, there are many more bikes than room available to house them so you see bikes locked to any available pole or fence or just locked standing on the sidewalk.  I guess someone got a little sick of seeing them everywhere and decided to make their feelings known...