We've been to Germany again, well, as far as Bavaria is counted as Germany. Some of the people there wish it wasn't.
Dave's friend Tony came there for a conference and we met in Munich to spend the weekend together. And we had a great time. We walked until our feet didn't want to go one step further, we got a good overview about Munich beer and the food was great, too.
The weather was okay. Saturday was a very beautiful day. Blue sky, warm, perfect for sightseeing. So we went to the most popular places around the city center and the old town. We visited the Stachus with the old gate, the town hall with the Glockenspiel, the Frauenkirche (church) and the Residenz (palace). And we looked at all the little shops at the Viktualienmarkt (market). Here are some impressions:
As mentioned above we tasted one or two beer, too. And right when we started to discuss the different ways of brewing beer and non of us knew exactly the differences, we met three young men who were experts on that area.... and no, they were not from Germany, they were Americans! I had to travel to Munich to get a lecture on German beer by Americans! But we had fun. They were sitting at the same table with us while we had dinner and we started talking. They were kind of exchange students from a brewery school and on a trip through Germany for learning everything about beer there. No, I am serious, they were real experts. Their plan is to open a little brewery in American when they are done with their classes. I very much appreciate that ;o)
On Sunday it rained all day long. And we decided to do the same thing that 80% of all visitors did on that day: we visited the German Museum (Deutsches Museum). It is renowned as the oldest and largest museum of science and technology in the world. And really, we could have spent another couple of days there without seeing everything. It was very interesting.
Late that night we took the plane to England. Tony joined us there for three more days and we loved to show him around. Dave and he had time to talk about all kind of optometry stuff, we had sushi and went to our favorite pub. We showed him Cambridge and Wells-Next-The-Sea and just had fun. On Thursday he had to leave to take the 10 am plane back to the states. Well, he wanted to take the shuttle bus at 5:30am, but then at 6am Dave called me and said the bus won't come due to technical problems and whether I could give him a ride to Heathrow. I got up, got dressed, filled up gas and drove to the meeting point within 25 minutes. We really had to speed to get to the airport on time and honestly, I didn't believe we'll make it. The traffic around London during rush hour is just terrible...not moving at all. But somehow I managed to drop him off at 9:10 and he talked the people at the check in counter to re-open the flight again for him. I have no idea how he did it, but he made it home on time and that is everything that counts.
This weekend it is just the two (or three including Amber) of us and we enjoyed a nice and sunny Saturday. Dave was working hard cooking some steak for us and Amber hoped that the second one on the grill is for her and not for me (she was wrong).
