First, I would like to apologize for the lack of pictures, but they take far too long to upload on the slow internet at the hotel so I will have to wait to post them until later. I promise they will be posted! Here and on Facebook!
Now, the last couple days have been pretty relaxed, which is wonderful after the craziness that was Berlin and the fact that I'm getting a slight cold. Taking it easy is just what I needed. Thursday was our traveling day on the train, just a 6 hour ride for most of which I slept. I did get to see a bit of the countryside though and it was beautiful. I was awake when we went through some hills and even got to see some snow among the dense pine trees. Once we got here we walked around the city center and found a traditional Bavarian restaurant. I had some delicious pretzel soup, some cheese spetzle, and of course some beer. I just got the dark beer of that brew house, but I didn't much like it. It had a very strong banana aroma and flavor. We also stopped in at a more traditional beer house where people sit down wherever there is an open spot, even at a table with strangers, and had another beer. The dark beer I ordered here was much better. No banana and very malty with a caramel aroma.
Friday we had most of the day free. My roomies and I went to try to find Schloss Nymphenburg, known as the Versailles of Germany. The place that Google maps told me it was, was obviously not it as we were in the middle of a residential area next to a school. So we walked a bit more until we found the modern art museum which Josie was very interested in. However we found out that it was only 1E to get in on Sunday, which is our free day, so we got directions to Nymphenburg instead and took the very long tram ride there. It was freezing cold in Munich so we stopped to buy hats as well, and a good thing too because it started snowing when we got to Nymphenburg. The palace and it's grounds were huge! the museum part we went in was only the oldest and central part, and if it weren't so cold and windy we would have walked through the extensive gardens behind the palace. In the center, the palace was a large square building with lots of closely-spaced windows. On either side, longer, shorter buildings spread out symmetrically to other large, but shorter blocks than the center. The whole thing was probably a good half-mile long, and then more buildings came out from the end to encompass a large front garden, with a fountain and canal, in a semi-circle. Inside was elaborately decorated with gold trim everywhere, large chandeliers, and paintings on every wall and ceiling. It truly was a beautiful palace. My roomies and I made a couple stops for food and warm drinks, managing to get our message across with limited German, though I remembered the word for "black" or "dark", "schwartz" after ordering so many dark beers so I could help order black tea. I also remembered the word for "check," or else we might still be sitting in that small cafe. I find it funny that they will just let you sit there forever without coming around to ask if you are ready to leave. I can see how it would seem rude to many Germans the way our waiters and waitresses come around all the time and how that would seem pushy. The Germans certainly take their time with meals. For dinner we went to another traditional brew house, Augustina Brewery. This one was a lot roudier and to get up from the table to go to the bathroom, people on the benches had to scoot toward the table while people walked on the benches behind them. It was packed and the food was delicious. When we ordered beer, I just got the size I was used to, the 0.5L, without realizing that they had a 1L mug. So then I had to get the 1L, called a "mass." It was a lot of beer, and a good thing that I liked it.
This morning we had a walking tour of the city. It was very informative, with lots of fun stories about the different historical buildings. I found it surprising that 65% of the city had been damaged by bombs since most of the buildings in the center looked old, but that was because they rebuilt them to look that way. I was impressed that they decided to keep their history that way. I was also interested in the rectangular blocks with writing I was seeing on the sides of the churches in the center of the city. It turns out that before the plague, there were cemeteries around the church, but after the plague they got rid of them and put them outside the city, but they kept the gravestones and mounted them on the side of the church. At the end of the tour we got to see the Schaefflertanz, or barrel-maker's dance. This only happens every seven years in January and February so we were really lucky to see it. I didn't get to see much because of the crowd, but it comes from after the plague, the barrel-makers were brave and the first ones out dancing in the streets to celebrate and let everyone else know it was ok to come out. They had iron barrel hoops decorated with pine branches like a wreath and danced with them. We went to Hoffbrauhaus for lunch and had more good food and I was the only one to get a mas, though this time it was on accident as I pointed to the dark beer without realizing that the small one was on the other page. Oops. Had to drink it anyway. Oh darn. ;)
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