Bierkrug

Bierkrug, it is German for 'beer mug'.

We've recently booked our plane tickets to Germany come July. I am really looking forward to 'getting away' from the madness of this country.

It will have been a year since we went to London for a week break, and as we're going for two weeks this time, I am actually really looking forward to getting on that plane!

We're headed to Berlin, a city full of well known history and I am really looking forward to learning more about it's dark past and seeing famous sites for myself.  But most importantly, at this point of time, I am really looking forward to doing this again...

...downing one (or two) steins of German beer.

And getting to enjoy these, but this time with another daughter in tow... (I'm sure Miss Lily will enjoy Giant Pretzels as much as Miss 3-year-old Monet did)

Pretty sure I'll be getting another photo of MrL doing the same thing... (but hopefully without that guy in the background!)

And as Germany is the home of the Birkenstock, I'm looking forward to gaining another pair of those. *wink wink*

The Things You See...

Sometimes you see some bizarre things in life that stick with you.  

When in Munich we were entering the English Gardens and saw a strange sight, but didn't really think much of it.  We wandered around a little part of the Gardens and admired its beauty...

...and discovered a fast flowing creek.  Really fast.  I guess with the heavy rain we had experienced the night before (listen to me, I sound like a Munich local!), the water must run down from the alps into the Gardens...

We decided to exit, following a path that would lead us to a street.  It was then we saw this site.

Surfer-dudes.

  

When we initially entered the Gardens we had sighted a couple of  'surfers', very bizarre considering we were in a city where the nearest beach I imagine is a several hundred kilometers away, let alone it be a surf beach!  There were at least a dozen of them, standing by a sign which to me, didn't 'look' promising...

But they surfed never the less...  I did do a little video of them surfing the 'drain/creek' but Blogger is being temperamental and won't let me post it, so instead, here are a couple more photos.  

(We worked out that someone had created a device that makes the water turn into a continuous wave with some cable tied from the bridge.)

Next stop? Venice, Italy. *sigh*

Stay tuned...

A Wander Throughout Wonderful Munich

We travelled to Munich, partly because two of our best friends had travelled there previously a couple of years beforehand.  They told us we'd love it.  They were right.  If we could, we'd be back in Munich tomorrow.

It was a beautiful city, with some of the most bizarre weather we had ever seen (blue sunny skies one minute, the next a thunderstorm with heavy, heavy rain!),  which reminded us of Melbourne.  I guess that is part of the reason we enjoyed Munich too.  We felt at home (of sorts).  

We spent our two full days in the city, wandering the streets and enjoying what Munich city had on offer.  We browsed the shop windows...

...enjoyed the  flower boxes in bloom and the gardens within the city...

...looked up at the amazing buildings....

and bought ourselves a few little things.  (So many shops!)  I was lucky enough to score some new Birkenstocks, well, we were in Germany, the home of Birkenstocks!

There was a gorgeous market square at the eastern end of the city mall (called Viktualienmarkt) which was filled with a busy (busy) beer garden (with busty women holding like 8 'stein' glasses filled with Lager) and food stalls.  Those Germans know how to do a good sausage!!  Mmmm....

We visited a couple of Beer Halls during our stay (goes without saying really), with the most famous one, Hofbrauhaus, being our favourite. This beer hall has a long history too.  I wonder how many of the tourists realised that it once housed a crowd who listened to a man giving speeches.  The man?  Adolf Hitler himself it seemed.  But that didn't stop us enjoying the fine food on offer here, nor the lagers.   I only had one 'stein' (1 litre) beer there which took me a while to drink I must admit...  (It was soooo heavy to lift - impossible for me to lift the glass with one hand!)

Monet enjoyed this Beer Hall too (there were other kids around), especially when the 'Ompa-Lompa' band started...

Here's cheers to Munich, we will be back one day to wander your streets, shop in your shops, venture out to places we didn't get too and get to know you a little better...

Our Start in Munich

WARNING; Long post ahead...

Yes, our holiday was going well, all too well and oh, so smoothly.  Today was the day that things went belly-up.  It was bound to happen but it was the only day like this one, much to my relief!

We were quite excited leaving Stuttgart to be on our way to Munich.  But excitement soon turned to stress when our train arrived.  

Firstly, I had only ordered 2nd class tickets (you may remember this post) for all train trips.  1st class were out of our budget, so we knew something was amiss when we discovered our seats were located in 1st class.  (I did check the tickets at home but I mustn't have thought anything about spying the 1st class printed on the Stuttgart to Munich tickets.  I also didn't know - valuable lesson here - that there is a difference between 'reservation' and 'reservation + ticket'.  Trust me when I say that I do now!!)  

We sat in our seats (oh so spacious) but looked at each other with a "what the?" look on our faces.  Hmmm...  So here we were, sitting in 1st class, when the Ticket Master comes along checking all the passengers tickets.  When he gets to us, I hand over the so-called ticket I had.

"And where is your ticket?"  He asks us in perfect German-English.

"This is all we have - I bought the tickets in Australia and this is what they gave me" I replied, fluttering my eyes being all innocent (because, I was!)

"No, this is a reservation ticket only.  You don't have a German train pass or EuroRail pass or anything?"

"I was only given those.  We've travelled on a couple of other trains with tickets - here I'll show you..."  and I produced our other tickets which I had thankfully photocopied.  I also showed our forwarding train ticket from Munich...

"No.  This is a reservation only ticket.  These seats are 54 Euros each" (roughly $100AUD)

By this stage I felt sick.  Lyndon was sorting through papers etc trying to see if we 'did' have another ticket or something to produce and meanwhile Monet is lounged over my lap getting all sleepy (love the side-to-side motion of those trains!!)

The Ticket Master said to us (spying a sleepy Monet), "Work out what you're going to do and I'll come back"....

We thanked him and looked at each other with 'what-now' looks on our faces.  We had the cash in our pockets to cover the tickets but we didn't want to pay for tickets that we had already paid for back home.   (I found the receipt to our train tickets today and it seems as if we had paid for tickets from Stuttgart to Munich so I'll be trying to sort this out!!)

Within minutes the actual Train Manager (not Ticket Master) came by and said "There's some kind of problem here?"

We explained to him what had happened and that we had actually paid for full tickets back in Australia (but had no proof).  He checked my (coloured) photocopied tickets of our previous train tickets and forwarding train ticket.  

"Okay.  It's okay.  Don't worry about it.  It's  okay."  And that was it.  

That.  

Was.  

It.  

I don't know if it was our Australian accents and being polite, if it was the sleeping child on my lap or proof that we weren't trying to rip off the German ICE system trains, but we were left very (very, very, very) relieved.  We thought the Train Master was God.  (After all, he had saved us forking out more cash for train tickets!)

We tried to enjoy sitting in 1st class - hell, when is that going to happen again?? - but every time the train slowed down (remembering we were traveling on a Very Fast Train) we thought they were going to chuck us out onto the train tracks below, or every time an announcement came over the PA system, we thought they were going to say something about the 2 Australians sitting in first class who haven't got tickets!!!  It wasn't the most relaxing train trip, even though it should have been (oh, the space!!)

We arrived in Munich a couple of hours later, (very happy to have arrived with cash in our pockets), ready to take on this corner of Germany.  

We made our way to our hotel I had reserved several weeks before.  I knew (oh gee did I know!) that something else was going to go belly-up and this time I have no one to blame except myself.  As we were 'trying' to check in to our hotel, the girl behind the counter was looking around, shaking her head - I knew something was up.  I feel sick even typing this up!!  

"Seems as if we have no reservation under your name" she said to us in broken English, "how did you book?"

"I remember booking it directly with the hotels website," I said, handing over the printed out form I had.

Double room with one bed for child Under 6.  March 28th.  3 nights.

March 28th.

March 28th.

March 28th.

It was April 28th.  I had booked the bloody hotel for 3 nights from MARCH 28th - a month beforehand!!!  Oh shit.  If I could have sunk into the floor it was then and there.  I could have cried.  It was my fault - I couldn't blame anyone else, that's for sure.  It was MY FAULT.  Urgh.  

The girl behind the counter said "We have another hotel a few doors down, I'll check if they have a room for you"...  thankfully they did.  I knew that Munich was a fairly busy tourist place at the best of times so finding a room was terrific...or so we thought.

We went a few doors down to their 'brother' hotel, which looked nicer than the original hotel I had booked.  Yes, they had a room, but he said it was quite small. So small it could not fit another bed in the room.  And the bed was a double bed.  So two tall adults and one tall child in one double bed had our heads spinning.  We would have to find somewhere else (it was past 4pm by this stage so I was stressed beyond belief!)

The kind fellow behind the counter of this second hotel rang another hotel, around the corner, who had a room available, including a bed for Monet.  Off we went again, with our luggage and Monet in the stroller (who couldn't understand why were were in and out of hotel reception rooms) to around the corner.  

We did a 'walk-by' first, just to see if it wasn't too dodgy.

"What do you reckon?" Lyndon asked (it had a passageway down to reception with a pink painted exterior.

"Let's just go in" I said.  (I needed to settle in somewhere and the thought of wandering around looking for hotels didn't turn me on!)

We did.  And I'm glad we did. 

The lovely older German woman was waiting for us behind the counter.  She already knew our story.  And she was lovely, oh so lovely.  I could have hugged her.  She promised us the same original room rate as our first hotel including a continental buffet breakfast each morning.  

"Because you have a child, I'm giving you this room.  It has three rooms with two queen-sized beds.  It's at the top, on level 6.  We have a bar you are welcome to use or buy your drinks from.  Any questions don't hesitate to see me"...  Now, she was hospitality rolled into one woman, right there.

Our room was recently refurbished - lovely, clean and spacious!!  It had 2 double sized rooms, a room in the middle with table and chairs and tv and a big bathroom.  It also had a huge balcony which ran along the side of the whole apartment/hotel room.  Here's the view we had, looking down on the street corner...

Lyndon had to return to our originally booked room to sort out any required payments (they told him no charge) so our day went from bad to fantastic.  

That's how we found the southern Germany hospitality - lovely, pleasant and helpful people, all who got us out of a real pickle!!  (I guess it might not have seemed so bad if we didn't have a 3 year old with us)...

We relaxed for a while and went out exploring the wonderful city that is Munich (it reminded us of Melbourne for some reason) and had some dinner, beer and pretzels...  They were well deserved!!

Stay tuned...

A Stop At Stuttgart

Lyndon and I wanted to travel from Paris to Munich and I had made the decision to have a stop at Stuttgart, not far over the German border from France.  It took three and a half hours on a Very Fast Train and broke up the trip quite nicely.  I think it was a glimpse of the real 'southern Germany', even though we were there less than 24 hours. And it was a Sunday.

Stuttgart city seems full of lovely grassy areas with lots of flowers in full bloom (when we were there)...

We now know what the locals do on a gorgeous, sunny Sunday afternoon...

Stuttgart also introduced us to some lovely hospitality that we found in the two cities we stayed in Germany.  It also introduced us to fabulous German lagers...

...and sensational food!

Those Germans certainly do a wicked schnitzel and tasty chips/fries.  Ooo that's made me feel all hungry!!

Stuttgart is home to both Mercedes Benz and Porche so we saw and heard those cars everywhere in the city.  Lyndon was in paradise.

The Monday morning we were bathed in glorious sunshine and spent a little time in one of the parks relaxing and studying the Lonely Planet guide...

We left for the main train station late-morning as we were headed for Munich on a lunch-time train.  But that is another post...

Stay tuned.

I Thank You...

Can you believe we're back?

We had the most brilliant, fabulous, life-time memories, fun-filled holiday that seemed to go soooo slow, which made it even better.  We saw and experienced some wonderful things and places so there are many posts to come!! 

I figure I have some people to thank, during our holiday so here I go...(sorry if I miss anyone!)

The friendly staff on the Cathay Pacific flights (five flights all up) for making our daughter's day with the bags with things-to-do goodies.  This was made even more special for Monet for the fact that Cathay Pacific must have associations with Disney because she ended up with Dumbo the Elephant bags, a Winnie-The-Pooh backpack and a Mickey Mouse over the shoulder number.  Lucky her.

For the friendly (I'm not lying here!) people on London's Tube trains, who smiled at Monet and I (apparently a rarity on London transport for people to crack a smile) and the ones who offered to give up their seats for us when it was busy, I thank you.

For the woman who sat and stared at a standing,crying Monet on London's Tube train on Wednesday evening, at peak hour, who did not offer us your seat.  Thanks for that.  Not.

For the staff at Kensington's Premier Inn where we stayed, I thank you.  The hotel was brilliant, clean, in a great position and (we thought) reasonably priced for inner London.  We'll happily stay there again down the track.

To Bob-Kat, my blogger friend, now an even closer blogger friend, for meeting me, I thank you. 

To Minnie Mouse at Disneyland, I thank you.  Minnie certainly 'made' some little girl's holiday.

To the lady in line at Cityrama in Paris, who came from the Hunter Valley (in NSW), I thank you.  You were a lovely lady who seemed rather thrilled to meet a Monet on a visit to Claude Monet's garden.

  

To the funny waiter at the pub in Stuttgart who greeted and served us, I thank you.  Even though we spoke no German, (bar a "Danke" here and there), you understood our Aussie drawl.

To David, even though we didn't end up meeting, I thank you.  (I still feel a little bad!)

To the very kind German Train Manager on the ICE train from Stuttgart to Munich, I (really, really, really) do thank you.  (I'm leaving this for an upcoming post, so more will be revealed on that!)

To the lovely lady who was the hotel Manager of the Merrabel Hotel in Munich, I sincerely thank you.  She got us out of a (very) sticky situation but she reflected the way all the German people treated us on this leg of our tour.  (Again, this will be part of a post related to the one above!)

To the friendly woman at the information booth at the Munich Train Station, I thank you.  Even though she spoke no english, she managed to understand what I was asking and really put our minds at ease at changing trains at Verona to get to Venice.  

To the guy in the pizza booth near our hotel (via a million lanes) who sold delicious pizza and el-cheapo priced beer, we thank you.

To our friend Jason, thank you.  We were lucky enough for him to take Lyndon and I to a fancy nancy French Restaurant in London.  So fancy it has a Michelin Star.  And when the bill arrived, Jason had to pick Lyndon and I off the floor.  But it was soooo worth it, it deserves a post of its own too!

To my sister Kimbofo and her partner T, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  We thank you for everything, I don't need to list the reasons why - you know.  Monet is still talking about your shoebox in the sky.  And playing with the snow globe from Uncle T.  

To my friend Leesa who turned the hot water back on for us, thank you.  The hot shower yesterday morning was brilliant.

To our family and friends for the text messages and those of you who left me messages here and on my Facebook page, thank you.

And finally I really do have to thank Lyndon.  Thank you.  Thank you for every morning in London going and buying and making breakfast for us.  And for being the one who would order the food and beers at every place we went to.  You did brilliantly.

We can't believe we're back.  (And spare a thought to Lyndon, who today has flown down to Brissy on business for three days!)

Reasons Why We Love Germany...

Pretzels, beer and good food.  Need we say more???  

Having a great time in Munich bar a couple of hiccups getting here, but that's to be a post when I return home.