Peri & Brian were here!

When I last left off, Peri & Brian had just arrived. They got here on Tuesday the 18th around 10 a.m. I met them at the airport and we took the Lufthansa bus into town. It turns out that it stops 4 blocks from the apartment, how convenient.

The weather was great – crisp fall sunny day. We got into the apartment through the work zone – the hall is being redone: stairs & landings sanded, some structural work, and then they’ll paint. So we’re now entering the apartment through 2 sheets of plastic taped up to keep out the dust. Peri commented that it was like going through a beaded curtain.

After we had lunch, we headed into town to the main train station so they could get their tickets for the remainder of their trip. We then took a bus tour to Schloss Nymphenburg, the summer palace of the Wittelsbachs ruling family. It once was a fair way out of Munich by horse carriage, it’s now within the city limits. Big place, laid out like Versailles – that must be the standard castle plan. Long drive with water up it (we’re talking a mile or so here) and then the courtyard opens up, ponds & fountains and the huge semicircle of the palace. We took a fast tour through, marveling at the remaining furniture, the paintings and architecture. Afterwards, the bus continued through Munich and the various neighborhoods. I would have preferred a tour with headsets, with a spiel in English. This one had a guide speaking over the bus intercom, and she talked very fast in German, then English. It was hard to pick up what she was saying.

Wednesday we got out to the train station again, to take a day trip to Schloss Neuschwanstein – the fairy take castle. The one Disney modeled the Cinderella castle after. The morning started out a bit rocky, Logan, me and Peri had showered and Brian was in when we noticed that Brian was apparently showering in the dark (there’s opaque glass in the bathroom door.) He thought Peri was playing a prank on him. Nope, the workers in the hall had blown a building fuse! Fortunately Brian was just about done, because with no power in the room the wall water heater was no longer working. Brrr!

We made our way back to the main train station & started the tour there. The train trip was great. The day started cold and foggy, but cleared as we went along. They got to see small towns & countryside on the way. We had packed a lunch, and ate it on the train. We got to the town of Fussen, and took a bus from there, about 10 minutes, to the base of the hill that contains the castle. Brian then had his first Wurst on Semmel – long sausage on a small round bun. Dunno why they don’t change the shape of the bun to better fit the meat. They just don’t.

We walked up to the castle – it’s a pretty steep 20 minute walk. The weather was great by then, partly sunny and cool.

This castle is one of 3 that Ludwig II of Bavaria managed to get started before he bankrupted Bavaria and died. He was in the castle for only a few months before he died (the day after being declared mentally incompetent to reign and forced to abdicate.) 6 weeks later they were running tours through the place. It is beautiful, very new looking and quite a sight to see. We dozed a bit on the train back, and had dinner at the apartment. I was very pleased to see they had replaced the fuse and all rooms had power.

Thursday morning we rousted the guests. Brian wanted to tour the Dauchau memorial and Peri so didn’t, so we sent him into town. She & I went to the Auer Dult, a 3-time yearly outdoor market with everything from antiques to infomercial stuff and carnival rides. We browsed through the antiques fortunately not seeing anything either of us had to have. Then we went off to lunch, it was the IWC monthly lunch about town. We ate at Prinz Myshkin, a gorgeous vegetarian restaurant. The first room in from the street is non-smoking. They feature Asian, Indian and Italian cuisine. The food was great, the room spacious and pretty. A winner.

We then wandered back to city center, to meet Brian at Marianplatz after his tour. I thought he’d be done by 2:30 ish, but he wasn’t done until 3:30. He looked OK when he found us, was glad he hadn’t eaten lunch but needed to eat so we headed for a nearby café. He got lunch & we got dessert.

That evening, we had dinner in Schwabing at a Bavarian restaurant called Wirsthaus Zur Brezn. We went early as they had to get up & out by 5:35 to catch their train on Friday morning. It’s a good thing we did get there early, the place was almost full. We did get a table, and had a great meal. Superb food, I will be going back there. It was too smoky to linger, so we headed back to the apartment for our aperitif. We had Absinthe! It was good, too. I don’t see what all the fuss is about – unless they have denatured it from what it used to be.

We then said our goodbyes & went off to bed. They got out on time the next morning and I hope the rest of their trip went well. They’re on their way back to California right now.

Later Friday morning I played Badminton, then did some cleaning at the apartment. I finished up Ewa’s business cards, printed some out as she is headed to Poland to launch her tour business by lining up hotels. Etc. I also finished up on my contribution to the cover for the IWC cookbook – a fundraising project, every contributes recipes and tips. You’ve seen the like. So I had gotten a calendar with gorgeous photos of food, took pics of that & arranged them in a Word doc. Turns out that we don’t have the budget to print that, so I turned to good old clip art. Between that and laundry from the week, the afternoon sped by.

Friday evening we got pizza takeout and a movie – Kung Fu Hustle. Last week we had tried a nearby pizza place (3 stops by U-bahn) and registered at a movie rental place across the street. So we knew that the pizza would be good and there were lots of movies to choose from. It was a great evening. Logan had come down with a cold the weekend before, so he was glad to make it an early night.

Saturday we did the usual chores, got groceries, etc. The weather was still beautiful so in the afternoon we drove a bit south of the city and went for a walk along the river. We went to a beer garden for dinner, sat outside until it got took cool then headed home.

Sunday morning I headed off to the Twisted Bavarian, where Gayle was launching her business with a ‘Healing Day’. People signed up for a time slot and an introductory treatment – Aromatherapy massage, Indian Head Massage, Reiki or Reflexology. The space Gayle was working in was great, and she had 6 or 7 people show up. I got a quick reflexology session – I will definitely sign up for more of those when I get back here! I got back home around 2, I had ridden my bike over & back in the warm windy spring-like day.

Then we got the boxes out of the apartment. Finally! Bruce & Barbara have space in their (dry) cellar, so we knocked the moving boxes down and got them and the appliance & computer & bike boxes stored over there too. We were loading them into the cars just ahead of the rain, and luckily it was not raining too hard while we were unloading. B&B declined our offer of dinner, and instead made bruschetta so we hung out there chatting for a while. Then we headed back home and went to an Italian place not too far from the apartment, called Al Pacino. And they’re not talking the actor, either. I had a great fish dinner & Logan had the lasagna. Another winner.

Monday morning it was Badminton again. Then, time to get ready for my trip! I am headed to Rochester on Thursday the 27th, to visit, and primarily “help” the folks clean out more of their house. I think in reality they will not be helping much, but we’ll see.

I am making dinners to freeze for Logan, Monday afternoon I made a big batch of beef burgundy stew. Started cleaning up various plies of papers, and doing the action items I found in the piles. Ooops. Made my list of things to buy in the states. Solicited friends for things they wanted from the states. (Some people are very particular about their deodorant! And some things are just 4 times more expensive here.)

Today I have caught up on the laundry – takes 4 loads & 8 hours total processing to change the bed, and there’s only 1 set of sheets. I will sign off now & go make dinner. Probably won’t write again until I’ve been in Rochester a couple days – when I ping awake in the middle of the night I’ll sneak downstairs and catch up online before anyone else is up.