Pictures from this day can be found here.
It was a little tough getting up after such a heavy meal the previous day, and we decided to forgo the hotel breakfast (although the price was a factor – 21 Euros each – no way…). Instead we went to the station and bought a vegetarian sandwich and an orange juice to split. We took the sandwich with us as we found the right train, and bought a one-day pass for travel within Munich for 9.40 Euros. It turned out to be a good deal. We also saw a guy freaking out with frustration at one of the ticket machines. We felt the same way sometimes with the European train ticket machines, but weren’t quite ready to be driven to madness. The guy ran screaming up the stairs and out of the station, and I don’t know what ever happened to him after that.
We started our day at the BMW museum because of the rainy weather. The idea was to avoid the rain inside at the museum, and then later see some outdoor sights with the hopes that the weather would improve. The BMW museum was recommended by one of my students, so after eating our vegetarian sandwich (again, great bread!) we walked in and started looking around. The exhibits were well-designed, and it was fun to look around. There wasn’t a whole lot to do besides interact with the exhibits, and unfortunately the factory was closed for the summer holiday, but we did get to see some rare cars and have a cup of coffee at the café. Another bonus was free Wi-Fi, so I wrote a few emails in the hopes of making some plans for Zurich with Roger.
After the museum the weather seemed to be letting up, so we took the train back to the center of town, and another tram on to Schloss Nymphenberg. A huge garden surrounded the castle and we walked through the castle to the “back yard” which stretched as far as we could see. It was nice to leisurely stroll around and wonder how many groundskeepers they might have. Very impressive, and we were lucky with the weather to avoid the rain.
We came back to downtown Munich by tram, and then headed to the Hofbrau House, the defacto beer hall in Munich. The place was lively at lunchtime, but we managed to squeeze into a table opposite a friendly looking German couple. Kuniko took another crack at ordering in German from the menu, and we ordered some beers. I just ordered a beer and received one liter of beer in a monster mug. Kuniko wisely asked for a small size, and ended up with 500 ml. Behind us they had a traditional German band playing songs, and the servers were wearing the traditional outfits with the scoop necks. Quite the experience.
Once the food arrived we found out just what we were in for. The pork dish that Kuniko ordered was a huge joint of pork meat on the bone, with two round dumplings soaked in sauce. I had ordered a mixed sausage platter with sauerkraut, and so it looked like we had just about enough beer to kill off the food. It was the first time that I had to carve the lunch before eating it – the pork on the bone was so tender and delicious, but it took some good knife work to get the meat off the bone. Maybe my favorite dish of the trip – so good.
One thing led to another and the atmosphere had me ordering another liter of beer to go with all the great food, and we staggered out of there after lunch pretty well lubricated. Back to the hotel, and it wasn’t long before I passed out on the bed snoring while Kuniko patiently did sudoku waiting for me to wake up. A couple hours later I did, and we headed out for a little research at the train station to figure out the best timetable to use for a trip to Fussen the next day.
They had a special line at the station for English speakers, so we lined up and had to wait a LONG time to ask a pretty basic question. The clerk there told us that it might be tough to get to Fussen the next day because of a lot of construction on a section of track, so we should be flexible with our plans. After taking his advice we bought some simple things for dinner – a sandwich for Kuniko and a chicken curry calzone for me, and then a couple of beers at the supermarket before taking them all back to eat in our hotel room. Our strategy of a big lunch and small dinner paid off, but it is hard to believe how much food we are eating on this trip compared to what we eat in Japan.
