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Published: October 16th 2010
Hotel Viktuelien garden courtyard
outside my room - in 12 deg. temps bkg Vienna hotel(posted on arrival in Vienna at 5pm 16Oct - hey its so grey outside can it really get much darker anyway)
I had already organised, on the nite I arrived and using the day ticket I was given, a return trip to the station and buying my reserved ticket from a machine (6 languages available - in France I was confident enuf to do in French - but in Deutsch? - nein!) on the Railjet (the name??) which goes thru to Budapest almost every 2 hrs it seems. So this is being written on the RJ65 at 130kmh on Sat. 16th which for me is going to Wien/Vienna. .
It was a gray old day in Munich - and I would have to say that winter started yesterday! It suddenly went from 12 max to 8 today. Even tho it was 15 half of the time in Luxe/Bruxelles/Amsterdam did not seem that cold - but now it is beanie cold (finally dug it out yesterday) and almost thinking I could have brought the gloves as well! - well only 3 more days then I will
be in an aluminium tube being transported to sauna temps in BKK.
Yesterday had a very late breakfast and ended up chatting to the only other person there, an American girl called Bethany about 26 or so from Seattle. It was her last nite here before going to Zurich to fly home and back to work. It was very nice chatting and I thought I had a dinner companion at Cameleon, which I had told her about but she bailed at the last minute in favour of a guy she had met in a bar - not cool to be seen having dinner with yer grandad I s'pose! Anyway after that I did not leave the hotel until noon then wheeled my bag up the road for only about 5 mins almost in a straight line thru Gaertner Platz where the theatre is to the Hotel am Viktuelienmarkt and my 90E "garden room". It was ready (maybe they did not have anyone last nite?) so able to move straight in, log on, sit out in the garden courtyard at a table in 12 deg. and organise my next 2 nights in Vienna quite quickly with Booking.com close to the
Marienplatz again
not even sure what this is.. (not the Rathaus?) Westbahnof, which is where I will arrive - so all very handy.
After that and general mucking around thought I had better get out and see something I can talk about in Munich - and I guess that would have to be the Residenz wouldn't it? The museum is open til 6pm til "mid-October" - otherwise 5pm. As it was 4pm I was indeed fortunate that the 6pm closing starts over the weekend or something so I was OK. This was the home of Bavarian rulers from 1385 to 1918 the book tells me. The ruler was largely called the Elector for some bizarre reason as HE certainly wasn't! Anyway its just your usual 100 room palace full of gilt and all that sort of imperial gear. I will let the pix speak for themselves. Interesting how the female half of the ruler was always called the Consort - I tend to associate this with the king's mistress sorta thing myself. Anyway I did not exactly rush - but some rooms were more interesting than others - one of those dreaded audio guides would have slowed me down so much, as they tend to slow the pace - interesting
Diener Strasse
street musos - classical style as they may often be. In art galleries they are a menace and only cause a curse of dawdlers!
So after a couple of hours in the Residenz came out to a very grey 6pm almost winter's night - sunset, if you could see it, is prob. about 6.45pm I think at mo. Daylight saving lasts until end of Oct. I think and sunrise is prob. only around 7.45 these days - hope the workers enjoy the light at the end of the day. The sun was certainly nice in D'dorf and Koblenz but that was about it!
Vaguely wandered around the shops - most open til 7pm - and Maximilian strasse in front of Residenz seems to be "designer street". There are just so many watch shops here I am in 7th heaven comparing them - but most are not really that distinctive in terms of design. Saw a relatively plain and not that complicated A Lange & Sohne (famous workshop from Glashutte, which is well known for such) mans watch for an eye popping 118,000E!
I was of course just killing time until my second and final visit to that French resto called Cameleon. I
was very early the other night and got a table but at 7.30pm had to do with a tall stool and table, as I did not have a booking. This was actually very comfortable as the table had a foot rest at the same level as if your feet were on the floor. . I told my fave French speaking waiter that it was definitely a night for meat and red wine rather than fish. Tonight he also had a separate French blackboard as well as the German so he did not have to translate "rochenflugen" - I told him what it was in English - he realised that le skate and le skateboard were actually now "French" words.
Decided on the boeuf tartare (raw minced beef - maybe slightly warmed) with a perfect little soft poached egg on top - no gherkins which is perhaps normal but some nice salad leaves and what I take was some sort of truffle flavoured froth on top. And for seconds? - well the dreaded magret de
Residenz opening hall
set up like for a conference canard (yes the duck, Mr Mink's European fascination). The waiter said he would fix me a good glass - of a 2005 red something from an open bottle - no complaints with his choice, but cannot quote the exact source. The duck was pretty perfect - simply served with supersmooth mashed potato (can we thank Robuchon for this?). Desserts included a choc creme brulee, a normal brulee, a chocolate fondant (which I had in Colmar I think) - but decided a choc choice would incline me to an espresso (with late nite consequences) so went for the tarte tatin and a sweet wine instead - a glass of muscat de venise I think. When the bar guy, who assisted the waiter on the floor, and who spoke french to his comrade, spoke to me he did not seem to understand me in french- and I thought muscat might have been a sort of portish number, but it was indeed like sauterne as he said. The tatin was a little disappointing in terms of appearance and composition - I would normally expect a thin crust with very thinly sliced layered apple in a classic circular overlaid fashion - this was relatively
Residenz - young lad
bordered by shady gents thick with almost pureed apple. It came with some nice small berries and ice cream (not housemade I think - but they can't do everything) and the type of orange gooseberry which comes in its own chrysalis like pod which I had seen in the market.
On the way out I told me French mate that the Cameleon name was incorrect - the quality does not change. Quite often a second visit - or maybe a bad menu choice - can result in disappointment but certainly not in this case.
An advantage of the garden room is that you can enter thru a side building door and get into the garden courtyard and your room. Decided that getting an early night at 11pm was definitely well indicated - I have had so many well past midnight blog nights it is just too tiring - so bedtime for Mr Noddy well early.
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Huddo
non-member comment
Munich's second time.
Hi Mike, Cameleon on the second night, sounded even better. The Residenz photo's were a standout, so many of them. The opening hall, love to go around there with a speech. The reception hall, the wallpaper! Tay will love the music room. Up market swim galoshes?! They looked pretty cool to me. Love Huddo.