Train to Munich!

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Friday, May 28th:
Woke up pretty excited today! We are taking the train into Munich (MÜnchen)!! My mom and I, well we are kind of sticklers on time…always needing to be a half hour early, everywhere we go!!! Seriously! So, we knew what time the train was supposed to leave, so we had planned out exactly what time we needed to leave, how much time to leave for “just-in-case” incidents, etc. Well that is not the way my uncle and cousin (Cathy) work. They said we could leave at such and such time, which left only a half hour to get there…and the ride was about 20 minutes away! So needless to say, my mom and I were fretting the whole way over…no freeway for us…it was all back roads!!! Well we ended up getting there in PLENTY of time and had absolutely nothing to worry about…er…well maybe a little something…you see, on the way over, about, hmmm…6 big blocks or so, we had passed a prison…it was actually a very pretty one at that! Anyway, the prison was situated right in the little neighborhood preceding the station. On our way over, we had seen three men carrying these rather large cardboard boxes…I had not given any thought to it, except to think “wow, I can’t believe they are ‘moving from their home’ on foot”…that is how big the boxes were. While we were waiting for our train to arrive, they arrived too…to take our train! It was then that my uncle said that they had probably just gotten out of that prison…yikes!!! They took out really large bottles of booze and started up right there on the train platform!! My uncle was closest to them, and heard them talking…he said they were Russian. Well, when we got on the train, we tried keeping several cars between us for safety…LOL!!! Nope…did not want to “celebrate” with them!!!  Otherwise, the trip was really nice…we got to stop at approximately 8 towns between our town and MÜnchen ….about an hour and half trip. We had to take the underground subway, called the U-Bahn to the Marienplatz station. Our plan was to be able to see the famous Glockenspiel in the center of the city. My mom thought that it “performed” every hour, on the hour, but we found out that it only does it’s thing at noon everyday…we got lucky!!! It was about 11:15 by then, so we decided to get smart and get a table at one of the outdoor cafes for full viewing pleasure! I think everyone else started thinking the same thing because before we even sat down, all the rest of the tables were taken, and we were asked if we were going to be using all of our chairs! The day was gloriously sunny again, and the umbrellas were not up yet, so we got to bask in the sunshine for a while. Everyone ordered some sort of coffee, and Kenya had a milkshake. We had the best seats!!! It got closer and closer to noon, and we had our cameras up and waiting…noon came around and nothing happened! All of the church bells started ringing though. Then it became 12:05, and still nothing! The crowd was beginning to murmur…what was going on? Finally! At 12:10 it started! Basically, for those who don’t know what a Glockenspiel is, it is like a humungous cuckoo clock! It has doors that open, and figures that come out to dance to the music. It is very old…going back to 1908…it consists of 43 bells and 32 life-sized figures, and at the very end a very small golden bird at the top of the Glockenspiel chirps three times. I got some good pictures and even filmed a short clip of it!
After the show, we walked around old town MÜnchen, visiting the fresh exotic fruit stands in the Viktualien Markt; my mom HAD to have a weisswurst, so we stopped in one of the many markets selling them. I had never even seen some of the fruit they were selling…fruits from all over the world…like Vietnam, etc…I had heard about dragonfruit, but never had seen it until our visit that day. Kenya and I took some very lovely pictures of those!!! We then split up…Maxi and Cathy wanted to do their own separate shopping, and so my mom, dad, uncle, Kenya and I explored the old town even more. We went to this huge, huge courtyard, where there was this beautiful stone gazebo and gardens full of flowers. My dad decided he was going to sit on one of the park benches and just rest his feet and enjoy people watching. Kenya stayed with him and played with the ducks in the fountain. Inside the gazebo, a violinist was playing with his violin attached to an amplifier…the acoustics were awesome!!! He played several well known operas including Ave Maria and Figaro. It was so nice to stand there, in the coolness of the shade, and just close my eyes and enjoy the heavenly sounds!
We started to get hungry, so we went back to the Viktualien Markt, and found ourselves sharing a table at one of the outdoor beer gardens. The waitresses were older ladies dressed up in the traditional Bavarian dirndls and there were even some men there dressed in their lederhosen. I was amazed how much they could carry! Especially the huge beer steins! I wanted an assortment of wursts (sausages), so I ordered that, and Kenya just wanted regular frankfurters, so ordered that for her. OMG…we got huge plates of food…each!!! She got like four foot long franks!!! It said a pair!! Actually, what it said was “a pair of a pair”…whatever!!! Luckily, my uncle LOVES to eat, and he pretty much cleaned up! 
After we ate, my uncle went off to do his own shopping, and so my mom, dad, Kenya and I went shopping. I was a little disappointed, because I had bought Kenya and I really nice sweatshirts in Italy, and I wanted to get the same in Germany! Ones that said “Deutschland” on them. But they were ultra expensive, so I decided to wait to see if I could find one up north, where my other uncle lived. I bought a beautiful magnet in the Bavarian colors (blue and white checked) and even bought some products in one of my favorite places, L’Occitane. I was getting better and better at speaking and understanding German…I was amazed it had come back, and how much!
Later on in the afternoon, when it was time for espresso and cake , we decided to go back to the café that we were at earlier in the day…in the Marienplatz. We had used the bathroom earlier there, so we saw the many displays of different cakes and pastries that they offered. It was so hard to choose what to have. We ended up sharing a large piece of chocolate and strawberry cake (it was a moist chocolate cake on the bottom, with fresh sliced strawberries on top, then glazed over), and a large piece of white chocolate cake, also with strawberries and a glaze on top. Top that off with caffe con panna, and we were transported, again, into bliss! LOL Kenya had a HUGE sundae with tons of panne (whipped cream)…I guess I should stop using the Italian word for it…schlagsahne is how to say ‘whipped cream’, in German. However you say it, it was scrumptious and to die for…but nope, we weren’t dyin’ that day…too much walking!!! 
When we met up with everyone again, my mom and uncle wanted to go see their grandmother’s old home. So we took the U-Bahn to several stops away, and when we got up to the surface street, my mom and uncle had a hard time finding the street where she had lived…why they had built a McDonald’s right across the street! My great-grandmother and great-grandfather had owned and lived in an apartment building after the war, and it is still in the family! When we eventually found it, my mom started to tell me a bunch of stories about when she was a little girl and her visits to their home in the summertime. Some of the businesses were still there, in the neighborhood.
When we got back to the main train station, we had some time left to do some more shopping, so Kenya, Maxi and I went to the FC Bayern MÜnchen team store and bought some t-shirts…the World Cup was huge over there!!!  I also went to the Starbucks and bought some cute little espresso cups that said ‘Germany’ and ‘MÜnchen’ on them.
The main station in MÜnchen is HUGE! It seemed like we had to walk a LOOOONG way to get to our train! And it seemed really full! But when we finally got to our seats, my dad promptly fell asleep, and Kenya and Maxi alternately talked and listened to his I-Pod the rest of the way home. Needless to say, we all slept very well that night!!!! 

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