As I mentioned in my last post, I took 4 days off over my second-to-last weekend in London to meet up with Lee in Munich. We had already visited this wonderful Bavarian city (München in the native language) a few years ago over Christmas and it was interesting to see what we recognised and what had changed. For starters, there was no snow as there was before. But it was certainly much busier and much more "touristy" than we had remembered, especially around the city’s most popular square, the clock-tower encircled Marienplatz. The lovely and mint – or munt in Kiwi-speak – Naomi (gnome-face) was kind enough to lend us her place for a few nights.
The first evening we found ourselves, not surprisingly, in the famous beer hall, the Hofbräuhaus, for a few drinks with some of gnomie’s mates before moving on to dinner. We attempted to eat in a cosy little sushi restaurant but got kicked out by the Japanese owner for ordering too little?? We let her know that she had disrespected us and she eventually apologised. No harm done. After walking past the large gothic-style building and square that Hitler used to make his speeches from, we eventually wound up in a Chinese restaurant discussing Polish reality TV stars..
The following day Lee and I visited Naomi at her work in the Irish-Aussie mash pub for some lunch. The Oz vs. NZ rugby was on the big screen and we watched bitterly as NZ rose to the challenge. Alana and Brook (the Aussie couple we walked the Wall with in Beijing) rocked up later that afternoon and we wasted no time in catching up and drinking some more beers and eating kranskies in the Hofbräuhaus. The entire next afternoon was taken up mainly with travelling to and from Füssen , a pretty and colourful town near the Austrian border and at the foot of the Austrian Alps. We were there to visit nearby Neuschwanstein, the 19th century castle from which Walt Disney drew the inspiration for the famous Disney logo (not Mickey Mouse...). Unfortunately on the day we decided to go, the cloud cover was quite low and to say that visibility was poor is an understatement. Standing at the base of the castle, we could not see the spires. We did, however, manage to sneak in the back door, literally, of the castle to have a poke around the rather uninspired tourist-oriented interior of this marvellous building.
My last day before heading back that evening (on the latest possible plane I could find) involved much relaxing and contemplating my next step in this big trip on the other side of the world. Lee, Alana, Brook and Naomi all tried to convince me to not go back to London.. And it almost worked.. Well, actually this was the exact point that I decided I would uproot myself from my newly found working lifestyle and start travelling again. Nothing compares to travel and I knew that after this short break from London I just couldn’t stay there any longer than I needed to. I booked my ticket to Poland in the next couple of days following my return and thus my travelling mentality had again kicked in.
The first evening we found ourselves, not surprisingly, in the famous beer hall, the Hofbräuhaus, for a few drinks with some of gnomie’s mates before moving on to dinner. We attempted to eat in a cosy little sushi restaurant but got kicked out by the Japanese owner for ordering too little?? We let her know that she had disrespected us and she eventually apologised. No harm done. After walking past the large gothic-style building and square that Hitler used to make his speeches from, we eventually wound up in a Chinese restaurant discussing Polish reality TV stars..
The following day Lee and I visited Naomi at her work in the Irish-Aussie mash pub for some lunch. The Oz vs. NZ rugby was on the big screen and we watched bitterly as NZ rose to the challenge. Alana and Brook (the Aussie couple we walked the Wall with in Beijing) rocked up later that afternoon and we wasted no time in catching up and drinking some more beers and eating kranskies in the Hofbräuhaus. The entire next afternoon was taken up mainly with travelling to and from Füssen , a pretty and colourful town near the Austrian border and at the foot of the Austrian Alps. We were there to visit nearby Neuschwanstein, the 19th century castle from which Walt Disney drew the inspiration for the famous Disney logo (not Mickey Mouse...). Unfortunately on the day we decided to go, the cloud cover was quite low and to say that visibility was poor is an understatement. Standing at the base of the castle, we could not see the spires. We did, however, manage to sneak in the back door, literally, of the castle to have a poke around the rather uninspired tourist-oriented interior of this marvellous building.
My last day before heading back that evening (on the latest possible plane I could find) involved much relaxing and contemplating my next step in this big trip on the other side of the world. Lee, Alana, Brook and Naomi all tried to convince me to not go back to London.. And it almost worked.. Well, actually this was the exact point that I decided I would uproot myself from my newly found working lifestyle and start travelling again. Nothing compares to travel and I knew that after this short break from London I just couldn’t stay there any longer than I needed to. I booked my ticket to Poland in the next couple of days following my return and thus my travelling mentality had again kicked in.
Photos:
Disney castle engulfed in fog
the famous path people with anti-Nazi sentiments used to take to avoid walking in front of the Nazi's building (below) and hence having to Heil Hitler the Nazi plaque
the old Nazi salute in the arena Hitler used to make his speeches from
Brook and Alana enjoying an HB stein with us
in Marienplatz
Lee and my new beanie-scarf-thing
1 comment:
I love how everytime you write something in an 'accent' I have to say it out loud.. and then I laugh.. kills me everytime :D
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