What to do for Fourth of July on a continent where it's just another day on the calendar? Therese and I decided to leave on Friday the 3rd and head to Munich to visit our friends Doris and Hans and enjoy some weiss beer and good Bavarian food. After driving several hours in Switzerland where the maximum speed is 120 kilometers per hour (approximately 70 mph) Therese insisted on driving in Germany. Not because she's a speed demon, but more of a defensive maneuver since she had listened to me talk about how fun it was to do 180 km/hr on the autobahn (approx 110mph) and how smooth the X3 Beamer handles at these speeds. Turns out Therese kinda likes life in the fast lane, too and did really good driving at 160 km/hr. What's amazing is watching the Audi TTs and Porsche 911s fly by at 200-240 km/hr. On these roads you stay in the fast lane until passing and then back over. These speed demons close with a frightening quickness so it's one eye on the rearview mirror.
The only disappointment was the amount of traffic and frequent road work, so it took us almost 7 hours to get there. When we did we were not disappointed as Hans made reservations for us at a very quaint Bavarian restaurant where we enjoyed some of their local weiss beer and some Austrian wines.....which by the way are a good buy here. There was a scandal some years ago which decimated their red wine exports and now they are very cheap and very drinkable.
Hans is the archetypal Bavarian. Gregarious, warm, friendly, he makes friends everywhere we go and is so laid back and easy going he's the best travelling companion. It's "all smooth" when you're with Hans. Doris is a gem. She's dragged me home from many an Oktoberfest and biergarten visit and the poor thing is always the duty driver for Hans and me. But she takes it all in good humor. And I have learned another thing - she's always right. She goes along with anything and always has something to add to the trip, keeps track of our progress with the maps and keeps us out of trouble (except for the beer).
On Saturday, we decided to give Hans and Doris a break and Therese and I took a walking tour of Munich. Our tour guide was from the UK and his father, who also worked in the aerospace industry, had been assigned as an expat in Munich for some years. Alex was fluent in German and returns every summer to earn some Euro as a tour guide.
The tour started in the center of the old town at the Marianplatz - St. Mary's Plaza. Munich, like most cities in Germany was devastated by bombing in WWII.....98% of the buildings in the city were destroyed. Think about that for a moment. Churches were generally untouched or minimally damaged......but not for the reasons you are thinking. As an aviator having flown bombers, I can totally relate to the desire to have visual reference points for ingress and egress into target areas......and church steeples are ideal.
Architecture in Munich is very unique.....we need to do some more research in order to understand its origins, so sorry we can't give you some interesting facts about it.
One of the craziest things we saw was river surfing. Yes, river surfing. There is a line-up....you can come in from left or right......you do your thing on the wave for a couple of turns......and you either fall off or get off.......down the river a bit.....and back to your place in line. There were some very good surfers in this line up......and an old guy there to hold up the reputation of those of us for whom "the older I get, the better I was."
Of course we had to drop by the world-famous Hofbrau Haus where we took a picture of the "oom-pah" band. This is easily the most famous brau haus in the world.....but the darn things are everywhere......and they all have a biergarten....beer garden. Which brings me to this: why do the old beer steins have metal lids on them? Same reason you put a lemon in your hefeweizen. Becuause bees are everywhere in this lovely country and you need to keep them out of the slightly sweet weiss beer.....bees have good taste too. A bit of lemon does the trick quite nicely.Schneider Weisse is the second oldest brewery in Germany and a very popular local favorite.
Here is the way you handle a "proper pour" of weiss beer.......you need to loosen up the yeast which tends to collect at the bottom of your glass. Here's the procedure:
- Make sure there's a little water in the glass (really)
- Have the proper glass
- Tip the glass sharply
- Pour the weiss slowly....to about 3/4
- Take the bottle in between your palms
- Roll the bottle back and forth between the palms
- Pour the rest into the glass
- A perfect pour result is about 3 inches of foam
Sunday morning, Hans informed us that there was a procession in the town of Miesbach, where he and Doris reside and in which Therese and I were staying. This was classic Europe.....classic Bavarian.....local townspeople dressed in Bavarian finery.....Leiderhausen (leather pants for the men) and Dirndl dresses for the ladies. Apparently they were celebrating 100 years of horse drawn transportation in Miesbach......procession was complete with band, local dignitaries, etc parading through town on the way to church. Gotta love Europe.
Later, we decided to go to the "Eagle's Nest." This was a special building at the top of a peak in Hitler's Bavarian retreat.....not the retreat itself, which was the Berghoff.....but at the very top of the mountain. His closest cabinet members, advisers etc. all had their own cabins here.....the Berghoff was Hitler's. He visited it regulary during his reign over Germany. Goebells and others decided to build this beautiful hut at the peak of this mountain as a gift for the Fuehrer's 50th birthday. Mussolini gave him the Italian marble for the fireplace. It has a stunning 270 degree view of the Alps and valleys of southern Bavaria. Today it's basically a restaurant.....good spot for a Schnitzel and......yes, weiss beer. The compound itself is mostly destroyed.....it was heavily bombed near the end of the war and the Germans in their shame had the remainders of the buildings destroyed. I was a little disappointed in learning this. I really wanted to see the Berghoff and the rest of the compound. It had an extensive underground tunnel system between the various lodges (which were spread all over the large compound). the site of the former Berghoff is a glass encased museum.
Above is the remains of the old Berghoff....Hitler's Bavarian retreat. To the right is the Italian marble fireplace given to Hitler by Mussoline for his 50th birthday present. Sorry but somehow we didn't get any pictures of the structure. The trip was a bit disappointing......was very interested in the compound and what went on here, but there is very little of it left and no real focus on it in the museum....which was more about the war (with which I am familiar) and not specifically about this place. The retreat itself was in control of US forces until 15 years ago....it was actually a US military installation.
We finished off the weekend with a wonderful dinner of pork knuckle and local brew at a monestary on the shores of Tergernsee (see is lake).
1 comment:
good job, dad
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