Blog catch up for November

Had a busy November – Jay has been busy with work, of course.  He had a trip to the states for meetings in Hartford.  He also went to the Netherlands for a few days to do plant surveys for two Heinz factories, one which is the largest producer of Ketchup in Europe.  I ended up going to Chicago for a week to visit my mom.  I tried to stock up on a few things that we haven’t been able to find here in Germany like Granola bars, instant oatmeal packets, hot chocolate mix, etc.

Netherlands

Jay’s mom came for a three week visit, starting on November 16.  We showed her around Munich and we took her on a Food Tour, where you get to sample some of the local foods.  The tour started with a typical German breakfast – Beer, sausage (wiesswurst) and a pretzel.  We also sampled different meats, cheeses, honey, honey wine and the winter favorite, mulled wine which is a warm wine.  It is also called Glühwein.  Every tour we go on we learn a little bit more of the history of Munich. 

Typical German meal

We had friends over for Thanksgiving dinner.  We celebrated Thanksgiving on the following Saturday, since Jay had to work on Thursday and Friday.  The hardest thing to find here was a large turkey.  There is no such thing as a 25 lb Butterball here.  Good thing I brought pumpkin pie mix with me, otherwise we wouldn’t have had pumpkin pie.  It was hard enough to find a pie plate.  Our German friends never had pumpkin pie before and they thought it was different.

We also took her to some of the Christmas Markets also called Christkindlmarkt.  The Christkindlmarkt is a tradition that started in Germany in the 1400’s.  They open four weeks before Christmas.  One of the largest markets in Munich is located walking distance from our apartment.  We went there on the first night.  It was beautiful to see the square all lit up with a huge Christmas tree.  It was snowing that night and it really put you in the holiday spirit.  The markets have different themes, such as mangers, medieval, handmade goods, nutcrackers and all types of ornaments. Jay’s mom really liked the Glühwein booths, which we managed to visit almost daily. The Glühwein booths had different styles of glasses.  One of the ones that we kept was a boot shaped glass and another had a train shaped glass.

Christkindlmarkt

Jay and his mom at the Christmas Markets



Glühwein mugs

I took her on a day trip to Salzburg and we went on the Sound of Music Tour and we also went to London for a week.  In London we visited Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, City of Bath, and Buckingham Palace.  We saw the Changing of the Guards, Tower of London, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.  The weather in London was awful.  It was very cold, windy and snowy.  It was around 30, if we were lucky, but with the wind it was really cold.  The changing of the guards’ ceremony lasted about two hours.  They even had to close one of the airports in London for two days due to the weather.  They are not equipped to handle snow there.   In the three weeks time that she was here we walked about 90 miles. 


Windsor Castle

Stonehenge
  

Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace



Big Bend



Westminster Abbey

Tower of London (where to Crown Jewels are)

London Bridge

Jay was in the London area during the same time, but he was at a management training course.  The course was at a castle.  The entry way reminded Jay of the stairway in the Harry Potter movie.  We didn’t see him until he got back to Munich.

Entry way in Castle

Outside of Castle



 

Blog catch up for October

Sunday, Oct. 3 – Went to Innsbruck, Austria for the day.  It was about a 2 hour drive.  As we were driving you could see some of the fall colors.  We didn’t have a plan, other than to go away for the day.  We went to the Schloss Ambras castle by Innsbruck. 

Schloss Ambras Castle

It was a cool, windy and a bright day.  We rode a couple of cable cars up to Hafelekar, which is a ski mountain next to Innsbruck.  We then hiked to the peak of Hafelekarspitze, which was about 100 meters above the top of the cable car.  The incline was 70% to the top.  This was a very steep mountain.  Don’t think we’ll be skiing down that one this winter!!   From the top of the mountain you could see the city of Innsbruck and you could see some of the Olympic venues from 1976.  Sunday was not a good day to go to Innsbruck, since most of the shops and cafés were closed.  They have less open there than we have open in Munich on Sundays.

Innsbruck

The peak of Hafelekarspitze

As we were dropping of the car at Central Station (Hauptbahnhof) in Munich, there was another shocking sight, something you don’t see every day.  Two young girls, in their 20’s, had dropped their pants and were relieving themselves right on the sidewalk outside the entrance to the garage.  Unbelievable!!!  Maybe one of these days I won’t be shocked at what I see, but I doubt that!!   We guessed that they had just left the Oktoberfest and were on their way to the train station.

Monday, Oct. 4 – Jay and I went to Oktoberfest one more time since it was the last night.  We went about 9:00 p.m. so we could go into the tents and hear the bands. The crowd wasn’t too bad considering what they were like earlier.  Jay and I decided that it was much more fun when you have a table and you are with a group. 



U Bahn station during Oktoberfest



U Bahn Station after Oktoberfest



We are still waiting for our things from the US.  We understand that they are in Germany and due in Munich on Friday.  Who knows how long it will take for them to deliver.  They will probably deliver our shipment next week, since Jay will be out of town.  Once again he will miss all the fun of unpacking!!

Tuesday, Oct. 5 – Monday, Oct. 11 –  Jay has been busy at work and I’ve been exploring the city and trying not to get too lost.  We don’t have our internet connected up yet, so one of our neighbors is letting us use theirs. 

Our US shipment arrived in Munich on Friday and we were scheduled for delivery on Monday, which didn’t happen, so we hoped for Tuesday.  Our US shipment did arrive and it is really great to have our things.  Our home internet and phone are also scheduled for Tuesday, we’ll see what happens.

 

Jay is in Italy so he gets out of unpacking once again.  He seems to always be away for that part of the move.  He was at a chemical plant located near Siracusa, Sicily.  Jay’s trip to Italy was a busy one for him.  He didn’t have much time to do any site seeing.  The town of Siracusa was nice and the group he was with ate at some nice restaurants.  One was a small mom and pop restaurant.  The house wine was in a large crock with a spigot in the corner of the restaurant.  If you needed more wine the owner with fill a pitcher from the crock and put it on your table.  The food was great and inexpensive.



Siracusa Restaurant

We continue our search of Mexican restaurants and we went to a place called Pappasito’s.  The chips were not the best since they have some kind of salty mixture on them, but the salsa was hot.  Even Jay said the salsa was hot.  The fajitas were good and Jay said the margarita was OK.  Jay and I think that they have salty chips to make you thirsty so you buy more drinks.

We went for a bike tour around Munich.  The tour lasted about 3 hours and we learned a little bit more about Munich.  The tour stopped at a beer garden for a snack.  We had a beer and half a chicken.  Now we really can’t wait for our bikes.  It was so much nicer riding bikes than walking.

After living in the apartment for a few weeks, I now know I should have packed different.  The “furnished apartment” doesn’t have much in the kitchen for cooking, serving or baking.  There are no casseroles and only one frying pan.

The end of October Jay and I traveled by train to Zurich Switzerland for a long weekend.  It was about a 3.5 hour ride.  Zurich is located on the end of Lake Zurich with a great view of the Alps.  It is an expensive place.  We found a small non-tourist local restaurant.  We knew it was a local place because the same 6 or 7 people we saw the previous evening were there the next night in their same chairs.  The prices were reasonable at this restaurant compared to some of the tourist places.

Local Zurich restaurant

We took the Classic Trolley tour around the city.  We stopped at the Fraumunster church that has Marc Chagall windows in it. The St Peters church was located nearby, which has the largest clock face in Europe.   The Bahnhofstrasse is the main shopping zone situated in the center of the city, which has many high end fashion stores and boutiques.  The Swiss National Museum is located in Zurich.  They had a whole section on the Swiss army knife.



Trolly Tour

 

St Peter's Church

 

Fraumunster Church with Chagall windows



 

Swiss Army Knife

We took an inclined train, Uetliberg, to the top of a hill outside of Zurich.  Then we climbed to the top of Uto Kulm, a three legged tower, for a great view of the city, lake and the Alps.  We went on a boat ride on the lake.

View of Zurich from Uto Kulm

We went to the Lindt Chocolate factory outlet and you could smell the chocolate as soon as you got off the bus.  Jay bought chocolate for the PLC support staff in TN and NJ.  This is a Christmas tradition for him to send them chocolates.  We also bought some for ourselves and to send to our relatives in the US.  The chocolate in Europe tastes very different from what we get in the US.  It’s creamy and not as sweet.



Lindt Chocolate Factory from the boat ride



On one of the days we took a train to the Rhine Falls, which is in northern Switzerland near the German border.  The falls are the largest in Europe.  The falls are 150 meters wide and 23 meters tall.  (You will have to start learning the metric units like we are.)  There is a 16^th century fortress above the falls.  As we started climbing to the top, we started counting the stairs, which were over 400.  It was a definite work out getting to the top.



Rhine Falls with fortress overlooking the falls



 

 

Finally got internet again!!!

Tuesday – Thursday, Sept 21 – 23 - Weather has been great, sunny and cool with no rain.  We went back to Oktoberfest on Wednesday just to walk around, had a beer and something to eat.  We started getting things together for our possible move to the apartment on Friday.

Friday, Sept 24 - We went to the apartment in the afternoon to pick up the keys and hopefully move in.  The apartment wasn’t ready, it had not been cleaned form the previous tenants.  They were going to try to have it done for us to move in Sunday or Monday.

Saturday, Sept 25 - It was a cool rainy day.  We went to see a movie this morning, Eat, Pray, Love.  We did some shopping after the movie then went out for Mexican food.  We went to Tijuana Cafe Border‎ on Leopoldstr.  The chips and salsa were good, though you have to pay for them, not like the Mexican restaurants in Texas.  Jay had the fajitas and I had a dish that was like a turkey Quesada.  The fajitas were OK, but needed more spices.  The margaritas were good.

Sunday, Sept 26 - Another cool day, but no rain.  We went to see another movie, The American.  I wasn’t very good.  Jay said the chick flick from Saturday was better.  We went to Oktoberfest to get something to eat.  BIG mistake!  The place was jammed.  This is Italian weekend, when many Italians come up to attend the Oktoberfest.  We got an email late in the evening that the apartment was cleaned, so we packed up most of our things and moved them over via taxi and the apartment looked great.  We decided not to spend the night since it was late and we still had more to move.

Monday, Sept 27 – First day in our apartment.  That means that I can make toast in a toaster not a frying pan.  Yea!!!!!  I finished moving the rest of our things in the morning.  I needed to make two trips since I was doing it by train.  It took me about 2 ½ hours to go back and forth.  We are on the fourth floor with no elevator, so visitors get ready for 78 stairs. 

I met Jay at Oktoberfest again.  This journey took me over an hour.  Of course I got lost.  This was the first time taking the train to Oktoberfest from our new apartment.  Then I got lost at central station.  This should have only taken me about 15 minutes if I got on the right trains.  Needless to say I needed a beer when I finally got to Oktoberfest.  We had a table at the Ochsenbraterei tent with some of the engineers that Jay works with. The Ochsenbraterei tent serves an amazing variety of different oxen specialties. This tent holds about 5,800.  It takes 10 weeks for them to build the tent and everything inside and about 3 weeks to tear it down.  This crowd was definitely different from last week’s crowd.   They were a little more drunk, at least the ones around us.  They had two bands.  The first band was an older group of men that played mostly German songs.  The second band also played quite a bit of German songs, but they did play a few American songs. 

Tues., Sept. 28 - Friday, Oct. 1 – Not too much going on this week, just unpacking and doing laundry.  Doing laundry is different than the US.  I have one unit that washes and dries.  I didn’t think that it would dry very good, but it actually dried pretty good.  Doing one load of laundry takes about 2 hours to wash.  The washing machine is very small so you can only do about 8 dress shirts at a time.  We don’t have our internet set up yet.  I am told that this could take up to 10 days.  Things don’t happen very fast here so I am learning patience. 

I can now understand why the European women are so strong.  I got spoiled having a grocery store right outside our old hotel.  Now I have to walk about 4 blocks to go to the store and I need to remember that I have to carry everything back and up the 78 stairs.  I felt like a packed mule with groceries on my back, a back on my shoulder and a bag in each of my hands.  I really missed my car today!!!  Also you can’t get everything you need at one store, so you have to carry what you bought at the first store to the next store.  I miss Super Wal-Mart!!!  Everything in one store!

Weekend in Austria and Oktoberfest!!!!

Thursday, Sept. 16 – Today was an interesting day.  Jay gave me two challenges for today.  He wanted me to pick up some gummy bears from a certain store and to pick up some pastries from a bakery that we visited when we had our intercultural training.   These gummy bears are softer than what you can buy in the stores.  We only remembered the general area that we visited.  Amazingly enough I managed to find them both.  It only took me about 2 hours.  If I knew where I was going this would normally only take about 45 minutes to do.    It is amazing what you see when you are just out walking.  I managed to come across two gay male prostitutes.  People were gathering and snapping pictures as they approached a car.   I only wished I could have gotten my camera out quicker.  They were definitely a site.  They were wearing high heels and very short shorts, which one can only imagine how everything was covered.

Friday, Sept. 17 – Jay has been telling me for a week that we were going to go away for the weekend, but he wouldn’t tell me where we were going.  Jay took the day off and told me that we were going to the Salzburg, Austria area.  Salzburg is only a two hour drive on the Autobahn from Munich.  This is the place that the Sound of Music was filmed.  We arrived at the hotel around noon in the city of Fuschlsee.  The weather was cool and rainy, but that was OK – we were in the mountains (Brian calls the mountains “My Happy Place”).  The hotel that we are staying at is in the mountain and lake area of Austria called Salzkammergut.   The side of the hotel that we are on has a creek running right next to it.  Friday afternoon we went on a city tour of Salzburg.  We saw where Mozart was born and the house he lived in.

Our breakfast and dinner were included in the package.  Friday night when we went to dinner, they had a table reserved for us with our name on the table.  We were told that this was our table for our entire stay.  Dinner Friday was a buffet and they called it “The Farmers Buffet”.   They had pork, of course, ham, two types of sausage (white and red), spetzel (which are a type of noodle), dumplings, (too many starchy foods) a salad bar and a dessert bar.  The apple struddle was really good. 

Saturday, Sept. 18 – Breakfast was your typical Bavarian breakfast – several different meats and cheeses, and always sausage, bread, tomatoes.  They also had scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and cereal.  On our table they had the evening dinner menu which we had to choose our main entrée of the four course meal.  Jay ordered fish and I had turkey cordon blue.  They also had their version of the Morning Post which listed ideas what to do in the area and the weather report for the weekend.

This morning we went on a “Sound of Music” tour.  The weather was cool and sunny.  The tour stopped at several of the locations where the Sound of Music was filmed.   On the way to the different locations we listened to the soundtrack of the Sound of Music.  We stopped at a small lake where one of the scenes was filmed.  This was the Von Trappe home in the movie.  We also stopped at St. Michael’s church in Mondsee, where the wedding took place.  St. Michael’s was absolutely amazing.   St. Michael’s was built in 748.  There was a wedding going on, but we were still able to go inside and take pictures.  We walked around the town and stopped at the Cafe’ Braun for some apple strudel, sitting at a table outside in the sun.  We met three girls from California who were going to school in Rome.  They were on a week break from classes.

When we return to Salzburg, we went on a walking tour of the Hohensalzburg Fortress, which sits on a hill overlooking Salzburg.  The name means "High Salzburg Fortress".  The construction was started in 1077 and was added to over the centuries until the 17^th century by the various archbishops who ruled Salzburg.  The fortress is the largest best preserved example of a medieval castle in Europe.  One section of the castle is occupied by artists who are allowed to live in the castle.

Sunday, Sept. 19 – We went on a cable car ride to the top of a mountain in St. Gilgen.  You can see the leaves just starting to change.  It should be really pretty in about a week or so.  We took a little hike and had a coffee and hot chocolate at a restaurant on the mountain.  The weather was cool and sunny.  We decided to go to the town of Hallstatt and go on a tour of salt mine tour.  This salt mine is the world’s oldest.  During World War II works of art were stored in tunnels at another salt mine in Altaussee, which is the largest active salt mine in Austria.  These are all in the Salzburg area.  Salz is German for salt and Salzburg was the salt center of the world for 100’s of years.

Monday, Sept. 20 – We went to Oktoberfest.  Yes, we wore our Bavarian outfits.  Most of the people are wearing their lederhosen and dirndls.   This is the 200^th year for Oktoberfest.  Oktoberfest runs for 16 days and they expect over 6 million visitors.  Munich only has 1.5 million people that live here.  The tradition is that on the first Saturday of Oktoberfest they have a parade with all of the Munich breweries and at 12:00 sharp the mayor of Munich taps open the first keg.  The major calls out “O’zapft is” confirming that the tapping was successful.  After the first keg is open all the other breweries can then start serving their beer.  There are tents from each brewery that have their headquarters in Munich.  These tents can hold up to 10,000 people.  The tables inside are small and you sit with ten of your closest friends.  If they are not your friends before, they will be by the end.  The Oktoberfest grounds are set up with food and drink booths and they also have your typical carnival rides, very similar to Houston’s Rodeo.

The tent that we were in was the Schottenhamel.  In 1867 the Schottenhamel tent was a small beer booth that only seated 50, but now it is the largest with 10,000 seats.  The Schottenhamel is one of the most important tents, because that is where the Mayor taps the first keg for Oktoberfest.  You have to have tickets to be able to get into the tents for a reserved table.  Munich Re had 26 tables reserved for that night.   Later in the evening you can go into the other tents.  Each tent is decorated differently.  They only serve one size of beer.  They serve only liters.  That’s a lot of beer!!!!   With the reserved table you get two liters of beer and ½ a chicken.  The chicken has pretty good, or it seemed to be after the first liter of beer.  There are bands playing in each of the tents.  The band in ours was really good.  They play all kinds of music, German, but also quite a bit of American music, and yes they played YMCA.   Everyone one gets up and stands on the benches and sings along while the band is playing.  We had a great time and we are going back next Monday.

Finally able to be on the internet for more than 2 minutes.....

Sunday, Sept. 5 – Today was a relaxing day since it is Sunday.  The weather was sunny and cool.  There was a wine festival nearby, so off we went.  There were several food and drink booths and they had a 2 man band, which was actually pretty good.  The band played German music and even some American music.  They played “The Twist” and an Elvis song “Teddy Bear”.  A few of the German ladies were doing their version of the Twist, we think.  Jay was a little under the weather since he was getting a cold, so we didn’t stay there too long.

Week Sept. 6 – Sept. 10 – We didn’t do too much this week.  Jay had a cold and he was busy with meetings at work.  We had two dinner meetings this week, one with his boss from PLC and the other on Thursday with a big group, some from the US office and some from the German office.  On Wednesday, we went to a really nice Italian restaurant only a few blocks from the hotel.  The waiters spoke Italian, another language that we don’t speak.  Thursday’s dinner was at a restaurant called See Haus, which is on a lake (See) in the English Garten (The German spelling).  The English Garten is a huge park near the center of Munich.  The park is about a kilometer wide and 5 or 6 kilometers long.  It is a very popular place on nice weekend days.

I managed to get Jay’s cold on Thursday, so now I’m under the weather.  I did go out this week during the day for about an hour or two just walking and seeing what is around.  On Monday, my job was to find a pharmacist to get some medicine for Jay’s cold.  The pharmacy’s here are different from the US.  They don’t have one store like CVS where you can buy everything. They have two that you would need to go to – one for medicine and one for everything else.  You cannot buy any over the counter medicine like we can in the US.  I managed to find a pharmacy with no problems.  Communicating with the pharmacist was easy, as he spoke excellent English.  You explain to the pharmacist what is wrong and they tell you what you need. 

The train workers went on strike on Friday, so it took Jay a little longer to get to work.  He said that the trains were still running, but not as often as they usually do.  Instead of waiting about 5 to 10 minutes he waited over 20 minutes and the trains were very crowded.

Saturday, Sept. 11 – Since I was still not feeling well, we did a little walking around.  We tried to find a place to get Jay’s hair cut, but all the places we found they didn’t have any openings.  So we went to a place where you can watch people surfing.  On the river there is a natural formation that makes a good wave, so we watched some of the locals.  Of course they made it look so easy.  As we were walking, we walked through a courtyard and there were several people playing bocce ball.  We sat and watched them for a while.  The bocce balls were different than the wooden ones that you see in the US.  The bocce balls here were steel.  One of the men playing was very good.  He would always hit the ball of his opponent.  After that we walked to a main street and found out that later that afternoon they were having some kind of festival.  We came back to our apartment and I rested and Jay did some work.  Later that evening, we visited a local beer garden.  This beer gardens was about the size of a football field.  Some are smaller, but there are also bigger ones.  They have tables that you can sit at all day if you want.  All they ask is that you buy their beer.  You can also buy something to eat or bring in your own food.  There were groups of people that you can tell do this often.  They have their table cloth out and they are playing cards and board games.  There is even a playground for the kids to play.  We had to try a beer of course and we ordered a half of chicken, which was quite tasty.  Jay is enjoying trying the different types of beers.  We ventured off to the festival to see what was going on.  

 

  

Sunday, Sept. 12 – Since the weather was sunny and warm we decided to go back to the lake where we were last weekend and go for a boat ride.  We went on the 3 hour boat ride.  We stopped at several little towns to pick up and drop off passengers.  There were a lot of sailboats out, but very little wind.  Looking to the south you could see the Alps.  In the distance you could see some of the leaves on the trees starting to change.  I am looking forward to seeing the seasons change.

After our boat ride we went back to the festival that we found the night before.  It was very crowded.  I can only imagine what it will be like during Oktoberfest.  We ate dinner at the festival, drank some beer of course, and listened to a band. 

Monday, Sept 13 - We had some great news on Monday – we will be able to move into our apartment early.  We’ll be able to move in on the 24^th.  Can’t wait!!!!

At Jay’s office they provide a free lunch to all the employees.  Monday’s lunch was interesting.  One of the choices was ostrich, prepared Namibian style.  It definitely doesn’t taste like chicken.  It was a dark meat with a little bit of a game favor.

Wednesday, Sept. 15 – I’ve been craving some real meat, so tonight we had to go to the Hard Rock Café  to get a cheese burger.  It was GREAT!!!!  We will definitely be visiting the Hard Rock often.