Playing in the snow

Well, as it continued to snow (over 16 inches total), we took advantage of it. A visit to the Theresenwiese - the huge park where Oktoberfest is held – yielded an interesting view of a snow-covered Lady Bavaria. And our balcony provided a handy place to keep beer cold. Look at all of the snow on the table: Saturday I purchased some cheap snow pants, we got a couple of cheap sleds, and headed out to Olympic Park to go sledding on the hill. Tons of fun, and a first for Kyle! The beer garden there was even open which provided for a tasty gluhwein break. Wonderful weekend taking advantage of the snow. Amazingly, after being in the -10ºC range for nearly the whole week, Sunday it crept up to +6ºC, melting most of the snow, so we headed out to the zoo, where we were able to see the newborn baby Gorilla. Until next time…

SNOW SNOW SNOW!

This is absolutley amazing. Yesterday was nothing. It snowed all night long, and hasn't really stopped today. Check it out! I think we have at least 8 inches on the table on our blacony, which is even somewhat under an eave. It's also pretty neat as here they even have sidewalk snow plows - but man will they run you over if you don't get out of the way!

My shoes are completely lacking - I'm going to have to start looking for something that goes up over my ankle at least, preferably with some sort of water resistance - I just want to go play in it all! It was great going class today - there are quite a few people there like myself who are definitely not used to snow, and we're all looking forward to building snow men ;)

Real snow!

All the rumors were true, and we now have snow! This is much better than that brief little bit back in November. Real snow – all night long, and most of the day today. I was home from class today waiting on the dishwasher repairman (broken motor – now to see what the landlords say: new motor or new machine). After he left I headed out to the Englischer Garten to check out the scenery – quite beautiful, quiet, serene - and so clean. I haven’t seen snow coming down like this in a while. More is expected tonite and tomorrow – yippee!

Watch out for Hurricane Kyrill

Well, while Austin was shut down for a snow/ice storm, Munich was shut down Thursday afternoon and Friday for a wind storm. Seriously. Apparently hurricanes are not just over water, and some of them don’t even have any rain! The S-bahns were partially shut down, as they run above ground – trees fall over the tracks, and it takes a while to get them off and the train running again. All over Germany it was actually quite serious, with many deaths. And in Berlin, the new train station had a few problems – including a girder that fell down – how, I’m not quite sure. So, trains all over Germany were having a hard time getting were they needed to go, not to mention the airplanes. Ah well, all over now – back to school and work for us.

Schönes wochenende

Friday we went to a birthday party of one of Kyle’s coworkers, Andy (he’s the other guy that tapped a keg at Elke’s party back in November). Good evening, and made it back just in time to catch the last train home. Saturday we headed out with Christian and Elke to Wurzburg, on their kind invitation. Elke’s family has a building there in which they conveniently still have a flat, so we were able to stay there and tour the city while they took care of some business with the rented space on the first floor. Her family has owned the building since the late 40s, and one of the tenants is a 95 year old woman (living on the 4th floor – no elevator!) who has been there since the building was built. Saturday evening we went to a great little weinstube in town. A class had just gotten out, and as we were ordering the red wine sampler, the sommelier came over and explained in wonderful detail the wines of the region, the specific wines we were tasting, and why red is better than white! The next day we traveled to a teeny town called Sommerhausen (Winterhausen is just across the main road) on the way home. Wonderful time, and we’ve realized that back in Austin we should really take more advantage of our weekends, as short day trips can really complete a weekend.

Akademie of Visual Arts

This week I went to check out the Akademie of Visual Arts, by the previously posted COOP HIMMELB(L)AU. Started out a gorgeous day, but cloudy by the time I got there, so not very many photos. It’s interesting to look at in GoogleMaps, but otherwise….

Herz Jesu Catholic Church

Today's beautiful weather provided a great opportunity to visit this church by Allmann Sattler Wappner Architekten, located in Munich-Neuhausen. It was quite an amazing view. There were several other 'architourists' there wandering around. Be sure to check out the website, as there are some amazing photos (you'll have to dig around some, but they're there) of the building with the whole glass front opened up like two giant doors. The glass front is actually this double paned glass with blue nails printed on it (close up below) - on the exterior the nails themselves are in blue, while on the interior the print is inverted. The wooden 'fins' on the interior surrounding the actual worship space gradually are positioned so they let in more light as they get closer to the altar. There are also five wounds of the cross within the church expressed through glass 'windows' in the floor, allowing one to look down upon an artist's depiction of the wounds. Lots of amazing stuff going on throughout the building. Meanwhile, I've decided to open up a Flickr account to put all the photos, since I couldn't narrow it down . . .

Fünf Höfe

There is this great little shopping center just north of the Marienplatz called the Fünf Höfe, which means 'Five Courtyards.' It has pricey shops within it, mixed with some decent ones like a branch of Hugendubel (though the English language branch of theirs is just outside of the Fünf Höfe and has been a pretty good resource for up-to-date travel books; still prefer The Readery for fiction, though), a Muji store, and a pretty good Thai restaurant. The wonderful things about it, though, are the five courtyards and various passageways linking them. They are such a stark contrast with the typical indoor mallscapes you would see in the States. It was designed by the previously mentioned firm Herzog and de Meuron. Personally, my favorite is the Prannerpassage which has these small discs, probably 3 inches or so in diameter, embedded flush within the concrete walls, gradually decreasing in density towards the arched ceiling of the two-story space. It's absolutely gorgeous on a sunny day and changes so much during different times of the day especially since the entry-way off of the street is painted with this slight purple color. Definitely worth a stop if you're in the area, and it tends to be my small addition to Kyle's nearly perfected Munich walking tour. Oh, and also, there's an interesting parking garage just down the street that is skinned in some sort of cut-metal:

Genuβ für Leib & Seele

We had a pretty busy weekend, surprisingly. Friday night was movie night - the new James Bond flick - which we both liked very much. Action packed, entertaining, worth the money. Saturday was the perfect day for a museum - cold, damp, drizzly, and generally uck. We've been holding off on museums here in Munich waiting for the crappy weather to arrive, and it finally did. We started with the Alte Pinakothek, and will progress on to the others as winter continues. Rather appropriate musuem, as Saturday was Epiphany, which is a holiday here in southern (Catholic) Germany (yes, all the stores were closed), and we saw plenty of represenatations of the three kings arriving in Bethlehem. Here in Bavaria, various representatives from the churches will also bless homes and business on Epiphany. As one walks around Munich, you will often see '20*C+M+B*07' written in chalk above doorways, which is updated every year. Traditionally, the letters 'C', 'M', 'B' represent the first letters of the names of the wise men, but supposedly it really represents 'Christus Mansionem Benedictat' or 'Christ bless this home.' We had dinner later that night at the traditional Augustiner Brewery - yummm.

On Sunday, we decided to take advantage of the sunshine, and headed out for a day trip to the Andechs Monastery. Of course, by the time we got there is was rather like Saturday, weather wise, but still proved to be a great day. After an hour walk through the woods, up a hill, we arrived at the Church, Brewery, cloisters, etc. on a plateau on top of the hill. On a clear day you can supposedly see the Alps! The photo above is of all of the regulars' mugs, under lock and key until they are ready to use them. We lunched, sampled some of their brews ('good for body and soul'), and in general had a very relaxing afternoon. The stained glass image at left is in one of their brewhalls and reads' Hops and Malt - God's ingredients." We headed back down the hill with the daylight fading behind us. And yup, a bit of sleeping on the train ride back home...

Frohes Neues Jahr!

Happy new year! We're back in Munich, and boy is it cold! Dec. 31st was amazingly gorgeous - high in the 60s - so we took advantage of it and headed out to the Englischer Garten for a great walk. Later that nite we headed over to a party hosted by some American friends. Dinner was great ( a real Turkey to make up for our lack of on Thanksgiving), followed by a great bird's eye view of the fireworks going off all over the city. We have decided that Munch-kins must be pyromaniacs! Fireworks were going off right in the middle of the street, and not just silly old bottle rockets. A great nite, and the holiday gave us a chance to fully recover from jet lag.