The End.

Not clydesdales, but they'll do.

This is the end of our summer in Munich, it's hard to believe. I wish I could put into words how it feels on this last night here. It's a mixture of nostalgia and longing, but also a feeling of anxiousness in preparation for our travel and arrival home. I am ready to go, but wish we could stay. It's hard to wrap my brain and heart around it.

We left Plzen today later than we expected, around 12:30. We anticipated arriving back in Munich around 3pm, but traffic and construction landed us back in town by 4 pm. Paul was excellent in the car, I hope he's the same for all our travels tomorrow.

Balloons are better than rocks!

Donnie had noticed a poster for a party hosted by Hofbrau at their brewery grounds when we were there for the tour, so he had his sights set on spending the evening there. We hadn't been to any fests since we've been here; we're missing the season of fests by a few weeks. We were pleasantly surprised by the nature of the event when we arrived. I guess Hofbrau hosts these parties once a year, called Dults, and they go all out for it.

My former life.

We got their an there were horses pulling carts in full regalia, there were kids activities, a live band, a fashion show, tents, and food. It was spectacular. The band that played was all in matching lederhosen and they were thoroughly entertaining! The fashion show was all traditional Bavarian wear, and included plenty of dancing. I was impressed. You can even buy a beer and stein for 4.50, and refills are only 2.50. That's fresh Hofbrau too, Donnie even got to pour his own.

A snack for Paul.

Coolest stein, 2.50 euro.

As we were standing there, I saw the man that had introduced us at the beginning of our tour of the brewery a few days before. I guess we are hard to forget because when we waved he came right over. He was very friendly and talked with us for quite a while, before giving us free beer coupons! Hooray for connections at the Hofbrau! ;)

We stayed for a few hours. Paul had a good time listening to the music, playing with balloons and dancing in the grass. I think he will miss Munich too. It's amazing how much he's grown since we've come. He is more a boy now than a baby and it makes me proud and sad at the same time. He's such a character, and a handful at the same time. :)

Love him.

We are now safely checked into our airport hotel, getting ready to repack for our long journey tomorrow. We go from Munich to Paris to New York to Atlanta to San Antonio. Whew, I hope it all goes well.

It really has been an adventure, these six weeks. I can't describe how amazing it's been to experience all of this with Paul and Donnie. Things are so different now from all the times we've traveled before. It's so fulfilling to have Paul to share it with. I can't wait for our next adventure as a family.

One really good tour.

Beautiful grounds

Since we decided to extend our stay in Plzen, there was no rush to get the day started yesterday. We had a delicious free breakfast, Paul took a nap, and we were ready to go by noon. :) We walked across the street and arrived just in time to sign up for an English tour of the Pilsner Urquell brewery. Actually, we were a little early, so we did some shopping in the gift shop first. I have to say, I think we picked up the coolest pen of our trip at that shop. :)

Bottling plant, and my legs.

So dramatic.

Our tour guide was kind, prompt and very informative. She walked us through the entire brewing plant,  and the old brewery. Pilsner Urquell was first made in 1842, and this particular brewery is where it was born, so to speak. This is also the only brewery that makes the Pilsner, so every Pilsner Urquell you have any where in the world is made right where we were. It was a very thorough tour, lasting almost 2 hours, but it was beautiful like the Guiness brewery, but functional like the Anhauser-Busch. They had the most visually interesting movie, and we all stood on a moving platform as it moved us through the video. The screen took up half the circular room; Paul was fascinated. I think, all in all, it is possibly the best brewery tour I've ever been on. I think Donnie would agree. (As a disclaimer for the number of pictures in this post, you had to pay to take pictures, so I got my money's worth. I think I walked away with over 75 photos. So these are my favorites.)

Heading into the cellar.

All the Pilsner you could wish for.

The tour ended in the cellar, where it was just 5 degrees Celsius, and they pour you a beer straight out of the barrels that they are aging in. It's pretty cool, and cold. It is unfiltered Pilsner Urquell, which I don't think you can get anywhere but here. Good stuff. :)

We then proceeded back to the brewery restaurant, where Paul was able to play in a cute little corner for kids while we ate. I had goulasch soup in a bread bowl, yum! I think Czech goulasch is the best in the world, and I could eat it all the time. I'll miss the yummy soups and breads when we go back to the Texas heat.

Huge barrels of beer.

Even though there was no chance of rain in the forecast, it rained on us as we made our way to the brewery museum. I've never learned so much about the history of beer and beer making. I guess in the medieval ages, people used to brew their own beers, and put a wreath out on their door to invite people in to drink. That's how taprooms and pubs started, at least in Plzen. Pilsner Urquell was formed when all of the citizen brewers got together and decided the quality of Plzen beer was not good, and they set out to make a good one. Boy, they did.

The tasting room.

After another snack in a cute pub, we headed back to the hotel. The rain and wind was getting to us and Paul had no afternoon nap, so we made it an early night.

My favorite shot.

YUM.

The play area, can you see Paul?

It doesn't feel like our last day here. We have to make the 3 hour trek back to Munich in few hours, and then decide how to spend our last lingering hours there. I can't believe it's winding down. I look forward to home, but I chuckled a little looking at the forecast. It's supposed to be 64 degrees in Munich today and 100 in San Antonio. Yikes. I can't wait for sunshine though. :)


 I will try to post one more time before we leave, but our summertime in Munich is almost over. Thanks for reading and see some of you really soon.

A walk among trees and the home of Pils

Fearless on the tree top walk.

So on Thursday, Donnie left and picked up a rental car for us to use for the remainder of our stay here. We planned a small loop in Bavaria and Czech Republic; a small road trip to finish up the weekend. Unfortunately, shortly after we got on the road we got caught in a horrible stau, which lasted 30 minutes. We didn't move on the highway for a full 30 minutes, after that torture, we headed out to a place Donnie had read about long before we came to Munich, The Tree Top Walk.

The tower.

It was a winding drive through stunning countryside, but just as we arrived Paul threw up all over him and myself. We had underestimated the amount of winding car rides he could handle, poor kiddo. After a serious clean up, we headed in to grab lunch.

After having a scrumptious lunch, we headed out on the walk. This is a raised platform in the Bavarian forest that culminates with a tower 44 meters above the forest. Donnie is afraid of heights, so it was made him a little bit dizzy, but Paul was fearless. He did most of the walk himself, except for up the tower.

On top of the world.

From the top, the view was fantastic, but there were threatening clouds, so we wandered back down and found our way back to the car. It was well worth the drive and was an incredible experience.

You can see why Donnie was dizzy.

Back in the car, we drove across the Czech-German border and wound our way through to Plzen. We arrived just before 5 and checked into our hotel. Our hotel is directly across the street from the Pilsner-Urquell brewery, which is why Donnie picked this hotel.

We were too late for a tour, so we decided to scope out the old town/downtown area. Plzen is a pretty small town, but very picturesque. Our hotel is filled with black and white photos, so it inspired me to do some black and white pics of my own. Downtown isn't very big, so we wandered for about an hour before heading to the brewery for dinner.

Downtown Plzen.

Paul in b&w.

The nice thing about the Czech is the currency. They are not on the Euro, they are on Koruna (Crowns), which trade at 20 for the dollar. So everything is so much cheaper!! I was joking with Donnie that we should have done our whole stay here. Would've been way less expensive. For example, we had a really delicious meal at the brewery for less than 20 dollars. Crazy right? That meal in the States would've been at least $50. Oh well, next time. :)

The Pilsner Urquell Brewery

After dinner, there happened to be a concert going on in the courtyard of the brewery, so we stayed for a couple of songs until it was too cold, and Paul was tired. Luckily, all we had to do was cross the street and we were back at our hotel.

Donnie's dream.

Paul played for a while, refusing sleep until finally he went down. Donnie and I watched a movie and decided to stay in Plzen for one more day instead of going to Regensburg as planned. So we have an extra day!

 Today we're hoping to tour the brewery, then a few museums and maybe the zoo. We'll see. :)

The last day in Munich

Last meal at the Hofbrau

Wednesday was our last day spent in Munich, we had to check out of our apartment on Thursday, but our flight is not until Sunday. It was a weird feeling to be leaving, but not really leaving yet. Munich  had to tease us of course with having the most beautiful, warm day we've had in a while.

We got up early and had a packing party, it was crazy that we fit all of our stuff into the suitcases that we brought. I am pretty sure we bought as much stuff as we are bringing back, but hopefully the weights on them will be ok. After we packed, we went for our last run on the Isar and ended it at the Hofbrau Keller.

Paul had a blast again, this time playing and drawing with some other kids that were in the kids area. We actually had time to sit and relax instead of chasing him around. :)

From there, we decided to make a push and head to the river. The U-bahn disrupted our plans, and it took us over an hour to go what would normally take 20 minutes. Frustrated, but refusing to give up such a beautiful, sunny day, we gathered our stuff and turned around and headed back out.

We found a quiet place on the river, not very far from all the naked people that lay out, but if you faced the other way you didn't see them. :) We settled in and enjoyed the sun and reflected on our time here. Paul had fun throwing rocks into the river, splashing and wading as far as he could into the frigid waters.

I will miss so much about living in Munich. Things like fresh bread whenever you want it, fresh beer that's cheaper than water, getting around by foot and public transport instead of cars, beer gardens and playgrounds, outstanding running paths, enormous parks and gorgeous weather, but mostly I will miss enjoying it all with my family. We've really had a good time, and that's an understatement.

On the flipside, I won't miss everything closing at 8 and on Sundays, bottle deposits, hot subway trains, rude checkout clerks and no a/c. :) Other than that, I would love to live in Munich full time.

 We fell asleep early on Wednesday, and woke early Thursday to finish packing and we were on the road by 8:30 am. :) Let the adventures begin...

A trip to the brewery.

Donnie was determined to visit the famous breweries while we are here in Munich, but there is a difficulty we have not faced in other places when it comes to tours. We have been on brewery tours in several states and countries, but never have we encountered the ordeal we have here. Our failed attempt at Ayinger was actually quite a loss, considering the effort it takes.

Visitors.

In order to take a brewery tour, you must email the directors ahead of time ( I would suggest quite a bit ahead of time), and request a spot on one of their tours. We were turned down by Augustiner, Paulaner, Weihenstephaner, Spaten, and a few others. Hofbrau allowed us on their tour, but the condition was that it was only in German. I took German in high school, and I've used it in many travel adventures, but I could not be considered even close to fluent, but we decided it was better than nothing. :)

Rather well hidden.

Determined to avoid the same fate as Ayinger, I planned our schedule so that we would have 45 minutes when we arrived in the area of the brewery in order to find it. It was good that I did. We took the S-bahn out to the area, and started walking. The map that was provided to us from the brewery seemed to guide us along the railroad tracks, so we stuck close to them. But the walking path was lonely and there was no sign of the brewery so we started to worry.

We tasted fresh beer here.

We wandered in the paths and weekend gardens for 35 minutes, until finally we found a group of school kids who were on their way to the brewery for a tour as well. We followed them, and successfully found the brewery with minutes to spare. :)

So of all the brewery tours I've been on (Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis and Ft. Collins, New Belgian, Modelo, Shiner...and others), none have ever been so detailed as the one today. Too bad we couldn't understand it!! :) Paul behaved pretty well, considering the tour guide wouldn't let us take the stroller. He fell asleep halfway through, which was good and bad. Good for observing the brewery, bad for my back. The total tour was about two and half hours, but ended with a yummy meal of weisse wurst and beer. It only cost 10 euro apiece!

Two months till Oktoberfest!

Donnie and I decided it's not really a tourist thing to do, since we toured with a school group, and it was pretty inaccessible. That's ok, we've seen the birthplace of the delicious Hofbrau and that's worth it.

Tomorrow is our last day in the apartment and then off to our adventuring before home. Tomorrow is the true day of lasts.

On another note, Lyle Lovett was on the ipod while I was writing this and it makes me miss my dad. Love you, Dad, hopefully we can get together soon. :)

Also, Paul is working on his smile. :)

The first of the lasts...

Today was full of possible lasts. We check out of our apartment on Thursday, when we are going on an adventure for the weekend before we head home Sunday, so we are soaking up as much of Munich proper as we can.

The Bavarian Parliament, where we end our run.

We went for our usual run down the Isar, and I don't think it will be our last, since I plan on running as much as possible before we head home, but it felt a little sad. I took the camera with us, with the intent of capturing my favorite parts of that path, but of course, I hate to stop once I've started running, so there are just a few from the end of the run.

The view from the Maximillian Bridge.

It's a five mile path along the Isar, mostly gravel, that takes us from Thalkirchen all the way past the Deutsches Museum, past the Marienplatz, on to the Maximillian bridge. It's really beautiful, and I really will miss it.

Augustiner Brewery

From there, we walked to the Marienplatz, then jumped on an S-bahn train to the Augustiner Brewery. It's not very far from the center of town, and Donnie had actually stayed across the street from it when he was in Munich the first time. He didn't realize it was the brewery though. This brewery doesn't give tours, but they have a restaurant and we had a delicious meal.

"Smile, Paul!"

Paul has started trying to smile at the camera since we take so many pictures of him. His smile is more like a grimace right now, but we'll work on it. ;)

In the restaurant at the brewery

From there we strolled down back downtown in search of the perfect beer stein for Donnie. Which, after much searching, was finally found, and it is very nice. I can't wait to see him bring it out on first Fridays and all the fests in the fall.

I was tired, so we came home for a short nap, then we were off again to the Munchner Haupt. It may be our last trip there, but again I doubt it. Paul played hard, and we relaxed for a bit and we headed home to put Paul to sleep.


I am starting to miss Munich, and we haven't even left yet.

The Kocherlball

Out of the house before 6 am!

So this post will be mostly pictures, because I took way too many and can't narrow them down. :) This morning I woke up at 4:30am and got dressed up in my Bavarian dress (dirndl) and dressed Paul in his lederhosen. Donnie got up and did the same, we were on our way to the Kocherlball.

Waiting for the U-Bahn.

So I guess in the old days of Munich, during the 19th century, there was a tradition in the Englischer Garten for servants and domestic workers to come and have a dance in the park on Sunday mornings. The idea was that they had to work all of the other times, so this was really their only time to party before heading back to work.

So now to commemorate that tradition, once a year in the summertime, people spend a Sunday morning dancing at the Chinese Tower. Today was the Kocherlball, so we made a U-bahn train at 6 am and were there by 6:45 am. I've never seen so many people ready to have a good time on a Sunday morning!

Awesome.

It was neat!! They had a live band and pretty much everybody was in costume, or traditional dress. People were drinking, eating, dancing, talking, stumbling, but mostly laughing and smiling. I thought we would be among the first to arrive, but when we got there the seats were already filled. We watched the band play for a little while, then headed to the corner to the playground.

More rocks.

Paul was the only small child there, so he had the playground to himself. He has a good time throwing rocks around and trying to climb the ladder. We watched him play and took in the atmosphere. It was fantastic, I can't even really describe it well. There were young people there who were continuing their partying from the night before, there were elderly people in serious Bavarian gear with candelabras on their tables, there was a famous person I didn't recognize, but he got mobbed with picture takers. There was this light-hearted, good times spirit in the air that accompanies festivals, but this was different. The brisk morning air, the costumes and delicious food, the music; it was magical. I took a video that I will post, but its a little dizzying since I was walking through a crowd, but it sort of captures the mood.

Cool Merry-Go-Round, too bad Paul didn't enjoy.

Breakfast.

Those swans are agressive!

We stayed for a few hours, Donnie took Paul on the Merry-go-Round, but he was not a fan. He started wailing halfway through, so they had to stop it early. :) So we headed out and walked our familiar path back to the Odeonsplatz. We stopped to feed the ducks and swans, Paul's favorite part of the morning I think. He laughs so hard when the ducks go after the bread, it makes us laugh.

The Englischer Garten is stunning.

We headed back to the Marienplatz, and took a quick train home. We were back in bed by 10am and took a nice, warm nap. Now it's raining and we'll have to think of something to take up the rest of this Sunday, but I am so glad that Donnie found out about this cool tradition. We had a twinge of regret that there was no one else here to enjoy this event with us, but it was unforgettable.

Back to the Odeonsplatz

Only one week left.....