Central Europe trip, Post 3: Munich

On Friday, December 20th, we packed up our belongings after our two nights with Russell and Alison and their kids, had a pancake breakfast, and then headed into downtown Munich. Russell and Alison took the train and we drove our hire car, and we all met up at the Deutsches Museum at noon.

The Deutsches Museum is an enormous museum with exhibits on almost anything you can think of - from science and technology to pharmaceuticals to musical instruments to kites to geology and mining to airplanes, car and trucks! Russell and Alison got an annual pass on this visit, as they had already been a few times and were far from having seen it all.

We spent 5 hours at the museum. While the men explored some of the exhibits, Alison and I took the kids to the Kinderreich (Kids' Kingdom), where there were all sorts of fun things to play with... including a real fire engine, a pit of oversized blocks, a musical instrument room, and water!

Bobbie, Finley, Alison and Annika

At 2:30pm, we all had lunch in the museum's deserted restaurant. Afterwards, the men took the babies, and Alison, Bobbie and I spent the final hour actually looking at some exhibits! My favourite was the extensive musical instrument collection, where a man came and played a large pipe organ for us. We were the only audience for most of this excellent classical concert!

Bobbie in the Kites exhibit

At 5pm, we farewelled Russell and Alison and kids, and drove to the Munich apartment that would be our home for the next two nights. We had dinner at the apartment with some more friends from Australia who happened to be visiting Germany at the same time as us... Donna and Matthias! (Long-time blog readers may remember Donna from our Austria snowboarding trip in 2008.)

The men took the U-Bahn (underground train) into the main city square, Marienplatz, and picked up some kebabs, while Donna and I stayed behind and chatted over a sleeping Finley's head. It had been a few years since we had seen them in Australia, so we had lots to catch up on!

At midnight that night, our friends from England, with whom we would be spending the next week, arrived at the apartment... Trev and Sharon and their boys, Matthew (4) and Daniel (2). (Long-time blog readers may remember Trev and Sharon from MANY of our England blog entries, the boys vs girls cooking competition, etc.) This was the first time we had seen each other in 5 years, and thus the first time meeting each other's sons, so it was very exciting! They were beyond ready to collapse into bed though, having driven 15 hours from England that day!

The next day, Saturday, was Sharon's birthday, so we kicked off the day with a leisurely breakfast cooked by Trev. Around lunchtime, we made our way into Marienplatz on the U-Bahn to explore the Christmas markets. We had plans for later on to meet yet another Aussie friend, Bree (also previously featured in this blog when she and her sister spent 6 months living in Vancouver a couple of years ago), but ended up running into her before we had exited the Marienplatz U-Bahn station!

Our first stop was the fish fountain, the meeting point we had pre-arranged with Russell and Alison, who were also coming to see the markets with us. Bree then left us to spend a few hours with another friend she was meeting, Russell and Alison and kids arrived, and we were ready to explore!

For the next hour or so, the dads took all of the kids except for Annika, while we three ladies (Sharon, Alison and I) and Annika found a quiet spot to sit and relax for a while over hot drinks. We had a lovely talk and 40 minutes just flew by. Then, we had a quick look at some of the market stalls before meeting back up with the men and kids.

By then it was 2:30pm and time for lunch, so we headed into a restaurant just a few steps from the fish fountain. The restaurant, Ratskeller, was one of the most interesting restaurants I've ever been in! The name Ratskeller is a German word meaning a restaurant located in the cellar or basement of a town hall (Rathaus). Thus, it was like a rabbit warren, with many different rooms to dine in. We wove our way past a number of them before reaching a table that could fit all 11 of us.

We let Sharon, foodie and birthday girl, order a bunch of dishes for everyone to share. It was a delicious lunch and a very nice interlude between market wanderings!

A map of the restaurant

Clockwise from left: Ben (with Finley), me, Matthew, Trev, Daniel,
Sharon, Russ (with Annika), and Alison (with Bobbie)

After lunch, we said goodbye to Russell and Alison and kids, then wandered further from Marienplatz and found some food and flower markets. We walked through a restaurant where you could choose your seafood and then watch them cook it for you, but we were too full to try it! At the flower market, Finley charmed a lady florist and she gave him a rose. He dropped petals all the way back to Marienplatz ("she loves me, she loves me not"...?). :)

Our lunch restaurant was in this building's cellar!

After trying some kinderpunsch, it was time to meet Bree at the fish fountain at 5pm, and then we all took the U-Bahn back to the apartment for the night.

Early on Sunday morning, Ben drove to the airport to collect another friend, Katharina (also featured in this blog when we lived in England!), from her 5:30am flight from Australia. We would be spending the next five days, including Christmas, at Kat's dad's home in Austria!

First, though, it was meeting time. For various reasons to do with GPS technology and culturally-influenced assumptions, the 9 of us ended up being half an hour late to the Munich meeting! Nevertheless, we eventually made it, stayed for a snack and chat afterwards, and then set off in our two-car convoy (Bree with us and Kat with Trev and Sharon) on the 2 hour drive to Austria.

To be continued...