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The
Munich Marge Fest
Tuesday
20th April 2008
As
Jamie and Emma both had teaching commitments in Crete
and Germany respectively that would prevent them being
in Kendal for the big day, we decided to get the party
rolling rather early with a family holiday in Bavaria.
We
had originally intended to go to Lake Como but the logistics
of getting Margaret and I from England, Emma from Munich
and Jamie and Danae from Crete were just too great.
Instead we chose a German alpine lake, Kochelsee,
preceded by a couple of nights in Munich. This
had the added benefit of Scott being able to join us
(due to an unfortunate clash of dates he had to fly
to Wales for a stag weekend).
Jamie
had been at home with us for a couple of weeks. He
teaches English in Haraklion so had Greek Easter off
which, fortunately was about a month later than our Easter.
We flew out on the evening flight, met Danae at the
airport- her flight from Athens landed only
a few minutes after ours, and were soon joined by Emma
who had come straight from the International School
where she teaches Spanish, French and Chinese.
We
just missed the direct tube to Haidhausen so elected
for the long roundabout journey rather than wait for
half an hour on the platform. On the train we
were befriended by a beer swigging old German who found
the birthday present that Danae gave Emma hilarious!
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Margaret
and I were staying at the Max Emmanual Hotel,
a few blocks away from Emma and Scott's apartment. Emma
took us to the hotel whilst Scott met Jamie and Danae
and took them home.
At least that was the plan.
What
he actually did was take them for a beer and several
carry-out pizzas.
Meanwhile, having dropped off
our bags at the hotel, we wandered along to the flat,
stopping only for Emma to buy several carry-out pizzas.
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A slight breakdown in communications led to double
rations all round, which remarkably vanished quite quickly.
Wednesday
30th April 2008
Margaret
had a strange experience at breakfast. She left
me sat at the table to go and get her next course of
smoked salmon, mackerel and other fishy things. The
serving area was a strange shape and it took her a while
to find what she wanted but she noticed this German
chap stood in front of her, loading up his plate. She
thought no more of it but when she returned to her seat
she found that Gunther, as she had christened the German,
was the transmogrification of English hubby, Don.
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All
of which led to a change of characters for the morning:
Gunther und Greta Pschorr undertook a walking tour
of Haidhausen.
It is a very pleasant area, extensively
rebuilt after the war and with plenty of character-
interesting buildings, smart shops, public gardens and
lots and lots of bicycles.
A
word of warning to anyone visiting Munich. The
outer edge of the footpath is generally designated as
a cycle path and often there is no clear demarcation
line.
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Even where there is, it is so easy to forget
and just step into the path of a cyclist, storming
up behind, who
has right of way and intends to use it. Silent
Assassins, we called them.
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After
a coffee in the Bavarian Market style Wienerplatz (and
a fortunately unproductive visit to a designer dress
shop), Gunther und Greta crossed over the river and
headed for downtown Munich.
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Gunther had not realised
that the route he had planned would take them past all
the big name shops starting with Armani.
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Greta,
however, declined the invitation to step inside, being
anxious to see more of this lovely city.
Through
the medieval streets, past the Viktueln Market and into
the Rathaus courtyard for lunch where Gunther made a
tactical mistake.
He, naturally, ordered bratwurst
which,of course, would need a beer to accompany it.
He looked down the list of beers and saw, in second
place,a brand he did not recognise- Radler.
He
thought it would be good to try. Little did he
know that Radler means cyclist and it is the beer that
cyclists drink- i.e. a shandy.
Silly Gunther- you
would think his German would be up to that! Perhaps
he is actually Dutch?
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After
lunch the tour continued with a visit to the Residence
(outside only) then to the cathedral. This was
remarkably simply decorated and very light. Inevitably
it transpired it had been bombed in the war although
the walls survived. it certainly looked rather
more attractive in its current decor than as shown in
the pre-war photos. One hesitates to say that
it actually benefited from the bombs, but.....
Gunther
und Greta crossed back to Haidhausen via a different bridge to have
a kip in the hotel and wake up as Don and Margaret.
Jamie
and Danae meanwhile were visiting, inevitably, the aquarium.
Emma and Scott were working.
The
plan was to meet up at Emma and Scott's for pre dinner
drinks then walk along the river to a high class restaurant
that Emma had discovered in the New
York Times. However a thunderstorm
put paid to those plans. We took taxis directly
to G
Munich.
We
had been warned that it was a little like Hogwarts but
only in the sense that candles seemed to float in mid
air at the tables.
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It was smart, minimalist design
with a very unusual menu with many inbetween courses
culminating with a birthday cake. Margaret found
it a little strange with it being a month off her birthday so
we didn't sing to her! But we had enjoyed the
meal even if we could remember all the courses afterwards!
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We
finished off the evening with a night cap back at Emma
& Scott's. Jamie and Scott stayed up very late watching
Liverpool's heroic but ultimately doomed effort to knock
Chelsea out of the European Cup. We left them
to it and wandered back to the hotel.
Thursday
1st May 2008
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The
Germans do the job properly- they celebrate May Day
on the historic date. Hence both Emma and Scott
had the day off. We were due to travel to Kochelsee
but were persuaded to leave that for the afternoon.
Instead we went to the Wienerplatz and watched
with a large crowd whilst the fire brigade erected the
most enormous Maypole.
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Lots of cheering when
accomplished and then, of course, everyone troops off
down to the nearest biergarten. We did likewise
and had delicious currywurst with chips and beer (no
Radler today- lesson learnt). In order to get
a bit of variety into our diet we also ordered a side
salad which turned out to be a few leaves of lettuce
and a big pile of thinly sliced salami! But we
did also have a big bunch of radish.
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That
afternoon Emma drove Margaret and me plus all the bags
to Kochel-am-See whilst Jamie and Danae, for whom there
was no room in the car, travelled by train.
I
had booked a chalet for three nights.
We found
the hotel to which it belonged without problem but the
first attempt to find the chalet failed, with me trying
the keys in a very attractive turreted property fortunately
without being challenged.
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On checking back with
the hotel it became clear that there had been a misunderstanding
in the directions and we had been directly opposite
where we should have been and when the hotelier said
"on the left" he meant on the left of another
house, not on the left had side of the street.
Our
residence was a wooden
chalet was in the garden of a much bigger holiday house
on Kalmbachstrasse- quiet back street- very aptly named.
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Choosing where to sleep was a challenge. We
bagged the downstairs double room. Jamie and Danae
(who would not arrive until much later) were allocated
the upstairs room that had three double beds whilst
Emma had the upstairs open area which slept five!
We
went for a walk down to the lake. This is a very
dramatic region of contrasts- to the north, the plains
of Germany, to the south, the Alps rise quite rapidly.
Inbetween are lakes, in this case two- Kochelsee
which at its northern end is on the plain and Walchensee
which is reached by a short drive over a hill at the
southern end of Kochelsee and dropping into a truly
Alpine scenario.
Today
however we just wanted a gentle stroll before going
to meet the train. It was so quiet we wondered
where everybody was. Then a small boat came in
with a man stood on its roof playing an Alpine Horn.
To the strains of "Auf Wiedersehen"
and "Wooden Heart" a surprisingly large group
of people came ashore and promptly vanished.
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We
carried on with our walk, round a small hill, past some
bunny goats (tiny goats that seemed more like rabbits),
a small chapel, a ferocious statue
and back to the chalet.
Later we met Jamie and
Danae from the train and went for dinner at the hotel.
The streets were still very quiet but when we
went into the hotel cellar we discovered where everyone
was.
Fortunately we found a table and joined
in the Sparglfest (the celebration of the asparagus-
with sausage and beer of course).
Plus a rather strange pudding
for Jamie.
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Friday
2nd May 2008
We
had a late start and then decide to circumnavigate Kochelsee
by foot and boat. Plan A was to go to the Kochel-am-See landing stage where we had seen the boat with
the horn player and catch the boat for a couple of stops.
However when we got there at 12:30 and read the
timetable we discovered it would be an hour before the
boat arrived. We reckoned that we could cover
the distance on foot in that time so off we set. And
we were quite right. By the time we got to Altjoch
with its little chapel
there was no sign of a boat.
We had another look
at the timetable, this time looking at the small print
which said that before 17th May the boat only ran on
Holidays and Sundays.
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Thursday of course had been
a Holiday. No boat today.
Brief
rest, then carry on round the lake.
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The
next section of lake footpath was the most challenging,
being along a cliff path with some steep drops if you
cared to look closely enough.
Then it came down
to lakeside again, through meadows, strangely (to English
eyes) full of dandelions, with an idyllic Alpine
backdrop. Our target was the monastery brewery
(nowadays just a hotel) in Schledorf which we reached
in time for a very late lunch, i.e. at 4 p.m.!
The
trail back to Kochel-am-See was a bit of a flog along
a cycle track across marsh land but we completed the
circumnavigation on foot- a rather longer 10 miles or
so than we had originally envisaged. We passed some
strange sheep that looked like dogs- a bit like Bedlington
terriers in reverse.
Long sleeps
followed before a delicious late dinner cooked by Danae-
a sort of mega ratatouille.
Saturday 3rd
May 2008
We
took breakfast outside in the garden in the sun before
driving up the lake and over the hill to the next lake,
Walkensee.
There we found a cable car up the mountain
so we took it to find half of Bavaria on the hill despite
there being snow around. Not surprising really
because the weather was lovely and the views spectacular.
We did the Bavarian thing of lunching in the mountain
restaurant on white sausage, rosti and beer.
Jamie,
Danae and Emma walked down the hill, whilst Margaret
and I took the lazy way back to the car, picked them
up and returned back to the chalet for afternoon tea
of the best waffles I have ever tasted.
Jamie
and Danae then went for a swim whilst Emma festered
and Margaret and I had a walk round the back of the
village, making friend with an old German who found
the hill too steep for his bike and was desperately
trying to tell us something but about the only word
we understood was "Oxford".
We
had a look for the Franx Mark museum- he of Der
Blaue Reiter
fame- but it was closed for redevelopment.
Lots
of the houses had strange markings chalked above the
door and we had seen similar markings in Schledorf.
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The
letters have two meanings.
They are the initials of
the traditional names of the Three Magi:
Caspar, Melchior
and Balthasar.
They also abbreviate the Latin words:
Christus Mansionem Benedicat.
May Christ bless the
house.
The letters recall the day on which the inscription
is made, as well as the purpose of blessing.
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The crosses
represent the protection of the Precious Blood of Christ and the holiness of the Three Magi sanctified
by their adoration of the Infant Christ.
The inscription
is made above the front door, so that all who enter
and depart this year may enjoy God’s blessing. The month
of January still bears the name of the Roman god Janus,
the doorkeeper of heaven and protector of the beginning
and end of things. This blessing “christens” the ancient
Roman observance of the first month. The inscription
is made of chalk, a product of clay, which recalls the
human nature taken by the Adorable and Eternal Word
of God in the womb of the Virgin Mary, by the power
of the Holy Spirit.
So
now you know!
More
sparglfest for dinner in the hotel Keller.
Sunday
4th May 2008
I
had been warned that everywhere shuts on a Sunday but
I thought that bakeries would be an exception. So
I set off at 8:15 to try and find our daily bread. All
the shops bar one were closed, even the bakery. The
exception was the ESSO garage but they had no bread.
Yet old ladies were cycling past with bread. I
saw one emerge from a house with a bag and thought "I
know what she is doing". So I followed her and
discovered that although the bakery shop was shut, if
you went round the back you could buy bread direct from
where it was produced. And they had just three
loaves left!!!
Today
was going home day. Jamie and Danae would go to
the airport by train but Emma would drive Margaret and
me. This meant we had an extra half hour or so
to sunbathe in the delightful chalet garden, with its
statue of the little boy playing frisbee, before setting
off.
Emma had to dice with some deristricted German
nutters on the motorway but successfully dropped us off
at the airport. We thought we might see Jamie
and Danae there but due to a mix up with mobile phones
and Danae meeting a friend in a Sushi bar it didn't
happen. Indeed Danae did well to finish her all-you-can-eat sushi and catch the plane before they unloaded
her bags!
Driving
back up the M61 it was raining and a huge dark cloud
hung over Preston but the town looked as if it were
on fire. it was like an Armageddon scene. Then,
as we joined the M6, the sun dropped below the cloud
and fired its full blast horizontally into the rain
causing the most spectacular double rainbow I have ever
seen. Welcome home!
Afternote:
There
was a shop window in Kochel with some paintings in.
Margaret took a liking to one (as, I must admit,
so did I). However it was never open when we passed.
Nevertheless with the aid of the internet and
Emma & Scott, the original arrived in time for Margaret's
birthday and now proudly hangs above the fire place!
For
more celebrations see MCS60
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