Travelling Cat...

As an awful lot of you will know, I’m just back from two weeks in Europe. Europe fascinates me and the trip was amazing. We had five days in London, five days in Munich and then back to London for four days. When we passed the security checks and were asked, “Are you here for business or pleasure?” the DH always answered, “I’m here for business and she’s here for pleasure” with the obligatory eye roll. Mind you it always raised a laugh and we were let through without further ado and that’s the main point.

Anyway, I’m very good at *doing* pleasure. ;-)

Unfortunately, if I tried to share all of my trip with you we’d be here until the middle of next week, so I thought I’d just share just a little bit of it—Munich, a place I’d never visited before.

Day One: The DH had to go to a conference so I sallied forth on my own with my tiny smattering of German, a map (what on earth? I can’t read maps) and the camera. And this is what I found – beautiful buildings. I mean, really beautiful buildings. We don’t have this kind of thing in Australia and it always takes my breath away.

This is the Residenz, which is the former royal palace of the Bavarian monarchs. It's HUGE with multiple buildings and over ten courtyards. And have I mentioned beautiful?

And then I walked around the corner and saw this…

and this...

...at which point I said out loud, “You have to be joking me?”

And then I walked for a long time. It rained on and off so I ducked into a café and ordered a coffee…in German! And then I set off again. I was looking for the English Gardens—one of the world’s largest urban parks. Of course, as I can’t read maps, I was walking several streets parallel to it. Because I can’t read maps the fact I managed to wend my way to the park is in fact a miracle. And I’m very grateful to that miracle. Look see:

Have you ever seen a more beautiful, beckoning path in the world?

Okay, at this point I’d been walking for three hours. I needed to find the public amenities. These gardens are big but Yay! Public Amenities found. Oh dear, they’re not sign posted with Frau or Mann but something I don’t recognise at all. Where are the pictures of the little man and the little woman?! # Umm, 50/50 chance of getting this right, right? Guess which one I picked? I slunk off with a very red face and no doubt with stupid tourist written all over me. Oops.

Walked off the shame remarkably quickly to stumble onto (not into) the River Isar. Oh dear lord, how much beauty does one city need?

Let me just mention that the bridges are amazing—they always have the most amazing vistas/monuments/buildings. I’m hoping not too much detail has been lost in shrinking the photos down.

Because I can’t read a map—and therefore got lost—I was 40 mins late meeting the DH who was wondering if he should send out a search party for me. After over 5 hours of walking, though, I needed a rest. And so did he. So we rested before heading out for dinner…to a beer hall!

If one is what they eat then if I lived in Munich I would evolve into something halfway between a pig (pig knuckle and potato dumpling, roast pig with bread dumpling, pulled pork or bratwurst, anyone?) and a brewery. You don’t need to know how much beer I drank. I will tell you, though, that the Germans do a very nice brew. :-)

Oh dear, this blog has gone for much longer than it should. I haven’t shown you the monuments Day Four revealed—Schloss Nymphemburg (OMG!) and Allianz Arena (stadium of the mighty FC Bayern Munich). I haven’t shared the Gothic splendour of the New Town Hall or it’s amazing glockenspiel or the medieval town gate that was outside our hotel window. Oh, and there was my afternoon at the Alps! Hmm…should I perhaps blog about these things next month? What do you think?

Have you been anywhere new recently?