Germany: Nov. 6 - 8

Munich: Monday Nov. 7, 2005

Our plans for the day took a sudden twist when Brennan stated that he didn’t feel very well after breakfast. It certainly wasn’t the quality of the food which was excellent. I think he just needed a little personal down time. So we left him at the hotel to do homework and catch up on some sleep. He was pleased with this turn of events.

First stop for Sierra, Brian and I was a large nearby bookstore. We needed a road atlas before picking up our rental car tomorrow. Brian didn’t think I could navigate us through Europe on our CAA maps. We were lucky and found a good reference. It was still too early to catch the Glockenspiel at 11 o’clock. So we started wandering towards the Royal Residence, National Theatre etc. En route we passed by dozens of painted lions which I had to photograph of course. Eventually I had to stop when Brian threatened to hand over the map and leave us. Truthfully I still snuck in a couple of snaps but I couldn’t let Brian see that….

Eventually it was time for the BIG SHOW!! One of the local guide books describes the Glockenspiel as the most overrated show on earth. It certainly drew a crowd however and we stood there with the rest of them craning our necks skyward to see the moving figures. The Glockenspiel in the tower of the New Town Hall is one of largest in Europe. It has 43 bells, the largest of which weighs over 1300 kg. The first part of the performance or Carillon, takes places on the top half of the structure which represents the wedding festival of Renata von Lothringen and Wilhelm V, founder of the Hofbrau brewery in 1568. During the Glockenspiel, 18 figures dance around Wilhelm and his bride, including two jousting knights. On their second pass, the Bavarian knight knocks the Austrian knight backwards. After this performance, the lower half of the Glockenspiel comes alive. It shows the famous Cooper’s Dance which was performed for the first time by barrel makers at the end of a bad epidemic of the plague, in 1517. According to legend, the Coopers have performed their dance on the square every 7 years since this first time. The most recent rendition took place in March of this year. Now all of this took about 9 minutes and Brian was thoroughly bored. However Brian told us about “Hans” the rooster and told us we couldn’t leave until he did his thing. “His thing” involved flapping wings and three half-hearted crows which startled a few pigeons and not much else.

From here Brian and I took Sierra to the Deutsches Museum. It was a gigantic science and technology museum located on an island in the center of the Isar River. Sierra had a blast and didn’t even realize that she was doing some of her science curriculum in the process. Weren’t we sneaky? There were incredible displays of planes, spacecrafts, boats and trains which took up several floors as well as other floors on astronomy, paper making, optics, pottery etc. We were in there for hours until my “I can’t take any more time in a museum” brain took over. It was also time to check on Brennan who we soon discovered hadn’t missed us at all. We all agreed that Germany’s third largest city, home of oompah bands, beer and lederhosen was certainly worth the visit. We just didn’t do the city justice and definitely could have used some more time.

Tuesday Nov. 8, 2005: Fussen, Germany

Today was Brian’s big day. After an excruciatingly long period of time, Brian finally was able to get behind a steering wheel. We just needed to take one more train out to the airport to pick up our car. Brian hates public transport so it has been a really huge deal that we have done as much as we have. After a long walk through the airport to the car rental desk, Brian got the keys to freedom.

We headed out to the parking garage and soon discovered that freedom was in the form of a 2 door Alfa Romeo sports coupe instead of the 4 door sedan we ordered. Brian was thrilled thinking how great this little baby would handle through all the mountain curves of Austria and Switzerland. The kids piled into the backseat with their knees up to their chins and no room for their backpacks. It wasn’t looking good. The piece de resistance turned out to be lack of trunk space not space for the kids. We couldn’t fit our four bags and backpacks into the trunk. Brian’s joy turned to great sadness as he realized that he had to return the sporty car. He dragged himself back to the rental car desk and picked up some new keys. As we moved all of our gear to another floor, Brian spotted our next vehicle……a Nissan SUV. Goodbye curve hugging joy mobile. The kids were thrilled however as they realized how much space they now had.

Fully loaded, we thundered out of the garage and hit the autobahn where the speed limit was 120km and nobody did it. Our initial destination was Fussen, a small town in the Alps and home to the Neuschwanstein Castle which inspired Walt Disney to create his Cinderella Castle. It was indeed a fairytale building. It didn’t take us long to see the area and we were soon heading off to Austria.

Around 4 o’clock we rolled into St. Anton after kilometers of tunnels, curves and construction. It was a stereotypical Tyrolian village on steroids. The whole valley was an upscale ski area linked by several pretty towns. At least half of the hotels were closed as it was between summer and ski seasons, so we were getting a little worried as the sun started setting. After consulting a confusing tourist information board and then wandering over the wrong part of town thanks to the wrong number on the board, we managed to find to a great place, Rosa’s Canina. At one point I was ready to try another hotel but thankfully Brian persevered because we all enjoyed our stay. Sandra the owner suggested a fabulous place for dinner in an historic building. The room was covered in carved wooden floors and ceilings, with distinctive Tyrolian touches. It was beautiful. Brennan enjoyed his unique straw soup. Yes, it really did have straw in it at one point for flavouring and thickening. I had pumpkin soup and venison ragout. Sierra had her favourite schnitzel and Brian had wild pig. It was an amazing gourmet finish to our stay in the Alps. It was the last bit of light before the nightmare ahead…….( NEXT PAGE )