Duane and Mai

My dad's friends, Duane and Mai, led us on a hike up to a monastery. The hike was beautiful with the sunshine on the snow...wow.

at 290 meters

We went up in the Olympiaturn (Olympic Tower). It wasn't really clear enough to see the Alps (which ppl claim you can see from there). But the view of the surrounding area was cool. This is the stadium that we saw the soccer game at. They also have the world's highest rock museum in the tower. That's random.

BMW

BMW Museum. Symbol of Bavarian success in the world market.

Hofbrauhaus

Hofbrauhaus. What a party! They really do know how to imitate Oktoberfest, 365 days a year. My dad happened to be visiting during Starkbierzeit (Strong Beer Time). During Lent (ironically) the brewries all bring out their special recipes and it's strong stuff! There's nothing in the world like German beer...

Doe, a deer...

Last picture of Salzburg. In the foreground is the garden of Schloss Mirabella, which was the setting of several scenes in the Sound of Music. See the fountain in the middle? And the archway of vines on the right? Yeah, it looks a bit different in the snow.

Mozart!

Back in Salzburg, the home of Mozart. And boy will they never let you forget that! This town sure enjoys capitalizing on Mozart...it's their favorite pastime. Well, I sure do enjoy the chocolate, but I'm not the biggest fan of his music. Sorry.

Zell am See

From Salzburg we went skiing at Zell am See, one of the four million ski resorts in Austria. I didn't get any pictures up on the slops because it was snowing and visibility was horrible. It was a nice trip nonetheless and here's a picture of me standing somewhere insignificant in the town of Zell am See.

Night lights of Salzburg. 

Yet another tour

If you're aquainted with the new 'Tour' methods, you'll understand this picture. They give everyone a little hand held device so that everyone can hear the tour in their own language. It's really weird to see everyone wander around a room...the voice will say something about the floor and everyone in the room looks at it even though the room is silent. I bet these weird devices could lead a whole tour group off of a cliff without many people noticing. Well, all conspiracy theories aside, after a few tours you get used to holding the stupid thing up to your ear and it's not too bad.

Salzburg from above

Looking down on Salzburg from the fortress. It was a gray, snowy day, but the city is just too beautiful to let that get in the way.

Fire away!

Here's a picture of my dad up in the fortress. It's crazy to think how well fortified the thing was throughout history just because of it's location up on the hill. It was built in like the 700s or something and was never once taken by force.

On the way to the fortress

I convinced my dad to hike up to the fortress instead of taking the train. The icy trail was kinda a bummer, but we were able to get a better view from the various points on the way. This is one of those.

Salzburg

Salzburg is never short on charm...what a nice place to visit. It's ridiculously touristy, but for very obvious reasons. Here's my dad standing on a bridge with the old town behind him and the fortress up on the hill above. We spent a little more than two days there.

Munich Residnce

Next stop was the Munich Residence. The castle right in downtown Munich. This was my favorite room. We ended up getting ourselves lost in this place. It's deceptively large. We ended up, in our confusion, getting a bigger and better tour than we paid for. It's a confusing castle, just trust me.

Odeonsplatz

I call this church 'The Yellow Church'...wish I knew the real name...

Paulaner Brewpub

Back in Munich. I'm standing in front of a cool German restaurant with some sort of pig statue. Um...who knows why...

Perfect conditions... 

New hat

Nice shot with the expanse of mountains in the frame. Those mountains are most likely in Austria. The ski resort at Garmisch is almost exactly on the Austrian border. Notice my dad's new FC Bayern hat...

More of that Zugspitze

Zugspitze in the background. Dad checking the map in the foreground.

Zugspitze

The Zugspitze. Highest point in the German Alps.

Garmisch - Partenkirche

We spent one day in Garmisch (location of the highest peak in the German Alps). The weather was amazing, the slopes weren't crowded at all, and we had a great time. I'm going to show off my photography skills now.

Deutsches Museum

Dad and I really loved the Deutsches Museum. It's like the Smithsonian of Germany and has some awesome exhibits. We spent hours and hours wandering around it. Way cool. This is kinda a lame picture of me in front of some sort of plane. (very specific, huh?)

Icy/snowy Munich - view from a bridge on the Isar. Though not the most desirable weather, it sure was beautiful. 

Champion's League!!!

Bayern Munich v. London Arsenal. Champion's League. One of the biggest soccer games of the year (until the playoffs this summer). The place was sold out and it was loud and crazy. During half time, we witnessed the largest snow ball fight ever - 65,000 ppl. Bayern won 3-1. They are awesome.

Where's the sunshine?

The first couple of days of my dad's visit in Munich was snowy and cold. We did our best to work through the weather and have fun. This is a picture of the Olympiapark in Munich, built for the '72 Olympics and still in frequent use.

Departure

My dad left yesterday. I just got a call from him to confirm his safe return home.

More photos and stories soon to come!

Update: still the place to be

Well, in reference to my previous post claiming that 'Germany is the place to be in February' :

Bush is here today.

Oh, and my dad is here.

So there's even more evidence for my argument.

The Dadster has arrived

Just a short post to announce the arrival of my dad. I was worried that the snow would hold up his plane...but he was lucky...or maybe it's me that's lucky. Almost all subsequent arrivals into Munich were delayed or canceled because of the weather, but not Dad's flight. YAY!

The place to be

It seems like Germany is the place to be in February.

Two weeks ago Condaleeza Rice and Hilary Clinton were in Munich for some special Euro-Treaty or something.

The past ten days a big Film Festival took place in Berlin and all the biggest Hollywood stars were in Berlin. Will Smith, Keanu Reeves, Dustin Hoffman, Bruce Willis...

Weird.

I'm rambling here...

I just went to the German version of Home Depot, Obi, for no real reason. I realized that I had never been there, so I needed to check it out. It's really weird what you'll do for fun on a Saturday morning when you do watch cartoons and your friends are out of town. I ended up learning some new vocabulary...which I can totally also learn watching Tim Allen dubbed over in German...and buying some duct tape and two other random things from the sale bin. I couldn't help myself...55 cents each.

I feel really old today. No reason really. And I bet I will feel older tonight. I'm going to some Reggae Party with Astrid and her friends...who are all younger than me. But maybe being around younger people will make me feel younger? It could go either way. By the way, isn't it really weird that out of all the Germans I could make friends with, I picked one's obsessed with Reggae music? Yeah, that's random. German and Reggae = the new Peanut Butter and Jelly (which is a combination that the Germans never implement...but they have discovered Pineapple and Ham, which they use in Hawaii Pizzas and stuff...I don't get how they could see that combination of sweet and salty as legitimate while completely disregarding PB&J)

Oh, I need to admit to something that may be suprising to many of you. The whole European style of drinking bubbly mineral water finally got to me. I crave it. The other day I tried to order a bottle of water (with my wonderful chocolate croissant) and the lady said that she only had the non-bubbly, normal kind. I was really disappointed. The disappointment leads me to believe that I've been in Europe for too long. Just 5 months ago you would've had to pay me to drink that water...wow...I'm gonna need some Americanization therapy upon my return.

Two things that go together really well...like better than pineapple and ham...are public transportation and an ipod. It just enables you to tune out all of the annoying people on the train/bus and be in your own little world. I thoroughly enjoy it.

Well, my dad is coming in two days...I'm soooo excited!!!

Don't really know why I felt like rambling so, but I did...

The Grippe

I really don't think the term 'flu' fits how horrible it makes you feel. I prefer the German word 'Grippe.' It sounds scarier. I guess 'influenza' sounds scary too, but no one refers to it as that.

I'm just gonna say it - Last week, the Grippe got me. Right at the end of my semester. The Grippe also attacked over half of the people I know...it was certainly an epidemic. For a few moments, I thought it could have been bioterrorism targeting the Americans...but I rethought that one as a bit too farfetched. It's just apparent that the high level of stress at the end of the semester made our bodies much more vulnerable.

It's all over the city. I saw three people this morning on the U-bahn with face masks on. These people must be afraid of the Grippe. I would be too...but I already got it.

Be afraid, be very afraid...the Grippe is here.

Let's just be glad the Cold War ended the way it did...

...or at least that we don't live in North Korea.

You've gotta read this article. It is both hilarious and unbelievable.

Ein Augenblick vor dem Sterben

I just got back from seeing a really cool play at the University. Tiffany's friend Anja is a theater major and she invited us to their current production - Ein Augenblick vor dem Sterben (A Moment Before the Death).

They created a very intimate stage in the middle of a circle, with the audience sitting around the stage. Tiffany and I became props at times...a heroine addict hid her drugs under Tiffany's seat! The scenes were all really short and had all new characters. At the end of each scene, someone died. Then half way through, one of the women that died went back and changed her actions. So she ended up surviving. Her survival changed everything else and all of the deaths that had previously happened. It was at this point that I realized that all of the people were connected. For example, because the motorcyclist survived his accident, he and his mother were in the hospital room and were able to call for the nurse when the man in the neighboring hospital bed experienced a collapsed lung. It was really fun to watch how everything connected and came full circle just because of the small change.

I haven't seen such a well done (without all the bells and whistles of a broadway musical) play before. I was able to understand all of the German, but it was partly because the actors did a good job. We brought Ingrid's friend with us, who speaks absolutely no German...thankfully the actors were good enough to make it so understandable.

Overall, what started out to be a rather morbid play, ended up suprising me and being really intriguing/interesting/thought-provoking.