// JSpot //

Tonight was our last night in München, so we had to make it good!

We started with a few drinks at Jessy’s apartment, and some YouTube. From what I have gathered on this trip, these crazy Germans just like to get drunk and watch YouTube all night! And Mario Barth seems to be the video of choice. Sorry Nicole, Jessy.

Hello.

Once the YouTubing was complete, we made for town. First on our itinerary was a revisit to Tollwood. On a cold Saturday night, the big music tent (Tief-im-Wald) was absolutely packed. We once again managed to arrive at the end of the band’s set, but nonetheless we got a few pints of beer down before they finished with a polka rendition of “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. How great.

With us again were Jessy’s brother Patrick and entourage of ladies. I know they were all 19, but in some way, they looked much older. I have no idea what they thought, but I kept glancing up at the three of them - and sometimes catching at least one of them in particular glancing back. Her hair was beautifully sheen with all the colors of the tent lighting. I tried to tell her how sexy it was, but I guess it got lost in translation. Anyway, I snapped some photos and she gave me her email address so I could send her the photos.

While deciding what to do, the girls “borrowed” my camera, and I wound up with a few shots I don’t remember taking - because I didn’t take them. They turned into a good laugh anyway.

Once we departed Tollwood, we headed for a night club called Max und Moritz. This is what Ted would have wanted. Two (or three) huge rooms of face melting, heart pounding, blindingly loud music. Actually, I can’t remember the last time I was in a club with this much power in the audio system. The dance room absolutely throbbed with every thump of the kick drum into the depths of your chest, and even at high volumes, the music was clean and never distorted - it just got louder!

We danced here for an especially longs time, but like the stiff American I am, I never really quite got into it. I don’t think the Germans are really into that hideous close grinding we call “dance” anyway.

Many stupid pictures were taken, some still funny enough to post

I took a few pictures, but I guess bars and clubs are ultimately all the same. However, I did do, for the second time this trip, something stupid. I swore up and down when we left the club that I had lost my GPS receiver. Why did I have it with me in the first place? But second, where was it? After some frantic searching of all my pockets, I gave up. If it had fallen out at the club, or in the cab, then it was surely gone. I would not even know how to describe the little black gadget to someone in the hopes that they’d found it. So I began readying myself for bed when I remembered the secret pocket on my undershirt. A zippered pocket for runners. And there it was. Tucked safely into the secret pocket!

Finding the receiver was a relief, and so we resumed watching YouTube videos until Benny’s train was running again. At 04:30.

Saturday morning arrived all too soon, or rather ended too soon. Sleep was cut short around noon by the arrival of four more guests - Jessy’s brother Patrick and his friends Jenni, Ramona, and Timeea .

After eating Weißwurst for breakfast (lunch?) that Jessy had so kindly prepared, we geared up and set out for another day of adventure.

The first stop: the Englischer Garten. On the Eisbach river here, some crazy Germans had found a rip tide in the river that created an infinite wave suitable for surfing on. And that’s exactly what they were doing. I’ve never seen anything like this! There is snow on the ground, the air is about 30 degrees, and the river is certainly frigid as well. They wore wet suits, but they must have been on the lower extreme of what a wet suit is capable of insulating you from. Any colder and they would need dry suits.

After some photos were taken, we strolled on through the park, which was thoroughly snowed in, and came to another Christmas market at the Chinesicher Turm (Chinese Tower). This was a quaint little market with so many delicious things to smell. Homemade soaps, Glühwein, waffles, roasted nuts…

We walked quite some way on this outing - about 6.5 miles in all, according to the GPS, which I handily brought along this time, and as a reward, it produced a fantastic log for us!

Brian received word that his boss would need to change plans for Sunday. Instead of driving to Göttingen as planned, we would be bound for Bad Kreuznach. Most likely, then, on Monday, I’ll pick up a train to Köln or Frankfurt for the day/night. It might be nice to get some solo time and do some shopping and sight seeing on my own. But more than likely I’ll just be hopelessly lost and confused!

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Brian and I found a little fun place called BMW Welt

Sheiße! We seem to have overslept. Or perhaps we subconsciously changed our minds. We had a Barcelona moment, but since we hadn’t purchased our tickets to Austria, it was no loss to us. Except the Augustiner Brewery!

When we did finally wake up, we decided that rather that trying to race to Austria, we should look for something “touristy” to do in Munich.

And we found it: BMW Welt.

An enormous tribute to Munich’s biggest auto-maker… or a multi-million dollar advertisement for BMW. You can even pick up your new car here at the factory and they make a weekend of the experience for you. Wow. The exhibits they had were mildly biased, but they spared no expense on the presentation. Entire three-story walls were made into fluid animations with rear-projection screens guided your way. 100-foot long touch-sensitive tables with interactive overhead projection laid out the history of BMW. Enormous picture books with visual recognition queued a recorded voice over, filling in the details the picture couldn’t convey. So much technology!

And of course, the cars. Every make and model that has ever bared the BMW emblem was here. The Bond cars, the first BMW production car, even the original aircraft engine that got the company started.

After spending most of the day there, we stopped on our way home again at Marien Platz for a snack and then… the Hofbrauhaus! That famous touristy trap that no touristy day would be complete without! Interestingly, though, the Haus was filled to the gills with Germans! Rick Steves must have got it wrong. It took over 10 minutes to find a bench to plop down on, but when we did, the consumption of large quantities of beer began, served, of course, in the traditional one-liter mas!

At about 18:45 we tracked back to Jessy’s apartment, where her roommate, Martin, greeted us. He was cool, and my thanks go to him for putting up with us. Then, Dr. Jessy “G” Gunold herself made her entrance. I had no idea she was such a looker! And I would find soon that she was a sweet and nice as she looked! Where are the Jessy’s in America?

We soon departed again, bound for the Hofbraukeller, not far from the apartment. Like Americans are trained from their birth to do, I engorged on entirely too much food.

When dinner had ended, we boarded a subway bound for a part of town that only my GPS could tell me where it was. We arrived at what was known as Tollwood, which Jessy described as being “like a Christmas market, but different.” It was! They had live music, many bars, more Glühwein that you could drink, and more. It was more like Oktoberfest, but Weihnachtsfest.

Along the way, we discovered that Mitch Parks was somewhere in München, as evident by this car with it's window left open to the snow

The night went on, and the beers went down. We left Tollwood, and Jessy, having to work in the morning, left us. Brian and I went in search of a bar down in the University section of town known as Shamrock, which we found, but found it to be boring and empty. This was a University area, there were bound to be gorgeous University co-eds out and about near by. We thus headed for a local place that was brimming with just such young beautiful co-eds as any guy might have desired. I desperately wanted to be back in college, carefree and fearless of bad decisions.

Unfortunately, we were total tools. We knew nobody, and everyone else already knew each other. So while we mellowed in the corner of the bar, we watched the dozens of drop-dead-gorgeous 20-somethings get their evening on. It was enough for us.

Contented, we made for the U-Bahn to start our way back home before the last train. Too late, though, it had already gone. We hailed a cab and headed home. Once there, Brian proceeded to snore a storm, dreaming no doubt of all the things we should have been doing to those ladies in the club. I wrote and left Jessy a note, thanking her for letting us crash at her place.

Good times. And tomorrow we planned on a day trip to Austria!

At the Gunold residence, I have made myself at home.

The morning came. Ted awoke first and made for the train station - he flew out at 09:00.

Brian and I made our morning a bit more leisurely as we woke, packed, and boarded a 09:15 train to München (Munich). The ride would take us through some fantastic snow fields. The country side of Switzerland and Germany under snow is a sight to behold. Sadly, it was a bit too difficult to photograph from the train.

Once we arrived, we set out looking for Jessy’s apartment. This was an interesting task because it was certainly not in a tourist area. We purchased a three-day transit pass and headed east to Max-Weber Platz, where from it was another six blocks walk. Uphill. In the snow. With no shoes.

After schlepping our bags up the five flights of stairs to Jessy’s, we went back out to explore the neighborhood - Jessy would not be home from work for several hours, and we were hungry, thirsty, and in need of an ATM. We found a kiosk a few blocks away and helped ourselves to some Lëberkasen. We then took the U-Bahn to Marien Platz to see the Weihnachtsmarkt. Though I didn’t know it at the time, over the next three days we would become very familiar with this area of town. We had been here before in 2005 - the Hofbrauhaus is here - but the Christkindlmarkt made everything different. The streets were packed, even in the early afternoon! This was a sight to be seen. And then, it started snowing!

With the snow and the cold bearing down, Brian and I found some Glühwein and candied walnuts for warmth and sustenance and continued wandering around the immense market, investigating what wares the merchants had to offer. We even made a short break in Bayerischer Donisl - our old favorite bar for beer and schnitzel.

GPX Log from Zürich to München