|
Glockenspiel A popular breakfast bread in Bavaria was pretzels or brezen. We started the day with warm brezen and butter. We were all quickly becoming addicted to Bavarian breakfasts, although Sherry kept mentioning pizza sauce every time she ate her pretzel. It usually caused our hosts to wince and gasp. We had the entire day to wander around Munich. We began by riding through the English gardens, the largest in Europe. Swans glided on lakes surrounded by flowers and trees. The gardens were intertwined with walking, running and cycling paths leading to beer gardens and row upon row of picnic tables. There was even a pagoda. I couldn't quite figure out how that fit into the English garden motif. From there we went to the Deutsches museum of Science and Technology-touted as one of the best science and technology museums in the world. I wasn't impressed. Half of the displays were out of order. The data was outdated. The computers were in a sorry state with two boring examples. It was the history of science and technology. There weren't any leading edge exhibits as the advertisements tried to make out. The best part was looking at the old vehicles. A cross section of a Boeing 747 didn't instill confidence for my next flight. Those walls were thin. Munich had an abundance of wonderful buildings and we managed to ride past many of them on our excursion. Maximillian Strasse and Leopold Strasse were particularly well endowed with beautiful architecture. We arrived in time to see the Glockenspiel do its spiel at five o'clock. The event was a huge carousel on two tiers that danced around the clock tower. I liked the two jousting knights. On the first pass they merely rode past each other. On the second pass the hero knocked the villain off his horse. For supper, we went to an Italian restaurant to prepare us for Italy. "Prego." Riding back to Franz and Louisa's in the dark I was thrilled to be able to use my light for the first time. We weren't the only ones on the bike paths with Vistalites flashing. Before retiring for the night we visited with Franz and Louise about our day. They served tea which Sherry and I liberally doctored with heaps of sugar. We had noticed that people in Europe used far less sugar than North Americans. Sugar spoons were usually encrusted and granules in the bowl were often small hard lumps. I felt I was doing them a favor by using all their old sugar and washing their spoon. Around our third cup of tea I asked Franz for more sugar. "There's more in the bowl," he said. "No, there's not," I said. Franz gave me a strange look. I figured it was prudent to put the blame squarely where it belonged. "Sherry used it all," I confessed. |
|
|
Book Info