A Perfect Day

On March 4, 2013November 15, 2017 By StevenIn Life At Home12 Comments

I travelled into Munich on Saturday afternoon. Compared to last weekend’s total bust of an Ingolstadt day trip, this weekend’s trip resulted an absolutely perfect day. It helps that I had a specific goal in mind. I had acquired a ticket to see Dinosaurier: Im Reich Der Giganten. I gave myself a little bit of padding time before and after the show, and that extra time is where the day became really successful.

It also helps that Munich is a vibrant and amazing city, with a lot of really cool stuff going on. There’s so much cool stuff in Munich that even after repeated trips to the city, I’m still ticking things off my “Ooh, I’ve gotta see that sometime!” list.

I went a little bit early today with the intent of finally getting to see the Ruhmeshalle. I had already seen Walhalla and the Befreiungshalle (“Hall of Liberation”). This is a sort of companion piece to the both of them, since they were all originally commissioned by King Ludwig I of Bavaria. I did make it to the Ruhmeshalle, but I could’t go inside because it was closed up- probably because most of the stairs were still iced over. At least I got to see it, along with the statue of Bavaria in front. I’ll have to go back there some other time, when it’s a little bit less icy.

Because I took a detour to an area of Munich I hadn’t seen on my way to the Ruhmeshalle, I got to see several other interesting things. First of all, there’s this wacky staircase at the KPMG Building:

Secondly, I got to see a random giant snail. I have no idea whatsoever what this snail’s deal is, but I assume he’s related to the Deutsches Museum Verkehrszentrum, a part of the Deutsches Museum near Theresienwiese. It’s a giant glass building filled with trains and planes and automobiles. And at least one helicopter. I really need to go back there sometime- I love things that go zoom. Anyway, here’s the snail. Doesn’t he look happy?

After my detour into giant snail and unpossible staircase-land, I went on to the dinosaurs that were my reason for going to Munich. If you go to the Dinosaurier Live site, you can see some cool promotional video of the show. My seats were way up in “sherpa guides and oxygen tanks” territory, but I still took a few pictures. Click for bigger. (And a quick side note- remember the brontosaurus? I miss that big guy.)

I debated whether or not to include video clips, but the way they animate the dinosaurs is really quite amazing, so here’s two short clips.

By the time I came out of the Olympiahalle, the overcast day had given way to sunny and gorgeous, because springtime is banging at the door here. My walk back to the U-Bahn took me right past the Olympiaturm, another place on my “I want to go there” list. Since the skies had cleared up, and I had an hour to the next train back to Regensburg, I decided to hop in for a look-see. There’s a restaurant up at the top of the Olympiaturm, and I’d like to eat there some time in the future. I love restaurants in tall places. (I’ve been to restaurants in the Skylon in Niagara Falls, the CN Tower in Toronto, and a few other super-tall places. My love of dining in the sky knows no bounds.) This is the Olympiaturm.

Since the weather had cleared,the views from the top were amazing. It still wasn’t clear enough for me to see the Zugspitze, but I’m ok with waiting until May to see that for myself. In this picture, you can see the BMW complex. You can also see the shadow of the Olympiaturm, which cracks me up.

At the foot of the Olympiaturm, there is a pond. And in that pond, the forces of Springtime were amassing. And eating pretzels from all the passersby. Ever seen a mallard duck trying to chew up a piece of pretzel? It’s high comedy. Aside from that, it was really quite lovely, though. A perfect end to a pretty amazing day.

To top it all off, when my train left Munich, we passed an open field where four small deer were playing in the snow. Seriously- a perfect day.

Tell me about the last time you had a perfect day.

On March 3, 2013May 30, 2020 By StevenIn Dining Out, Life At Home

One of the specials at the Regensburger Weissbräuhaus today was Weisswurst Gulasch, a white sausage stew, with Knödel made from Brezen (pretzels.) It was quite tasty and zippier than I expected.

On March 3, 2013May 30, 2020 By StevenIn Dining Out, Life At Home

…and this is the burrito at El Sombrero, in Regensburg. Flattest damn burrito I have ever seen.

Seriously, great food, but unexpected shapes.

On March 3, 2013May 30, 2020 By StevenIn Dining Out, Life At Home

El Sombrero in Regensburg calls these tubes tacos. They were delicious, but I thought this form factor was a flautas.

Um… Would the singular of flautas be flauta?

Q&A Time, Part 2!

On February 27, 2013February 26, 2013 By StevenIn Life In Germany2 Comments

A short while back, I posted an ‘Ask Me Anything’ post. Some folks used that as a chance to ask for advice in advance of their upcoming travels to the area, and I tried to answer what I could of those in regular e-mail. Some of the remaining questions are really interesting, so I’ve decided to do a series of “You asked, I answer” posts. Let’s get started!

Here’s a question from Spring: How long did the beard experiment last? What do you do for your hair? What sort of soap? I’m interested in these things because it wasn’t until I went to Saudi Arabia that my toiletries horizons expanded, starting with sandalwood bath gel.

The beard experiment* only lasted about two weeks- that’s how long it took to both look more or less complete and itch so much that it bugged the living daylights out of me. I am not a beardy person, and I prefer to be clean-shaven.

This leads nicely into the rest of your question though, because I started to use a slower and more traditional shaving system when I got here. I had always wanted to try the old style of shaving with shaving soap and a brush for lather, as opposed to the chemical shaving creams that you can buy at any corner drug store. In the US, I always found starter kits to be prohibitively expensive to try something I wasn’t sure I would like. When I got to Germany, I found that both the shaving soap and a shaving brush were affordable, so I tried it. It turns out that I like it quite a lot. It gives me a close, smooth shave and the shaving soap lasts a hell of a lot longer than the shaving cream canisters I used to get. Also, I can pack the disk of shaving soap in carry-on luggage on a plane because it’s solid, so the TSA doesn’t get all panicky. I still use the disposable blade cartridges though, because I fear blood loss with the straight razor.

As for the soap and haircare, it’s not all that much different for me in Germany than it was in the US. Some of the brands are even the same. I’ve seen products from Head & Shoulders, Axe, Redken, and Nivea here. My body wash and deoderant are both Nivea products. My shampoos are brands that you can get in the US as well as here. My conditioner is a Swiss brand, but you could easily get something just like it in the US under another brand name.

*”the beard experiment” that Spring referred to was a two week stretch where I tried to grow a beard. It started with me being lazy and not wanting to shave, and then became “I wonder how this will look.” I do this once every few years, because shaving can be a pain in the ass.

Here’s a question from Rarasaur: Despite their exceptionally long vacations, do Germans still recognize the humor of the Monday Monkey?

While I do not claim to be an expert on Germans in general, my experience has been that German Monkeys also live for the weekend. I’ve written about this before, but Germans are very fond of taking time off properly, and they’re very good at it.

Do you have anything you’d like to ask? The Ask Me Anything post is still open!