Spanning the Globe

We just got back from a terrific week in Europe with the kids. Three days in Munich, a day train ride through the Alps, then three days in Venice, with layovers in London and Paris. Everything went very well, and we have tons of stories to tell.

The Highlights:

1) Jordan loved just being able to walk around Munich and take in the sights. She was able to use her German skills to buy things and find her way around.
2) Keiler says that his favorite part was taking boats everywhere in Venice. He'd love someday to be able to live somewhere where that was his primary means of transport. He also did very well with his first-year German. He successfully negotiated commerce and room-key-getting.
3) Max loved to be able to ask for the bill after meals in Italian. He especially loved this because Rowdy snuck him enough money or a credit card to be able to put down when the bill arrived, much to the amazement and amusement of our waitstaff.
4) Rowdy and I loved introducing the kids to two beautiful cities, spending time with them and each other and having things go so well. My favorite part was taking the train through the Alps. I don't think that there are more beautiful places in the world than the Alpine regions.

We arrived to find Munich in the final stages of preparation for Oktoberfest. I tried on trachten or traditional Bavarian dress that was available in all the stores. Jordan and the guys couldn't be persuaded to do the same, sadly. Our first night, we had dinner at the famous Hofbrauhaus. Definitely a fun experience, even though we were drinking Sprite rather than bier.

One of the things I really wanted to show the kids was the Deutsches Museum, which is a large science and technology museum. I remembered it from my last visit 15 years ago as a totally fascinating place. Well...I guess it was still pretty neat, but not as neat as I remembered it. Isn't that always the way?

We picked up some rolls, bretzen, cheese and salami at the Viktualenmarkt and some sodas at the grocery store, then walked over to the Englischer Garten for a nice picnic. It was a beautiful, sunny day, warm for this time of year, and the Munchners were enjoying the outdoors. I guess when you live in a northern climate, you want to expose as much skin as possible to the sun whenever you can, because there were several nude sunbathers along our path. Avert your eyes, children!!

Christina, Manahi and Samuel, friends of mine from NYC, are living in Munich until March. We had dinner with them our second night, which was very convivial. Samuel was born after I left New York, so it was my first meeting with him. He is as beautiful, intelligent and charming as I had expected him to be. Samuel seemed to fall in love with Jordan. Sorry, Sweetie! She's 15 years older than you!!

Our second day in Munich was our only bad-weather day. We thought about going to Salzburg on the train, but had a bit of a slow start with jet lag trying to overtake us. The hop-on-hop-off tour bus was a great way to see the city instead. We went out to the Olympic Stadium complex and had lunch in the revolving restaurant at the top of the tower there. Apparently, it is quite unusual for their diners to order hot chocolate to go with their lunches on cold, rainy days, because the waiter acted like we had asked for five cups of bile or something. Once he got over his heart attack, he served us delicious cups of hot milk with the chocolate sauce on the side. It was perfect for the chocolate-adverse Rowdy. I wished that I could stick my tongue into the little chocolate pitcher and lick it clean.

One of the bus tour guides gave us our "jumbo/large" catchphrase for the trip. As we drove down the Maxmilianstrasse, she said, "This is the most expenseeviest street in Munich. Take a look." So everything thereafter was "the most expenseeviest" (which wasn't hard to do, given that the dollar had fallen to 1.40 vs the euro).

And speaking of the Maximilianstrasse, Max was delighted to find that every other memorial or street in Munich seemed to be named after him. Too bad they spelled it wrong. Didn't they know that it's supposed to be spelled "Maximillian"?? It just goes to show that it's Maximillian's world, and we're all just livin' in it.