Raindrops on Roses

Sunday, 7/3

After grabbing pastry, eggs and coffee from the breakfast buffet, we headed for a free concert at Mirabell palace gardens. It was delightful to walk though the manicured grounds, contemplating statues and landscapes splashed with colorful plantings of flowers, while listening to the brass and winds orchestra play familiar tunes. The misty morning gave us another chance to use our umbrella and the dew upon the flowers and grass made the garden seem even more fresh and clean. We grabbed a second breakfast of cheese toast, an omelette, and soup (early lunch) at a cafe before heading back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and return to the train station. Austria had been such a delight, so the gentle rainfall might symbolize our sadness to leave it. But who could be sad for too long, when you are about to enter Germany? From the appearance of cows on green hills and cute alpine lodges, Germany seemed as beautiful as Austria. The only ceremony on crossing the boarder, was a visit to our train car by a friendly man with a badge who asked to see our passports, smiled and wished us happy travels. Our train stopped in Prien and being that we had a brief layover, we decided to take the smaller steam train to the banks of Chiemsee to take a look at the castle that sits on the island in the midst of that lake. Unfortunately our layover was not long enough to take the boat to the island and see the castle up close, but that was probably for the best because of how cold it was, it would have been unbearable on the water. We did delight in the steam train ride. Imagine one of the tiny trains they have for children to ride at the zoo, now make it big enough for adults to fit in and you have a fairly accurate picture of this wooden benched, open windowed conveyance. As we drove through the adorable town, locals walking their dogs, riding their bikes, or working in their gardens, paused to wave enthusiastically as the train passed. After our short stop in Prien, we had only about an hour to spend on the real train before we arrived in Munich. We emerged from the S-bahn (like a subway, but emerges above ground to destinations outside the city) in a pedestrian only zone called Marienplatz. The church bells were ringing and the clock tower was chiming 6pm when we arrived. After consulting a few maps Greg had us headed in the right direction and we found our pension relatively easily, in a very pedestrian friendly area of town. Christoph welcomed us in a friendly manner with his low rich voice. He speaks excellent English, with a delightful accent. He patiently sat with us in the breakfast room and went over a map marking good places for dinner, nightlife, laundry, and more. Our room is modern and bright, with a window seat overlooking our lively neighborhood, a private entrance into the hall. Our toilet is in our private hall, but the shower is in our room with the sink. It actually gives us the illusion of having more space. We got to talk to Christoph about how these rooms became transformed into the modern, cool pension. He explained when he bought the place it was a mess and had only one shared toilet for the four rooms, so they had to get innovative with the space. Very creative thinking! Umbrella in hand again, we went out in search of dinner with Chistoph's map. One place he suggested was a community center, it seemed an odd choice for dinner but inside we found a small pub like restaurant with several specials of the day scrawled on a chalkboard for very affordable prices. The kitchen was visible and everything looked very good, the clientele was very young and hip, so we decided to give it a try. Excellent beer and amazing food for the most affordable prices we have seen thus far. We tried the local beer varieties, a Weiss bier and a Helles. One vegetarian dish they offered was auflauf, which was like a potato lasagna with other cauliflower, peas, and zucchini, topped with a generous sprinkling of saffron threads, we also tried a grilled wrap, which seemed like cream cheese and peppers in sort of tortilla-like flat bread. The table next to us, filled with energetic twenty-somethings, were so pleased with the creative preparation of sausage and vegetables, that when the chef came out of the kitchen they gave him a standing ovation. Indeed he did deserve it. One of the reasons for stopping at the community center was to see about some live entertainment. When we checked the poster on the way out the door, it seems we had been sitting next to the band that would be playing later in the evening. Show time was still an hour away, so we decided to walk the neighborhood and come back for the show. This is not the type of band we would usually choose to see, their poster described them as a hip-hop brass band from Switzerland. We didn't know what to expect but we figured it was a rare opportunity to see some young European music. When they took the stage they were dressed in a strange combination of marching band jackets and hats and athletic wear and had dramatically choreographed the start of their first song in such a way to let the audience know this was going to be a fun and playful experience. Ten musicians crowded the small stage and the room was packed with young concert goers (I do believe Greg and I were the only people over 30 in the place). The music was lively and highly participatory. I understood very little of what the front man said in his rap-like songs, which were mostly in German, but I didn't need to understand in order to have a good time. They had an excellent female singer as well, who did sing in English a bit, but the whole time the brass band was jumping up and down on stage with tons of energy making the weak plywood stage look like a trampoline. Audience participation was huge and luckily it was easy to understand how they wanted us to clap, the call and response chants they put into play, or the simple wave your hands in the air dances we were to emulate. This was a dream come true for Greg who had been aching for some nightlife and local music since we arrived in Euorpe and I had a blast, also. So while we felt our time in Austria flew by to quickly, we are enjoying the fun city that Munich is proving to be.