We were greeted at the airport on Sunday by a driver from BMW named Rolf. He was an excellent tour guide pointing out all the points of interests from the airport to the hotel. Instead of taking the highway, he opted for narrow two-lane roads through the farmlands which were lush and green. At one point he asked us if we would mind making a quick stop at a farm house to buy eggs for his wife. I'm sorry I didn't get a picture; it was adorable.
Our first day was all about getting checked in and getting some sleep. Germany is 9 hours ahead of California so our time clocks were all messed up. Poor Stan had been up for 31 hours so he was exhausted.
MONDAY, JUNE 18
MONDAY, JUNE 18
Today we had breakfast at the hotel. Our server was a pretty, young girl who informed us it was her first day on the job. So you can imagine my pause when I ordered water as my beverage and she asked me if I wanted my water with gas or without gas. Hmmmm. "Without gas," I quickly concluded. When she left the table, Stan and I had a good laugh. We figured out she meant "sparkling" or "flat" water.
After breakfast we ventured out on foot to check out the shopping district. I didn't take a lot of pictures today because most of the buildings were pretty standard. However, we did see a few that really stood out. (You can click on each picture to make it bigger if you want a closer look.)
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| I loved this building with flower boxes at EVERY window! |
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| Fruit and flower stands everywhere. |
This is Neues Rathaus - Munich Town Hall. This building has so much architectural detail it's hard to take in. The Neues Rathaus was built from 1867 - 1908 for civic offices. There is an arcade at ground level and there are statues on the upper stories of paupers, gargoyles, dragons and kings. Turrets line the gables and a grand clock tower is at the top.
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| Neues Rathans, Munich |
And for all you fashion conscious fellows ~ taken of the Stefano Ricci store window ~ here is a sampling of what the well dressed man will be wearing this season. I dare you.
For some reason a lot of folks were sneezing today which gave me an opportunity to practice my German . . . "Gesundheit!"
The day ended with a luxurious hot stone deep tissue massage at The Meridien Hotel (it was so relaxing) and then a nice dinner with Stan back at our hotel.
