For those of you that don't know Dave, he is my and Bryan's best friend. Dave and Bryan were fraternity brothers and played intramural sports together. Dave and I share the same crazy, lovable fraternity big brother. We've been friends since the day we were introduced. Dave has lived in Chicago for nearly 4 years now. We usually get together 3 times per year, including our annual Ohio State football games in Columbus. 2011 lacked a presence of Dave in our lives and he was so kind as to fly himself over to good ole Munich to play with us. And so our adventures begin....
Day 1: Introduction
Dave arrives at the Munich Airport. Munich Airport has a brewery and a biergarten, Airbrau. Dave experiences his first beer in Germany. Now that I think it about, I wish we would have kept track of how many beers Dave consumed throughout this trip. I can tell you, though, that it's a lot. We headed home and let Dave settle in, and have a beer. Bryan made a fantastic lunch of leberkase semmel and spatzl. We then we headed to Augustinerkeller. Here, Dave experienced his first mas bier and pretzel. From there, we headed to Karlsplatz for outdoor ice skating. From ice skating, we headed to an Irish pub for some live music. We all thoroughly enjoyed the bassist of the band. It was a good night.
(At Augustiner)
Day 2: Munich Day turns Drinking Day
We enjoy taking our guests of Munich on a ‘Jenn and Bryan walking tour.’ We walk along the river and pass some cool buildings then turn in towards the city. We take them to the Viktualienmarkt, an outdoor market, to enjoy some quick, delicious German food. We introduced Dave to a pork sandwich with a layer of fried skin (I don’t know the German name of it) and schnitzel. I need to upload the video of Dave in heaven, describing his fondness for this meal. Our next stop was to look at lederhosen for Dave. Some Germans I have spoken to are amused by how much Americans love lederhosen and dirndls. I'm guilty, I love my dirndls. Yes, plural, I now have two....today was the day I purchased my second one. Bryan and I had both made previous purchases in this store. There is an associate that we absolutely love. He's a short, large, gay man and he's hysterical. He is on the face of all the advertising and he's a great deal of fun. I think he loves his job mostly because he gets to touch so many men’s’ booties.
Back to my story...it's common to be served Prosecco while shopping. We were served 5 bottles. Daniel, the associate we love, kept them coming, and we weren't going to be impolite by refusing. Three hours later, I had purchased a new dirndl, Dave had purchased his lederhosen and Bryan a new shirt. Oh, and I got a free hat! To be fair, I had been wanting a new dirndl. We forced ourselves out of the store, promising to return later to pick up our merchandise. Dave was really cold so we stopped at a store to get him a scarf. An hour later, he emerged with a scarf and 5 dress shirts (they were a great deal, though!) Finally, we're off to Hofbräuhaus. The place was packed but we found a seat and ordered a round of mas biers and obatzda with pretzel. We split one more mas, trying to keep it under control, and then headed back to the shop pick up our purchases. Daniel opened yet another bottle of Prosecco. Thank goodness our next stop was home. However, that sort of backfired when we drunk-Skyped the whole world upon returning.
(Pork sandwich and schnitzel)
Day 3: Disneyworld
Füssen is home to two castles, Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. Our friend, Christoph, lives in Füssen and offered to take us around....what a great guy! We toured the city and played in the snow while waiting for our reservation at the castle. Neuschwanstein is massive! I've heard reviews from some people that it was a bit disappointing. I didn't think so but I see their reasoning. The castle is a bit away from the train station; therefore, you must take a bus to the ticket office. You are given a group number and reservation number for your tour of the castle which may not be immediately. There is a guided tour in English that takes about 30 minutes. It's a huge castle so some could expect to be inside for a quite a while. However, due to the fact that the castle is incomplete and Ludwig II only lived here for under a year, there isn't a whole lot to see. It’s still incredible, especially the outside. After finishing up the tour, we headed up to Hohenschwangau for a private tour given by Christoph (he works there). Although this castle is much smaller than Neuschwanstein, we still enjoyed it. It’s interesting since the family actually lived there and it has a history. Christoph was also a great guide. We were also really happy that it snowed…the scenery was so beautiful. We’ll most likely be returning in the summer.
(Neuschwanstein Castle)
Day 4: We're not drinking (much)
This day was New Year's Eve and we were all exhausted from three non-stop days. We decide to sleep in and have brunch, then take Dave to Löwenbräu Keller for a beer. Bryan would then head to work and Dave and I would get some errands accomplished and get ready for the night. The day didn't quite work out that way. Our friend, Lynn, was visiting Munich from the States. We hadn't seen her yet so she planned to meet up at Löwenbräu. One beer turned into 3 for me and 4-5 for Dave as well as an extended time at Löwenbräu. We were rushed getting back to our apartment to get ready and finish other tasks we’d procrastinated on, and finally headed out to my friend's apartment for dinner and drinks. We were those rude people showing up just as dinner started but I don't think anyone really cared. We had fondue, which I love, and it didn't disappoint. We all hung out for a bit after dinner then headed to one of the bridges to watch the fireworks. My big mistake was taking a roadie which consisted of rum. Whoops. After that, we headed to BMW Welt (BMW World) for a celebration. When Dave and I decided it was time to go, we headed to the U-Bahn to get home. We weren’t paying attention and guess who got onto the wrong train? Yep. We headed away from the city. The next train back wasn't for another 45 minutes so we cabbed it all the way back. We managed to make it home about an hour and a half before it was time to get up for the next day's adventure. At least we made it home before Bryan did...he only had an hour of sleep.
(At Löwenbräu)
Day 5: Dave's hurting. We carry on.
I wake up to Bryan pouting...Dave is too hungover to execute our mission for the day. I don't like seeing Bryan sad, so I rally the troops and head out the door to catch the train to Garmisch to watch the ski jump competition. I've never been on such an uncomfortable train before...it was so hot! Poor Dave had to sit in between the cars to cool down. We finally arrived a little while before the start of the competition, so what else would we do but grab a beer across the way and watch the practice runs. Bryan and I felt fine, just tired, but poor Dave was having a rough time getting the beer down...I think partial blame goes to Domi for the shots he and Dave had taken the night before. Dave mans up and finishes the beer (we’re good friends so we helped him out a bit) and headed to the competition. It was so great! The skiers go so fast and far and the crowd was a good time too. At the end of the day we were all glad we fought the urge of laziness. Mission accomplished.
(Dave hurting and not too fond of his beer)
Day 6: Failed Attempts
I took a "personal morning" this day to recover from near exhaustion and to let the boys have a morning to themselves. Bryan took Dave out to Gauting, where we play baseball/softball. I was going to meet them afterwards in Starnberg for snacks and beer on the lake. My timing was off (fail #1) and I was going to miss the train. Disappointed, I decided I'd meet them back in the city. It ended up working out for me since the restaurant we were planning on going to was closed when the boys arrived (fail #2). We met back in the city and Dave got another pork sandwich from Viktualienmarkt (addict) and we headed to Schneider Weiss Bräuhaus. This was my first experience, although Bryan and I had been wanting to go, and it's now one of my favorite. The beer is delicious! This also marks the beginning of coaster flipping. In short, it’s like flip cup but you catch the coaster before it lands on the table. The table of children adjacent to us thought this was a fabulous way to entertain themselves. You're welcome parents.
To the main event: OSU v UF Gator Bowl game. We head up to the sports bar at the Marriott that Bryan works at to view the game. We're pumped, decked out in our OSU attire and ready to eat some American bar food. The bar doesn't get the channel (Fail #3). We're a bit discouraged but won't let this get our spirits down. We decide to grab some frozen pizzas and stream it at our house. Normally, we can stream whatever sporting event we want, but today is not our day. After many failed (#4 plus some) attempts and 30 minutes, we finally got the game on. The Buckeyes ended up losing, but at least the pizza was good.
(At Schneider Weiss in his Buckeye shirt)
Day 7: Put on your drinking uniforms
I had a private English lesson in the morning so the boys spent the morning at Dachau. We met up in the afternoon at the Isar River to enjoy some snacks and beer. Since Dave had purchased his lederhosen, we had to let him sport it. Now is also probably a good place to point out that we had an overall mission to visit 7 Bräuhauser in Munich. We had previously visited five...Airbrau, Augustiner, Hofbräuhaus, Löwenbräu, Schneider Weiss. Next up was Hacker-Pschorr Bräuhaus. Coaster drinking games begin. Nothing’s getting too serious but we start making up different rules for different games. I believe Bryan holds the record for flipping and catching a stack of 28 coasters at one time. Dave was a close second. I had no chance. We only stayed for a beer and walked it off across the Oktoberfest field to Paulaner Bräuhaus. We ordered our beers and Obatzda, and then things started to get serious. We all started off well in our new game of Flip-Coasters. I quickly fell behind the boys, though. To speed up the story, Bryan has won and Dave and I are competing for runner-up. Dave was ahead by a good amount...maybe 5-6 coasters, nearing the winning limit (I think it may have been 15 coasters). But I don’t go down without fight. I pulled off the most epic comeback and beat Dave. That’s right, Dave, I BEAT YOU!
(Dave in complete disbelief that he lost)
Day 8: There's a Palace in the City?
We’ve visited Schloss Nymphenburg, which is in the Munich area, but we didn’t realize there is a big-ass palace (sorry, no other way to put it) smack in the middle of Munich city center. Well, we knew it was there, we just didn’t know how big it actually is. It’s called the Residenz and it’s great. Interesting fact: This was the Wittelsbach’s family palace who ruled Bavaria for nearly 700 years…the longest continuously ruling family in European history. The palace spans the styles of four different centuries. I don’t know how many rooms there are, but it’s a lot…at least 150. One could easily get lost inside. There’s a theatre, huge antiquarium, a church, galleries and so many other rooms. We also explored the Treasury, which was cool.
Afterwards, we went to Ratskeller under the large Gothic building famous in Munich. I can’t wait to go back for a real meal, as I only had a cup of soup. Just around the corner, we hit up Schneider Weiss once more. Although the Christmas Markets were already gone, there was one spot still serving Glühwein outdoors so we stopped for a night cap on our way home. Since it was Dave’s last night, we headed home early to get him packed up and ready for his flight in the morning. To all our Munich friends, if you’re reading this, we’re sorry…but we had an amazing Taco Night. Tacos with all the fixings and loaded nachos mmmmm! It was a great way to end an amazing week.
(The boys getting warm by the fire before ordering some Glühwein)
We really enjoyed having Dave here and are very appreciative that he took the time off of work and saved up his money to come see us. Anyone else planning on coming to Munich to visit us…this is a glimpse of what may be in store for you. Thankfully, Dave plans on coming back for Oktoberfest and he’ll get to experience the biergartens, as they’re obviously closed in winter.
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