Well, we have two plans every day while here in Germany – one if it’s sunny and one if it’s rainy. Wednesday was sunny, so we went with the sunny day plan – The Olympic Park.
Wendy and I went for a walk together and ran a couple of errands while we were out. The big accomplishment was getting a recharger for our Nintendo DS (the DS and DS light don’t use the same chargers which makes a whole lot of sense, and we lost the adapter in Paris). Not that I’m happy to have more screens in the house, but we’ll need it for the flight home.
Sometimes we get into a rut where we’re not out of the house until noon because of sleeping in, playing on the computer, etc… Today was one of those days. Drives me crazy, but when I start pushing I know I’m turning into Clark Griswold.
Anyway, we hit the Olympic park and went to the paddle boats. Wendy and Mali got a swan boat which was very cute. I went with Hayley and Dillon as they tried to run over geese. They managed to touch one with the boat, but no one was worse for wear. Wendy and Mali tried to go under a bridge that was too short for the swan and almost got stuck, but survived. There were jokes about lost and geese the rest of the day.
It was past lunch time at that point so we went to the cafeteria at the park. Food was cafeteria food. I’m starting hit the burn out point with the wurst. I think my problem today was the quality, since I’ve loved it at other restaurants.
There’s a bunch of carnival rides at the park, so we told the kids they could each do two. Mali and Wendy went on a ride that looked mellow, but it spun super fast. Mali loved it, but Wendy’s neck wasn’t too happy afterwards. Dillon chose shooting BB’s for prizes and did well, but he won a red stuffed heart that says ‘I love you’ which was a disappointing award for shooting stuff. He wanted a switchblade. Hayley and Dillon then hit the same ride Wendy and Mali did and had a blast.
After that, we hit the Olympic pool. It’s quite a cool set up there. It was fun to swim in a real Olympic pool. This one has the title of the ‘fastest water in the world’ because of Spitz’s 7 gold medals. They had the high dive open (not the huge platform dive, but the high springboard) and Dillon went off four times. Hayley and I did it once. We hit the Jacuzzi and then dried off outside. I only had room in the backpack for two towels (hoping they’d have them at the pool but they didn’t), so we also used the funky hair dryers they had in the bathroom.
Hayley, Wendy and Dillon headed home after that and Mali and I went up the Olympic tower. It’s similar to the space needle. The elevator goes up at 7 meters/second which felt super fast. We got some good pictures and could see the outline of the Alps. There’s a tiny rock museum at the top and a cheesy photography studio that lets you take fake photos of your head in a lion’s mouth. Mali and I had fun looking at that stuff.
After we got home it was time for dinner. Everyone was burnt out on the traditional Bavarian food, so I found a recommended restaurant in our guide book. It was at the end of Maximilianstrasse which didn’t look far on the map. Turns out that street is the most expensive street in Munich (basically its Rodeo Drive). Here’s our family starving and full on tourists walking down the road looking for a family restaurant. And, it turned out that it wasn’t there any more. Problem is, we figured we couldn’t afford to eat at any of the places along the street, so we hiked all the way back. Not a happy family. We ended up finding a tourist place right across from the Neues Rathaus in Marienplatz and ordered pizza. Once we got some food, the mood of the family changed dramatically.
One inside joke for the rest of the night was ‘Not wine, Beer!’ While we were eating an English woman came from the seats outside and found her waiter. With a loud voice and thick accent she said ‘You took my order. I want to change it. I don’t want wine, I want beer. Not wine, beer. Not wine. You got that? Beer.’ She came back later and repeated it. Kids were cracking up and repeating it quietly to be polite. They lost it when a few minutes later the waiter was by our table, said some stuff in German, and then said ‘not wine, beer.’
We headed back to our neighborhood and went to a local ice cream parlor for Spaghetti Eis. They press ice cream to look like spaghetti then put strawberry topping and shaved white chocolate on top to complete the illusion. We enjoyed it outside with the kids at one table and Wendy and I at another.
Right when we were finishing up, a man unlocking his bike right next to our table leaned over and asked ‘so, how is Obama doing?’ We made some neutral comment, and he started talking to us. At first I thought it was fun to get into a political conversation with someone from another country, but he wasn’t looking for conversation. He went on for quite a while on a number of different political topics (politicians, heath care, corruption, Amanda Knox, etc…). I wouldn’t have minded if it were a discussion, but he was just talking at us. He wasn’t overly emotional, but after a while I was bored and we needed to get the kids in bed. We got up and started leaving, and he kept talking. We said we had to go, and he offered to walk us home. At that point I started to get a little uncomfortable. We said no, but he continued to talk and follow us. The kids were up ahead. Our apartment was just across the street and down a block, but the kids decided to duck down the subway (Dillon likes to go that way because you can cross the street without waiting for the light). We followed and fortunately he left us there. We hung out in the subway to make sure the coast was clear then went home. All in all quite the interesting experience, and glad we didn’t have a stranger sleeping on our couch (which is what I think he was fishing for…)
Paddle boats with my contribution.
Family on the carnival rides
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BMW factory and Munich from the Olympic tower.
Entrance to our apartment. Mali loves to use the scooter to get around.
Happy kids eating spaghetti eis without political commentary and strangers following them home.
A+ for that spaghetti eis. It sounds wonderful. I can almost taste it.
ReplyDeleteD- for that political stranger.
I'm going to ask Susan if she ever had spaghetti eis on her mission. Is it something missionaries could have access to and afford?
Hope Wendy feels better soon!