European Whirl - Day 3

April 12^th

Stolzenfels … Hotel Rheintal - Stolzenfels

4 persons in a room, with bathroom inside … both were very big. The problem was, it was in a small town, in the middle of nowhere actually, that as soon as certain amount of people used the shower, the hot water would gone, and the next group had to wait an hour before could have a hot shower.

Today’s plan was Munich. On the way, we stopped for an hour at St. Goar again to watch an introduction to Beer stein. The story of Beer stein is, at the time when refrigerator was never even be dreamt of, German need a container that can keep their beer cool. They are a big drunker and like to smash their steins, so the stein has to be big and ‘un-breakable’. Of course any particle in the world will look better after being added with the taste of art … so there they are! St. Goar itself is a stunning city, a nice place to get a camping or boat rowing in the summer time. Seems to me that the people love garden very much; any small land between alleys or windowsill was planted. They put little creature as guardians for their garden … forget what the name of it.

We departed to Munich at around 10. It is a nice ride along the Rhine Valley with clear blue sky above us. Kristy introduce us to this country, which is well known as perfectionist and being success in recycling. They even divided recycling bottles as clear glass, brown glass, green glass and blue glass. Car is also a noticeable change in German. BMW, Benz, they don’t seem to be a luxury here.

We arrived at Munich at 4 instead of 3 as the plan. It meant, I had only an hour to explore the city before the famous clock hit 5 and began “it’s stunning performance” … that what Kristy said. Craig drove us around the city first, so that we had an idea about what we want to see. Munich has the biggest Science Museum in the world, which is a little bit outside the city. I don’t think anybody will be able to go there within an hour, if it claims to be the biggest museum. So, as soon as we arrived, I run, tried to cover the city as much as possible.

I don’t think I like this city. It’s too rigid, gave me cold feeling. The map is so blocks. Buildings are massive, roads are wide; every thing is huge there. I found new buildings outside the city center; quite a quiet area by the time I arrived. Pubs were everywhere in the center, full with people (was it because of Saturday?). Lots of roads were closed for pedestrian, half of which were covered with tables and chairs, and people sitting and eating the famous German pork and sausages. What a big portion of meat, that I decided not to have that as my dinner, no matter what people say about how native it was.

Rushing back to Marienplatz just on time to see the show. I over heard people in the plaza talking about “you haven’t been in Munich if you haven’t seen the show!” I waited and waited, then …ding - dong … the clock struck 5. The dolls began to move. It seems that it tells the stories of a king and a queen being entertain by horses and clowns that turning around them. Sorry to say, but it was not as amazing as what I thought. And Kristy said it’s a 15 minutes show, but it last for around 8 minutes. It’s time to go back to the bus anyway. The plan was, we back to the hotel first, took a shower for those who wanted to, and drove back to the city for dinner, which was another excursion. Considering the portion I saw, I was glad that I didn’t take this 19 Euro excursion.

So we drove back to the city at around 7, and would be picked up at 10. Another 3 hours to go. I walked with Gillian. She met a German guy at that afternoon, who like very much to be her guide. He gave her his phone number so that she could call him while we back to the city at the evening, if she wanted to. But she didn’t want. So she called him, said that it was me who didn’t want to sit down with stranger ^.^ I didn’t mind at all. I’d do that myself if I was her ^.^ But I could feel that German guy has a particular interest towards Gillian. Many guys who we passed by gave her a look like they never see a woman before ^.^

So we end up walking ourselves, to the Beerhall … outside only … tried some restaurant but didn’t feel like spending money only for half portion of what we could eat, so we ended up at … Mac Donald! ^.^ Why not?! I got a small elephant key chain that can make elephant sound, a series from The Jungle Book. Still, we promised to each other not to say anything about going to Mac Donald to anyone in the group ^.^ But such an experience made that M sign has a deeper meaning to us ^.^ So we sat there, waiting until ten for our bus, in Munich without having a single trotter or sausages or beer ^.^

Residenz

Lightning in a shopping center

A window case at a furniture shop