Thursday, October 12, 2006

Day 4, More Sightseeing

(First, last night: Now, folks, I've tried. I've REALLY tried not to become The Ugly American, but last night just made me do it.

Here's what happened: After a splendid dinner of roast pork in a savory sauce at a cafe along the Kaufinger Strasse (part of the pedestrian-only area) I was on my way back to the hotel when I decided to stop by the AK Cafe for dessert. I ordered apple strudel with vanilla sauce, and a cup of tea with lemon (in German, that last is Tee mit Zitrone). After five minutes, the guy puts down a cup containing hot water and lemon juice, but no tea. Five minutes later when he brings the strudel, I asked him for tea.

He said, "Yes, tea with lemon. Did you want milk?"

I snapped. I brought my voice to two notches below Public Nuisance, pointed to the cup and demanded, "Do YOU see any tea in there? Or did Germany change the word for 'tea' when my back was turned?" He ran off to get me a tea bag.

The strudel was magnificent, and I wasn't charged for the tea.)

Anyway.

More museums! Getting close to the end of the museum tours now. I risked further damage to my feet by visiting the Antikensammlungen (Antiques Collection), the Glyptothek (Sculpture Gallery) and the Stadisches Gallerie (City Art Gallery). The first two have objects collected by the kings of Bavaria and others dating back to the Etruscans, Egyptians and Mycenae; the more recent stuff dates to the 1st Century AD. The first two buildings are massive Classical Greek structures; the third is what is called the Lenbach House, and is a beautiful Italian Renaissance villa. The Lenbach House houses his own works, as well as art by Warhol, Kandinsky and Muenter.

After that, a nice lunch was in order, so I went west a few blocks to the Löwenbräu Biergarten and had a good hearty lunch of spicy pork sausage, potato salad and a half-liter of dark wheat beer.

The sky was starting to get a bit hazy late in the afternoon, which was bad timing for me as I had boarded the U-bahn (subway) for the Olympic Park. Yes, it's still there; I wanted to get some 'up high' pics of the area.

189 meters high, in fact - the observation deck of the Olympic Tower. That's roughly 700 feet up, and even in the haze the view was incredible.

###
It seems that the usual thing has happened again; when I go on vacation, odd things can happen. Usually, it's a tropical storm or similar weather feature if I leave the state; one year it was a hurricane and an earthquake up in Canada.
But since I left the country the Weird Shit Machine decided to go into overtime. Little Kim decided to shoot off his pet project (I almost laughed at the supposed yield - 0.5 kiloton would be a mistake if anyone else had done it), and a Yankees pitcher apparently decided he couldn't live without going to the World Series so he went apartment-hopping.
And I still have another week here in Germany.
Bets on what Weird Shit will happen next?

2 Comments:

Blogger Walt said...

I'm trying to give them a rest as much as possible, but it still requires walking.

11:09 AM EDT  
Blogger Liz Blondsense said...

Sounds fabulous Walt, baby. Sounds like my kind of vacation actually, Bier, food, museums.

I don't understand why you snapped at the waiter. You always seemed like such a nice young man. ;)

9:04 AM EDT  

Post a Comment

<< Home