Winter Wonderland

I've been waiting for months for a good snow.

Friday we had weird snow with thunder and lighting. First the fat wet flakes that were pretty and melted, and then it poured down these tiny little flakes that quickly turned the roofs white.

Usually it's gone by morning, but I awoked Saturday morning to find it still snowing and a nice thick layer on the roofs.

I hadn't taken any pictures in a couple of months, but I had a big internal battle between photographic desire and my strong desire to not be cold.

Fortunately, the creative side won. Shocking, actually. But a really good decision to not procrastinate and just go ahead and bundle up and go out.  Though it was snowing hard while I was out and seemed it would continue, the rains soon came and washed away the pretty snow.

 

There are so many reasons to love Munich, but one of my top reasons is that when it snows, it feels like you're inside the picture-perfect world of a snowglobe.

Everything is coated with snow - I especially love how it coats every branch of the tree.

The beast-slaying cherubs at the base of the Mariensäule were no exception:

slaying heresy

slaying famine

Of course, with Munich being the little slice of slightly unreal paradise that it is, Marienplatz was cleared of snow before the snow had stopped falling. (The kids will be playing on the snow piles for the next 2 months!)

The trees behind the Rathaus are some variety of gumball tree. The snow makes perfect ornaments of them! 

Notice anything odd here?

It's actually a reflection. I was hoping this black glass enclosure would make the snowflakes stand out, but was surprised with the fun mirror effect.

I'd somehow never put together the cow fountain in the Rindermarkt with its name, but it actually was the cattle market in the old walled town.

And the Löwenturm has a lovely decorated tree in front of it.

It's not actually raining snow, but just playing around a bit with a slow shutter speed and Herr J's tripod.

A fun morning and probably a positive lesson in why not procrastinating sometimes is good. Really happy I had the chance to go enjoy the beautiful snow!

Munich Day Trip - Hiking in Murnau

In late November, we attended a suprise party for a friend in Munich.  As part of the surprise, we used the pretense of hiking to get him and 3 sons out of the house while his wife and other son prepared for the party.

(I must admit here that we were an hour late getting him back, since he'd promised the boys we'd stop for ice cream and we didn't know how to hurry everyone along without ruining the surprise. Besides....ice cream!...)

 

Murnau lies just 70km from Munich (less than an hour), near Staffelsee. There are several Rundweg in the area (hikes where you can circle back to your starting point), ranging from the 4 and 5 km walks like the  Höhlmühle-Rundweg to the 20.5 km Staffelsee-Rundweg that circles the lake.  Most of these are not strenuous hikes nor have great changes in elevation, so they're good options for families with small children or for a day when you want a relaxing excursion into nature.

We chose the 5.9km Drachenstich-Rundweg,which offers a walk through Murnau, along the banks of the Staffelsee, across the Murnau Moor and down a small gorge. The circuit takes its name from the dragon that legend holds lived in the gorge and feasted on maidens.

You'll find many businesses in Murnau with the name Drachen (dragon) in them, and of course the local volleyball team is the Murnauer Drachen!

It's an area known for nature and art (Kandinsky's longtime partner, painter Gabriele Münter, lived there), and a beautiful trip to the lakes below the Alps.

You can see below where the Drachenstich-Rundweg breaks off from the longer walk around the lake:

It was a gorgeous fall day. Probably the last good day of fall or the first nice day of winter. But beautiful clear skies, lovely winter sun, and the last of the leaves falling from the trees.

And the first frost (for us, at least....I'm sure there was frost south of Munich earlier).

There are many lovely houses and hotels along the lake.

It's a great area for watersports. Though most of the boats and kayaks had been put away for winter, there were a few still out there enjoying the day.

And a couple of paddleboarders. That looks like a great way to travel to the islands! Though I'd be terrified of falling in the cold, cold water.

So, after a walk along the shore, we met the trail to the Drachenstich. It's a pretty leisurely walk through the tall, thin trees, with a gentle slope.

You then exit the woods to a field with several bluffs overlooking the lake to one side, and the main road and farmland to the other.

After crossing the road and the train tracks, we're now ready to enter the dragon's woods.

Though this isn't a steep hike or one at a high altitude, the views of the Alps across the fields are beautiful!

As with most popular trails in the area, it's incredibly well maintained.

We finally come to a steeper descent, down to the dragon's gorge. And a small waterfall, of which one of our hiking buddies scrambles up to the top.

I can't say enough how wonderful the light was!

The guys paused to enjoy the sun and the view before heading back into town. 

We stop at the playground for a quick break.

But most importantly, ice cream!

After a few covert SMS's to our hostess to let her know the ETA, we finally make it back to find a wonderful feast and many friends.

They made great use of the covered pool in the backyard - using it as a party area!

A wonderful afternoon hike through the woods and fields, followed by a great night with friends!

My New Scarf

So, work has still been kicking my butt. Between work and moving, we haven't been doing much travel or photography. We have assembled quite a bit of IKEA furniture, but that's been the extent of the projects.

The one thing that does fit into the craziness is knitting. As I had bought twice as much yarn as needed for Herr J's scarf, I decided to make one for myself.

Finally, scarf #2 is complete! I've made some good progress while on the train to Frankfurt the past couple of weeks.

I loved the colors in this wool, but didn't want to be the silly couple with the matching scarves. So I made a thinner, ribbed scarf with fringe. I hadn't realized it would be so narrow with the ribbing, so I made it long enough to wrap around twice.

I'm looking forward to wearing it with jeans and tall brown suede boots!

(For those of you who knit, it's a simple pattern: repeat K2, P2 8 times, then K1.  On next row, K1, then repeat P2, K2 8 times)

The Bike Bell

Anyone who has spent time in a German city knows about the bike bells.

When Herr J first moved to Germany, he took his rugged hybrid bike to the store for a tune up. The store also checked that everything was up to code for city laws and made a few adjustments. Which was how he found his manly bike having a bell like all the little girls' bikes in the suburban US.

Here, the bells are a safety feature necessary for riding through city streets. Some cyclists use it a convenient warning to pedestrians walking in the bike path, and then there are some who seem to use their bells to get our their aggressions. But we've become accustomed to looking out when we hear a bike bell.

In Japan, one clever guy has taken it a step further and walks through the street ringing his bike bell.  The bike bell seems to work better than Pavlov's dinner bell.

We should try this here on a Saturday and see if it works enough to clear out some walking space in the central Munich shopping district!

Axis of Awesome concert in Munich

Do you remember this post?  It was just a YouTube video of a comedy rock band called the Axis of Awesome, with their viral song "Four Chords".  It's funny, well performed, and catchy.

So when Frau A saw that they were touring Europe and playing in Munich, she got us tickets!

The show was held at a great little venue called the Freiheizhalle, located under the Donnerbergerbruecke bridge.  This place is perfect for small concerts or large gatherings. It's a renovated brick industrial building with a ballroom holding between 250 (seated) and 400 (standing) guests.  They've even kept the old work crane there to help maintain the industrial charm.

In the cozy foyer, they serve German beer (you can take it into the show) and they were serving flammkuchen that looked really great. Unfortunately, we'd just eaten and didn't try it. Next time...

For those of you who don't know The Axis of Awesome, it's comprised of three Austrialians.

On the keyboard is Benny, aka "Chicken Little".  The others mock him for his brains and his height, though admit that he is the classy one of the group, since he has classical music training and speaks a foreign language.

  

If Benny is the brains of the group, Jordan is the face and the energy. He is in fact the lead singer, and NOT Jack Black (he'd like you to remember that fact).

     

And then we have Lee, who plays guitar and "way way back up vocals." His role is kind of that of the court jester. Instead of a jester's hat, he has a fake spiky hair hat.

    

It was a pretty casual concert, and the band came out to the lobby afterwards to sign autographs, meet people, and take pictures.

It was a really fun concert and I highly recommend seeing them if you have a chance. The show ran a little over an hour and I found myself thinking "it's over? I'm sad!" Though I guess that's the best way to end a show, with the audience wanting more.

Here are a few video clips from the show. You can find videos from other shows on youtube and officially produced music videos on their site.

One of the songs that garnered the greatest laughs was "The Language of Love," which Benny sings in the language of love....which we were surprised to learn was German, not French.  We've just posted an excerpt, but if you're amused by singing in German, there's a good full-length video from a show in Sweden last year.  We had the usual shocked, looking around to see your neighbors' reaction, feeling that usually hits foreigners when hearing certain words in Germany such as "gestapo" and "lebensraum." But everyone had a great laugh at the humor, especially since "lebensraum" was a common mistranslation for "living room" and the song seemed to get an even better reaction in Munich than in other shows outside Germany.

Their biggest hit of the night was their encore, Rammstein's Du Hast. It was just a cover, not a comedy sketch, but it was so much fun. Better than the song is the guy a couple rows in front of us who puls out some serious 80s headbanging moves at the 1:35 mark. He's definitely done this a few times before...

"How to Write a Love Song" is a great song mocking all of the boy band love songs and videos which also seem to have a very generic pattern. Really clever, and unfortunately catchy in the same way those 90s cheesy boy band songs were...

And Lee's favorite, The KFC Song, blending hip hop elements with a love of The Colonel's 11 secret herbs and spices.

We'll definitely see them again - a really fun night!

IKEA Gingerbread House

There aren't many things you can't find at IKEA these days.  Let's be honest - most European city dwellers under the age of 40 can walk through their friends' apartments and name the products...Billy, PAX, Stolmen, Lack... all present and accounted for!

What I was surprised to find in December was an IKEA Gingerbread House kit

 

We posted last year on cool gingerbread houses - not only am I a huge admirer of such creative endeavors, but I've always wanted to make one. Sweets and architecture are both things I love!

Given our busy schedule, it was too ambitious to bake the whole thing. Buying a kit seemed the best plan. After all the IKEA stuff we've assembled in the past 2 months, I HAD to try this! 

I wasn't quite sure what I'd find inside. I was pleased to find the neatly designed packaging and the standard IKEA picture instruction booklet. 

However, I was surprised to find that this IKEA project did not come ready to assemble. It was missing some key components - the icing! Many kits come with tubes of icing, so I'd expected this one would also. (there was no other writing on the packaging to indicate what was included or not). It's like buying an Expedit that has no screws!

It did include a recipe for icing, but I really had no time before Christmas. So, back in the cupboard went the Pepparkaka Hus and with it my dreams of any Christmas decoration this year.

Fast forward to the new year...we're moving full steam ahead with lots of home improvement projects and very early spring cleaning. And I'm resolving to put some Christmas in my life this year, at random times in the year. Why not start now?

While making a cool gingerbread house is still on the project list for someday soon, I went the fully lazy route and bought a couple tubes of icing and a set of cookie decorations.

First, the assembly:

Let me just say that a gingerbread house sitting in the living room smells intoxicatingly good. That sweet and spicy smell....so good...but I had to wait until I decorated it and had photographic evidence before testing its taste.

One little goal accomplished.

Update on Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 10:00 by Frau A

Today, the chimney is gone. And a couple of the chocolate candies on top.

It is as tasty as it smelled - IKEA makes good gingerbread...just like its meatballs and Swedish chocolate torte.

I had feared it would be another Lebkuchenherz type of thing - no matter how hungry or drunk at Oktoberfest you are, trust me, they do NOT taste good!

Dirk's Daily Reading

From the man who sings Hasselhoff hits to himself at the freethrow line, a dramatic reading of Oops, I Did it Again.