The Ass man

We did it - we finally had a full night’s sleep (and then some: 10 hours!) and you want to know what the best part of waking up is? No, not “Folgers in your cup” - it’s seeing the sun shine down on Munich. It is a gorgeous, bustling city and although we’d seen a lot in the rain, it was entirely different under sunny skies. Thus, we decided to go on a bike tour around Munich (no hernia will keep Mike off the bike, even if it’s just a cruiser).

If you’re ever in Munich you need to check out Mike’s Bike Tours (yes, it is funny!), and he also has bike tours in Amsterdam, Paris, and Barcelona. They’re so much fun - a great way to see a city! Our tour guide was this crazy, young Irish guy named Steve (with red hair and lots of freckles) who just got back from spending the winter months in Belize doing whatever work he could get. Our group of 12 was a mix of Brits, Austrailians and Americans. And Mike, being the expereinced group ride leader he is, immediately volunteered to take up the rear and pick up the stragglers: thus he was known for the duration of the Tour as: “the Ass Man”.
Steve was a talker, especially with stories including the trials and tribulations of being a bike tour guide — which were hilarious! But he also know a lot about the history of Munich, and it really seemed like he loved the place. Near the end of the tour we rode through the Englisher Garten, which is a gorgeous 1,000 acre city park (33% bigger than Central Park) and stopped at the second largest beer garden in Munich for lunch — which of course included Bavarian liquid bread: beer! They also had these Bavarian pretzels that are twice the size of your head. They’re super yummy and super salty, which makes you want to drink more beer. Hmmmm . . . . those Germans are so tricky! We sat in the garden and hung out for about an hour, which was super relaxing and great people watching. The garden (which holds up to 6,000 people) was full of families, tourists, groups of teenagers, and locals. A guy who came and sat down by our group was actually a musician from Chicago (named Mike, of course) who had lived in Munich for over 20 years. He was just hanging out having a beer and reading “The Brothers Karamazov”. Swigging beer is pretty standard operating procedure in Germany: from the rowdy “football” fans to the trendy clubgoing crowd to the white collar workers, blue collar workers and the intellectuals. Eventually we pushed on (although the group would have been quite content to just hang out in the gardens and talk for a few more hours), and had a quick ride through the streets of Munich until it was time to say goodbye.

Instead of taking a train we decided to rent a car. How fun is that? Mike is driving this zippy little Audi (a free upgrade-thanks Avis!) that kicks ass on the AutoBahn. We were cruising along with traffic at 160km (about 100 mph) without even realizing it. Germans are very safe and very good drivers, so as long as you just settle into the flows it’s no problem at all. However, Rosa will probably not be doing any driving because she doesn’t know how to drive a stick shift. But, what better place to learn than on the Autobahn... with a rental. The 2-hour drive to Mittersill, Austria was beautiful - everything is so green and the mountains are enormous. The pictures we took from the car will not do it justice.

The reason we are in Europe is because Mike’s best friend Matt is getting married on Saturday and Mike’s the best man. The wedding will be at Schloss Mittersill which is a castle that serves as a Christian retreat center. The castle is on a mountainside looking down on the town of Mittersill and is absolutely beautiful. We can’t wait to explore the castle and the city over the next few days. But, there was no time for exploring or anything else, except for Rosa getting to carry the luggage up 3 flights of stairs (that damn nernia!) As soon as we got here Mike was sent away with all the other men to the bachelor party and Rosa hung out at the castle with all the women folk drinking wine and eating cheese and crackers. She’s not sure if that’s a typical European bachelorette party or if it’s more tamed because of where we are at. All in all, it was a nice evening talking to Natalia (the bride) and Matt’s family who also flew in from the States. But, Matt does have an older brother who lives here with his family in Mittersill and works at the castle. That’s how Matt met Natalia, when a couple years ago Matt came to live with his brother and work at the castle. So, that’s our adventure so far. There will be more exciting castle wedding news to come, especially since it’s 1am and Mike’s not back from the bachelor party. Oh, those boys!

Ciao