knunndrum.com

Munich - 07/22/08

UPDATE: 07/25/08 08:30BST

I have been severely chastised for not mentioning beverages.  Most of us had beer.  Yes, I had A beer.  It was the house light and was acceptable for a beer.  When in Germany... I might have had more, but I was feeling a bit headachy and tired.  I didn't want to tempt fate and get a major headache while traveling.

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What a glorious day.  Munich is a beautiful city with very friendly residents.  I also believe there are more bicycles here than in any other city.  They are parked everywhere and people whiz by you on them.

I am staying at the Platzl Hotel and it's a wonderful hotel with great service.  The room is comfortable and the view is charming.  I can walk to many sites and restaurants and in the evening there is the sound of the city coming in my window.  I never thought I would come here, but it has been a great experience and has reminded me how young my country is.

The hotel serves breakfast every morning from 6:30am to 11:00am.  We have gone every morning and the food is wonderful.  They have a buffet that includes eggs, bacon, sausage, various fruits and cereals, various pastries and fresh squeezed juices.  It is a great way to start the day.

After breakfast, we took a cab to the office.  We decided this was the best choice since neither of us knows the city and we aren't familiar with the train system.  When we got to the office about 30 minutes later the taxi fare was 34 Euros.  I was shocked - we decided we would definitely be taking the train back to the hotel and to the office for the remainder of our stay. 

Our meetings were productive and I learned some things I didn't know that will help me with my own customers.  Lunch was provided at the Cafe at the campus.  I had pork with pasta.  It was delicious.  They have china and flatware and glasses for drinks.  Very different from our paper and plastic in the US.  When you have completed your meal you put your tray on a moving belt that Don would love to play with and watch going round and round. 

The train ride back to the hotel was fun because you can watch the people and the scenery.  Both were entertaining.  Once back at the hotel I rested for about 20 minutes and then went over to the hotel of the group we are travelling with to meet our hostess for a short walking tour of Munich before dinner.

As we left their hotel we all mention the bucket of umbrellas, but of course none of us grabbed one.  We walked all over the city with our hostess providing some basic history.  The picture to the left is me standing on the stairs of the Feldherrnhalle.

As we finished up the tour and started to head to the restaurant, it started to rain.  Not Seattle rain where you don't need an umbrella, but an honest to goodness downpour.  We stepped into a little shopping area to wait it out and discussed how stupid it was that none of us had grabbed an umbrella.  It finally slowed a bit and we went on to the restaurant.  When we got there, most of us were soaked.

The restaurant, Andechser am Dom Wirsthaus, is a typical Bavarian style restaurant that is (or was) run by monks.  The food was amazing.  We started with an appetizer plate that had huge radishes cut in spirals, an amazing cheese mixed with spices, and 2 types of breads with toppings.  The cheese was for spreading on pretzels.  Which they serve all times of the day here.  One of the breads had fried onions and the remaining grease from some cooking process.  It sounds disgusting but it was pretty tasty.  The other bread had chives and some sort of cheese spread - also delicious.  All of these items are definitely not good for you.   My main course was a steak with a traditional Bavarian sauce and fried onions on top.  It was served with grilled potatoes with herbs.  Sooo good.  Then we had a dessert sampler that was to die for.  It included streusel, chocolate cake, fried apples with cinnamon sugar, and a few other items that I can't remember.  All were delicious.

We then rolled back to our hotel and went to bed.

Travel

I started a great journey (so far) to Europe on July 20, 2008 at 18:45 PDT.  First a long flight to London where I had hoped to have an empty seat next to me, but the flight was full. 

Several interesting bits about the flight to London:

1. I didn't fall asleep right away.  This is very unusual for me.
2. They served soft drinks in the most adorable little cans.  Skinny like juice cans but a little different.  Of course I didn't get a picture but I am hoping to on the way home.
3. Dinner was either chicken or salmon.  I had chicken. It was pretty good and came with some sort of corn mash and carrots with some sort of beans.  I tried the carrots and ate ALL of the beans.   They looked like lima beans.  There was a roll with butter and cheesecake for desert.
4. After dinner they served coffee or tea.  I had tea.
5. I was then trying to fall asleep when it occurred to me that I really needed to use the restroom.  The gentlemen on my row were snoozing and I ended up waiting for about 20 minutes before they snapped awake and I was able to get up.
6. This was one of several times I got up to walk around since I hate feeling cramped and I didn't want any leg trouble.
7. Breakfast was a croissant with "white" American cheese, a blueberry muffin and orange juice.

After we landed at London's Heathrow we trekked for what seemed like miles to a bus that took us to the terminal that our flight to Munich was leaving from.  We then had to trek some more to a security check point.  Yes they make you go through security even though you haven't left the airport. I then set the alarm off and was frisked by an very polite English woman.  From security we went to the board to see what gate our flight to Munich was at and it hadn't been assigned one yet.  It was set to leave in 30 minutes and had no gate yet.

Flight to Munich - I slept the whole way. 

Here are some pictures of the view from my hotel window.

I am travelling with a co-worker and we walked around a bit before returning to the hotel so he could go to bed. 

I wandered some more and ended up eating at Hard Rock Cafe.

The weather has been gorgeous but I am fading fast. 

Mucus

I have always found the human body to be amazing and one of the most amazing things is the amount of mucus the body can produce when you have a cold.

I have been out sick for the last few days and I can't believe that there is any mucus left but amazingly I continue to produce.

I have worked from home the last 2 days. The main reasons for that are: 1) I don't want to get anyone else sick and 2) I continue to sneeze and need to blow my nose and no one needs to experience that and 3) Just taking a shower and getting dressed wear me out.

I am going a little stir crazy, but hope to be back at work Friday.

Happy Mother's Day

I was trying to find a picture to post for today when I found this one. My Mom asked me to take it and give it to my brother quite a while back. I think it's only fitting since while he was visiting her last week he had a cold and was coughing up a storm. As mother's do - she told him to buy some cough drops but he didn't do it for several days and when he finally did he twittered: "I hate it when my mother is right."

I myself have experienced the same phenomenon. My greatest memory of my mother being right was her strong recommendation to take Latin in high school. Of course I didn't take it and it made my biology and literature courses in college that much harder. It probably would have helped with my French as well.

So my advice to all: Listen to your Mother - she is probably right. ;)

To my Mother:

Thank you for all of your love and support. I wouldn't be who I am today without it. I miss you and love you and hope you have a wonderful day.

I think someone killed Chester Cheetah

Beautiful day in Bothell

Walked down to take my garbage and get my mail with the sun shining and only a few clouds.

IT'S REALLY SNOWING!

IT'S SNOWING!

Tagged

My friend Julie Anne tagged me on this. While I find these very irritating - I will play along...

The rules:
A. The rules are posted at the beginning
B. Answer the questions about yourself
C. Tag someone at the end, let them know in a comment on their blogs that they have been tagged.

What were you doing 10 yrs ago?
I was living in Salt Lake City, Utah with my Mom in the house I grew up in. I was working in an environmental lab.

Snacks I enjoy:
1. Clam Dip and chips
2. Crescent rolls
3. Nachos
4. Cream Cheese and crackers
5. Apples (but only on special occasions)

Five things on my to-do list today:
1. Review several documents
2. Clean my bathroom
3. Change my sheets
4. Brush my cats
5. Go to the grocery store

Things I would do if I became a billionaire:
1. Buy a huge house with a giant bathtub
2. Travel - Australia, Hawaii, Europe
3. Buy an old Tempest video game
4. Buy my brother Discs of Tron
5. Provide a sanctuary where people can leave and visit their pets until they get back on their feet.

3 bad habits:
1. Picking at my face
2. Swearing.
3. Eating junk food

5 places I have lived: (I have to stretch on this one)
1. Salt Lake City, UT (Avenues)
2. Salt Lake City, UT (Sugarhouse)
3. Salt Lake City, UT (Avenues)
4. Kenmore, WA
5. Bothell, WA

Jobs I have had:
1. Retail sales
2. Office manager
3. Organic extractionist
4. GC/MS Analyst
5. Support Engineer

Things many people don’t know about me:
1. I have a BS in biolgy
2. I have owned 4 Saturns
3. I have thought about getting snake for a pet
4. I had hermits crabs for pets when I was younger

I am tagging Don.

Snoqualmie Falls