trip report: part 6

I’ll try and wrap this up….

Day Six: February 20

Fat Tuesday in New Orleans is Fasching in Germany. And how did I start the morning? A little tired from the previous night’s outing, but not bad. I woke up relatively early, had breakfast, and went out with Doris and Bernd to see two sights: Allianz Arena, the football (soccer) stadium built for the 2006 FIFA World Cup; and Schloß Nymphenburg, one of King Ludwig II’s epic castles. After that: a night on the town to celebrate Fasching!

We hopped into the car and drove to Allianz Arena, which is north of downtown Munich. The place is huge: it sits like a large, quilted pillow on the horizon. The arena seats over 69,000 (and I must note that most of the seats have plenty of elbow room – much more than you’d ever see in the U.S.), and has great sightlines throughout the seating area. The whole structure is coated in a translucent skin that reflects as white during daylight hours, but allows folks inside the skin to see out. Additionally, in the dark, it can be lit to reflect the team colors of either resident Bundesliga team: FC Bayern München (red) or TSV 1860 München (blue). It’s quite the place.

After that, we scooted across town, past BMW HQ and the Olympic Center from the 1972 Summer Games, to the grounds of Schloß Nymphenburg. This castle is one of two that King Ludwig II modeled after Versailles, the one at Chiemsee being more true to the form of the French fortress. This castle has beautiful grounds, replete with ponds, fountains, gardens and statues. However, if you visit during the winter months, almost all of the statuary is covered with wooden shrouds to prevent frost damage. No matter, though, as the grounds are still very, very scenic. After wandering around the grounds for an hour or so, we returned to the Rehle house for a late lunch/early dinner while we awaited the return of Dominik from his work.

Once Dominik returned and food was consumed, we headed to downtown Munich for Fasching parties. We started at Marienplatz, where Radio Arabella was sponsoring a large concert, and all of the local breweries. Dominik and I met up with one of his oldest friends, Michael, and some more of his common friends, and we toasted the night with a tall glass of Franziskaner, one of the best Weissbiers made. And yes, they served it in a real glass – something that would never happen in the States. Amazingly, there wasn’t much in the way of broken glasses (you paid a deposit on the glass when you bought the beer).

We then headed over to a second party, near the Viktualienmarkt. However, it seems that the residents of downtown Munich had passed some anti-noise ordinances that resulted in the parties – all of ’em – shutting down at 6:00 pm. So the lot of us went to the Hacker-Pschorr beer house, next to the market. This building was only recently renovated, and the place is great for having a beer with friends. Amazingly, we were able to find a table with adequate seating, and we all sat down for beer and discussion. Eventually, once some of our friends had moved on for the night, we retreated to the club level of Hacker-Pschorr, in the basement, where the disco beats were strong and the beer was still quite good.

The night ended earlier than the previous one, but that was just fine. It was still a fun time in Munich.