And the rest...

Since this is a record of our trip, I’m finishing this blog even though it’s 3 months late!! We arrived in the UK on Friday evening without too much of a hassle. One of the first things little Annie asked me was whether we could make some Snapchat photos. I had totally forgotten about that from the previous year, so I added the app back, and we had fun creating silly pictures. We had dinner at home on Friday, a lovely meal prepared by one of their friends who runs a catering business.

On Saturday I requested that we return to the market that we had visited the previous year. While running to catch the train, I fell up a step and hurt my leg — but we still made the train!

We took Annie with us — Steffi and Mark had multiple activities that afternoon.  We ate at a Mexican restaurant that was pretty darned good.

After we returned, it was time to get ready for our posh dinner at a place called Texture.

http://texture-restaurant.co.uk/

We first stopped at Selfridge’s because we had some time to kill, and this famous department store was on the way. It was kind of fun watching Steffi check out some expensive but cool purses.

https://www.selfridges.com/US/en/features/info/stores/london/london-store-guide/

Dinner was amazing — we are all foodies, and Axel chose this restaurant for that reason. I didn’t take any pictures this time, but we had a multi-course dinner with delicious Greek white wine. 

Then it was back home for a quiet Sunday. We played with the kids and had some more yummy food, eating in the garden.

We enjoyed the day, and on Monday we headed toward London with Steffi.  We took a quick look around the Victoria and Albert Museum -- I definitely want to go back and spend more time there.

Bob just hanging out at the Victoria and Albert Museum

The horse from the play War Horse

Stopping in Richmond on our way back from London, we ate at a little Italian restaurant -- the food was delicious!  Then it was on to pick up children and have a final meal with the London crew.

Yummy Italian beer!

And Annie and I did one last Snapchat -- I can post this one because only the eyes and mouth are hers!

Silly Snapchat but pretty blue eyes

We left on Tuesday morning and had no difficulties returning to Philadelphia -- another successful trip in the books!

N

Residenz, fabulous meal, shopping, and concert/dinner in a REALLY LONG entry

WEDNESDAY
We awoke to heat warnings for the day. Ugh. After another great breakfast, we decided to check out the Reidenz München. We talked to the hotel person, who told us that it’s usually easy to enter the Residenz even though our information said that we had to make a reservation. Being the ever-vigilant planner, I decided that we should go there today and double- check the arrangements.

We started our walk at 11:00, taking a different route to our destination than on previous days. Bob’s eye was caught by some stuffed animals in a store window, so we went into what was a HUGE toy store, complete with stuffed animals, games, legos, etc. My man-child happily walked around the store for a while, and then we moved on.

I saw some cute baby clothes in another shop, so we bought a little something for Kelsey’s baby boy. We got to the Residenz area and were sweating up a storm, so we sat in the shade on a comfy sofa and had some beer and water.

 

We had no problem entering the palace with my eticket. There were 2 tours, one shorter and one longer, both self-guided. We chose the shorter tour, which ended up taking almost 3 hours — god knows how long the “long” tour was!

There were many rooms from many different periods. Part of the place is known for its rococo decor and part for its intricate floors. There were many rooms full of porcelain and silver.

The hall of mirrors

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After the tour of the Residenz, we went back to the hotel and took a little nap before our culinary adventure that evening.  Our London friends had recommended a restaurant in Munich, so off we went to find it, which was a little bit of a problem since the restaurant was in a hip hotel that didn't have much signage.  After asking a few people on the street, we finally arrived on time for a 5 course meal with wine pairings.  It was a wonderful meal in a garden setting.   

https://www.shanesrestaurant.de/en/

Foccacia type bread

Sorbet cleanser

Appetizer with various interesting vegetables and herbs

Fish dish

Beef dish

Beautiful dessert

There was an amazing candy spring as part of the dessert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMuEClvShgA

THURSDAY
Since creating a new post makes entries out of order, I am including Thursday as part of this entry.
We spent a part of the day shopping and having lunch, and then we traveled back to the Residenz Museum for a concert.  You would think that since we had been there the day before, we would easily locate the concert venue.  However, you would be wrong!  The Residenz has multiple concert spaces, and on that particular evening, there was an opera being performed at the larger place.

The opera house

 We spent a lot of time trying to find this chapel where our concert was to happen.  Because I am the person who always gives myself plenty of time to get somewhere new, we found the chapel in plenty of time to get a seat and use the facilities. Whew.

The chapel

The chapel was lovely but WARM.  The concert included Vivaldi pieces played by a violinist, cellist,
and violist, all of whom were excellent musicians.

The only named musician -- the other two were "house" musicians.

After the concert, we were actually walked to the restaurant for the dinner that was included with our ticket.

Zodiac light right over our table

The exterior of the restaurant

After dinner, we walked through the Residenzplatz to get back to our subway station.

Bed after 11:00pm.

Walking around.

We awoke after 8:00 this morning and had breakfast before getting ready for the day. The selection of coffees and food was great! After breakfast, we headed to the Hauptbahnhof to buy a 3-day group pass. Then we walked the Kaufinger Strasse. This is quite a shopping street; I shopped while Bob watched some demolition.

https://youtu.be/MOZV6xmOLlA

I had my head turned by shoes....

https://youtu.be/B---889tPAo

Because it was so sunny, I ended up buying a hat.We arrived at the famous Marienplatz, home to the Glockenspiel.

It was a sunny, warm day, so we had a beer in the shade just off Marienplatz.

We then continued our walk, stopping to buy some cheese and two handmade wooden hearts. Lunch
came next in the Victualmarkt: currywurst and more beer.

By this time, it was really hot, and we experienced a wave of tiredness, so we took the subway back to our hotel and took a lovely nap -- I always book a hotel with air conditioning! 

After our nap, I chose a dinner spot that had wine rather than beer. It was about 10 minutes away. We had pasta and wine with a delicious dessert.

The place was quite charming as well. We walked back and are now sitting in the lobby/lounge having another glass of wine. So civilized.

On to Munich!

Tom picked us up before 9:00, and we had our last bites of lovely, fresh Hannover bread. Tom got us to the airport by 11:00, and of course there was no line since we were early.  The last time we did this, we were late, and somehow Bob lost his passport in the rush. But all was well this time.👏👏👏

The flight was uneventful, and we easily found the Lufthansa bus that would take us to the train station.

 Our trip from the station to the hotel was not quite so easy. We discovered later that the bus drop-off was on the opposite side of where the hotel was, so we walked many steps before we finally found it.

The hotel was lovely, and we rested for a bit before embarking on the search for dinner.

I had read Rick Steves’ recommendations, so we set off for Augustine Keller Biergarten.

The walk was easy except for the bike path right next to the sidewalk. While we were walking under the train tracks, bikes were whizzing by — super- close!


We were seated right away and ordered massive beers to start.

 

Bob was impressed by our server’s strength — carrying multiple steins of beer and food with seeming ease. We ordered traditional food: pig’s knuckle and duck with suckling pig.

The young man next to us, who had had a few beers, asked us why we were in Munich. When we said vacation, he said Munich was ugly, and there were much prettier places to visit. He and his friends were training — electrician apprenticeship. We spoke in broken English with him and his colleagues, enough to figure out that they were his bosses and were teasing him. And then I got lost coming back from the bathroom after being personally escorted there by our server (I also had to pay the bill!).

On our walk back, a young man spoke to us because he heard us speaking American English. He was training with Bosch and had studied engineering at Purdue!

Back at the hotel, we had a nightcap and then went to our room. Sleep at about 9:30.

Sunday Funday.

We spent a quiet day with our German “son” and family. It was a lovely day, so we spent much of the time outside, having breakfast and dinner in the front garden. We just kept moving the table into the shade. Yannik and Niklas worked on their Legos Hogwarts, and Yannik played the piano.

He then went swimming with a friend while we had lunch. Bob had told Niklas he would “play”:soccer with him, so off they went — the yard is too small now for games. I went back to the hotel and took an afternoon nap and then returned for coffee and cake.

Martina and I had a nice chat while Tom was napping, and she read a chapter of Harry Potter to Niklas — so charming.

More grilling ensued, and we had chicken and “happy pig.” Bed at 9:00.