Lisa in Munich!

Lisa came to visit! She is a friend from Georgetown. She was working in Geneva for the week. She decided to take a train to Munich to visit me on the weekend. As my apartment is small and doesn't contain much furniture, we found a hostel for her to stay at in central munich. As we meandered toward it, I showed her my walk to school and shared some of the stories that I heard on the bike tour.

It was a busy saturday and many performers were out. This street musicians was particularly good.

We eventually made our way to her hostel. She took a shower while I relaxed in the common area (and discovered that my Nool's battery had drained far more quickly than I expected).

Of course, one of the things that I really wanted to show her was Chinese pagoda bier garten. While wandering through the English Gartens, I took her to see the surfers.

Part of the Isar River is diverted through the English gartens. The engineers who did this made a standing wave. Nowadays, it is used by surfers.

Surfer dude. This guy was awesome. At one point, he took a running leap from the shore onto into the wave.

Lady Surfer.

So, when I reviewed this picture, I couldn't help but think that she looked a tad like my Commander Shepherd from Mass Effect. Maybe it was the wetsuit.

Inevitably, the surfers fell or climbed out. This was by design for the more experienced surfers. There were lines on both sides of the river, and it seemed like people only surfed for a minute or two before going back to the end of the line. It is strange watching a human being disappear into the waves.

We eventually made our way to the Biergarten.

Because Lisa was visiting, I felt I had to join her in drinking the Mass Biers - an entire liter in one mug. So... two and a half hours later, I had drunk 2 liters of beer. This is perhaps a bit much for me.

We ended up staying out far too late that night. After the English Gartens, we made our way to another bar where there was a private party going on. I think I ended up getting home around 4am. Gah. Considering that I wake with the dawn usually, I was awake again by 7:30am. I (semi-successfully) tried to force myself to sleep again until I got Lisa's text at 10am. We agreed to meet in Marienplatz at 11:30ish, both of us feeling like death. We watched the automatons in Glockenspiel in the Rathaus circle the clock tower at noon.

Waiting for the Glockenspiel to start.

Some knights charging at one another in the Glockenspiel. During the second tilt, one knight was "hit" and fell over.

We decided that we would go to Schloss Nymphenburg. However, the weather was absolutely perfect sunday, so we decided that we'd take a rather circuitous route to it. We walked down to the River Isar from Marienplatz.

Some graffiti Lisa noticed. Translation: "I love you." We each thought it was sweet.

While wandering roads near the Isar, we ran into a rather impressive church.

Closer view of the church.

The stained glass on the inside was quite amazing. On the left side, near the top, was a circular window with a bright splash of red.

On the right side, its counterpart was colored blue.

The church.

We left the church, crossed the river, and proceeded downstream.

So, the river is beautiful. There are often beaches like this one, where we saw many germans relaxing and enjoying the perfect weather.

There are parks lining the river. I commented to Lisa that at one point it felt as if I had left the city of Munich, and was wandering a hiking trail in Shenandoah.

We crossed a bridge. The stream below was dappled with sunlight filtering through the leaves.

We were both envious of the Munich way of life and leisurely pace, and longed for a lifestyle where we could simply relax down on the river for a few hours on a perfect sunday.

The path was lined with graffiti.

We ran into a pack of shadow cats. Lisa befriended them.

Eventually, we found the metro and took it up to Gern, where we walked about a mile to reach Schloss Nymphenburg. I was astounded at the scale of it. It's one of the larger structures that I've seen, to the point of it being ostentatious. While I can appreciate it as an artistic structure, I can't help but wonder how anyone could ever justify building so large a residence. However, it was undeniably impressive.

Walking to the palace. This place is massive.

An elaborate table in one of the sitting rooms.

I'm not well versed in art styles. The work was very intricate and very fine, with detailed scrollwork and (maybe?) gold leaf.

Lisa and I.

Afterward, we wandered into the sprawling grounds behind the castle. They had statutes of (what I'm guessing) were greek gods throughout the grounds. Here is Cronus, eating his babies. As I was running on like 4 hours of sleep, I had been telling Lisa all day that, while I felt fine, I was sure I was going to reach a point where I just crashed hard and needed to sleep. Lisa finally said she was at that point, so we laid down on the grass near a pool and napped for an hour or so.

After waking, we had had plans to meet Alex, Tom, Ceaser, and Phil for dinner. We made our way there, had some schnitzel and beers, then finished the night at a dive bar Tom knew of near his apartment.

The next day was bittersweet. We met, and had croissants for breakfast at a cafe near where I live. Eventually, it was time for her to head to the airport, and me to leave for class. I think we made the most of her 48 hour visit. It was fun leisurely exploring Munich with Lisa, but, alas, we each have our responsibilities to return to. Still, she brightened my stay in Munich for at least a couple of days, and I hope to return the favor in the future, wherever she ends up.