T̶w̶o̶ One p̶e̶r̶p̶e̶t̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶a̶t̶s̶ immigrant settling into home country number five.
Julie Ljubljana (4 hours by car or 6 hours by train from Munich) not only fulfilled my love of places with silly names, but it also turned out to be charming little city and a fun place to hang out. Ljubljana is quite small for a capital city, so it’s not long in the ‘touristy things … Read more
Slovenia is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Munich, yet it doesn’t often show up on a traveler’s radar. Unfortunate that, because as we found out this weekend, it’s definitely worth a visit. Train connections are plentiful, but this time we tagged along with some friends who have a car. Driving to … Read more
Look familiar? Ah, springtime in Munich. On the heels of the Starkbierfest comes the Frühlingsfest, or spring festival, which takes place on the Theresienwiese, Munich’s famous Oktoberfest fairgrounds. With just two one-story beer tents, Frühlingsfest is much smaller than Oktoberfest, but the general idea is the same: carnival rides, carnival food, and drunken crowds in … Read more
In case you were wondering what summer in Munich is like, it’s simple: all biergarten all the time. These photos are from the biergarten at Seehaus, in the middle of the English Garden. This beer garden distinguishes itself from the millions of others in that 1) it’s on a lake and 2) it has a … Read more
I have fallen down on the job, dear readers. There was an important event here in Munich yesterday, and I failed to attend it. From what I hear it was magical. OK, it was free beer. Helles, dunkles, and weißbier, free-flowing and plentiful from the beer fountain, at least for a couple hours in the … Read more
After months of turmoil, my new computer has arrived. It’s a shiny new MacBook. I’ve gone back to my roots – no more Windows for me! In the process of migration, I have managed once again to lose track of which emails belong in my “reply to” folder. If you have written to me recently … Read more
English words are adapted for use in German all the time. It’s not uncommon to hear a sentence in which half the words are English, especially if the speaker is young and hip. To a much lesser extent, the Italians do this, too. Often the meaning of the word stays the same, or at least … Read more
While Germany was busy swooning over our new president, we were out enjoying Germany. We squeezed in one last sledding trip with the Rendenii (which is where we spotted this guy); rang in the beginning of asparagus season in a beer garden on the lake; and then got the balcony garden started.
Somehow I doubt an ad like this would fly in the US, especially as a billboard in a location frequented by children.
In London over the weekend, we came across a large demonstration snaking through the city. Unlike the protests expected this week during the G-20 meetings, the one we saw was quite peaceful and orderly, and was even followed up by a crew of street sweepers to erase any mess that might have been made by … Read more