Meeting relatives and a snowstorm

Somehow we ended up taking an earlier train so we arrived in Munich about 20 mintues ahead of schedule.  We were meeting my relatives that I've never met before.  Michael and Christiane had agreed to let us spend a night with them and Julia would be meeting us for dinner.  But none of us knew what the others looked like.  We decided to wait at the end of the platform our train was supposed to come in on and we stood there like idiots looking at every couple that passed - wondering if it was them.  The second couple I asked turned out to be them!  (I even got to use my German when asking!).  We waited a few more minutes before Julia joined us - she had just gotten off work.  We dumped our bags in the car and walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner.

 

Dinner was at the Altmunchner Gesellenhaus a few blocks from the train station.  The food was delicious and the waiter even wore Lederhosen!  We did the small talk - get to know eachother, etc.  The conversation was mostly in English for our benefit.  Everyone was really nice and we enjoyed visiting with them.  After dinner we drove around Munich a little to see the city at night, and then off to bed. 

My relatives have a beautiful house about 20 minutes from the city center.  In the morning we had a lovely breakfast of those delicious rolls, lunchmeats, cheese and tea.  Yummy!  After breakfast, Michael brought out his collection of eyeglasses.  I think he was quite please to see that Michele and I both wear glasses.

  He has an online business where he sells frames to customers and let us try on a bunch of pairs.  Some of them were pretty crazy (and awful) but some were really nice and trendy.  He let us each pick out a pair.  That was so nice of him!  All we need to do is get lenses when we get home!  If you are interested in the frames, he has a website:

www.eyewear-collection.com

After over an hour of trying on glasses, Michael drove us back into town.  After storing our luggage at the train station, we got dropped off a few blocks from the Marienplatz.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  I suggested climbing the tower of St.

Peter's Church, since you get a great view of Marienplatz, the Rathaus, and the Frauenkirche.  So we climbed up and on the way I thought I saw a few snowflakes outside the window.  Hmm.  Sure enough, we get to the top and it is snowing like crazy and the wind is blowing the snow horizontal!  Yikes!  We braved the outdoor viewing platform and got our snow-filled pics of Marienplatz.  All the while I'm thinking how can it be snowing this late in March when I was here before in the first week of January and there was no snow?!

I also talked Michele into the Hofbrauhaus (see my review).  It is a great Beer Hall with a live band, large beers and delicious food.  We popped in for a light lunch - we shared the wiener platter and each had a Radler (half beer half lemonade).

  It was yummy.  We had just sat down when a German family joined us at the table.  We didn't talk to eachother - I'm sure they knew we were tourists - but thanks to them we were able to get service faster.  It is really busy in there, with a lot of turnover and our tablemates got the waiter's attention to order and also for the bill.  We enjoyed the music and food and only saw one drunk, obnoxious person.  But when we left, it was still snowing.

We decided not to stick around much, so we walked back to the train station in the snow.  Then we went in to a store that was connected to the underground shopping area and worked our way back out of the snow!  We caught a train back to Stuttgart for a little R&R before our big Easter trip to Kiel.