Happy eggs, river surfing, and the Hoff

And now for something (almost) completely different.... The humorous things we have seen and experienced. First, our hotel, Schiller 5, half a block from the main train station is wonderful! This morning, the owner stopped by our table to chat. He is over 90 years old, a survivor of Dachau and Auschwitz. He spoke about 8 languages, including English. He wanted to make sure we were satisfied with his hotel, the service, and the breakfast. He offered me a beer (I declined since it was 8:30 am!) and conversed with us for about five minutes. I am now in the dining area typing this and we just noticed that the staff, including housekeeping and reception, eats the same delicious breakfast after the guests, before they put it away. The boiled eggs on the breakfast bar are just too cute for words.

Regarding food, traditional German food is delicious, but seems heavy in my American belly. Phillip and I trade off eating German and eating Asian. Yes, Asian. Thai or Vietnamese. Lots of Asian restaurant here. It works well because we'd be waddling around Europe if we ate sausages, fried pork, and potato dumplings all the time!

fried pork belly with potato dumplings

Friday afternoon, we walked to the English Park, Munich's version of our NYC Central Park. The Eisbach River flows thru it, with a spillway at the south park entrance, probably to control the flow. Water cascades over the spillway at the right speed and hits below just perfectly for... surfing! Surfers on either side of the river take turns, some wipe out almost immediately then float/swim downstream out of the way of the next person. The man in the following picture was the best one, he would intentionally wipe out after about two minutes to let someone else have a turn. About 10 people, but not us, were surfing.

Yesterday, we rode the subway to the Olympic Village and walked all around it. Munich has hosted the Olympics twice: 1936 and 1972. All the 1936 sites are gone, but the 1972 venue is still there. (Tragic note: 1972 was the Olympics when 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were kidnapped and assasinated by Palestinian terrorists.) Phillip and I visited the Olympic Museum in Switzerland but this was the first actual Olympic venue we've toured. Most buildings and facilities here were either closed or under renovation (it has been 47 years!), but the beach volleyball area has been kept up and was in use.

beach volleyball on Olympic courts

As we walked around, looking for a way to see over the fence into the main stadium, we saw a stream of people heading west on a path, so we followed them. I told Phillip that based on the signs, they were heading for the parking lot. Yes, because the entire Olympic parking lot was a flea market! Acres of people, regular Munich residents, at a huge garage sale! Only a few appeared to be making a business of it. Phillip, whose el cheapo Walmart sunglasses had broken, bought two pairs of sunglasses, 1 euro each. I bought a cross-body bag to use on the cruise for 10 euro. We didn't haggle as we don't speak German and the quoted price was fine with us!

just one row of many. many rows of the flea market

I hoped to at least get a picture of the swim hall where Mark Spitz (the greatest US swimmer before Michael Phelps) won his medals, but it was totally under renovation. Just past it, we found the Olympic complex's lake. A paved walkway circled part of the lake and in the pavement were handprints of entertainers who had performed at the Olympic stadium. In keeping with the era, and remembering that two outta three ain't bad, here's the picture of handprints from Meatloaf:

And finally... I'm sad that we won't be in Munich on October 6. A "concert" was advertised for that day. I checked and we could get standing room tickets in the section next to the stage for just 85 euro apiece! Darn. We will miss seeing the Hoff!