Sunday – Our Last Full Day Together on Vacation

On Sunday, which turned out to be another beautiful sunny day in Munich, we decided once again to do two things to fill up our day. Our first plan of action was to head down to the English Garden with Jeremy and Rachel and have ourselves a little picnic.

The English Garden was first created in 1789 and carries this name due to the style of informal landscaping that was popular in England at that time. The park is the largest in Europe at over 900 acres, and is larger than Central Park, but smaller than London’s Richmond Park. On a busy sunny day it seems like half of Munich might be in the park having a picnic, sunbathing, playing sports, or just hanging out.

Our plan was to find a nice sunny spot and have a picnic, but it turned out that the ground was still a bit damp, so after first trying a few spots we decided to walk up to the Chinese Tower, which is a large beer garden in the center of the park that contains a 6 story Chinese Tower, apparently modeled after one in London, and a vast array of communal tables where people sit and drink beer, eat traditional Bavarian food, and listen to a band that sits up in the tower and plays, you guessed it, traditional Bavarian music.

At first it did not look like we would find a seat as there were so many people out that day, but after a bit of walking around we were able to find a table with only two other people at it. We asked if it was free and sat down to our lunch. Deb had packed a nice lunch including bringing along some water in plastic bottles.

Well after about 15 minutes or so, a gentleman came up to us, and speaking in clear English informed us that if we sat at these tables we MUST go buy a beer. We asked and he confirmed that yes we could eat our own food, but no we could NOT drink our own drinks. He again suggested that we put our drinks away and go buy a beer. Only in Munich will you find the Beer Police who are going to enforce that you must drink beer outside on a sunny day!

So, we sent Jeremy up to one of the beer stalls to get a beer and, being that he could legally buy beer, and that the Munich police had told him he must drink beer, he was pretty happy. He came back with a typical massive mug of beer.

After our picnic in the park, we headed across town to go to the Pinakothek der Moderne  (Modern Picture Gallery) to show Rachel and Jeremy some of the cool stuff that is in this modern art museum. The exhibitions range from the  really modern (a moving 3 story exhibit that includes tables that go up and down on revolving chains that hold cell phones, water bottles, you name it), to an exhibit on classic car designs that were far ahead of their time, to a fabulous display of early 20^th century home furnishings such as the teapot below.

Here is a photo of Deborah, Rachel, and Jeremy in the modern furniture portion of the gallery.

As you know, we had visited this museum a couple of weeks earlier, and decided that of all the museums in Munich, this one would be of the most interest to Rachel and Jeremy. Our blog posting about that visit focused mainly on the furniture and the cars, but there is a very special jewelry exhibit that we did not mention. Deb knew Rachel would love to see this.

As you first entered the exhibit it looked like a setting out of 2011 A Space Odyssey, with a rather dark setting and these tall illuminated display cases on the walls.

The jewelry was displayed in these vertical cases, and also in illuminated glass tables in the middle of the room.  The setting of the pieces in the tables was really nice as you could lean over them, lean on them, and get as close a look as you would like of this very unique art work.

As with most modern art, the pieces ranged from the absurd (a laptop computer necklace) to the fanciful (an egg shell ring) to some truly dazzling and beautiful pieces (a necklace of thinly shaved, oval wood slices) and much much more.

This was really one of the highlights of the trip I think, simply because of the beauty of the pieces and the creativity of the artists who put these items together. As you look at them you really have to wonder how someone was inspired to dream up, and then fabricate these pieces.

So after this long day we headed back to flat to get Rachel and Jeremy ready for their trip home. We stopped off at the Odeonsplatz U-Bahn stop to show them where the Siemens office is and where I go to work each day (the main Siemens complex is directly behind me - not bad digs for sure) and Rachel and Deb snapped a few last pictures of everyone in Munich.

Mark, king of Siemens

Early on Monday morning, with the gloomy weather and the return of rain, we packed up and took a taxi to the airport to see them off. We checked their bags (using my status to check in at the business class line), had a quick bite to eat upstairs, and sent them on their way.

Deb and I then got in line to purchase an S-Bahn ticket for the return to the city and met a U.S. service man in the ticket line who was stationed in Kuwait and trying to get to Garmish, which still maintains a US army base. His family was due to fly in to meet him in Munich after a 6 month separation. We said good-bye and hopped on the train to go back "home."