Munich

On Sunday afternoon I arrived in Munich for a short vacation. There is a giant ceramics industry conference and exhibition called Ceramitec every three years in Munich, so Eva's company sends people and I got to tag along. (I didn't have to do anything with the ceramics industry.) We stayed at the town of Poing (I am not joking) which is on the outskirts of Munich on a S-bahn line. The next S-bahn stop was Grub. (Again, not joking.) The hotel restaurant was called Mango's, so naturally I had to get a picture in honor of my dog by that name.

We got to the hotel and I headed into Munich. I was immediately struck by how clean and organized and modern everything is. Oh, the Germans! The S-bahn trains (aboveground) were so nice and new and spotless and ran right on time. The streets are wide and everything looks clean and well taken care of. Part of the modern feeling of the city is probably due to the fact that it was bombed like mad in WWII so a lot of the city is fairly new...more on that later. But even the old buildings were in good repair. And it felt very alive and lived-in. In the city center and historic parts of Prague it seems like almost every building is a hotel or a souvenir shop or a "traditional Czech" restaurant, but that touristy stuff was not as overwhelming in Munich.

Here is the town hall in Marienplatz. It was very chilly and a bit grey but what a cool city! I wandered around for hours and headed back to the hotel (about 30 minutes on the train) once it got dark.

This is another view of Marienplatz.

The next day I headed into Munich again for a free walking tour by the New Europe Company. I believe I mentioned them in another blog post. The guides are mainly young people, as are the customers. It doesn't cost anything to go on the tour; you just tip at the end if you want to. They have tours in all the major European cities, and I highly recommend them. They are fun and a great way to get oriented. Here is the inside courtyard of the town hall.Some pretty creepy gargoyles in the courtyard.

And a rat thing.

Munchen, (the German word for Munich) has some relation to the German word for monk. It might mean monk or just be a derivative, I can't remember. Regardless, monk and Munich are close because the area used to be covered in monasteries. There were loads of monks. So that is why Munich is called Munich. There are lots of images of monks around the city--carved on buildings, painted on walls, etc. He is usually holding a book in one hand and giving the three-fingered Father-Son-Holy Ghost salute in the other. Some people joke that the monk is really holding a beer stein...

I got sort of excited to see a UPS truck. When you have been away from America for a long time it is comforting to see American things that aren't McDonald's. Although at this point McDonald's is looking pretty good, too.

The truck drove by the Frauenkirche, the Church of Our Blessed Lady. It is interesting because it was built in only twenty years in the 15th century which is super fast for a huge church. It went so fast because it is built of red brick, not troublesome marble or something, and it is fairly plain. Also, the devil built it. That tends to speed things up.

There is a legend that the devil built the church. He was about to destroy the church but he noticed on the plans that there were no windows. He assumed it would be dark and cold and gross inside--a perfect place for devil worship! So the devil made a deal with the architect that as long as no windows were added, he would send his little satanic minions to build the church really fast. What the devil didn't realize, though, was that there were windows planned for the church; he just couldn't see them. The architect wanted the windows to be invisible from the main aisle of the church so that it would appear that the building was lit by God. When the devil realized this, he stomped his foot in the church and disappeared. You can see the "devil's footprint" on the floor. There is an actual footprint in stone. The legend is true because the footprint is there and the two towers are different heights. One tower is 1 meter higher than the other. And the Germans don't make mistakes like that. So it must have been the devil.

You can see one of the Frauenkirche's brick towers topped by a dome in this picture. The whirly thing in the middle of the picture spun around and made funny noises at intervals. Marienplatz is the square through the archway. Above the archway is the room where Hitler plotted Kristallnacht--now more appropriately termed Reichspogromsnacht.
Now the building is a teddy bear and toy museum. Weird, huh? But Munich is full of places like that.

There were beautiful flower stands and fruit stalls and huts selling those delicious candied nuts that I always associate with Renaissance fairs all over Munich. And they didn't feel touristy. By that I mean it seemed that actual Germans and Munich residents were shopping at these places. You can see a flower shop by the orange truck in the right hand corner of the above picture.

Here are two views of Mary's column in Marienplatz and the town hall Glockenspiel. The Glockenspiel has life-size figures that perform a little show three times a day. According to a survey mentioned by my guide, it is the second most overrated tourist attraction in Europe. The first is the Astronomical Clock in Prague.

Here is the opera house.

Next door is an Italian-looking building with lots of columns.

Some of the columns are scarred by shrapnel and bullets from the War.

Munich's approach to war memorials and remembrances seems to be focused on these "little scars" instead of huge memorials. There are small plaques around the city to commemorate various events--we saw one affixed to a building where a Jewish-owned department store used to be. In Reichspogromsnacht the store was basically destroyed and the owner and his family were sent to concentration camps. The plaque was small and only in German, so if I hadn't been on a tour I would have missed it.

My guide said that Munich and Germany know they need to remember but they also don't want to be branded forever by the Third Reich. It was twelve years--only twelve years! in a long history which includes some really cool, great stuff. I understand that--I don't want to be branded by slavery, for instance...but at the same time...I think it might be nice if the plaques were in German and Hebrew and English and Spanish and Italian and Chinese...etc.

In Berlin there is a huge WWII memorial, which my guide said is powerful, but that has become such a part of the city that you don't really notice it anymore. People picnic on it and take funny pictures. It becomes part of normal life. So I think there is a balance between branding and remembering.

Even though I did not intend to think about Hitler and the Nazis and the War all the time in Munich, you can't help it. I was talking to my dad about this--we seem to be fascinated by Hitler and the Third Reich. It is almost a fetish. Hitler is just enough crazy and more than enough evil to hold our attention and be the perfect villain. It is a sort of delicious tragedy, you know? I don't want to minimize it or trivialize it--see an upcoming post on Dachau for some serious stuff--but it is interesting to me how fascinated people are by Hitler and the Nazis. There have been other villains and other countries and people have done really horrible things, but Hitler seems to be the one we like to learn about and read about and watch movies about. I'd be interested in discussing this further, so shoot me an email if you would like.

We went to the Viktualienmarkt, which is an outdoor market where you can get honey, flowers, plants, food, beer, craft-y things, etc. There was a row of butcher shops by the market where I purchased my first bratwurst. Unfortunately the Christmas markets aren't open yet, but maybe I will go back in December.

Here is another image of the town hall. It was not destroyed in the war.

I liked this staircase.

After the tour I had about six hours to fill before I met my Munich friends for dinner. (In Venice I studied with several students from Munich, and it was awesome to see them again!) So I wandered in and out of shops (Munich is the most expensive city in Germany, so I just scouted and now I have a good idea of what is out there.) It was cold, so browsing in shops was a good way to spend the time! When I would get too cold from strolling I would head into yet another H & M or MANGO or the fabulous Ludwig Beck department store.

I ate bratwurst--yum--and a comical number of soft pretzels. They aren't just for sporting events! Wonderful soft pretzels were everywhere. It is basically all I ate the whole time I was in Munich. I even bought a little lapel pin in the shape of a pretzel to remember my trip!

It was a pleasure to wander around totally free. I didn't have anything to do and I had plenty of time. No buses to catch, no metro to ride, no children to watch. The last is the main, wonderful thing, actually. Munich is a very walkable city and people are friendly. And beautiful. Heidi Klum is not an anomaly--more of a heightened version of the norm. Beautiful city with beautiful people in beautiful boots. There were a few pairs I had my eye on, but I will wait until I have some time in Prague before making that purchase.

Also beautiful cars. There was a gorgeous Mercedes showroom on a main square across from the Residenz Palace, and next to that showroom was an Aston Martin one. The cars on the street were clean and sleek and lovely. Munich is a wealthy city! It seems to have recovered really fast, and fortunately it didn't have to deal with Communism. Go Marshall Plan!

I wandered into the Hofgarten. I saw a man balancing on a chain trying to juggle.

Pretty building in the garden.

The garden is a formal one with wide pathways and lovely grass. It was pretty empty since it was cold and getting dark.

There was a nice gazebo garden house thing in the center.

Inside the building were these cool mosaic niches.

I believe this is a theater or gallery or something. Sorry about these gaps in my knowledge. I didn't have a guide book and my only map was a free one I got in Starbucks.

I met my buddies by Mary's Column in Marienplatz (handy meeting place!) and we went to a great Italian restaurant. It was marvelous to see them and equally marvelous how we fell right back into how we were in Venice.

After dinner they put me on the S-bahn back to Poing where I fell asleep immediately. I got back about 11:00 and I had been in Munich since 9:00. Long day, but very nice.

The next day it was time to visit Dachau. But first I saw this ad for a musical about Elisabeth, (Sissi), the Empress I mentioned in another post. Told you they are obsessed with her.

Winter

Winter has come to Czech Land.

Bummer.

On Thursday it snowed big, wet flakes. On Friday I woke up to white ground and even more snow that eventually turned to rain which washed away all the pretty fluff on the trees and houses and grass. Today it snowed in the morning again. It is the middle of October. Come on.

The zinnias on Friday.

A field near the house.

From a window.

And some video so you can see how it was coming down.

I know I am going a little crazy with the snow, but it has snowed more here in the last three days than it usually does all winter at home! My po' 'lil Suh'thun heart is not used to this!

Last week I went ice skating with the boys--first time in probably five years? I can't remember the last time I had been skating. And it was never a very common occurrence. But almost everybody ice skates here--hockey is a popular sport.

Lukas thinks it is hilarious that I am not very good at skating. He and I are about the same level, actually. He is four.

The first time we went I was very cautious and pretty scared of falling and breaking something. Like my face. We went again yesterday and I tried to bend my knees and be a bit more fearless. It was better. Still not great, but better. It is funny to be skating around with all these little kids and to push them out of the way so that I can grab the wall.

Just kidding. I didn't push anyone down. I was very aware, though, that I would not be able to dodge if a five-year-old did start coming at me.

Here are my borrowed skates. I always wanted a white pair! Just like in the Olympics. These are a bit dingy, but they used to be white! I think Eva borrowed them from a friend. As far as I can tell, they don't rent skates at the rink. Because everyone has their own.

Honzik is pretty good. All the kids wear helmets. And it is really, really cold in the rink so we are all bundled up.
Lukas got tired after half-an-hour of trudging along in his adorable miniature skates. So Eva pushed him around in a chair. There are several normal wooden chairs in the rink for kids to push or ride on, as well as the metal goal post things you can see. I used one of the metal contraptions for a little while but I felt guilty. They are for tiny children. I do get some funny looks at the rink since I am the only adult who is not a good skater.

Sorry about my creepy laugh at the end. Scary.

Sally!

I have been a bit more silent than usual--a rotten cold, COLD weather, and the GRE subject test...yuck...have occupied me more than I would like. But my cold is better, it has been snowing for three days so I am sort of getting used to it (but actually not at all), and I took the GRE last Saturday so that is over.

The test wasn't so bad; it was getting to the test center. I took a 6:00 bus from the village, got to Prague at 7:00, walked to the metro, rode on that for a few minutes, then attempted to find the center. It was a building in Prague's Technical University, and fortunately the complex was just by the metro station. I found the correct building, but the man at the door did not speak English and did not know that they were giving the GRE there. I showed him my ticket and we mimed for a little while and then he finally let me in. But I was about an hour early for the 8:30 test and I was the only person there. I didn't know which floor never mind which room the test was in, so I wandered for a while looking for signs. I tried to get a cup of coffee from the Nescafe machine--the coffee came out fine but the plastic cup that usually drops from the dispenser did not fall. So the coffee poured straight from the machine into the drain. Awesome.

I was getting a little desperate and trying to figure out who I could contact to give me the room number, when I heard another desperate sounding American voice downstairs. It was another test-taker, but this time the man at the door was being a real jerk and wouldn't let her in even though she had the same ticket as I did. Luckily, the GRE test givers arrived at that moment with their signs and were able to talk to the door man and figure it out.

There were six other people taking subject tests. Three from America besides myself--two studying abroad and one working in Germany--one person from Bratislava, and then some Czech people. Certainly a unique test taking environment!

After the lovely three hour exam I scooted out of there and met Julie for lunch in the city center. Then it was back to the bus and back to the village for an afternoon of child care.

So that was last weekend. But on Sunday night!!!!

Sally came to visit!

We went to Mala Strana and the Castle on Monday. Here we are by the castle:

By Malostranska Namesti (Lesser Town Square) we saw this awesome man and stag statue, which includes a crucifix in the deer's antlers. What does that mean? It looks like the man is worshipping the deer or expressing his undying love for it.

We walked across the Charles Bridge under a funny grey sky.

We asked a woman to take a picture of us with the river as our backdrop. She did, indeed, take a picture of us. And nothing else. This is the actual photo. I don't know how she found the zoom on my camera.

We walked through Wenceslas Square and Old Town Square before having lunch at my favorite Indian restaurant by my yoga studio. Then it was trdelniks for dessert:

and some shopping (though neither of us bought anything...) We did see an awesome Disney Princess playhouse. Too big for Sally's carry-on, unfortunately.

We took a late afternoon bus to the village. It was a bit too chilly for comfortable strolling in Prague. Sally met the grandmother, which was nice. The boys loved my sister. Even the baby was totally enamored. He gave her lots of hugs.

The boys enjoyed playing Go Fish with her and just hanging out. I think they were confused and excited to see two of us all the sudden. When I came downstairs on Tuesday morning the reply to my "Good Morning!" was "Where is Sally?"

Sally and I went to Karlovy Vary on Tuesday. Another really cold, rainy day. Naturally, Sally wore all my clothes, several layers worth. She does hate the cold. Sally tried the magical spring water and spit it out. It tastes a little like coppery blood. So yuck.

I got a picture with a giant Vodka bottle. Excellent.

We walked to the indoor spring to get warm.

Then it was a stroll to the Hotel Pupp for some excellent and expensive cappuccinos. After we had our fill of Karlovy Vary, which included two hot, fresh spa wafers (delicious!), we headed to Loket, the small castle town I went to a few weeks ago. We took the castle tour, which means we wandered around by ourselves, went into the church, walked around the teeny, tiny town, and then it was off again. I had wanted to go to Karlstejn but we didn't have time to make it there and catch the tour, so it was back to Prague for lunch at Cantina, a good Mexican restaurant. After some rather frenzied calculations (on my part) we hopped on a tram going one direction, got off, got on another one going in the opposite direction, hopped off that, got on the Metro, and made it back to the bus stop just in time for a bus back to the village.

So cold! It started to hail as soon as we were back in the house. That night we played UNO with the kiddies.

Sally took some pics of me and the boys, which is nice because I don't have a lot of those. Usually I am the one taking the pictures.

I went with Sally to the airport on Wednesday morning, cried when she left, kept crying, and then kept crying...the people on the bus looked at me funny. It was so wonderful to see her and to have her here so she could see where I live and meet the family and everything, but gosh it was hard when she left.

Movie of the Week XIII

Easy Living (1937)

I discovered this movie quite by accident (second half of a "box set.") Hurray for accidents! Easy Living was written and directed by extremely talented and capable screwball comedy people: Preston Sturges, of The Lady Eve (1941), Sullivan's Travels (1941), and The Palm Beach Story (1942), (the latter two films star Joel McCrea, my favorite,) wrote the screenplay, and Mitchell Leisen, who directed Hands Across the Table (1935) and Midnight (1939), directed it. Fact: There is a 1949 film by the same name but they are not otherwise related.

Screwball comedy is all about flipping reality upside down and seeing what happens when people act silly and step outside their normal roles. This is an excellent example of the genre. The movie has a typical Depression-era Cinderella story of rags to riches, and a riches to rags to riches plot, too. J. B. Ball (Edward Arnold, who often played loud, sometimes corrupt businessmen who yell a lot) is the 3rd biggest banker on Wall Street--the "Bull of Broad Street." The films opens to find him furious (and extra blustery) because his wife is spending way too much money. He is the stingy type of millionaire. Mr. Ball completely loses his temper when he sees a bill for a $58,000 fur coat. After a comical chase around their penthouse apartment, he throws the coat off of the balcony.

It falls down down down and lands on Mary Smith (Jean Arthur), who is riding a double decker bus to work. Mary immediately gets off the bus and tries to find the owner of the coat. She is honest and good, you see. Rather improbably, in my opinion, she finds her way to the Ball's door and runs into Mr. Ball, who is leaving for work. He admits that it is his coat, but gives it to Mary since she deserves it more than his wife. He doesn't stop there. When the coat fell on Mary, it broke the feather in her pert little cap. Mr. Ball insists on buying her a new hat. He takes her to a chic salon and purchases an expensive chapeau that matches the fur coat.

After this excursion, his limo drops her off at the offices of "The Boys' Constant Companion," the wholesome magazine where Mary works.

It may be wholesome but it is not friendly...the women see Mary's coat and begin gossiping. Within a few minutes of her arrival, Mary is called into the editor's office and asked about the coat. She says that she bought it on a payment plan since she knows that no one will believe that the coat fell from the sky. She is right; they don't believe either story.

Mary is fired because everyone thinks that she got the coat as payment for sexual favors or something. And that sort of thing can't happen at "The Boys' Constant Companion!"

She very satisfyingly breaks a portrait of "The Ideal American Boy" over the editor's head and storms out.

Mary gets home and we see that she is late on the rent and has no food in her apartment. In a funny but poignant scene she breaks open her piggy bank (first blindfolding the cute little piggy so it won't see the mortal blow falling) and heads out for some dinner.

But wait! A note from the posh Hotel Louis Louis arrives, asking her to stop by. Turns out that the people at the hat shop talked...word has gotten around that Mary is Mr. Ball's mistress. Mr. Louis is in debt to Mr. Ball, and his strategy to keep his hotel alive is to treat Mary like a queen and hope that Mr. Ball will forget about his debts. He gives Mary his nicest suite, a masterpiece of extravagant 1930s art deco, practically for free.

Mary is confused but she accepts the suite and heads out again for that dinner. She goes to an automat (awesome, wish we still had them, though I suppose vending machines are basically small automats) and tries to get some food, but she can only afford some coffee. She is very hungry...and when a handsome young waiter says he will rig the machines so that she can get some pie for free...well, she agrees to the scheme. But the waiter is caught and a fight breaks out. Wonderful, funny scene.

The waiter is fired, naturally, and Mary feels somewhat responsible. She invites him back to her hotel penthouse to talk it over. And who is this waiter? Why, it is Mr. Ball's son, Johnny (Ray Milland.) Johnny wanted to show his father that he could get a job and earn some money, so he left his mansion and worked for one day at the Automat.

Mary doesn't know that Johnny is Mr. Ball's son, and Johnny doesn't know that everyone thinks (wrongly, of course) that Mary is Mr. Ball's mistress. Think of all the fun stuff that can arise from this situation!

One of my favorite moments comes as Mary is giving Johnny (how everywoman and everyman are the names!) a tour of her suite. They try to figure out what the different dials and knobs on the insane bathtub do, until they mistakenly turn on the jets. When struggling to climb out of the tub, Johnny almost wipes out on the slippery side. That fall was unplanned and just happened--for a moment you can tell that Ray Milland is really laughing as he tries to regain his balance. The scene cuts almost at once because they actors must have completely lost it. Blooper Reel!

Everything escalates from there. Mary is suddenly overwhelmed by free cars, free gowns, free diamonds, free dogs, free stocks by vendors hoping she will put in a good word with Mr. Ball. She has no idea why people are suddenly so anxious to give her things! Johnny starts to wonder, too. Is Mary really as innocent as she appears?

As usual I am afraid I have given too much plot summary...I have a hard time stopping once I start talking about these movies! So--to be very brief--Mary and Johnny start to like each other, Mrs. Ball hears some unpleasant rumors, and Mary unwittingly starts a stock market crash...how will it all end? You can guess.

This movie is fresh and quick and it doesn't run out of steam, even though it centers on a fairly simple misunderstanding. The mistaken identities and screwball happenings keep the movie moving along. I love Ray Milland and Jean Arthur together, and the whole film looks fantastic and sort of ironically glamorous.

The movie is not just entertaining. It is especially interesting given that it was produced during the Depression. Beneath the funny surface there is some serious anxiety over the stock market (it all seems so nebulous and arbitrary--if Mary can cause a crash with a silly tip, then what is protecting people's investments?), working women struggling to pay the bills (so much false "prostitution!"), the irresponsibility of the wealthy (Mrs. Ball), and fear of the mob (the hungry people storming the Automat). Even the title is interesting: easy living for whom?

Zoo

On Sunday Eva and the boys and I headed to the Prague Zoo. It was a blustery but not too cold afternoon and the zoo was crowded with lots of parents and kids. The zoo is in the city but you don't feel like you are in an urban area. There are beautiful trails and the animals seem to have lots of space inside and outside. I forgot I was in Prague.

We saw some weird monkeys in the Jungle exhibit. I like monkeys. They seemed a bit sluggish; they didn't swing around Tarzan style. Perhaps we were interrupting their afternoon nap.

The Jungle part was a big indoor pavilion so they could simulate a tropical environment. But most of the animals were outside. We strolled with the stroller along the trails and saw loads of animals in their paddocks.

There were so many dogs! It seemed like almost everyone there brought their dog to the zoo! There were signs up about keeping your dog leashed, duh, but still. I am not sure I would take my dog to the zoo. I would be afraid that a dog would see the lions and go crazy. Especially since a lot of the animals were outside behind fences that a dog could find his way through. Maybe European dogs are better behaved or more used to zoos?

I saw Hedwig!

A hyena sleeping underneath a skull. I felt like I was in Arizona or something. I wish the hyena had been awake since I wanted to see it up close.
This picture of a bison came out a bit more artistic than I planned. I did not mean to focus on the grass but I sort of like it. It was odd to be all the way in Prague and see animals that are native to North America.
I liked the camels, too. There were lots of them. I always thought that the "Sally the Camel" song was about my sister and my first grade class was singing it because I was there. I have since realized the truth.
Zebras are so cool. They make zebra print look silly in comparison. These zebras were having some lunch by their cabin. But they had a large grassy area in which to roam.
The Prague Zoo has an upper and a lower part. You can walk a trail between them or take a chair lift down. We had the baby so we walked. About halfway there, as we passed various animals and the boys ran around, we saw this house in the distance.
I think it must belong to the zoo since it is basically right in the middle of it. It seemed sort of Edgar Allen Poe or Hitchcock--deserted and alone against a grey sky with ivy crawling across the side.
It is probably administrative offices or something very mundane.

I was amazed at the different terrain the zoo possesses. A huge wall of rock, a cliff, was suddenly right there amidst the trees and flat land. You can see mountain goats perched impossibly on the rocks.

If you look very carefully you can see the chair lift. Up on the hill is the upper part and down where the people are is the lower.

The lower part was covered with water in the horrible flood of 2002. There was a flagpole with a pennant on the top marking the water level at the worst moment of the flood. It was probably thirty feet high. They were able to save most of the animals, thank goodness. There were pictures of the zoo when it was flooded. Absolutely covered with water. The lower part is next to the river, which is why it was hit so hard. I would have liked to read the plaques and learn more about the flood and where they put the animals and what procedures and protections they have in place to prevent something similar from happening...but it was in Czech. And even if I could read it, it is hard to pause when there are two young boys running around and a baby in a stroller who really wants his yogurt.

Much of the lower part has been rebuilt so the pavilions are new and there are nice places to eat. Overall, I was very impressed with the zoo. It was so kid friendly. There were benches everywhere, lots of places to eat, many, many little statues and exhibits and playgrounds for kids to touch and climb on. So the boys spent the entire afternoon running from a wooden bear statue by the polar bears to a mini-ropes course by the monkeys and a playground by the seals. It wasn't fun for me to have to keep track of them during their wanderings, especially in the dark jungle-type buildings...but they were fine. At times it was tricky to juggle my irrational fear of even seeing a snake behind glass and trying to keep an eye on the boys.

They liked the tigers. The boys would jump and squeal if the tiger even came near them or looked in their direction.

I don't know what these are but they were next to the tiger pen. Too cute.
This bird was a shocking orangey pink. Hard to believe it is natural.
Here is a kid train that the boys loved. It went around in a circle but they pretended to drive it.

See how kid friendly the place is? They even have carts you can use to pull tired kids around. And I love how the cart is a Mercedes. Not really, it is just an ad. But funny.

So now I have been to the Prague Zoo! Check that off my list. It was a fun, if at times stressful, visit. I was reminded that zoos are really amazing. It is so cool to see animals like that in real life and up close.