Munich

Most people who actually read this thing are aware that my dad came to visit last week.  He actually arrived on my birthday and left yesterday.  His arrival and departure were highlighted by missed trains (however, complaining about the Deutsche Bahn is more or less a national past time here, so that's ok).  On the way to the airport, I ran to catch the S-Bahn to Mannheim and when I got on, a conductor announced due to "children playing" we were unable to leave the station.  Who are these children?  Where were they playing?  What did this have to do with my train?  These are all questions without answers and unfortunately for us passengers, Deutsche Bahn felt that was auch gut so.  Unfortunately, the 30 min delay meant that I missed my connection in Mannheim and had to wait an hour for the next train to the airport.  By then, the boards in the airport could no longer inform me which gate my dad had arrived in.  I wandered around the airport for about an hour frustrated before I figured out where my dad was.  Poor dad.

My dad's first full day here mainly involved wandering around Heidelberg and climbing up the Heiligenberg.  You can get a really nice view of the city from there and it was pretty fun exploring the paths that I've never been up before.

For the weekend, we took a short trip to Munich.  This last weekend probably the warmest Germany has been since the summer.  Since the weather was so nice, we spent a lot of time walking around the city, the English Gardens, and Olympiapark.  I like taking pictures of random buildings (this was much to my sister's dismay while we were traveling...) so here's just one example!

In the English Garden there is this weird stationary wave where people surf.  

I really don't understand how it works.  One of the medical students at work is from Bavaria and talked about the wave.  He too does not understand the logistics of everything.  However, rest assured that people can and do surf on this wave.  

My dad also had a birthday while he was here, so we went to Schloss Nymphenburg.  I mistakenly called it a castle (since Schloss is the word used for both the castle in Heidelberg and Nymphenburg) and my dad gave me a fairly long list of reasons why Nymphenburg is actually a palace and not a castle.  Regardless, I thought it was a cool place.  

We bought admission to the castle which include the "Gallery of Beauties".  I didn't really understand what that meant, but I figured it was some art collection or something.  I was surprised to find that it wasn't JUST an art collection.  It was a collection of 36 paintings of women the king considered beautiful.  

Unfortunately my dad and I both have to work, so he could only stay six days.  Hopefully he enjoyed mein zweites Zuhause!