Germany on a dinner plate
Greeting from Austria. I landed in Munich on Sunday AM en-route to our board factories in Austria. After getting my bag and grabbing really good coffee (for an airport at least) I went to grab my rental car, but got side tracked because there was a huge TV set up in the courtyard at the airport showing the Men’s baskeball gold metal round, and it just happened to be the 4th quarter. After watching the ‘redeem team’ bring home tho gold (and the hearing the German announcer yell KOBEEEE about 20 times) I grabbed my car and hit the bricks.
First stop:
Modern-day Eden - Osterrvaldgarten
Somewhat on the way out of town, somewhat off the beaten path, the Osterrvaldgarten was found on accident, en-route to a different beergarten (which, as it turns out, was about 2 blocks away and passed on my way out of town. whoops.) The menu at this place was pretty epic – the standard sausages, beers, potatoes, etc along with french inspired dishes of pork, duck and chicken.
I started out slow:
Way better than day old bread - fresh pretzel a Radler to wash it down
Fresh, soft-ish pretzels replaced the boring old bread and butter common to many US restaurants. A Radler (the German original that inspired Bud Light Lime, but way, way better) was brought in to help wash it all down. You can make ‘Radler’ at home if you like – the budget way. Take your favorite yellow beer and top it off with some Sprite. Not quite as good, but it works in a pinch. Liquid Summer.
Lunch was served:
Its mushroom season in bavaria. Great timing!
Sauteed pork with local mushrooms in a cream sauce, Spetzel and summer vegetables. Not much else to write about this. All time.
After the meal, I hoped in the rental and took off for Austria. 3 hours later, I was in the town I was staying in, but got good and lost. Thankfully, i was able to rent Yan’s girlfriend and bring her along:
She made the drive feel better, although she nagged more than my mother about my speeding, constantly reminding me to “mind the local speed limit” Thanks, computer lady.
After making it to the general vicinity of my hotel, i passed on the directions dictated to me and decided to trust in the GPS. Bad idea. After following it to the wrong hotel with a similar name in the wrong town, i punched in the correct address, which took me on an epic adventure up the WRONG WAY on a highway off ramp. Thanks, GPS – i hadn’t has a heart attack lately.
Eventually, i got on the right track, checked into my room and got settled. One hell of an adventure, all in less than 12 hours of landing in Munich.
I spent the day at the board factory today, with more to come, and took some photos of the new boards in various stages of production. Then my battery died. I’ll figure it out and get those photos up soon. Until then – PROOST!