Munich and Berlin, Germany - Die Mutterficker, Die

Our first destination was Munich, and what a great decision it was. We've spent our days getting acclimated to being on the road. Having lived in Munich between the ages of 22-24 I have very fond memories and know the city very well. It's always wonderful to take Hannah here to share my experiences with her.
Its been a challenge getting used to the time zone but we've managed to fend that off by sleeping 14 hours the first night. This was made possible by a combination of sausage, beer, and a dark and comfy Courtyard Marriott hotel room. By the end of this trip we will have enough Courtyard Marriott material to fill a book. We even got a couple of morning workouts in, but the German disbelief in air conditioning their hotel gym quickly made us feel nauseous and we were required to rehydrate on Munich's finest.

And we re-engergized on some fantastic bratwurst from the Viktualienmarkt!!!

We had a couple of great days, no touristy excursions, just wandering around the city, spending time in the park, eating when hungry and drinking at most stops. We were very happy to learn that Starbucks offers free WiFi at all locations so we made the occasional stop in to catch up on email, update our social status, and allow Hannah to wake up her family with an impromptu FaceTime session.

We had the pleasure of spending a great deal of time in Munich with our good friends Ciaran and Danka who you may remember from such great hits as "The Goldberg's in Munich, 2012". Their son Finian is adorable as ever and last year they had their second, their daughter Liona. I got a somewhat inebriated call on New Year's Eve this past year from Ciaran. I had trouble understanding most of our conversation, but what I do remember, and always will, is Ciaran and Danka asking me to be Liona's godfather. Needless to say it was a pleasure and an honor to finally meet her. I was also thrilled to see that she got my good looks.

We had a good jam session....

There was a time when Ciaran and I were the Kings of Munich, that was 15 years ago....this is us now.

Our next destination after Munich was Berlin. We did a bit of research on how to make it the 500km north to this city with rich history through the ages and until very recently a divided city. It turned out that we would have spent upwards of 500 euro to take a train or fly. We decided to rent a car and drive. We suited up in our 6 speed diesel VW....sure not to miss a minute....

We couldn't stop patting each other on the back and giving each other bromance style high fives at this genius decision. It was six hours by car, beautiful German countryside, and on our own schedule...genius. Those sentiments quickly evaporated when, about 2 hours from Berlin, we were stuck in the single worst traffic we had ever sat in. This is coming to you from the Goldbergs who always make it a point to live in cities with the worst traffic in America...so, consider the source.


That's not to say that we didn't make the most of it.

We arrived Berlin safely, after a 10 hour journey that should have taken closer to 6...but we were here and ready to hit the town. Our Courtyard Marriott welcomed us with open arms.
We quickly found that we had absolutely no idea where anything was in Berlin. It was late on Sunday evening when we arrived. If you know anything about Germany you know that nothing on Sunday is open...period. We also quickly realized that we had left the colorful, flamboyant land of flowers and bier gartens for the much darker scene of Berlin. We should have been prepared as Berlin is a lot like many parts of New York in style....more grungy, more hipster, but we were definitely not prepared. Hannah donned pink jeans and sneakers with an orange purse and I was decked out in a bright blue T with shiny new sneakers....we screamed tourist...or target.
We did, however, find a bar that really made us feel at home. The death metal made you want to sing, and the bartender made you want to run to your nearest eyeball piercing parlor and get one just like him. This is my rendition of the song at the time, which was entitled "Die, Motherfucker, Die":

We spent most of the next day attempting to see Berlin. I say "attempting" because the entire city is shrouded by a landscape of construction. We had never seen a city in such a state of "repair" but it was distracting, and the haze of dust that surrounded much of the city center was gag-inducing.

We know that Berlin has tons to offer, but we weren't really feeling the vibe. I had been to Berlin before and had a great time, but at this point we were ready to move on. As we sat in the Courtyard Marriott hotel bar and tried to figure out our next move we found a great flight directly to Krakow, the problem is, the flight left in two and a half hours. In finding this our best option, I saw a side of Hannah I had never seen, and I was mightily impressed.
She mobilized an effort to do the following in the incredibly short time frame of 30 minutes:

• Get me out of my overwhelmed state and helped me book the ticket to Krakow
• Packed our backpacks
• Convinced the concierge to take a package to the UPS equivalent for us and drop it off
• Convinced the Marriott to reduce our stay to $50 due to "family emergency"
• Got me on the phone with our hotel in Krakow to move our reservation and arrange a car service from the airport
• Got a taxi to Berlin airport
• Made our flight with time to spare

Krakow here we come!

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Dachau and The Journey Out of Munich - The Goldbergs in Europe Day 6-7

We got a late start the morning after we went to the HofBrau Haus.  Although we were both tired the next morning, we felt surprisingly good, given the amount of beer and sausage we had consumed the night before.  German beer never lets you down, not even the next day.  We did, however, wonder if anyone caught us on hidden camera dancing around the train station with a bratwurst.

We decided today was the best day to go see the Dachau Concentration Camp.  We took the S2 train to Dachau, and after a short bus ride arrived at the camp.  It always surprised me how close the camp existed to Munich.  It wasn't more than a 20-30 minute train outside of Munich.  Not a very uplifting experience, but it was definitely something that Hannah wanted to do on our trip, and I was happy to go back and experience it with her.  Dachau had changed quite a bit in the 12 years since I had last been.  The local organizations had put a lot of effort into making it more accessible to visitors.  We did the audio tour of the camp, trying in the 2 hours we had to see all of the exhibits.  Dachau's grounds have remnants of the atrocities of the concentration camp while providing recounts by survivors. 

One of the most powerful things for us was the Jewish memorial which is a sloping cave with a small hole in the top that allows light into the cave, which we felt could be interpreted as a glimmer of hope.





















After the visit to Dachau we realized that our days on this stint in Munich were coming to an end.  We were exhausted to the point of delirium after the past week, especially after the Hofbrau Haus the night before but we managed to pull ourselves together and find a nice Greek Restaurant in my old neighborhood.  The hardest part of motivating ourselves is getting out of the house, yet once we were out we had a great time as usual.  For some reason we can't seem to order a meal in Germany without ordering enough food to feed a family of 4.  We stuffed ourselves with strips of delicious Greek Gyros, shrimp, salads, and of course Helles.

The next morning we said Auf Wedesehen to our lovely apartment which we had come to love and call home and started off at Hannah's favorite place in Munich, the good ole Hauptbahnhof.  I think next time we come to Munich I'll just set us up on a bench at the train station.  This will serve two purposes, it will save us a ton of money on accommodation, and let my wife spend time in her favorite place in the world.  Maybe we'll even upgrade to an ATM vestibule, but we'll see what's available.
After stocking up on water, fruit, sandwiches, musli, candy, cookies, and chips, we got our Hertz rental car, a Chevy Cruise, with manual transmission…something you'd never get in a rental in at home…and hit the Autobahn, Prague or bust.

We cruised along the beautiful countryside, passing towns, hillsides, and farms along the way.  At times we pushed the limits of that Chevy to past 100mph, loving the freedom to drive as fast as we wanted…yet still being passed like we were standing still by BMWs and Audis.  When we arrived in the Czech Republic there was a stark difference in of course the language, but also the infrastructure, and the countryside.  The manicured look of the German landscape turned into a much less maintained, cultivated look.  We know the reasons for this, but to see such a strong disparity in just a few miles was evidence of the strong economic differences between these two countries.

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We arrived in Prague at about 4pm and easily found our hotel, the Josef Art Hotel.  This hotel was recommended to us by a client of mine, and was by far the nicest hotel we ended up staying in on our trip.  There were obviously plenty of choices of hotels in Prague, but choosing based on a website wasn't ideal at all.  It was great to get the recommendation of someone who had lived and worked in Prague.  We had a nice patio for having coffee and writing, and the included breakfast was served every morning on a sunny patio.


We only had two nights and one full day in Prague, and it turns out this was just enough time.  I had been to Prague a few times many years before, but obviously the 12 years in a country that architecturally peaked 400 years ago, this didn't make a difference in the sights.  You would think that the lifetime of one isn't consequential in a city such as Prague, but when you reflect on what has happened in this city and others in Europe from 1930 to the present you realize that this only holds true for architecture, not the dynamics of the local population or the mentality of the people.

We found a seemingly local establishment with an Argentinian theme.  We remembered that we weren't in Argentina, but in fact, in Prague and immediately realized that they got us again...we were in a tourist trap.  We had  a quick drink, solely to be polite, and got out of there as quickly as possible, right before the tango show started.   We then found what appeared to be a slightly more local feeling establishment, but the smoke was so thick that we felt it better to have a quick drink and leave before suffocating.



That evening we went out to a very nice, although probably tourist priced restaurant in the city center called Apostila.  It was a great meal and a great experience, and we realized that finding a local restaurant in Prague with "local" prices was hard, if not impossible for us, not knowing the language or having any idea where to find the local scene.

The Day of Rest - The Goldbergs in Munich Day 4

Between the Thai Food, German Food, beer, pretzels, and castles, Munich had taken its toll on the happy couple.  We were in need of a Sabbath.  We made a decision on Day 4 to relax and left later in the day to spend time walking around some of Munich's beautiful neighborhoods.

We started by taking the subway to Marienplatz and walking through the back streets to Sendlingor Tor, which is landmarked by it archway leading to it.  As we walked through Sendlingorstrasse we stopped off for a quick weiner schnitzel on a roll zum mit nehmen (to go) and shared it as we walked.

As we walked I taught Hannah how to say a useful phrase in German....Konnen Sie ein Photograph machen (Can you please make a picture?).  We later learned from our friend Danka that she was actually asking people to "make a Photographer".  That must have sounded very presumptuous to think that she was capable of making a photographer or that the person she was asking would even want to make a photographer with her.  No one seemed to mind though, but they did look confused when we handed them our camera.



 After some wandering around Sendlingor Tor we jumped on the U6 U-Bahn and headed up to the Giselastrasse stop.  This area, called Munchner Freiheit, is full of locals and travelers alike shopping and enjoying the bars and restaurants, far away from the uber touisty areas around Marienplatz.  We popped into a few shops and bars and eventually found ourselves having a beer at a local pub while we waited for an unexpected hail storm to pass.

After walking and a few beers we had dinner at one of my old favorite spots in this area called Wirsthaus zur Brez'n.  This is a place where I always brought visitors when they came to town.  Its got the authentic German Beer Hall food with more of a hip trendy vibe.  We had the best service we've had yet in a German restaurant and even though we didn't order very well, still enjoyed our meal of roasted pig and ribs of a pig....and of course the Munich specialty, asparagus soup with a slice of pig.

Nymphenburg Castle and Rosenheimer Platz - The Goldbergs in Munich Day 3

The beautiful weather on Day 3 of the Goldberg's adventures in Munich lent itself perfectly to exploring the city by foot, train, and streetcar.  One of Munich's best unkept secrets awaited us...Schloss Nymphenburg.  We got a somewhat late start which didn't matter much as the weather was perfect and the sun stays out until close to 9pm aka 21:00.

We started our day with a quick trip to the Hauptbahnhof, aka Main Train Station, for a quick breakfast (which is becoming our regular) of Starbucks and a bratwurst mit semmel, aka bratwurst on a delicious roll.  Apparently, they also have perfected the bagel, but they have dubbed it the Philly Ring...just for you Mike and Jessi.

We then made our way to Schloss Nymphenburg which is an enormous palace built by the somewhat crazy, somewhat eclectic King Ludwig II located right in a central location of Munich.  Aside from my own dyslexia which took us on a bus the wrong direction for a few stops we made it with little effort.  Again, a testament to the amazing Munich public transportation system.

There were lots of ducks and geese, and I now know to never get Hannah one for her birthday.












































We took our time roaming around the beautiful gardens which stretch for what seem like miles in every direction.  The statues were made to resemble the way in which people are meant to carry themselves, which demonstrated here by Hannah.


After exploring the castle grounds it was time to move on.  One can only take so much beauty without drinking and clearly we were overdue for a beer.  With that in mind we headed directly for a beer garden, aka bier garten.  Not just any biergarten, but my favorite biergarten, serving not just any beer, but my favorite, Augustiner.  The subway stop was Hackerbrucke, and the beer garden was the Augustiner Keller.  Here we sat and eased our sorrows with a liter and a half of Augustiner's finest, split unevenly between Hannah and I.

 After quenching our thirsts we found ourselves strolling near the Isar River in one of the most scenic parts of Munich's center, Rosenheimer Platz.  We found a nice little playground where I tried to harass a child, but she had been taught quite well to scream "NEIN!!" when I walked by her.   At that point we decided it best to leave the playground and take our beers to the river for a sunset picture.

After all of the sightseeing and drinking the pretzels weren't enough to satiate our appetites so we headed to an old Italian eatery that I remember fondly from my days in Munich.  Unfortunately, either my palate had changed, or it always was terrible and oversalted.  We should have known this by the amount of English we heard spoken when we walked in.  I guess you live and learn.

The best part of the evening's dinner was the gelato that followed.

 That was enough excitement for Day 3...lots more days to go.

Die Cure für die Common Cold - The Goldbergs in München Day 2

The weather and overall mood of Day 2 in Munich could be described in one German word, fantastiche, if it wasn't for the fact that both Hannah and I decided to pick the most inopportune time to get colds.  Good thing we are in Munich where they have perfected the art of curing the common cold....beer and yes, you guessed it, roasted pig.

We left the house bright and early at 1pm, or as the locals say, 13:00.  I'd like to say we could have left earlier, but we spent most of the morning trying to do the math and figure out what time it actually was.  As we stared at the clock we noticed that at 12pm it just kept going, so we figured 13:00 was after midnight, so we went back to sleep.  We blamed the inability to sleep on jetlag, not the fact that it was 1pm.   I kid, I kid, we knew what time it really was.

Back to the story....

We launched into a fabulous Sunday walking trek around Munich.  We started somewhere that I had been dying to return to for 12 years...my neighborhood and apartment at 59 Gabelsbergerstrasse.



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I was very careful to not run into any of my old neighbors, even as I walked into the building and posed for pictures under my old balcony.  As the loud American with loud friends, I was never much appreciated by my fellow tenants at 59 Gabelsbergerstrasse, but I always think, "if only the had gotten to know me, they would have thought I was a super guy".

12 years ago, I drank beer on that balcony

12 years ago, I opened that window

12 years ago I lived here

We proceeded to take a beautiful walk around Schwabing, the hip, young, neighborhood where I spent that wonderful two years as a local foreigner.  I was thrilled to hear Hannah tell me so many times how happy she was to get such a local's view of the city.  It was also amazing to feel the same about the neighborhood's cafes and shops as I did 12 years ago.  Even though I have experienced more, lived in different places, and my resume has grown, the lens through which I was seeing Munich was the same.

We walked around Schwabing to Univeristat which is home to several universities, and many students.  The cafe's were alive with activity.  In Germany, nothing is open on Sunday, the only options are to spend time with family at home, in parks, or cafes.  This is something that is hard to get used to as a foreigner but culturally brings the emphasis back to what matters.

Coffee and Frühstück at Tresznjewski

Univeristat Munich

Expecting clowns any minute

The Englischer Garten is arguably one of the most beautiful city parks in the world.  It's huge open meadows are filled with families, soccer, dogs, and in the summer, naked Germans.





The Englischer Garten's 2 large biergartens are amazing places to enjoy a nice day in the park.  Hannah and I spent an hour having a beer and pretzel at the See Haus bier garten before moving onward to our next destination.


The next few hours we spent walking through Munich, past the monuments, through archways of unknown significance, frolicking through Odeonsplatz, The Residenz, Maximillianstrasse, and back to Marienplatz.  Hannah and I both agree that this is the ideal way to spend vacation, enjoying a city, together, as foreign locals.

We finished our walking tour with a stop at the Augustiner Halle in Kalsplatz, serving the finest in all  German Helles...Augustiner.

With our cold growing worse it was time to continue to feed them by finishing our evening with another Augustiner and more pig at our local pub.  What a great way to end Day 2.