What time is it? You guessed it, time for a pretzel. Now if you are thinking plastic bag of baked American pretzels, think again. We are talking pretzel bread and giant soft pretzels. Everywhere we went this true German delicacy was sure to be found. By the time we were getting ready to leave Germany, having been there for a few weeks, you would think we would be burned out on pretzels, but that was not the case. If it was breakfast, pretzel bread and butter. Lunch, sandwich of meat and cheese on pretzel bread. Dinner, pretzel bread rolls on the side. Snack time or beer time, giant soft pretzel. The Germans make New York city street vendors look like amateurs when it comes to pretzels.
So as we spent our last day in Munich with a pretzel in hand seeing the sights. This day had so many Siena highlights. We started the day with a lesson in vacationing with children. We went to Dachau to see the concentration camp that was in the city. It was the first camp and the model for the many more that committed the atrocities of the Holocaust. It was here that we got a quick lesson in vacationing with a little one, pick child friendly activities. Siena found the vast amount of reading associated with seeing this sight to be boring and so we didn’t spend vast amounts of timing reading. Here we viewed the ground and memorials and then bought the book that detailed the exhibit so daddy could read everything on the flight home.
In the afternoon we got a little smarter. We ventured off to the Schloss Nymphenburg, the palace that was home to the world famous porcelain. At the palace we spent our time wandering the vast grounds and letting Siena be a little girl. Here Siena played in the gardens, took time to smell (and pick) the flowers and collected a rock we brought all the way home with us because she liked it. Siena loves flowers. Soft colorful petals. Pretty posies of all shapes and sizes. She can sit and look at them and play with them for hours. She also enjoyed chasing the ducks and watching the swans on the lake as she ate her dinner (Swans happen to like cheerios in case you were wondering.)
We finished our day by going back to Marienplatz for dinner. Here we ate at the Augustiner Brau Haus. It is the oldest brewery in Munich (and maybe Germany). It was in full Oktoberfest regalia and it was child friendly. It was here that Siena tasted her first beer. If you are going to have your first beer, I can’t imagine anyplace more special to have that beer than in Germany during Oktoberfest. With a few great beers and a nice dinner in us we set out to stroll the platz. Here we came across a group of street musicians. Not any street musicians but a classical quartet that included a piano player. Yes, a piano, not a keyboard. These folks had a full size Steinway in the street. I have no idea how they go that there. Here we listened to the music which Siena loved and Siena and daddy danced together in the street. Yes, there is video of this and yes, Siena is a good dancer.
With a pretzel in hand we headed back to pack up and got one last surprise on the way back to the hotel. The check tire pressure light was on in the car. So after dropping off the girls I headed out to the airport to see if Avis could replace the car before we headed off to Austria. They couldn’t (or wouldn’t) and so began a few days of driving around waiting for the tire with slow leak to go flat. As it would turn out it never went flat and we got back to the airport in Frankfurt (a 5 hour run) a few days later in one piece but with considerable anxiety on the autobahns.
