Into Germany Part 2 Munich breakfast and Ammersee

We spent a two days of our holiday an old friend of my wife. Munich is about 2 hours drive from Lindau and following the sat nav we were brought to her apartment block with little stress and almost no arguments. We arrived in the early afternoon and after greetings and introductions we all piled into her car and set off for a spot of sightseeing in Munich. It was a Monday afternoon in the middle of August, we eventually found a car parking place and joined the crowds. It was a Bank Holiday in Munich and I think we had brought with us traditional British Weather, sunshine and showers.

We did the touristy thing wandered around the streets, listened and watched the buskers, string quartets and quintets, playing sections of Mozart and other classics we passed within range of a pair opera singers, sounding wonderful , their voices soaring over the crowd gathered around. I would like to tell you the piece, but my knowledge of opera is limited to say the least, but it sounded good.

The buildings were impressive, the Rathouse and the Marienplatz, resonant of centuries of municipal pride, the churches in various states of repair, especially the Frauenkirche, full of people respectfully taking the atmosphere.

We even were able to look at the Michael Jackson Memorial, wrapped as it is around the base of the statue to Orlande de Lassus on Promenadeplatz. No I had never heard of Orlande de Lassus before.

By the way as this was a religious holiday the 15^th August (Assumption of Our Lady) almost all the shops were shut. The only places open were the coffee shops and museums.

So I can window shop feigning reasonable interest for a while, with the other attractions keeping me reasonably happy My wife and her friend had several years of catching up to do so they could have been anywhere. Daughters one and two are probably in my league, so once we walked around the centre we needed a distraction, coffee and cake (spaghetti eis for the girls). This was proper coffee, black (for me) and strong, and a huge slice of lemon cake that sits in the warm glowing part of my memory.

After coffee, we continued our meanderings around the city, however one of the main advantages of shops is they keep young minds occupied as they look for something to spend their (insert the appropriate number of ) euros on. With little open attention waned rapidly, taking in the sights looses its appeal to both child one and child two.

So we headed back to the car and the more child friendly environment

The evening we ate in an Italian restaurant. Very good. I went to bed and slept contentedly

The next morning started with breakfast, a proper breakfast, that lasted over an hour, with cinnamon flavoured coffee, freshly baked rolls, ham, cheese, pate, eggs with spice and gentle conversation. The adults planned the day, the children sprawled around the room with various pieces of entertainment electronics attached , the 2 cats looked on at the interlopers with bemusement

We drove south from Munich towards the Ammersee and the villages around on its shores. As we drove out of the Munich conurbation we got to see more of the traditional Bavarian style of house with the high pitched roofs and the balconies full of flowers. As we got to the lake and we decided that the houses with their own private jetties were particularly attractive, our difficulty lay in deciding on which house to make an offer, obviously once confirmation of our Euromillions Jackpot had been confirmed.

I realise that this is a place where people, especially quite rich ones, actually live. Tourists are nice, but an afterthought and should be treated accordingly. We drove on around passing by a Museum dedicated to Lothar-Guenther Buchheim, who wrote Das Boot which was a TV series in the and then was made into a film released in 1981.

We stopped by a church with its golden cupola shining in the sun and walked down to the lake. We found a small jetty where some children were playing in the water. Surprising there was a small nod to the occasional tourist and a local couple had a kiosk selling drinks and homemade cakes. The plum flan was delicious and would have fed me and possibly 2 or 3 others. We sat on the grass in the sun watching the children playing in and on the lake.

As we drove on around the Ammersee all the houses looked big and lived in. This was not like the lake district, there were museums and churches to visit, but few if any trinkets and the tourist paraphernalia. You came to visit for the views and the piece and quiet and that is what the people who lived here wanted and they did not need to sell you things as they made more than enough money anyway.

We headed back into Munich and after a brief stop for the toilet we headed back to the Bodesee and our tent. I never did get to see the Olympic Stadium and the Beer Festival was still over a month away. Next time maybe