Munichers put on an incredible fireworks display to welcome in the new year. In our apartment building--growing out of the apartment right next door to us on the third floor--it started with a teenager/20-something house part, complete with tons of booze and really loud industrial dance music. Yea.
But then around 11:45 PM, the fireworks started. I have never in my life seen anything like it. These were all private citizens/parties. It went on for an hour, and the size of the display was huge--I have never seen anything like this available to individuals in the US (on to companies who put on the professional shows). Some bounced off of our windows. Across the way, we could see other people peering out from their windows, watching the show, too. Major displays were on multiple street corners in our neighborhood--it was beautiful as well as some strange hint at what it must have been like here during WWII.
The next morning, the streets were littered with garbage. Some building tenants down the street had theirs clean by noon. Our building still had glass outside on the sidewalk that night.
Yes, I had been griping about the fuzzy caterpillar on his 13-year old upper lip for some time and about the little scraggle of chin hairs that glowed in the sunlight...but I honestly was not prepared for what I saw when I walked around the corner in Munich Germany at 8 PM on New Year's Evening.
I have never been the mother to cry when leaving her kids for their first day of school or when seeing them get an award (like a kindergarten "diploma") but this really brought the lump in the throat.
Native Germans who still live in Germany apparently (in general) hate cuckoo clocks. From things we read online, they think of them as touristy kitsch. I, on the other hand, could think of nothing I wanted more than to bring back a cuckoo clock from the trip.
If cuckoo clocks are touristy nonsense, then Max Krug is the theater of the absurd. They have dozens of choices: 1-day clocks with cuckoo, 1-day clocks with cuckoo + music, 8-day clocks with cuckoo, 8-day clocks with cuckoo + music, electronic cuckoos as well as traditional, little tiny cheap souvenir versions, and enormous hand carved gigantic things. One even has real water that is pumped over the mill wheel. The store itself is very small and packed with expensive, breakable things. This means that when you're a mother of three, with a backpack full of iPads and kleenex, it is also a nightmare of a place to try to do any hard thinking about what exact cuckoo clock nonsense you want to invest in.
So John's Mom was our hero and kept the three bickering kids outside. Hannah was being particularly obnoxious, and a German grandma...Germany has some of the world's most awesome Grandmas, I'm pretty sure...stopped and shook her finger in Hannah's face, giving her a German lecture on acting right in public. Hannah knew, despite the language differences, exactly what was going on and immediately stopped her baloney.
Where is that German Grandma when I need her on a daily basis? Now THERE's an idea for a clock...one where each hour a different Grandma pops out of a door and yells at the kids (in different languages) to quit acting like idiots. Sign me up!
Sorry, I got off track...
And here's the one we chose, six weeks later upon finally arriving (in perfect condition) in Doha:
Here's a video of what the cuckoo and music sounds like (Hannah's noise is a bonus):
And the answer, in case you're wondering is three weeks. To the day/hour. That's how long it took.
We felt compelled to visit Dachau, as it's only a short train ride outside of Munich. This isn't what you think of in relation to a "fun family vacation," but as Americans and human beings and parents (two of whom were alive during WWII), we felt almost morally obligated to go learn more. It was a valuable educational experience, disturbing and humbling, as you might imagine. Below are a few photos--taking pictures here felt odd to me, like it was not always the "right" thing to do. I didn't photograph the most gruesome areas.
Russian orthodox chapel. One of several small religious houses on the grounds.
We were very careful to choose a Munich apartment that had (1) internet access and (2) a washing machine. Upon arriving at our flat, there was no (1) internet access or (2) washing machine. Near Marienplatz was a great San Francisco Coffee Shop where we spent quite a lot of time. The free internet access, combined with the $6 coffee, balanced out just fine.
John and I also spent two evenings at the laundromat "near" our flat. The flat owners told us it was a "short walk away." In actuality, it was an 8-block walk and three tram stops away. We do not have photos of the Munich laundromat.
