Munich - Last Thoughts

Going to back track a bit since I didn’t have time to post yesterday.

Yesterday Morning we went to a Munich bank (UniCredit). The first portion of this visit was spent speaking with corporate leaders and executives about their jobs/rolls within the bank. We spoke to people in Economics Research, Investment, Strategic planning. It was interesting to note that in supporting their larger corporate clients, they need to be very aware of world news, economic happenings, and financial events. They read a lot and write even more. I expect that It’s like that for analysts in the states.

After the company visit, we had lunch at did a great tour of the BMW Welt and the BMW Plant.





A traditional Bavarian Dinner at the famous Hofbrauhaus (a beer hall that is supposedly a place Hitler liked to frequent) completed the trip.



So in conclusion, Munich was an awesome city. Its an 850 year old city that has a lot of the traditional elements and feel even though so much of it was destroyed and rebuilt. By European Standards, the city is fairly young. (Prague, the next city on the trip is over 1000 years old). The streets don’t always make sense because they aren’t situated in a grid like our cities in the states. There are also no number streets and as I think I mentioned before, the streets change names frequently. You need a good map and some guts to navigate it. In forcing myself to try, I learned quickly that its not so bad. Munich is friendly, safe, and clean. It’s inviting and warm, and I truly enjoyed my visit there. Though I didn’t visit all of Germany or Bavaria even for that matter, I learned a lot about the German culture. Most things are very well made. Everything from drinking glasses to public bathroom door handles are sturdy and well made. Nothing Cheap. Another main characteristic is that Germans are not wasteful of energy and resources. Escalators don’t run without a need, there isn’t unnecessary air-conditioning in buildings (which was difficult to get used to) and all in all you get the sense that the people think twice about over consumption (of all things except meat and beer that is!) and wastefulness. Apparently, we can learn a lot from the Germans.

There are a few people that are a little perturbed by non-German speaking visitors, but for the most part people were patient and kind. I appreciated that very much.

Prague here we come!

Leaving Munich for Prague in the morning.
This has been an amazing trip thus far.

I´ll post my recap for Today (Tuesday) as well as my final thoughts for Munich as soon as I can.

Miss you all!

Another Beautiful Day.

So I’m very tired today and since we spent much of the day visiting German Companies and listening to Presentations, I have a little bit less to talk about. That’s a good thing since I really need some sleep!

This morning, we had the privilege of being spoken to by representatives of the following German / German located companies:

U.S. Commercial Service
Deloitte Consulting
Ketchum
Interbrand

Presentations were thorough and informative. I learned a lot about German people and the German culture. I’ll share more about that in my final thoughts on Munich.

Lunch was at an Italian place… I had a salad with fried fish. I know what your thinking… why go to an Italian restaurant in Germany? Ha ha… just did. That’s were the group went so that’s where I went.

The afternoon as spent at TUV SUV which is a company that specializes in inspecting all kinds of things from motor vehicles to elevators. They’re apparently very big all over the world including the states.



After we returned from the company visit, I went to Saf for Dinner.
To save time and bring sleep more quickly I will just say that I am IN LOVE with this place. The atmosphere was lovely, the music was a very mellow American house mix, and the food was amazing. I found the restaurant on this site: Happy Cow.

I also met a really great Italian (Milano) woman who gave me her contact information and told me to look her up if I’m ever in Milan. It amazed me that she spoke so many languages and knew more about US politics than I did (or at least as much which is still fascinating to me). I shared with her my restaurant find from last night since she mentioned that she too is having trouble finding vegetarian food. We had a lovely conversation about everything under the sun from Politics to the recent news of the US governments decision to bail out Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and how that decision will affect American taxpayers… I plan to e-mail her soon to stay in touch.

My waiter and waitress were really great. Especially about the fact that I don’t know many German words. The menu was completely vegan and mostly raw so I had no problem picking anything on the menu, however they still explained things to me very well. I had the fettuccini Alfredo which was really some kind of vegetable cut into “noodles” with fettuccini sauce. It was fabulous. Also had a house salad and the house dressing was superb! Very pleased.






My waiter had locs so I asked him why I don’t see many people with locs in Munich. He told me that apparently people in Munich aren’t very “colorful” or unique… He’s originally from Berlin. Apparently Berlin and Hamburg are the places to be.

I probably wont be able to post pictures or write much tomorrow because our schedule is packed until at least 11:30 tomorrow evening. I will be posting my final thoughts on Munich at some point though. If not tomorrow then as soon as I get to Prague.

Good night all.

A Rainy Day in Munich

I woke to the sound of soft rain this morning. The rain carried through much of the day. It was very chilly but manageable… I was glad for my umbrella.

We were to meet at 9:50 am for our bus tour of the city so I got up around 8am so that I could have time for breakfast. Breakfast consisted of cheeses, cereals, fruit, eggs and coffee. There were also various breads and toast. A light yet satisfying breakfast. I thought that I’d go for the boiled egg since I guess that one can’t really go wrong in boiling an egg. Right? Well this is what my egg looked like this morning when I slammed it against the table to try to crack it open.



Hmmm… that’s not hard boiled is it? Got duped. Its soft boiled. Surely this must be some mistake…

Anyway, the bus tour was very good. Our tour guide Peter was very knowledgeable about the city so I felt that I really got a good understanding of the history of Munich.



Munich was once part of the Holy Roman Empire among other things. It’s history is full of stories of kings and queens, family and scandal… its very full. 60% of the city was destroyed during world war II (told you I’d get more details about that) so much of what you see has either been rebuilt completely, or at least resurfaced. Some of the building have been left to look “half” damaged and half “new” so that one can remember the history. We drove past museums, through gardens and palaces. We saw the chamber of commerce, churches, high end-shopping districts, and neighborhoods. I found it interesting that Munich is a city of neighborhoods much like Philadelphia. Munich’s American sister city is Cincinnati though I don’t know how that relationship came about.
I also learned that there is only one skyscraper in Munich. It’s currently rented by the cellphone company O2. Apparently Munich folks don’t appreciate the skyscraper.



The tour ended with a stop in one of the city’s best known squares Marienplatz.

It was here that we were given the chance to see the famous Glockenspiel (carillon) , a 43 bell tower which puts on a show of dancing and jousting a few times each day.



After the tour and the Glockenspiel, I spent the day wandering the city alone. Much of the group went to see Dachau Concentration Camp which I believe was the first or one of the first concentration camps. I chose to explore the city since today was our only completely full day free of classes and academic seminars. All of the stores and shopping areas are closed on Sundays by law, however museums and some galleries as well as restaurants and cafes are all open. I spent A LOT of time just walking around the city.











It’s very manageable except for the fact that street names are written in a foreign language so it’s difficult to keep the straight.

I was pretty hungry at first so I went into a few places. One of the first places that I visited pretty much ignored me. Probably because I was obviously an American tourist. (map and bright white sneakers are a pretty good clue.)

I finally found a little café that looked nice.




( Café Ludwig) I had NO IDEA what the menu said. Luckily the waitress spoke about 2 (almost literally) words of English so I was able to get something to eat. I somehow got her to understand that I wanted “no beef, no pork, etc”. She said “ya ya!” and pointed to something that I couldn’t understand on the menu. She said, “Only Cheese!” so I shrugged and said ok.

This is what I got.



It was very good. But definitely just a plate of cheese… I had some bread and butter, kiwi fruit, and a cup of coffee as well though so it ended up being enough. Oh. And yes. Another trickery. A soft boiled egg.



I’m done with German Boiled eggs. They are raw.

After lunch and finally getting my bearings (ha ha mom), I spent some time in the Alte Pinakotek.



This is one of Europe’s best Art Museums. The museum consists of the city’s “older collection”. The famous royal family the Wittelsbachs started the collection at the beginning of the 16th century.

I also spent some time in the English Garden… a beautiful park with running paths, lakes and streams, a Japanese tea house, and lots of other interesting finds. This was the one time during the day that I was very glad for the rainy day since the English Garden is very well known for its nude sunbathers. Thank Goodness they stayed home today!







After coming back to the hotel to rest, and feeling the need for a good meal, I googled “Munich Vegetarian Restaurant” and came up with Prinz Myshkin. I was tired from walking all day so I opted for the U-Baun or the Subway as a means of transport to dinner. My hotel is directly across the street from the Haptbahnhof (The Central Train Station) so I thought it would be no big deal. It really did go smoothly too… After I figured out how to buy my ticked. That took a while since almost all of the signs in the train station are in German.

FYI, in Munich, when you buy your ticket, there is nothing that “swipes” it to ensure that you’ve paid your fare. The public transportation goes on the “honor” system, meaning you validate your ticked with a stamp just before you use it and are expected to stamp it again at the end of your trip to invalidate it. It’s very trusting of passengers and so different from the states. I took the U-baun from Haptbahnhof to Sendlinger Tor, to Marienplatz and walked to Hackenstr.





Oh. Also FYI, The escalators at the train stations don’t move unless there is someone on there. That freaked me out a little bit. I thought it was broken so I took the steps quite a few times before I saw some little kid run and jump on one as it magically started up.

I was smart to dress more “European” for dinner. I took off my hoody, put a scarf around my neck and chose some flats instead of tennis shoes. I received far less “oh she must be American” looks which was definitely a good thing.

At Prinz Myshkin I was pleased to find that my waiter Mike (a guitarist from Hamburg) spoke English and had an English menu! I ordered the Spinach Gnocchi. Again it ended up tasting very cheesy so I also added a plate of zucchini to break up the cheesiness, and also had a glass of Merlot. (I needed a break from all the German beer that the serve you here in Munich.)

Dinner was good. I think I’ll order something else if I ever visit again though.
I planned to go to a jazz club but was tired after dinner so decided to rest instead.

Either way, the night was beautiful, though chillier than last night. A street musician was still out entertaining and the walk from the train station to the restaurant was lovely. I was alone (sorry mom) but I felt very safe. The streets are well lit and I had no problems at all.

Time to sleep. The Academic portion starts tomorrow.

Don’t forget to comment so that I know you’ve stopped in to visit.


Oh Yeah, The books my dad helped me pick out have been a God send. I absolutely would not have survived today without them!




Miss you all!

Auf Wiedersehen

Update and pictures!

Wow! so much to tell you all about today... No time right now though. Im going to find something to eat and then head to a jazz club. I´ll write soon. Promise. Meanwhile, check out the flickr badge to the left. Just click on it to see all of my pictures.

-G

p.s. its 8:10pm here...

The End of Day one

About to turn in for the evening. It’s about 11pm here and I did well to stay up so that I can try to get acclimated to the new time zone. The day went well. As you can see, Munich (Muchen) is a beautiful city.











It’s not quite as “old” as I expected it to be for a European city, but I guess that because it was destroyed and has been since rebuilt. We are taking a guided tour of the city tomorrow so I expect to learn more then.

Here’s a look at the Hotel Regent:





Found an internet café that allows for inexpensive internet and phone conversation. I may be using that instead of the internet in the hotel since its far better priced. We’ll see.

Had dinner at a beer garden called Restaurant Augustinerkeller.



The house beer here is apparently the best in the city and the oldest. According to the folks there, the recipe hasn’t been changed since 1328.



Since it was a dinner planned specifically for the trip, there were arrangements made for me to have vegetarian food so that was nice. I was actually able to eat a meal. I was expecting fries and salad for much of the trip!  my meal consisted of Vegetable bouillon with pancake strips (a soup) and Potato-broccoli gratin with tomato sauce. Desert was a home made apple strudel with whipped cream.

Time to sleep.

p.s. Aunt Alicia, I got your post card today. I’ll mail it on Monday. It costs one Euro to mail a post card to the states in case anyone was wondering. Night Everyone!

Landing and Arrival

Early This Morning - September 6, 2008. (Landed around 11am Munich Time)









No Paper Towel waste here!

September 6, 4:50am Est, 9:50am Munich

Guten Morgen! (That’s Good Morning)

I have about 30 min left of the flight to Munich so I thought I’d pop on again to mention a few things.

I slept for much of the flight so I don’t remember the majority of the 8 hours. That’s probably a good thing since an 8 hour flight is definitely a long one. I woke about 45 min ago and decided to stay up and try to experience the landing and get myself together. Its almost 10am in Munich so in order to get myself into the right time zone, I’ll probably try to stay up until at least after dinner.

Just a few things to mention that I find interesting. Flying is very different. I don’t know when it “changed”. Its probably been something that’s been happening for quite some time but seriously folks, its very different. (I’m sure Stu can attest to this since he flies so much!) The main difference that I notice is that there is far less space on this flight than on my flights to Spain. Not that I am uncomfortable… its not to bad. But just notably smaller. There is absolutely no room under my seat or the seat in front of me to “safely stow my carry on bag” even though they still say to do just that. Another change is that there are Advertisements Everywhere. So much so that its overwhelming. The flight attendants walked around with brochures to sign up for credit cards!

This ad for AT&T is on the back of my tray table.



And even the napkins remind people to sign up for mileage points.




I understand the need to get the word out in anyway possible… this is what marketing and advertisement is all about. But seriously it’s a little disheartening to find that for a little over a thousand dollars, one cant expect to be pampered and appreciated but rather viewed as another chance to make even more sales. Its an ingenious plan… from US Airway’s stand point. I guess I cant blame them.

Ok. We’ll be landing shortly. I’ll have pictures.

On The Plane -- September 5, 2008 – 10:30 est.

Hallo There everyone! (No I didn’t misspell Hello. Its German for Hello!)

Just checking in to get the ball rolling on this thing. I’m currently in route to Munich, Germany via US Airways flight 706. Of course, you won’t read this until I land and find access to the internet, but I thought I’d write a little bit while on board the flight just to help myself remember how things went. J First of all let me just say that the flight IS NOT full and I have a gloriously empty seat next to me. OH. Yes. EMPTY. Im completely in aw of this fact. Because for the next 8 hours, I plan to push back the center arm rest, prop my feet up, and get some much needed rest. Who knew you could actually get a little bit of rest while on a plane

So just a really quick re-cap first off. For those of you that don’t know, I am currently in the process of completing my LAST MBA CLASS!! The class is of course a two-city international business trip/class. And though I miss my friends and family terribly already… (sad I know!) I am thrilled to be able to take part in this little adventure.

The best part of the trip is the fact that when the class is over in a little more than a week, My sis is flying out and we’re going to do a little exploring of the great Italian cities Florence and Rome.

When I went to Spain in 2002 (please note I had no clue the year that I actually went to Spain until I checked my passport a couple hours ago) I took so many pictures and bought post cards and trinkets and things… thinking that When I got home I’d put everything together into some sort of scrapbook-like mishmash of wonderfulness. Yeah. Right. I have no clue where I was standing in the beautiful pictures, no inkling about the historical significance of structures and buildings. .. I just know that I went to Madrid, Seville, Cordoba, and Toledo, had a wonderful time exploring little cobble stone streets, galleries, museums, and cathedrals, and… well that’s it. That’s pretty much all the detail that I remember. It was an awesome trip. I remember how I felt while being there… but I don’t remember much detail about the sites.

So as you may have gathered, the point of this travel blog is to:

a. Allow my friends and family to “come along” on this great adventure, and
b. remind me where I’ve been and what I did on this trip when I look back on it 5 or so years from now.

Ok. Off to do some homework that was due last Tuesday (hey my hardrive crashed! What?!) and then get some sleep. There is now a baby making a lot of noise somewhere in a row in front of me…. So I don’t know now how much I’ll rest. But my belly is full (had the pasta on board here and some apple juice. I guess that’s still included even though any other drinks have to be paid for. L … $2. can you believe that nonsense? And I had to pay $50 to check my overweight (only by 9.5 lbs) bag. Unbelievable.) So I’ll probably fall right to sleep.

I truly hope you all enjoy being taken along for the ride. I will post as much as I can though I don’t know what the internet access situation will be in each of the cities that I plan to visit. If you don’t hear from my for a while, please rest assured that I am well.

Enjoy!

Danke and Auf Wiedersehen! (That’s Thank you and Goodbye. Ha! Learning…)