Week 9: Baileyfest Deutchland

This is a little out of order, but it worked out better this way...

Week 9 was a big one, celebrating Eric's big 4-0 in style with Ginger, Walt, Doug, Kate, Matt and Sarah coming to visit us in Munich!

Ginger and Walt arrived first, treating us to a night out / overnight for E's birthday evening, which we spent at Haus der Kunst up the street seeing Sonic Youth. :) How weird is that? Haus der Kunst one of the first large-scale propoganda projects for Hitler, to house art that he felt worthy of showing the masses. Now it's a modern art museum (Hitler hated modern art) and having Sonic Youth play there is a great extra jab to his sensibilities (or lack of). Good show- probably about 300 people there.

We rendezvoused together in Bacharach, in the gorgeous Rhine area of Germany. After botching our reservation completely to stay in a castle, we found a great alternative in the Kranenturm Hotel, which was built into the city walls. Our hosts were great- Fatima was from the Philipines and was very chatty and Kurt made a mean schnitzel. We got lucky with sunshine too and had a really nice cruise up the Rhine to see all the old castles along the way. King Eric's birthday dinner at nearby castle Schoenburg was especially good, and really special with the family all there.

After that weekend, Doug and Kate went off exploring and Matt had to head back home. Ginger, Walt and Sarah went off to Venice for a few days, then back the next weekend to visit more and explore our local area. It was fun to do the rounds of Munich again as "tourists," and we went to the Deutsche Museum, the English Gardens, a couple bier gartens, Nymphenburg Palace, Andech's Monastery and Brewery, our local hangout restaurant- Lieb and Seele- for "Schnitzel Parade" Monday, and Marienplatz. We also did Linderhof again, which really is my favorite Ludwig castle here, although I got us incredibly lost - even with the Garmin. There are worse things though than driving through and around the Alps.

While in Munich, the crew stayed at a great hotel about 10 minutes walking from us, so we could easily converge in the mornings, have cheese and crackers on our balcony during nap time, and have GW read bed time stories to the kids. Perfect.

Many thanks to the family for coming out to celebrate!!!! Here are our favorite pictures from the visit. Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8611188@N02/sets/72157617475723379/show/