Sunday morning in München

Oh dear…the empties from last night remain on the coffee table. I was quite attracted to the idea of Becks Green Lemon until I tasted it and found it was lager and lime!

Time for a brisk walk then, past the statue of Juliet.  No surprises which part of her anatomy is polished by her devotees, I guess.

We walk through the Marienplatz once again and whilst my hero taps into the ATM, I notice the wall painting on the department store opposite, which reminds me of The Paradise rather.

I’m glad to see the window dresser in the next store utilises all the same tricks I teach my students about display and promotion: repetition, varying heights, colour themes and triangular arrangements.  How lovely to see the traditional window displays rather than the corporate installations for a change.

The geraniums are past their best but still putting on a pretty good show.

But the empty bottles in the fountain need to be cleared up.  It amuses us to see them dancing around the pump housing, however, and we watch as they swirl around in the current.

The Michaelmas Daisies are looking really pretty in the sunshine and though they’re not a favourite of mine – I find them a bit shaggy and messy – I rather like the spot of colour in this rather dark corner.

A little further on, we come to the route of the München Marathon, which is this morning.  The individual drinks are being set out on tables in the street, ready for the runners to grab them as they pass.  It’s fun to see what imaginative ways people have come up with to make their bottle stand out – some have balloons tied to them, others have plastic flowers…one simply says “Helmut” on it.  Oh my, in 20 000 runners, I hope the correct Helmut finds his drink!

The salsa drummers are creating quite a noise down the street, but their energy is contagious and we tap our feet as we listen.  The runners will be here soon.

The official measurer rides past on his bicycle.

Oh, here he is, the first man…we stand and applaud as he runs past us, first in one direction and then, having gone around a small triangular block of buildings, comes past us again in the opposite direction.

By the time we are back in Marienplatz, there are more runners.  Their steps are more laboured, their movements appear less comfortable and we can sense their weariness in spite of the determination on their faces.  I’m not sure that our applause helps much, but we do our best to cheer them on their way.

But we can’t linger any longer because we have a lunch date!

A Golden day

When I began my blog, I thought about some basic principles.  I didn’t want to compromise anyone’s privacy so I generally don’t post photographs of people.  It’s so important to respect everyone’s private space too, so I rarely post pictures of personal places either and this gives me a small problem today.  We spent the day with family friends whom we’ve known for most of our lives; people with whom we have grown up and have a considerable shared history.  For a variety of reasons, we haven’t seen them in a while, and so today there was a lot of catching up to do.  I took quite a few photographs throughout the day, but…

All but five pictures I took have someone in them.

I posted the photograph of Johanna’s beautiful table decoration on my 365 page, so there remain just the four pictures to illustrate the happy time we spent today. 

All are of food!

To begin with, here is Johanna’s delicious pumpkin soup.  Having collected Birgit from her home in the city, we drove out in fine sunshine through the glorious Autumn colours of the Bavarian countryside to her brother and sister-in-law’s home.  Bernd and Johanna live in a small village, overlooking open fields.  We have known them all forever, it seems, and though of course, we are all older, none of us have changed at all.

Except we have more memories to share.  We also have families of our own to talk about and in Bernd and Johanna’s case, the company of their son and daughters to enjoy, because in the last few years their family has blossomed.

(the photograph above is of the most yummy cheesecake with a meringue topping by the way…another of Johanna’s masterpieces)

No room for a slice of her carrot cake at tea time, sadly, because we’d enjoyed an enormous lunch and if there’s one thing better than a meal eaten in a German restaurant, it’s a meal eaten in a German home, especially when cooked by one of our clever friends.  We  loved the chance to spend time around this particular table, to share a memory or two and to tease one another when one recalled a slightly embarrassing moment.  No matter.  We were amongst friends – family, almost, and in such company, such things are fine.

From time to time we asked ourselves, where did those years go?  How can it be that we have known each other for more than 40 years and yet, in our minds, we are still the same age?   Finding room for a piece of Donauwellen cake and remembering Irmgard, their late mother (another great cook and someone whose Knödel still count amongst my hero’s all time favourites) we settled into one of those happy afternoons when the conversation continues uninterrupted. 

A phone call meant that Karin wasn’t left out, either.  For a few short minutes we were all together again and of course, we promised not to let another ten years go by without meeting up again.

As an elderly lady wrote in my childhood autograph book in the most marvellous handwriting:

“Make new friends but keep the old. One is silver, the other gold.”

Bavarian Breakfast

Weisswurst, a freshly made pretzel and a dollop of sweet mustard. Just what my hero needed to set him up for the day.

(I had Birchermuesli!)

Friday evening

Whenever we head out to Heathrow airport on a Friday, checking in at Terminal 5 for a lunchtime flight, there is fun in store.  The routine of leaving a chilly London behind at that time of the day usually follows through with an arrival somewhere late afternoon – and that somewhere is often Californ-I-A.  But it doesn’t do to stick with “always” and “usually” and it’s good to be able to say “but this time…” once in a while.

Today we caught the 1245 flight from Terminal 5 and in the late afternoon, we landed in Munich.  Now, there’s different!  We’re here to enjoy the company of friends, to go to the Opera and of course, to have fun in a city where we feel very comfortable.

We got off to a very good start by learning that we’d been upgraded to a rather lovely suite at the hotel.  Since we’d already pushed the boat out a little on this occasion, an upgrade means “very plush indeed” and our travelling companions made themselves at home immediately as you can see.

We set out in search of somewhere gemütlich for supper, dodging the rain showers and managing to stay dry as far as zum Spockmeier, where we snagged one of the last tables and immediately ordered two hefes. 

Dinner was delicious and we left feeling utterly stuffed a couple of hours later.

It’s good to be here!

As we walked back to the hotel we caught sight of an elegant “couple” in a shopwindow.  Sadly, it bore no resemblance to yours truly and her hero, for whom those lederhose and finely cut dirndl would have been just that bit on the snug side!

But we can dream.

Wrapped

Knole is in flux.  As we stepped into the courtyard, we spotted this wrapped treasure and were handed a leaflet explaining that work was underway to conserve and repair not only the building but also the precious things which are inside it.  In the Great Hall there were some fascinating little boxes with the label “please touch” alongside.  Half of the fabric was covered, the other half open to fingertips big and small and the effects were clear to see.  The open half was ragged and threadbare, the covered part as new.  Fascinating.

(Sadly, no photos inside the house, of course, but there are several online)

Moving on up the stairs, we saw more evidence of restoration and we realised that this was no minor update but a huge undertaking involving the greater part of the house.  Not so long ago, the house might have been closed during such major works but thankfully the National Trust is using it as an opportunity to educate us all on what’s involved and keep everyone up to date with the progress.  There’s even a blog written by the conservators.

For me, this was the icing on the cake.  Of course, I’d love to see the pristine furnishings, well preserved paintings and immaculate carpet.  But actually, I think it’s even more interesting to see the skeletons and the painstaking work that is going into safeguarding these treasures for the future. 

In some rooms, there were large, wrapped shapes with labels on them.

“Under here is a chair of state, a simple rectangular frame, narrow arms, a fitted square seat cushion and a large, high loose cushion on top, covered in purple silk velvet with applique leather decorations.  There are splits, patches and the fragile fringe is missing in places, the velvet pile is largely gone and the colour faded to blue grey”

What fun to imagine the contents of the package, to picture the chair in my head and envisage that purple velvet faded to blue grey!

Another one:

“Under here is a beechwood settee dating from the early seventeenth century.  It is upholstered in the original crimson velvet, fringed and studded with domed gilt nails.  The cushion is embroidered in silver and the back divided into panels with crimson and gold thread fringe”

The Spangled Bed hangings were there to see, with a small recreation of the fabric worked by one of the textile volunteers alongside.  Beautiful.

I really appreciated this approach to the restoration and have added the blog to my reader – how interesting to follow this long process and of course, to look forward to another visit to see the results of the work.