Adventures in Deutschland: Day 41

Our second day in Munich was drastically different than the first. The meteorologists here seem to be just as shoddy as they are in the States so that despite predictions of terrible rain, Friday was beautiful. Unfortunately their predictions for Saturday were spot-on. We awoke to pouring rain and temperatures in the 40s. Yuck.

We attempted to eat a hearty complimentary breakfast at Hotel Jedermann. I say attempted because I utterly failed due to the extreme German character of the cuisine. The spread was huge and there were (thankfully) some croissants and rolls, but the rest of the buffet was composed of smelly cheese and smellier lunchmeats, cake, and salads. They did have a bowl of Cornflakes for the Americans, but I can't seem to get over room temperature milk.

After our early breakfast, we took the tram which stopped right outside of our hotel to the Deutsches Museum. This museum received such high reviews that we had considered visiting it even if the weather was nice; given the circumstances we didn't have to give it a second thought. The Deutsches Museum is supposed to be one of the best museums for science and technology in the world. It is full of neat looking displays, demonstrations given by staff, and interactive technology (aka a lot of buttons to push). Therese enjoyed playing with the information touch screens in the photography section as well as the buttons lighting up various types of cells in the pharmaceutical section. We saw a display on musical instruments where an organ recital was being held in the afternoon. A student was practicing on this huge organ in the middle of the room creating great ambiance. Reese's favorite part was the model train display. They had little German ICE trains going through tunnels and up mountains. Every time any train would go through a tunnel, Therese would clap and shriek in delight. Even after, say, the fiftieth time we saw a train go through a tunnel...

After the model trains we went to a great presentation on glass blowing. We actually watched a man heat up glass and stretch it and mold it into an ink stand and a pen. It was really cool. We then ate lunch (wursts and fries) at the museum before heading back out into the rain. It was still pouring and still freezing. Only now there was a line of people that wrapped around the outside of the building as people waited two hours to get in. Thank goodness we got there early. We waited in a line of three people!

Our next stop was the cathedral in Munich. It is a very famous landmark with two onion-shaped towers. The outside wasn't very pretty - mostly brick - but the inside was stunning in its simplicity. The cathedral fell victim to World War II which left only a shell of a building in its place. Builders and architects used as much of the original church as they could and tried to restore it to its original structure. The inside of the church is white with enormous vaulted ceilings and very simple stained glass windows. It felt so rich without being gaudy. While we were in the church Therese, wrapped in Todd's jacket, fell asleep in her stroller. She slept there for over two hours.

WARNING: What you are about to read may make you think less of me. After the cathedral, Todd took Therese back to the hotel to continue napping while Jesse and I ventured through the rain to Cinema Muenchen, an "original version" theater... That's right, we were in Munich and we went to see the sixth Harry Potter in English. We hadn't counted on the popularity of this choice however. When we arrived at the theater, there were two lines stretching far beyond the cinema doors. One line was for reserved tickets, the other was for the leftovers. Apparently in Germany you are supposed to reserve your movie tickets ahead of time and they sell the scraps to the idiots standing in the rain for a half hour. Ten minutes before the movie was about to start, our line for leftover tickets started to move. We eventually made it under the overhang jutting out from the front of the theater. Here we learned that you are assigned seats in the German theater. They had run out of paired seats - only single seat scattered here and there remained. As we walked through the door to the ticket counter, there was a bit of yelling and a very dishelved looking saleswoman. We made it to counter and Jesse took over, speaking beautiful German to the woman. There was one ticket left. Jesse said we'd take it. I got the last ticket to see Harry Potter. As soon as I paid, they slapped a "sold out" sign over the windows. Poor Jesse had braved the rain and cold (while wearing sandals) and was stuck with no ticket. He promised he'd be fine and said he'd meet me outside of the theater in two and a half hours. I shoved our map on him assuring him that he could go back to the hotel and I'd make my way there when the movie was over. Of course he didn't. I'm still not quite sure what he did while I was watching the movie, but I do know that it at least partially involved visiting the Lowenbrau brewery and having a liter...or two...

It was bizarre inside the cinema. With assigned seating, there was no reason to wait in line for them to open the theater and rush in. When the doors were open, I went to find my poor little last seat. It literally folded out from the side of an aisle. The theater did not have stadium-style seating with rows set on an incline, but rather they were all level with each other. I could see perfectly, though, and I was able to enjoy the sixth Harry Potter while sitting in Munich. Todd had the baby at the hotel and Jesse was wandering around God-knows-where. I know, happy anniversary to me.

After the movie I found Jesse outside of the theater. We started back toward the hotel. Sort of. Between the liters of beer, Jesse had left the map somewhere and we had to go by our knowledge of the general direction of the hotel. By now it was so windy that our umbrella was of no use. We trudged through the rain and cold for way too long before finally finding Hotel Jedermann.

Given the adventures of the afternoon and the continuous rain, we decided to eat a small dinner in the closest restaurant we could find. We had soup and pasta - no more wursts. I put Therese to bed while Todd and Jesse hung out at the hotel bar. I used the remainder of my night to catch up on my MTV, which I don't think I've seen since college. Did you know they have celebrity wrestling? A Saturday night well spent... It was worth it to see Harry Potter :-).