1 1/2 Days in Munich - 10/25-26

We are incredibly fortunate to have made the acquaintance (while in Slovenia) of an extrordinary guy from Munich named Ulrich (U or Uli for short).

That's him this morning, after yesterday having picked us up at the Munich Hauptbahnhof.  We had been wandering around Munich in the afternoon, hanging out briefly with the Womwn in Black, since Hoeh has a history of supporting that cause...

and finding Mariaplatz and other Munich sights - 

Note the guy in the center below.  Skinny-dipping in the English Garden is apparently commonplace.  

Playing rummy in a Biergarten drinking Radner, a sort of Sprite/beer that they like around here but we didn't!  Probably part of the glum expression...

So anyway U is an awesome guy, a single and evidently eligible engineer who has hobbies like leather work (entirely made by hand):

:

joinery, and finish carpentry with hand tools -

and other amazing talents.  He has greeted us with unsurpassable hospitality and generosity.  e.g., we are ostensibly "couch surfers," but guess who took the couch, despite the mis-matched couch length (5 ft.) and his height (6'4" perhaps)...

So he suggested this morning that we go see the highest peak of the German Alps, the Zugspitze. 

We drove through a bit of Austria, with another of the Slovenia acquaintances Berndt, and a new friend, Chermane, an American ex-pat -

 We decided not to pay 50 euros to go up to the top, and instead had a nice little hike.

Then after searching for quite a while for an open restaurant,we found a great place and had an amazing lunch of dishes like Wiener Schnitzel, wild deer ragout, wild deer goulash, and dumplings with porcini-ricotta filling.  

Then we then went on to Neuschwanstein, palace of Crazy King Ludwig, said establishement also known as The Walt Disney castle 

Rake and Hoeh.

U is the perfect gentleman:

Finally we journeyed back to Munich, where the Rakehas dutifully gone out with U and Berndt to pursue important sociological research on the subject of the annual Weiss Beer- Weiss Wein ( white beer, white wine) celebration sponsored by the local Bachelors Club, an important civic organization - really, the arbiter of all significant things civic in Bavaria.  We await her findings, and meanwhile get some sleep before the drive to Italy.  Gute Nacht.