Recently Nick and I went to Munich to visit the family that I lived with when I studied in Germany in 2003. More precisely we went to Holzkirchen, a little town with a view of the Alps 35 km south of Munich, and stayed with the Orlando family. My host father, Stefan, is Italian-born, but he has lived in the Holzkirchen area for almost all of his life.
My host mother, Annemarie, has always lived there. This was the third time that I had stayed with the Orlandos, the second time for Nick, and as always their hospitality was amazing. We felt at home from the first minute - they gave us a set of keys, invited us to rummage in the refrigerator, let us watch TV with them, and patiently spoke with us in German. I've always loved being at their home - it's not too large but clean, bright, and comfortable, and the view of the Alps from the backyard is something I never tired of. They had built a new pond for the pet ducks since the last time I had been there, and while the cat had recently passed away, they had acquired a turtle that likes to make laps around the backyard. The area where I live in Paris is extremely urban, and the startling effect a more natural surrounding had on me during the retreat I wrote about in the last post hit me once again in Holzkirchen. On the first day the weather was incredibly cold - I think the high was 50 F. After taking a few trains from the airport and splitting our ticket with a nice German couple that we met, Annemarie picked us up from the Holzkirchen train station. Immediately speaking German was strange to me, and although I was surprised at how quickly a lot of it came back to me, throughout that first night French words would frequently slip out of my mouth. We ate a classic German dinner of sausage, large pretzels, and beer.
The next day we spent some time walking through Holzkirchen, and I realized that although I lived there for 6 weeks during my time of study, I didn't know the town well at all. While I was there I only utilized a few of the streets and never ventured away from them. I knew the walk from the train station to the Orlando home, and that was about it. We walked to a park and played on the equipment, looked at the many Bavarian-style homes that we passed, and stopped in a used clothing store where I bought a dress inspired by traditional Bavarian fashion (referred to as Tracht). On the way to the store we stopped for ice cream at Crema Gelato, and it was even better than I remembered it.
On the third day we went into Munich, our first trip into the city. We stumbled upon a huge clothing store that devoted an entire floor to Tracht. Despite a sale we still couldn't afford anything, but we enjoyed trying things on anyway.
We also visited our friend Andreas, who just spent six months in Paris, causing our paths to cross. If we hadn't missed our connecting train on the way to move me into my Paris apartment we probably would have never met him. Andreas welcomed us with coffee and rubarb cake, and I finally agreed with Nick that I do like rubarb. That night the Bayern Muenchen soccer team played International Milan in the Champions' League final. Throughout the day we saw more and more Bayern jerseys in the city, and at the Indian restaurant where we ate lunch we watched the waiters adorning the entry with Bayern scarves. Down the street workers at a different restaurant were installing a flat screen tv above the outdoor seating. Nick and I watched the game back in Holzkirchen with the family, and Bayern sadly lost. Annemarie was sad; Stefan had no opinion.
On Sunday Annemarie and Stefan lead us on a bike tour through a forest near their house. The ride was at least as stressful as it was enjoyable, because the path was littered with large rocks and it had rained on it the night before.
We ended the ride with a late lunch in a beer garden, joined by my host sister, Verena, and her boyfriend. Yes, the Bavarians certainly know their way around pork! The ride back, after such a nice meal and the tiring ride there, was not as enjoyable. We got home and basically had to just lie around for the rest of the day, because we had planned a big hike for Monday.
Nick is going to pick up with the day of the hike, which as far as views and excitement goes was the high point of the trip.
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