baron von munich

(ya think?)

SNOW !
we finally got ourselves some decent winter whiteness and it's pretty exciting.
well, it was exciting, then it was cold.
and wet.
but at first - it was amazing. and very exotic to us.

this snow is magic. it is constantly falling silently from gigantic conifers, often on our heads, or making a gorgeous little 'foof!' on the ground. and yes, it makes a soundless 'foof!'

we arrived into munich the day after they had -16 degrees overnight temperature.
we had a pretty good flight in, on lufthansa, with great seats and a bit more leg room - which is damned appreciated (kent is endorsing lufthansa now). oh - and the most brilliantly wrong cheese paste bagels anyone could hope for. if they were serving food in heaven, it'd be this stuff, doled out by saints wrapped in dirty bedsheets.

this is probably one of the first incidents in ... ever, that i have opted to not eat at all, rather than put that filthy muck into my body. i am still reeling from watching kent eat not only his own cheese-emulsifier-brick, but also mine. no food should ever make such a heavy 'phump' when dropped on a surface. pure evil.

here's us, all excited to be in a land of snow, outside our hotel in the old city area.
also excited about not being in an airport. we're up to 6 flights completed now and frankly,
over it.

this hotel was amazing. never before have i been to a hotel so smoothly pretending how no-frills it is. i do a slow clap for you hotel-motel-one. my favourite part was the description for the shower: "a mini spa experience, in just 15 minutes you can have your very own spa treatment." i scoffed a lot. and then i had a shower. hotel-motel-one. you were right. the water was hot, the pressure was high, my shoulders were massaged and soothed by the multi-jet shower head and my skin felt soft and supple from my organic citrus body/hair wash. (yep, they jam it all into one tiny bottle.) the room itself was a bed, and AND a 'portable desk' should you want to move it to ... i have no idea where.

everything was delightfully jammed in, sporting new and 'groovy' design. should you require an alarm clock, that's fine! get one at reception (i am quite sure they had about 5 to spread around), just don't ring, because there's no phone! in all seriousness, despite all its midgettyness, this hotel was really nice, and the lack of anything was done with such style. the bar sported a smashing array of 'exclusive gourmet toasts' (ham and cheese toasties with herb paste - they love their pastes in deustchland - with a garnish of 'handpicked' kettle chips [i can only assume they mean the potatoes ... can you pick a potato? does one really go potato picking? i think not.] on the side.) designed by someone famous, and some fantastic cocktail menus (whoever spots the typo first gets a prize):


i chose to stick with wine instead.


so, here's lucy enjoying the snow.
i'm sure we looked like idiots running into the sludgy leftover bits of snow, giggling, kicking up puffs of wet, sloppy pulp, and trying to spritz each other with tiny fingerfuls of snow.
but fuck it. twas fun times.
fun times.

ok, again with my obsession with architecture.
munich is rather, um, posh..ish.
munich-ites are so posh that they sneeze diamond encrusted boogers, that are deftly caught in silken handkerchiefs held by golden dachshunds in tuxes. not that i am convinced they are associated with such a filthy habit as sneezing.
lots of neo-goth and neo-classical and neo-goth/classical.
oh, and PASTEL. buildings are fully lime cream, lemon butter and salmon smear.
there's a million porsches on the streets and lots of old men with walking sticks made of oak, with golden knobs. nice kent.

the sticks have the golden knobs, not the old men.
well, maybe they do, but i didn't ask.
he did, and they do.

the buildings are ridiculously pretty really.

on one of our many strolls through ol' munich town brought us finally out of the posh shops, the pradas, the chanels, the swarovskis, and out of the standard 'every-street-in-the-world' with its h&m, virgin, vodafone, esprit, mcdonalds etc etc..
anyhoo, we found a cool district with some kick ass little designer boutiques,
and almost splurged on some clothes, but wrong sizes greeted us everywhere.
(ps - on clothes, i bought a pair of killer bog-catchers from copenhagen.
you may get to see them in future pics. they rule.)
the above pic, is from a little canal (again with the canals) somewhere close to this nice area.

yay - it's probably silly, but whenever we see a little bit of interesting street art, we get a little bit excited. its almost like some sort or secret code, a sign that advises that somewhere close by there's a bit of subversive arty action going down.

hurray!

next trick -
hire a car, drive out of munich and head to the alps ! ! !