Day 149-Munich zoo

   June 1-We all got a little sleep on the flight to Munich, but not much, since it lasted less than four hours.  Our family filled the first row of seats.  Unfortunately, that is not first class on Air Berlin!  However, it was the first time ever that we have been the first passengers to deplane.  We quickly collected our luggage and walked through the “no item to declare” customs hall.  That was it, we were in Germany!  We thought it was a little odd that there was no passport control but certainly did not miss waiting in another line. 

Hape and Shan with the Weisswurst.

   We rented the car and drove straight to Hanspeter Zink’s (Hape’s) apartment in downtown Munich.  He and Shan roomed on the same floor when Shan studied at the University of Regensburg during the 1992-3 academic year.  We hit it off and have remained close friends ever since.  At his apartment we finally got to meet his wife, Martina, and their 6.5 month old baby, Julia.  They served us a Weisswurst breakfast complete with pretzels and Hefeweizen beer.  It was good to be back in Germany! 

   Properly fortified, we headed to the zoo.  It obviously surprised the Zinks that the zoo was so high on the kids’ to-do list.  Normally, tourists go to the tourist sites and the locals go to the zoo.  However, the rural nature of Gunnison and Bifröst (and Iceland in general) makes zoos rather exotic places for the kids.  In any event, the Zinks were up for it, so they led us through the S-bahn and U-bahn subway systems and a short time later we were at the zoo.  It was actually a very nice zoo and there were a number of young animals there, which the kids loved.  The whole family had Leberkäse and pretzels for dinner and liked it.  They seemed to be taking to the Bavarian cuisine quite well.

Joslyn stares down the alligator.  The glass probably makes her a little braver!

The kids eat dinner at the zoo's beer garden
before running off to play on the playground.

   The lack of sleep during the night finally started to catch up with us and the kids were fading fast by the mid-afternoon, so we returned to the inner city and checked into our hotel.  Sally, Spencer, and Alex took naps while Joslyn wrote in her travel journal.  Hape took me over to the post office to liquidate my Postsparbuch account.  Twenty years ago, this account had been a very good deal, since the money in it could be withdrawn from post offices in any country in their local currency.  I left it open when I left, because I figured that when I returned to Europe, I would be able to use it to get some starter money easily in any country.  However, the ubiquity of ATMs and the use of the Euro as a common currency today have made the Postsparbuch rather antiquated.  It turned out that the money I had left in it actually had been drawing a small amount of interest over this time; about enough to pay for supper.  That was a nice surprise. 

   Afterwards, I went over to the Zink’s for Brotzeit.  After catching up over a fine German sandwich and a couple Weizzens, I returned to the hotel, where the family was waking up.  We walked down the street to the Paulaner brewery and the Zinks joined us a short time later.  The kids had spätzle dishes and Sally and I had Schweinhaxe, Sauerbraten, Hefeweizens, and a special helles beer.  It was definitely great to be back in Bavaria!  Joslyn finally hit the wall and went to sleep at the table, and the other two kids started to get sleepy as well, so we all headed back to the hotel to finally get a good night’s sleep during a night that was actually DARK!