Day 155-back to Munich

   June 7-The kids got up with Rudi this morning for the bakery run for our breakfast baked goods.  Apparently they behaved themselves, because we did not hear about anything going wrong.  In fact, Ruth and Rudi mentioned more than once that it was nice to have the kids running around the house, because it reminded them of their early days in the house when Ferdi and Amrei were young.  Hopefully we are this nostalgic for these days in another twenty years!  Because (or despite) the kids' help, we had another good Bavarian breakfast. 

Rudi and Ruth invite us to sit down and have breakfast.  What a delicious spread!

The Schneiders' backyard.

The Schneiders essentially let the kids take over the third floor, where they spent most of their free time playing with Amrei and Ferdi's old Playmobil toys that Rudi pulled out of the attic.

Rudi joins the kids on the staircase that spans all five floors of the house.

   We and Ruth and Rudi drove out to the castle at Prunn.  The first fortifications were erected here around 1200 AD and it was built up further over the years.  It was never destroyed and was continually occupied until it came into the possession of the Bavarian king in 1822.  From then on, it has been available publicly as a memorial to the Bavarian history.  Organized tours began to be run through it after World War II and it has been restored in the last couple of decades.  One of the castle’s claims to fame is the discovery in its library in 1566 of a book written in 1330 that described what could best be described as an Icelandic saga.  The book is normally kept out of public view in the Bavarian State Library in Munich but we happened to visit during a two month display of the book back at the castle.  It was very cool to see.  

Sally took this picture while we were waiting for our tour.

Joslyn and Sally are in the "new" kitchen, built in 1604.

The castle's toilet, strategically placed
right next to the old kitchen!

 

Rudi, Ferdi, Joslyn, Ruth, and Shan
enjoy the Prüfeninger Biergarten.

   Since the weather had improved, we drove back into Regensburg and met Ferdinand for dinner and a beer at the Prüfeninger Biergarten.  I had visited this beer garden a few times as a student in Regensburg and felt that the playground in the beer garden was a wonderful idea, since it meant that parents of young kids could enjoy their beer and friends as a family activity.  At the time I thought that it would be delightful to go there as a parent some day, so it was nice to actually be able to take Sally and the kids there for a beer.  The Schneiders lived near this beer garden when I was in Regensburg and they used to frequent it quite often.  They live further away from it now, so they get there less often.  When we finished, we drove back to the Schneiders, packed the car and drove down to Munich.





   My folks had flown into Munich the day before and Hape had picked them up and brought them to the hotel at which we had stayed previously.  He took them to an antique car show today from which they returned shortly before we arrived.  We checked in, made contact with them, and then the whole bunch of us went to the Paulaner Biergarten for supper.



Alex, Diane, Joslyn, Spencer, Norm, Sally, Hape, Martina, and Julia enjoying our last night in Munich.