Family Trip - Munich, Berlin, Paris

Between 17th July and 27th July my family came to Europe to visit, and together we did some travelling in Munich, Berlin and Paris. One feature of this trip was the heat - the top temperatures were between 30 and 38 deg C every day, which is rather abnormal for this part of Europe. Luckily my parents have paid for some classy hotels which had good air-conditioning. Phew.

The journey started in Munich, where we first visited Andechs, the monastry brewery that is near my residence. People go there and view the buildings, monastries, but most importantly, drink beer and eat lots of pork. They just introduced a new apple juice and wheat beer (Weissbier) combination, which sounds quite interesting. Later that night we went to the national theatre to watch an Opera. I bought some horrible seats in the back row on the top floor (I think the 7th) where the stage was barely visible. The Opera was Orlando, sung in Italian with German subtitles, so it was all lost on us. But for 10 Euros we got to see the inside of this magnificient theatre, so it was sort of worthwhile.

After a few days in Munich we took an overnight train to Berlin. The trains were comfortable, but the cabins were not designed to fit the big suitcases that my family was carrying. Anyway, after 8 hours and a little sleep, we arrived in Berlin.

Besides the city tour and the most famous sites (Brandenburg Gate, TV Tower, the very stylish Potsdamer Platz, Pergamon Museum, Checkpoint Charlie, the Wall), there were also some special things happening around Berlin. The world cup final was held there only two weeks ago, but since then they have already held the Love Parade (big street dance party which we gladly missed) and some sort of gay and lesbian event on the weekend when we were there. Besides these events, there was also a "Walk of Ideas" with a series of large plastic statues flaunting the significant German innovations (printing press, the automobile, soccer boots, etc.), and also a Buddy Bear exhibition. The Aussie Bear was a Ken Done job (rather boring to me), but there were some quite humorous ones as well. Here I've shown a photo of the giant football boots in front of the brand new main train station (Hauptbahnhof), and also the Cuban buddy bear.


There I met my friend Christian, in a trendy former East German area near the Warschauerstr station. He pointed out to me how Berlin has really changed since the unification, and that there are now plenty of West Berliners happily living in East Berlin, and vice versa. This contrasts heavily with a travel guide that I have read, written in 1991. Back then, there were still two of everything and the division was still very obvious.

After a few days in Berlin we flew to Paris. We stayed right in the centre of the city, opposite the Opera Garnier and nearby some large department stores. The heat made the stores rather a rather attractive option, but we mostly stayed away from them until the last day. Our first day there was also the last day of the Tour de France, so we followed the crowds and saw Floyd Landis hoist the trophy (which, of course, is no longer his!) This time in Paris, the highlight for me was the night time bike tour that we did. The views were fantastic, although we didn't get too much information on what I was looking at. I was at the back of the group and it was amusing and often downright scary to see the kind of mess that a swarm of 20 cruiser bikes can cause in traffic. More than once the group was split by a red light and people, well, generally didn't want to stop ... We went past a bridge over the Seine called Pont Des Arts, where people gather in the evening and just picnic and play music and chat, with a beautiful back drop of the Louvre and the Notredame in a Parisian sunset. Good idea eh?

In our spare time we made our way out to the Versaille, where the queues were probably shorter than normal but there were countless African people trying to sell rubber band powered toy birds to tourists ... besides the obvious attractions, there was also an unexpected bonus - they had Chinese audio guides. Finally my dad had something to listen to! Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to see the gardens properly, but they were enormous.

Last but not least was a Michelin 3-star restaurant, Guy Savoy. Lok Sang, my brother, found the place and reserved it, dad paid for it, I just had to turn up and eat. It was quite an experience, the service was brilliant and the food was exquisite. There, I learnt a new word - "truffle". Find it here in Wikipedia. Basically, it's a VERY expensive fungus with a very strong taste that is used very sparingly.

My time away from Munich almost ended with us not getting back to Munich on time. A glance at the Paris map should reveal that exiting the city from the centre is no mean feat - and our taxi trip proved just that. We arrived after the check-in counter has closed but luckily a man from the airline (DBA, small budget airline) convinced them to allow us in.

So, our trip pretty much ends here, and with it, the sunny weather. Since then it has been raining most of the time. On the last day, in light rain in Munich, we made an attempt to take photos of each other from opposing tall "towers" on either side of the Marienplatz (the old city square), and discovered that we desperately needed more zoom. Time for a new camera ...

There are plenty more photos on my Flickr photos album. Go to the "links" section and clickr on "My Flickr photo album", and voila!