Day six finds us
in Munich. Here is the "meeting fountain" in the Marienplatz.
Noel takes us on a quick tour around, including this commemoration of
US-German military relations.
This is the famous "glockenspiel" or carrillon, that goes off
twice a day on the Marienplatz.
Walking around the markets, there were about six meat markets in a row
next to one another, featuring every kind of sausage you could ever want.
On our walkabout, we stop by a local church.
Back to the glockenspiel to hear it ring, but it is drizzling, so we
camp out under an umbrella and order coffee and hot chocolate while we
wait.
Today's optional excursion takes us to Herrenchiemsee, the men's island
on Lake Chiem.
This is going to be the second of Mad King Ludwig's castles, and we won't
get to see the third.
Some local wildlife.
This castle is the most opulent, and was Ludwig's attempt to create a
Versailles of Bavaria. Ludwig had a severe man-crush on Louis XIV, and
patterned everything after him.
With people walking around, you can get a sense of scope of these fountains.
Ludwig wanted this to look like Versailles, but be even bigger.
Kimberly kicking back and resting her back. Sorry, again no pictures
inside the palace.
Kimberly with more of her lion buddies.
This evening was free for dinner. There was an optional excursion to
the Hofbrauhaus and another authentic German dinner somewhere, but Kimberly
and I elected to make this our special dinner out for Wade's birthday.
As we walked across town to our dinner, here are two men fishing in the
Isar river. On one side of us is rush hour traffic, and on the other side
these fisherman.
It turns out that the restaurant we selected is right next door to the
back door of the Hofbrauhaus. We went in to see if our group might still
be there, but they were not.
Here we are at the Mark Restaurant at the Oriental Mandarin Hotel.
Our first course, the Amuse Bouchet, was called the "Arab"
course. From right to left is a cone of spiced hummus, a baby falafel
on a stick, and a "bread" (more like a paper). In front is a
spinach and goat cheese pastry.
We forgot to take a picture of the second course, which was yellowfin
tuna on a tomato reduction. Just a single bite, but it was marvelous.
Our third course, and actually the first of our price fixe three courses,
was lobster. The lobster is on the right on a bed of quinoa. On the left
is an edamame mousse, and in the middle is edamame paste with grapefruit,
fennel, and some small edamame beans.
The main course was a excellent piece of Pomerian beef tenderloin, served
with a seared foie gras. This is eaten with just a liver of the foie gras
to give flavor to each bite of the beef. On the left is a caremalized
daikon radish with assorted vegetables in a wine reduction, to serve as
a palate cleanser while eating the beef. You can hardly see the little
pearl potaties under the foie gras, but they were tasty as well.
Dessert #1: a cheese selection along with some chutney, fruit gelatin,
and a port-soaked plum. These were all exceptionally good until we go
to the "red cheese" at the top of the plate, which had the distinct
flavor of manure.
Dessert #2: Cones of chocolate truffle dipped in dark chocolate on top.
Slivers of chocolate with edible gold and silver foil. Served with a raspberry
sorbet and apricot granitee, and a creme anglaise.
Dessert #3: In honor of Wade's birthday, a mango cheesecake coated with
pistachio crust. We didn't eat much of this one, as we were already getting
extremely full.
Dessert #4: a selection of bite-sized candies. Kimberly at the fruit
tart at the top, and Wade ate the nougat on the right, and we saved the
other three to take with us.
The smoking lounge in the hotel featured pictures of various celebrities
smoking, plus a soundtrack of show tunes and other songs featuring smoke,
cigarettes, fire, etc.
