Munich & Ruedesheim

So, last night I almost suggested that instead of spending the morning in Munich, we caught an earlier train to Ruedesheim so we had a little bit more time here. Man, am I glad I didn’t actually voice that suggestion (Trey later said he was thinking it, too, but he was glad for the same reasons I am). First of all, Trey wanted to have a traditional Muenchener breakfast – Weisswurst, Weissbier and Bretzeln. Yup, you read that right – he had brats, beer, and pretzels for breakfast. Here’s a snapshot:



I decided to forego the big breakfast because a) I’m still full from eating all day Sunday in Marktle, and b) last night after we went to the incredible bier hall Trey found, I was even more full. I did have a bite of Trey’s breakfast just to try everything, though. Ausgezeichnet!

After breakfast we decided to walk around the old downtown one more time because we were picking up some gifts for folks, and ran into something that we first thought was random, but soon discovered was an event we were witnessing that we probably couldn’t have planned seeing if we’d have tried. For anyone who’s familiar at all with the German Mardi Gras societies, you know that the new Karnival Prinz & Prinzessin are crowned at the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month every year. Well, it just so happened that we were walking past the Vitalmarkt in Munich at the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month this year.

Trey heard a band so we walked over to where the music was coming from and we saw those great hats (although they didn’t have the really long feathers) and at that point I started to realize what was going on. Seriously, we couldn’t have planned it, but we saw Prinz Edwin der Erste & Ihre Lieblichkeit Natasha die Zweite come in with their court. They were from the Karnival Verein Narrhalle. Trey got a couple of pictures (it had to be around 40 degrees or less so the Prinzessin is freezing her butt off)…










We stuck around for a few minutes and then decided to go looking for a few gifts for folks. We actually stumbled upon another one of the Karnival Societies (apparently Munich actually has more than one) in front of the Rathaus (the town hall), and this one had their own Blaskapelle, but the court didn’t have the cool hats, so we moved on pretty quickly.

After another hour or so of browsing, it was time to head back to our hotel and pick up our luggage and get on the train…

Ok, diversion. As I’m writing this we’re back to watching MTV auf Deutsch. Right now Chapelle’s Show is on with German subtitles, and South Park is coming on next in German, but the funniest thing is the commercials. Think gansta rap in German. It’s wild.

Back to the blog. We were in transit for almost 5 hours, but most of it was on an InterCity Express train (ICE train) which is really a great way to travel. Going from Vienna to Linz on one of those, we went to the 2nd class section and had to do a double take because we thought we were in 1st. In any case, after a great train ride, we ended up in Ruedesheim just in time to walk around a little bit before finding some dinner.


Trey found us a great little spot, with Schnitzel specials and great wine. His schnitzel had cheese and onions baked on top, and mine had a peppercorn cream sauce. We decided to get the Zwiebel Kuche (onion cake) to go along with it all, and Trey had to take a couple of pictures of the restaurant…


More tomorrow, after we visit August Kessler in the next town over, and a couple of wineries here!