The Lugano Experience

For those of you on the inside track of “the-man-who-would-be-Sven” you know that I recently went to the wonderful state of Bavaria in that fun, and oh-so-kinky country Germany.  Lena, Jess and I took a long four day weekend to see Munich and then take a tour to Castle Neuschwanstein.

So, first, the train ride.  Very nice, very packed and too long.  That being said, riding by the Swiss Alps on a train is much better than a sharp stick in the eye.  The company was excellent and we met some very interesting people along the way - we even met a robotic scientist who was traveling to Munich to speak on the ethics of robots.  He was 24.  Gawd I am getting old… 

Once we got to Germany, I couldn’t help but laugh about some of the stereotypes we have of Germans.  I am not thinking of the WWII stuff, more the “this is the time on Sprockets when we dance.”  And nippleclamps.  And while I had promised that I was not going to share this tidbit on this blog, there is a priceless video on College Humor.com about the new German sport “clucking.”  Be forewarned, this is not something that you want to play at work or in front of your 13 year old unless you are ready to have “the talk.”  And so much for promises.

So, with this in mind, I am thinking, these have to just be silly sterotypes, right?  Yea, right.  After the 5th adult toy shop, I am rethinking my position on this being merely a stereotype.  And we are not in the red light district - this is an average run-of-the-mill shopping area.  My particular favorite was the shop with the plush toy pigs in the window - all in various sizes mind you - dressed in various leather sundries and one even had a wheee little riding crop. <Craaaaaack>  “Ohhh, piggy has been bad.  Very bad.”

Brilliant.  Utterly.

We make it to the hotel, in time to freshen up and find our way to a vegetarian restaurant that I had scouted out beforehand called Kopfeck.  Not sure what it means, but when we get there, I am really worried that we just stumbled into a 1981 British Punk scene.  Time to shave my head (wait, already is), and put on a spiked dog collar.  The restaurant doubles as a night club (though when we arrived patrons were only having dinner) and there are posters for various punk bands - Misfits, Black Flag, etc.  Now, while I am completely down with the scene, I am not sure that my companions are, and I am starting to wonder just how good the food is.  We decided to stay and try it out, even though we were all a bit trepidatious…

If you are ever in Munich, go to Kopfeck.  OMG.  The food was awesome, not too expensive (actually fairly cheap by Euro standards) and complete veggy fair.  They have several tables outside on the sidewalk, which was perfect and the waitress was attentive and really nice (as were all the Germans we met on the trip).

And for any of you carnivores out there turning up your nose, well, piss off.  I mean that with love, mind you <kisses>.

The next day, off to the tour of Munich.  Not a bad tour, but pretty typical fare…  Here are the highlights.

• There are over 600 breweries in Bavaria. 
• The largest beer hall in the world is in Munich. 
• For health reasons, people began drinking beer for breakfast in Bavaria, and they still do to this day.
• Steins have the little top on them to keep bugs out.
• Beer used to be stored underground.  Then they grew trees over them to keep them cool.  Then the brewers thought, ”Gee, we should bring people to the beer, not the beer to the people.” Voila, the beer garden is born. 
• The beer is really, stupendously, wonderfully tasty.

The Bavarians, bless their souls, are very serious about their beer.  Which may give some insight into all the friendly smiles we got, and perhaps also to the piggies with the riding crops? <Crack!> “Piggy wants another beer?  Piggy asks Greta, nicely.”

The following day we had another amazing vegetarian meal - better than the first at “Prinz Myshkin” in downtown Munich.

And, we visited some castles.

Yes, the castles were amazing.  Unreal.  But, me describing them and gushing over them is not only futile, but boring.  It is truly not possible to come remotely close to capturing the beauty with words - at least not my words. 

So, lame-o’s, time to come over and see for yourselves.

Here are  some pics…  You can check all my pics out here: