Germany has lakes and mountains, too

On Sunday we headed out of Munich with some friends to do a little hiking. The drive there took us past some beautiful scenery including green pastures and clear, aqua-colored lakes. It was not long until snow-capped peaks could be seen in the distance. It was almost as if we were back in Switzerland. The most notable difference was perhaps that along the hiking trails here you greet others with "Servus" or "Gruß Gott" rather than "Grüetzi".

We started at the bottom of the Herzogstand and hiked for 2.5 hours up. We were rewarded with sweeping views of the Walchensee and a whole lot of mountains. At the top we dined at a mountain hut restaurant. The local food offerings varied a tiny bit from that which you would find in a Swiss mountain hut. From the vegetarian perspective, I got to eat Käsespätzle with onions rather than Rösti. And the salad did not come swimming in a foot-deep pool of dressing. And naturally, the beer was much better. I'm sure the non-vegetarian offerings were somewhat different too... at least I can say that I'd never before seen this gelatinized meat monstrosity that our German friend proudly ordered:


After lunch we rode the gondola back down to the parking lot.

Watch out Autobahn, here I come

[Headbang8, I recommend skipping this post...]

Woo hoo, let's hear it for efficient bureaucracy! (And you thought that was an oxymoron.) Although not quite as speedy as in Switzerland, we have managed to procure ourselves some German driver's licenses, and it was relatively pain-free.

Whereas in Switzerland all US licenses are equally and deliciously exchangeable for Swiss ones, in Germany some US licenses are more equal than others. Depending on which state issued your license, you may be subjected to a written exam, a practical exam, both, or neither (you can check out how your US license stacks up here).

Or you could just trade in your Swiss license and be done with it. That is, if you happen to be lucky enough to have one.

It took two trips out to the big old German DMV (or Fahrerlaubnisbehörde - how's that for a beautiful word?), each visit involving a token amount of waiting (less than half an hour in each case). Apparently the Germans don't trust their postal system as much as the Swiss do, because instead of mailing us the licenses when they were ready, they mailed us a piece of paper inviting us to come pick them up. And while Switzerland let us keep our US licenses, Germany held on to our Swiss ones. But still, the whole process was simple and not overly paperwork-laden, and our German licenses are the magical kind that never expire. Yippee!

Definitive proof of Bavaria's culinary dominance over Zurich

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you... the cheesy pretzel.

First, Zurich's version:

A dry, almost stale pretzel which has been sliced opened, buttered, and filled with a couple of cold slices of cheese (which, as you'll notice, are nowhere near pretzel-shaped, leaving one with many bites that include only cheese or buttered cheese).

And now the Bavarian version:

A giant, fresh pretzel with... you'll never believe this was possible... cheese MELTED ON TOP OF IT! All I can say is yum yum yum yum yum yum yum. I know what I'll be living off of for the next year.

You might also notice that this Bavarian giant cheesy pretzel costs less than the regular-sized Swiss cheesy pretzel, proving that this amazing technology isn't even cost-prohibitive. I'm considering offering a scholarship to some Swiss bakers to come up here and study the top-secret cheesy pretzel methods of the Bavarians. Any takers?

Posted from Munich.