Nymphenburg Palace & Gardens in August

Frau A and I had logged a photo-trip to Nymphenburg Palace & Gardens in June.  At that time (early Summer) there were a number of baby ducks waddling about and the swans were fighting and mating.

So, Frau A wanted to go back in late Summer to see how the babies (and potential babies) were developing.  Plus, it's a great excuse to re-visit one of the most popular Sunday destinations in all Munich.

The front facade of the main building still is covered in scaffolding, but they've planted lovely beds of "wildflowers" (carefully planted, I'm sure!) and we had beautiful clouds.

As ususal, the water in the front of the grounds is full of waterfowl.  We saw a new kind of goose we hadn't seen before...

...plus the usual swans, mallards, and gulls (like below):

Some of the swans were still fighting.  This "guy" (photo below) was mercilessly harassing another swan, with lots of splashes and honks.  You could hear the thump when his wings hit the other bird.  They're a lot tougher than they first appear!

This huge, older swan is often out front and seems to pose for pictures.

We then moved from the front of the grounds through the palace to the back, where the gardens start (with still more water).

The swans here were swimming peacefully - no fighting.  But these all had a family unit, so we're guessing the roughhousers in the front were lone juveniles.

When you reach the end of the gardens, there is a small waterfall peppered with Greek statues all around.  A few ducks just like to relax on the edge.

Looking back over the waterfalls toward the castle, there's another beautiful sky.

And the very border of the Nymphenburg grounds, a fence prevents people from coming in using the waterway.

This mallard was taking shelter from the hot sun, not far from the fence above -- but keeping an eye on me just in case.

Unsurprisingly, a wedding party arrived to take photos in the garden.  It is possible they ere getting married in a small building on one side of the gardens.  They got lucky with sunny weather.  We're guessing that they're NOT German by their choice of fashion, especially for the men...  Then again, we were walking around in our traditional trachten (lederhose and dirndl) before attending a party, so we probably made the photos of some of the tourists!

We'll probably go back again in Autumn to see how things continue to change.

Beating the Heat

After all my whining about a rainy, cool summer, the Hundestage finally have arrived!

We've been soaking up as much of the warmth as possible, enjoying local festivals, hiking, watching American football, and walking around town sipping iced coffee drinks.  Lots to catch up on and photos to share in the next week.

Though the heat here is nothing like what our friends in Texas have been facing, these are the 4 or 5 days per year when it's too hot to sleep or eat and I miss having air-conditioning.  But it's made me rediscover a treat from childhood, and one of the best ways to banish the heat.

Ice cold watermelon!!

Have you seen... [fun experiments]

YouTube is a great source of pop science!  Okay, maybe it's not science in strict terms, but rather cool phenomena.  In this case, slow-motion video gives a new perspective on fire & water.

First, what happens when you put a lighter in a blender?  (Not the best video quality...)

Second, the "Slow Mo Guys" fill a huge water balloon and pop it.

Their high school science teachers would be proud.

BMW Museum - Motorcycles

On a recent, rainy Sunday afternoon Frau A and I went to the BMW museum.  We had already visited the Porsche and Mercedes museums in Stuttgart, but somehow always put off BMW even though it is local.  With 250,000 visitors per year, it's the third most popular museum in Munich (after the Deutsches Museum and Museum of Modern Art).

The BMW museum is basically next to the Olympiapark and use the same U-bahn stop.  The museum is the bowl-shaped building on the right below:

The tall building is the BMW world headquarters, in the form of a four-cylinder engine.

NOTE:  The BMW museum is different from the Porsche and Mercedes museum in that it is organized by topic rather than in a strict timeline format.  The timeline format is nice in that you see how technology developed, but the BMW format lets enthusiasts of specific product types get their fix in one room!

At the beginning of the museum it is clear that BMW is big on motorcycles.  They produced motorcycles exclusively for 10 years before building their first automobile.  Here is the first BMW:

BMW R32, 3000 were produced from 1923-1926. Two cylinder + over-head valve engine, 8.5bhp, capable 100km/h (62mph).

There's a YouTube video of an original R32 in action:

The museum is also quick to show BMW's technology and racing orientation, with lists of innovative "firsts" and record-setting performances.  The enclosed motorcycle below is the "WR 500" -- WR stands for "weltrekord" (world record), but this bike is also referred to as "Das Ei" (the egg).  It's top speed of 173.8mph was set in 1937 and this mark lasted 14 years (aided, of course, by the WWII period that was focused on other technological challenges).

In this room are more racing bikes, with and without sidecars!

The motorcycle rooms were packed - there seemed to be a lot of die hards that spent more time here than other places in the museum.  My favorite was the late 1990's "Cruiser", which could be described as a Harley-like BMW.

BMW R1200c "Cruiser". 1997-2004. 2-cylinder "boxer" (flat-twin) engine, 61bhp, reaches 168km/h (104 mph).

In the next posts, we'll move on to the automobile rooms...

And now that we've visited the Porsche, Mercedes, and now BMW museums, there is one big one left - Volkswagon in Wolfsburg (don't think Audi has a museum in Ingolstadt).  Maybe this winter...

Lobster Cocktails, Italian Style

Since we had an extra tail left from Herr J's lobster cocktails, we decided to experiment with a little more Italian flavor and have a picnic in the English Garten.  (This is what I've been wanting to do all summer but have always been foiled by the weather.)

We brought some serrano ham, manchego cheese, and the rest of the wine. And of course, the football. Herr J is teaching me to throw a good spiral!

Though our presentation wasn't as nice (plastic cups, foil and tupperware!) as before, its was a great late afternoon picnic.

For the Italian style lobster cocktails, we added to the lobster: olive oil, fresh grated parmesan, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and a little bit of garlic. I was skeptical about the parmesan-lobster combo at first, but it was very tasty!

Women's World Cup Semifinal: Japan vs. Sweden

Frau A and I got to see a lot of the Women's World Cup in person.  Some group-stage games were held in Augsburg, so we attended North Korea vs. Sweden and then Australia vs. Sweden.

We bought semifinal tickets early on a gamble -- before knowing the matchup.  We though the U.S. would with their group, then win their first elimination-stage game to reach the semifinal.  We thought Germany would do the same.  Germany vs. the U.S. would have been awesome...

But as it turned out, the U.S. did NOT win Group C, (but did make the other semifinal game) and Germany lost to Japan in the quarterfinals!

So, even though the dream matchup would not happen, we took the train to Frankfurt to see Sweden (who we'd seen twice already!) take on Japan.

 

We arrived to see the opening ceremony and hear the national anthems in progress.  Notice the empty seats in the best section -- we think it's the result of German fans (who made the same gamble we did) not showing up because the German team wasn't here.

Sweden was attacking right-to-left in the first half and probably generated the most (and most dangerous) opportunities.

Frau A tool some GREAT photos of the first goal.  Sweden 1, Japan 0.  Only 10 minutes into the game.

On the other end, Japan was not getting much other than ineffective corner kicks.  There was a feeling in the stadium that it would be an easy Swedish victory...

But the Japanese team started to control ball possession more, and their attacks were getting sharper.  They got the equalizer at 19 minutes and took the tie into halftime.  Their attackes continued into the second half.

For one save, the Swedish goalie punched the ball away and hit her teammate in the process! 

In fact, Japan ended up with 60% ball possession and scored two unanswered goals within 5 minutes to open a 3-1 lead on Sweden.  On the defensive end, Japan were tight and for the remainder of the game.  Sweden created no real chances to speak of.

Japan were a pleasant surprise (and of course, would be an even bigger surprise in the Final...).  We saw three games, and are so happy that we had this opportunity.  It was a great experience and hope many of you can see games in Canada in 2015!

Globetrotter Outdoor Sports store (again)

The Globetrotter store that we visited previously has a few more surprises that we missed the first time.

But to start, I've had some requests for more photos of the wind & rain chamber and the altitude/cold chamber.

So, here is a better viewing angle of the wind & rain chamber (see prior post for the video).  Customers can put on test pants+jacket+hat+boots+gloves, then go through the door and step on the buttons to unleash the elements (or someone steps on the buttons outside the chamber for you).

In this picture you can see more clearly the dual fans that create the "wind".  The box hanging from the ceiling has four spouts that make the "rain".  I have no idea why they have water running down the plexiglass wall, though.  Probably just for visual effect.

The altitude & cold chamber has exercise machines so you can get a feel for trekking in new gear under similar conditions.  They really have quite a layout of stationary bike, treadmill, stairmaster, and mechanical steppers:

The television screen shows the current "conditions" in the room, in this case equivalent to 2200m altitude:

One new discovery -- that we walked right past the first time -- is the test area for slepping pads and sleeping bags:

You can see the bags hanging on the wall, and the pads lined up on the left.  The single-bed-sized thing with the small logs set upright is the test platform!  (A girl is sitting on its far edge.)  The concept is to have an uneven, hard surface onto which you place a potential sleeping pad and then sleeping bag -- then climb on and climb in.  You'll get a pretty good idea how much comfort the pad provides, and if the sleeping bag is the right size too.

A woman was testing these and got off moments ago:

In addition to the above test area, there was something else we missed on the initial visit.  The store has a small closet with two covered holes (wide enough for an arm) and three sets of eye holes at different heights.

You can take a flashlight or headlight, stick it through the covered hole, then peer in through the eyeholes to see how much light it provides in darkness (or even compare products back & forth):

That is really taking in-store tests to the extreme!

For some reason, they have an ant farm too!  This is located pretty close to mosquito covers and insect repellent, so perhaps you can reach through the oval hole and test something?  I'm not sure -- I didn't see anyone using this and didn't ask.  Plus, there were few ants and they were not very active. 

 
Finally, Globetrotter gives space to vendors for demonstrations too.  On that day, Columbia brought a centrifuge to demonstrate the capabilities of their "Outdry" shoes.  Columbia bought the Outdry company in 2010 and is promoting the shoes' waterproofing -- basically, it's a competitor to Gore-Tex. 

The sign says "centrifuge test" in German.  Different shoes were placed in the cylinder, with water, and spun.  The guy and gal in the picture then let the customer see/feel the difference.  Not sure entirely the point, but the lady in the backpack was enthralled.

This is definitely one of my favorite stores in Munich now!