Munich and Steve's 30th

Okay, so I was just about burned out for 30th birthday parties. This was going to be my fourth one since September. Not only that, but I was going to be flying, in a strange country, small plane, and well, yeah, not an American pilot! So . . . needless to say I was terrified. Well, Chris and Dee, two lovely people and Chris is John's oldest friend, came and spent Friday night with us so we could get up and leave for the airport Saturday morning. We got to the airport, Stansted, and everyone was there. Matt and Angela, Sarah and Kev, Nick W, Steve and Nat, and about nine other people. I think we were over 20 in all. It was incredible. There were a few hiccups through security, they thought my medicines were liquids and searched my bag. They were also quite rude about it too. Didn't say anything just took my bag and put it to the side. I said to the guy, "Excuse, me that is my bag over there?" and all he said was, "Oh dear." and kept working. What an ass! That's okay, I wasn't the only one they ended up searching so it made me feel a little better. Anywho, we got on the plane and I survived, hated it, but I survived. It was an hour and thirty-five minutes to Munich and when we got off . . . wow was it beautiful.

I have come to appreciate autumn while living over here. I love the crispness the air gets and the rainbows the trees make with their many colours. Seeing it from the air makes the colours even more beautiful. The most amazing thing though, is that the grass stays green year round. So you have green grass, rainbow trees and crystal blue skies. Can you picture the beauty? We moved through the airport with some speed, except when everyone but Sarah and I went through the European Union passport line. She and I, she is from Tasmania, had to go through the non-EU line, which turned out to be quite busy. Everyone was very patient, making faces and waving, from the other side of the 'border'. Once out of the airport we all bought train tickets and took the train to the center of town. It took 45 minutes from the airport, just like Heathrow! Once we got out we all went to a local beer garden. Hey, the boys were crying for their beer and us girls were outnumbered! So we get there,





sit outside at about 4 different tables, again 20 people with rucksacks on their backs, and the woman, dressed in a traditional Bavarian peasant dress asks us, "How many steins?"

Stein? Is that German or Bavarian for beer? That is what I ask, and all I get is a big smile. Soon enough I find out. Yeah, you can tell I am quite surprised.





The thing is, I am not a beer drinker. Beer gives me a balloon belly so I normally don't drink it. But this beer, bier as the Germans say, didn't upset my tummy at all. Not exactly a good thing, . . but . . I was on holiday!!! So we are sitting there, drinking our steins, when they bring out pretzels. Yep, huge, soft, lovely Bavarian pretzels. They bring them out like Mexican restaurants bring out chips and salsa. So right and left the pretzels are going.



People are ordering sausages, sauerkraut and potato this and potato that. Steve says to us, um you are going to be eating at a buffet later, so I order a small bowl of soup. But that does'nt stop me from tasting some sauerkraut and sausages here and there. Thanks Helen! Oh man, Dad . . . you would have been in heaven! So here are a few pictures we took that afternoon. Helen and I with Gid in the background.
And here is one of most of our fearless crew. I couldn't fit my table in the picture, sorry guys.


That is Kevin being funny. Miranda is to the left, Dan is to the right with Dee in the background looking at me like, "Why are you talking this picture?" I believe that is Matt all in white.

Anywho, so we have our lunch and then walk around Munich as we head to our hotel. We hit a local sports bar and lo and behold, there is English football on. Unfortunately for us girls the boys realised this straight off and we were stuck until the game was done. Finally, we were able to head to the hostel/hotel we were staying at.

It was really nice, simple, and clean with breakfast served in the mornings. I was quite impressed. There were two groups leaving for the Hofbrauhaus, one of the oldest and most famous beer halls of Munich. http://www.hofbraeuhaus.de/en/index_en.html

Since John and I were only going to be there for one day we decided to leave with the first group at a quarter past five. It was a half hour walk through Munich and we got to see a lot of sights and sounds. The architecture is very different than England, and even Paris. It is sort of a cross between. It is like Paris in that it is not brick, but it doesn't have flowerbeds outside every window or a lot of wrought iron. The streets are narrow, but they are also that way in the old established streets of London. I know, although they are the streets I grew up on,
I am going to be terrified of the large streets of LA when I visit next summer. Everywhere there were street vendors selling pretzels, it was amazing! Yeah I know, I love my pretzels!!!

So we get to the Hofbrauhaus but our eating reservation isn't until about 7pm. So we sat in the Beer Garden area listening to the band play and just enjoying the warmth in the air. It was actually very good weather while we were there so we were lucky. Here are some pictures from that evening. My girls and I . . . Natalie, Nicola and Helen


And I took this lovely one of some of the boys. This is

Dan, Nick and Gid. Some of the boys that were craving their beers and whining like girls. Just kidding boys! That was one of the more amazing things, how well we all get on. It was surreal walking through Munich, over 20 of us, or sitting in the beer halls, there was never any tension, only good times and good friends. How lucky I am!
Well after a few steins there, actually I only had one, we headed up to the beer hall. Wow! What an incredible place. To me it looked like a Medieval great hall.










Here is a couple of pictures to give you an idea!



The place was massive! Anywho, as you can see it was an all you can eat buffet of German/Bavarian food. I had the best potato soup! I also had Weinersnitzel, which is veal not hot dogs people, sauerkraut, sausage after sausage, and potato salad that was to die for. Then there were the roast meats. As Steve said and checked all of our plates to make sure we were having a sufficient quantity of meat, "It is a meat fest!" Here is a picture of the birthday boy with his Bavarian peasant hat we made him wear.


But not only was there food, there was an umpapa band and dancers, singers, etc. It was amazing! I actually heard a woman yodel! It was so beautiful though, nothing to laugh about I assure you! There were also drinking songs they would sing occassionally/frequently in which we had to sway and drink our steins to. The dancing, singing and antics were incredible. Here are some of the things we saw. This is the girl that I saw yodel, she is singing one of the drinking songs.



We also saw them play music to whips, sawing wood, and chopping wood, some of which I have video of as well.







We also heard the traditional long horns, no this is no Ricola commercial!




And we also heard them play Edelweiss to cow bells. It was very beautiful. Here is a sample of them playing a song to cow bells.



There were also thigh slapping dances from men in leiderhosen, folk dances and a conga line at the end! It was an incredibly fun evening. I only ended up being able to drink 3 steins, but even then I ended up having two full steins of just pure water to counter it.



As we walked back through Munich I noticed and took some pictures of the architecture. I apologise for the night vision, but it was about midnight. The next morning we got back on a plane, flew home, and were greeted by raindrops that told us we were back in England, home. OH well, I definitely plan on going back! And since John's parents have very good friends that live near there, I can forsee it might be more than once! Onto Germany . . . . again!!!!!!!!

Stella Godek Arnold

My Grammers was a very lively woman. That is how I will always remember her. When I was little she would always be ready to go, determined to try something new or to have another adventure. Once we met her at the LA airport during her layover to Australia. At the time I was thinking, "You do realise that Australia is VERY far away?" But Grandma didn't care, it was another place to see, to experience.
My Grandma danced through life that way, sometimes literally. I recall her once telling me, while trying to teach me to ballroom dance in my Dad's kitchen, that she had many different dance partners at her club and that was how she liked it. If one person was better at one dance than the others she would choose to dance with him, and too bad for the other guys. She valued her toes too much!
That is just the way she was. Not afraid of expressing herself or her opinions. Often she expressed these opinions in a very determined way that some people couldn't understand, but ultimately, we all know she did it from a place of love. Where Jenny and I were concerned, she was the best Grandma anyone could ever have. She cooked fresh Polish food for us, taught us to dance, took us to the beach, let us experience all sorts of things with her, and defended us when she felt we needed defending.
She was always my advocate when I needed my father to understand a girl's point of view. For example, I remember her saying one time, yes Richie, your daughter needs to spend that much on a prom dress for her senior year. Leave it to Grammers to understand what a pretty dress does for a girl!
Memories come flooding back to me as I think of all the times I was lucky enough to spend with Stella. The last time I really spent time with her alone was when I had the chicken pox at 19. She nursed me back to health, banging around in the kitchen to make me homemade chicken soup and fresh strawberry jam. During that time she told me tons of stories about my Grandpa Buddy, cheering me up with his antics, even though I felt miserable.
Through her I first learned what a crazy and zany grandpa I had. She really loved him, despite how exasperated she seemed to get with him, she always had a smile on her face, and a glint of laughter in her eye as she told his stories.
She would always giggle when she saw Jenny or I because she was so excited to see us. I remember her dog Cleo and the way she would talk to her as if she were a very good friend. I remember how she loved cardinals because they were such pretty, cheerful looking birds. Stella was a very proud, independent and determined woman. Some people saw it as stubborn, but hey, she married an Arnold, and knowing them and that stubborn streak of theirs, she needed to be able to keep up.
Lastly, and I think this memory sums up best what Stella represented to me. My favorite memory of her is when Jenny and I were very young, staying with her one summer in Rhode Island. One day she told us to get our suits on and get ready to go to the beach. As we were getting ready, Jenny and I heard a bouncing sound. Anxious to find the source Jenny and I ran into our Grandma's room. And there Stella was, bouncing up and down on the bed, looking at herself in her large mirror to see how she looked in her swimsuit. That is how I will remember her best, full of life, ready for what the world had to offer, already onto her next great adventure. Go for it Grammers, you will always be in my heart.