London Calling

54 years and counting...

It's been a slow week and we've been a bit remiss about updating the blog in a timely manner. So on the 2nd of June, Queen Elizabeth II celebrated the 54th anniversary of her coronation. In merry olde England this is referred to as, surprise, surprise, Coronation Day.

Kirsten had to work so I got to play tourist all by my lonesome. Much as I love the Queen (one of the conditions for residing in London) the real draw to the celebration was the promise of a 41 gun (cannon) salute. I'm a man of simple pleasures.

Buckingham Palace was closed off and packed with tourists and loyal subjects. It was a gorgeous hot and sunny day to be sitting around the perimeter of the palace waiting for the festivities to begin. After about 30-45 minutes a couple who had been sitting next to me for awhile leaned over and asked what everyone was waiting for (themselves included). I wondered how many other people in the crows we're simply waiting around because there was a crowd, classic!

Things kicked off around 1 with the parade of the The King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery pulling the cannons behind them. The cannons made a militaristic cadence as the wheels rumbled along the cobblestones surrounding Buckingham Palace. The horsemen were followed by a band composed of literally hundreds of Queen's Guards, the ones with the tall furry black hats. Check out the pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8394484@N07/sets/72157600335208596/
(these were taken on my mobile so the quality is not very good)

After all of the celebrants made into the area in front of Buckingham Palace the festivities transferred over to Green Park. The Royal Horse Artillery charged in and quickly set-up the cannons, 8 in all. After a some yelling and final organisation the commandant (?) began giving the order to fire. Moments of total silence were punctuated by the deafening boom of the cannons. As you can probably gather from the photos my position was in front of and within a hundred yards of several of the guns, it was pretty intimidating. What if it went down like Brandon Lee and I got a squib load? Anyway, after the first few rounds the silence in between the firings was filled with screaming babies, it created a very interesting orchestra of sounds. Finally 41 shots later the horses galloped back in, the guns were replaced onto their carts and off they went.

I decided to get out of the sun and walk back home, having witnessed another little piece of Britannia. Although I might add, I made the effort to show up at Coronation Day, you would think the Queen could have returned the favor, she was a no show...

posted by Brian and Kirsten Hennigan @ Sunday, June 10, 2007 2 comments

Ich bein ein Munchinlander

So this one comes a few weeks after we were in Bavaria and Munich specifically, better late than never right? Right???

On the evening of Thursday the 24th we shot off to Munich for some general tourist activity as well as celebrating the wedding of Kirsten's cousin Korbinian to his long time girlfriend/fiancee Anna.

We were supposed to be met at the airport for a ride into the city, unfortunately due to some confusion we were left to our own devices (at 11PM). Being the resourceful mo fos that we are, we hopped on the S-Bahn (train) and ventured into the city to a stop Kirsten recognised as being one near where her cousin lived. Amazingly when we got off the train we were met by Kirsten's father and her cousin Gereon. A pretty impressive start to our trip to Germany...navigating into the heart of the city at midnight with limited to no German skills between us. Hennigan rules!

Friday was a wonderful day in Munich, sunny and 30 degrees (80+ Fahrenheit). We set off on a walking tour of the Old Town, both North and South. Wandering along the Isar River we passed the Maximilianeum home to the Bavarian Parliament. From there we headed up Maximilianstrasse towards the Residenz, although we wouldn't get there until Monday. Instead we decided to head to the outdoor Viktualienmarkt, it would be an ominous decision...

After wandering around the market for a little while and purchasing a bag of cherries we grabbed a litre of beer and sat down at a beer garden to relax. Seated at our communal table was an elderly Spanish gentleman, 2 Japanese tourists and a German woman. Kirsten offered the old guy some cherries which he politely declined. Not 5 minutes later the man slumped over apparently asleep (remember I said ominous?). Kirsten caught the guy so he didn't fall over onto the floor and it became apparent that he was not sleeping but completely passed out, in the scary "Did this guy just have a stroke" kind of way. As neither of us spoke any German, we were lucky that the German woman immediately sprang into action and got help. The paramedics arrived and pulled the guy to the ground, ripped his shirt of and began administering chest compressions. How dare this guy start our Bavarian holiday off by dying in front of us? Obviously he didn't, it appears he was extremely dehydrated and once they got the IV in him he began to perk up. Tragedy averted.

After this little incident we spent the rest of the afternoon perambulating around town, checking out the Asamkirche, Michaelskirche, Peterskirche, Frauenkirche (lots of churches), Marienplatz, the dancing clock of Neues Rathaus, and various other sights to behold. Rather than try and upload photos we've now started to post photos on Flickr, check out the photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8394484@N07/sets/72157600286096472/ This includes photos from our entire trip, but we'll get to the rest later. Kirsten and I were on our own for dinner and went to a well known (touristy) restaurant where we enjoyed a large starter of meat followed by a main course of more meat, washed down with several liters of beer. All of this lovely fair was served by a very intimidating German woman dressed in a dirndl...yikes.

On Saturday we headed down to Starnberger See which was the scene of the wedding. Anna and Korbinian looked amazing and got a gorgeous day for the beginning of their married lives together. After the ceremony we went back to the hotel hosting the reception. An interlude of champagne and wedding cake (which is traditional I'm told) was followed by an hour and a half break for rest before the big festivities. Kirsten slept, I enjoyed a lovely Weissebier and listened to some good old American country music (I do love this bar) on the trusty iPod.

The reception was a lot of fun. Some of us didn't make it to bed until after 6 (AM!) because they were hanging out with the groom's brother, younger brother. The speeches were great and got a lot of laughs, we couldn't understand a damn word so made sure to laugh when everyone else did. Kirsten's father even got up and made a speech...in German, based on all the hugs he received I think it went well. After dinner the liters of beer came out, the DJ kicked in and the party started. It's a good thing I'm married because I think there are some older German women who will fondly remember their dances with ol' Twinkle Toes Hennigan. One very cool thing Anna and Korbinian did was a wedding painting. Everyone got a square of a famous painting and painted it on a blank canvas, the output was/is their 1st piece of art as husband and wife and a unique memento from their wedding day, with a little bit of all their guests involved. Did I mention staying up until 6AM? Yup, no good wedding should end when the band stops, rather when the sun comes up and so of course I obliged...forgetting of course that Kirsten and I were heading into the Bavarian Alps with Kirsten's father the following morning, or rather that morning, in just a few hours...

After the traditional wedding breakfast the next morning we hopped in the car and sped through the back roads of the Bavarian countryside towards Neuschwanstein, a fairy tale castle built by a crazy King. We stopped off at Wieskirche, a lovely church in the fields or as the guide book puts it so eloquently "probably the finest Rococo church in the world", you architects out there can explain Rococo to me later. After a brief stop, long enough for a pretzel, we continued on our way to our intended destination. We knew we were heading into the heart of the tourist-ville, but the draw of the castle and hunting lodge was too much. We parked the car and hoofed up to Schloss Hohenschwangau, King Ludwig's old hunting lodge. We took a quick tour and saw a bunch of old stuff. Our real target was further up the mountain, Neuschwanstein, the castle that was the model for the Disney World castle, for all you Mickey-philes out there. Kirsten and I walked up the hill (a 20 minute hike crazily labelled as a 40 minute hike - must be for all the fat tourists), along the way we passed horse dung so covered with flies that it looked like a pulsating black pile, it was all I could do to keep Kirsten from touching it! We decided not to wait in line for a tour of the castle, but walked around the perimeter and into the courtyard. The castle is nestled high up on a mountain, it's got amazing views both up the mountain and down across the valley. Needless to say the walk down was easier than the trek up. Having done it all we climbed back into the car for the drive (very fast drive on the autobahn) back to Munich. We got back early enough to have dinner with Anna, Korbian, Fabian, Christiane, Gereon and a few others at a lovely little brauhaus. With the weather finally taking a turn for the worst we forced ourselves to have an after dinner drink at a happening little night spot, before winding up a very long day back at casa de Fabian et Christiane. And still we had one more day to go...

We had a night flight back to London on Monday so we were able to squeeze in a few last sights. Having missed the Residenz, so Kirsten could try and kill elderly Spanish men with cherries, we headed there first. It was formerly the home of the Wittelsbach dynasty and contains almost 700 years of history. The highlight was the Antiquarium a vast ceremonial hall, and the outdoor Grottenhoff, a grotto made completely out of shells. Unfortunately the Cuvillies-Theater was closed for refurbishment until 2008, so I guess we'll have to go back when it re-opens. Walking around a 700 year-old palace works up a thirst (and hunger) something fierce. Where does one satisfy such a thirst? At one of the most famous brauhaus's in Munich, the HofBrauhaus. We found a table for our entire party and proceeded to enjoy some brau and Weisse-sausage (that's Germ-English). It was a wonderful way to end up our trip to Munich, even if it is the most famous tourist spot there.

We bade goodbye to our German friends and Kirsten's father and jumped on the S-Bahn back to the airport for the short journey back to London. It was a packed trip and thus a long entry. Hope you enjoyed it vicariously as much as we enjoyed Munchen.

posted by Brian and Kirsten Hennigan @ Thursday, June 07, 2007 0 comments