As runners know, when you really feel like going for a run, you go. That feeling doesn't happen every day but it happened yesterday. Another thing that happened yesterday was the first day in a while of bright sunshine and heat, perfect weather for beer gradens!
In this I was torn, should I go to the beer gardens or go for a run - and them my friend Evan suggested on Facebook that I run to the beer garden! Excellent idea.
So as I live in Garching (slightly north of Munich), I thought I would run towards Munich to a beer garden, stop, and take the train back. I found 2 good options, Aumeister and Seehaus, the former being about 5 miles (8km) and the latter 7 (11km). My normal long run is 6 miles, so I set myself the challenge of going further than usual.
I did the 7 miles to Seehaus in 1hr 6 minutes, which is a fairly brisk 9min 20sec per mile, which I was very please with the ability to run at that speed for that far!
And my reward? Well I was in a beer garden so it was of course a maß Radler and a pretzel, and following that a stretch and a walk then the train home. Quite a successful evening in my opinion. Mynext challenge then, is to run to Chinesischer Turm biergarten, which I think is one mile further. This could revolutionize my running training regimen :D
Seehaus is quite an excellent place, so it will get its own post in due course.
You can see a GPS track of my run here.
Viel Spaß homies!
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Thursday, 23 June 2011
Michaeligarten
This Michaeligarten is a beer garden in Ostpark, right by a Lake. On an evening after work it is a really great place to be!
So what drove me to go to a beer garden after work when I had to work the next morning also? Well, my colleague Gyula found a new apartment for his family after a stressful 3 months of searching, congrats again! He went to meet his friends and invited me to join.
It's a Löwenbraü beer garden which makes a nice change because most of the others I have been to have been Augustiner or Hofbraü. I like the beer, both the Wießbier and Dunkel are very good, and the price is OK (€7,40 per maß)
Fans of Bavarian food (and portions!) won't be going wanting here! I had a big portion of ribs and a nice spicy BBQ sauce, good times!
So what drove me to go to a beer garden after work when I had to work the next morning also? Well, my colleague Gyula found a new apartment for his family after a stressful 3 months of searching, congrats again! He went to meet his friends and invited me to join.
It's a Löwenbraü beer garden which makes a nice change because most of the others I have been to have been Augustiner or Hofbraü. I like the beer, both the Wießbier and Dunkel are very good, and the price is OK (€7,40 per maß)
Fans of Bavarian food (and portions!) won't be going wanting here! I had a big portion of ribs and a nice spicy BBQ sauce, good times!
We saw one of the funniest things I have ever seen, a baby trying to drink from a maß!
I'm thinking of cycling somewhere this weekend, so my cycling sabbatical is over! Then i'll post about another beer hall.
Viel Spaß homies!
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Greeting God
In Germany I greet god on a daily basis - no before you ask not in prayer!
The customary "formal" greeting in Standard German (Hochdeutsch) is Guten Tag, that's the one we learn in school and the one you would use in most parts of Germany. The Bavarian German is somewhat different. In fact, Bavarians themselves believe it to be a different language! Their formal greeting is "Gruß Gott", which literally means "Greet God".
This is peculiar. Why would you greet god when you greet someone? It seems a little blasphemous if you ask me. Does it mean you are greeting this person as an equal of god? Or that you are greeting god instead of the person you are talking to? I honestly don't get it, perhaps I am being an ignorant atheist. If anyone can explain it post a comment.
The first time I heard Gruß Gott was quite interesting. When you say it out loud it sounds like "gru - Scott". I was well confused, I looked very shocked and asked the girl "Wie wiessen Sie mein name?". Then it was her turn to be confused! Suddenly all my German had left me but luckily she spoke English so we had a good laugh at the misunderstanding.
Warum wurde man Gott grüßen?
The customary "formal" greeting in Standard German (Hochdeutsch) is Guten Tag, that's the one we learn in school and the one you would use in most parts of Germany. The Bavarian German is somewhat different. In fact, Bavarians themselves believe it to be a different language! Their formal greeting is "Gruß Gott", which literally means "Greet God".
This is peculiar. Why would you greet god when you greet someone? It seems a little blasphemous if you ask me. Does it mean you are greeting this person as an equal of god? Or that you are greeting god instead of the person you are talking to? I honestly don't get it, perhaps I am being an ignorant atheist. If anyone can explain it post a comment.
The first time I heard Gruß Gott was quite interesting. When you say it out loud it sounds like "gru - Scott". I was well confused, I looked very shocked and asked the girl "Wie wiessen Sie mein name?". Then it was her turn to be confused! Suddenly all my German had left me but luckily she spoke English so we had a good laugh at the misunderstanding.
Warum wurde man Gott grüßen?
Viel Spaß homies!
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
Zu Hause - Part 2
Following on from a previous post.
The next day I went to the coffee shop for my favourite bagel lunch (again) and saw Thor with my dad. It was my second time watching it but it was still brilliant, if you've seen it but didn't stay till after the credits then you missed something and should go to see it again :-)
We did NOT follow that up with a cheeky beer at our local Wetherspoons...
The next day would be another cinema day, with it bring both Orange Wednesday (buy one get one free tickets) and the opening day of X-Men: First Class it had to be done! First up came the return of the "Game Meetings" where Russell, Sarah and I would meet every week to talk about the game we were making (and now are again!). This is good news for me because it keeps my creative juices flowing. I'll link to our website and stuff when its ready.
X-Men was awesome, but you need to know about the unusual characters they have chosen to really know what is going on.
The next eventful thing that happened was Friday, it was a 2-fold drinking sesh starting at 4! Good times :)
The first of these was a friend's leaving party from my previous company Sharp. Congratulations Chris! Glad you have been able to get out of there and move on to better things! Maybe one of these days I'll write a blog about why I have such disdain for that company, but not as long as I have friends that still work there.
Saying that I was greeted well from the guys that work there, and even a former manager, and all eager to buy a round and hear some stories about Munich ;). By the end of the drinks there were just as many former Sharp employees as current ones! There were some rueful smiles when I said that out loud.
After this I went to Reading with some friends (including fellow bloggers Sarah and Erik, which you may remember from previous posts). We went for a meal to a Micro-Brewery come Italian restaurant called Zero Degrees. That's an odd mix but a great combo! Some of the best pizza's you're going to get and also a large selection of their own-brew beer.
Then I think we went to Yates' (maybe) and I know we lost Erik at some point. Post a comment Erik and let us know where the hell you went!
I had an early flight on the Sunday morning and I promised my parents that I would't drink much on Saturday night so that I would actually get up when my alarm went off. But what they neglected to mention for a while was that they were having friends over for a meal. Time just flew, those guys were such a laugh. Then I thought "Shit, I need to finish packing", but then at the same time dad thought "ooh now would be a great time to get the Gin out" suffice to say I didn't finish the packing until 2 hours later, after the booze flavoured chocolate and more drinks.
I still got up when my alarm wanted me to, albeit grudgingly. At the airport some dudes way overpacked their luggage in my queue and I was waiting for ages for them to sort it out, to the point where I nearly missed my time to have cleared security. Ah well. All's well that ends well eh? I got to Munich with basically no trouble.
Getting to my home was a different challenge. I didn't fancy spending €50 on a taxi so I took the normal route I go, 2 stops on the train and then a bus that drops me practically at my front door. Great plan. Unless you are stupid enough to forget that the bus (like everything else in Munich) doesn't run on Sundays. Crap, I said. Okay I'll get a taxi from here. Crap, I said. No taxi rank.
The only thing I could really do was walk, it's only 7km. Not so bad. But when you add a 13Kg sports bag with the most uncomfortable carrying straps and a heavy(ish) rucksack it gets a bit trickier. As I got nearer home I realised I hadn't eaten all day and I started flagging. It took well over an hour to get home, and I didn't even put it as "backpacking" in my endomondo program!
I dropped off my bags and went straight out to a beer garden for the biggest schnitzel you can imagine.
Viel Spaß homies!
The next day I went to the coffee shop for my favourite bagel lunch (again) and saw Thor with my dad. It was my second time watching it but it was still brilliant, if you've seen it but didn't stay till after the credits then you missed something and should go to see it again :-)
We did NOT follow that up with a cheeky beer at our local Wetherspoons...
The next day would be another cinema day, with it bring both Orange Wednesday (buy one get one free tickets) and the opening day of X-Men: First Class it had to be done! First up came the return of the "Game Meetings" where Russell, Sarah and I would meet every week to talk about the game we were making (and now are again!). This is good news for me because it keeps my creative juices flowing. I'll link to our website and stuff when its ready.
X-Men was awesome, but you need to know about the unusual characters they have chosen to really know what is going on.
The next eventful thing that happened was Friday, it was a 2-fold drinking sesh starting at 4! Good times :)
The first of these was a friend's leaving party from my previous company Sharp. Congratulations Chris! Glad you have been able to get out of there and move on to better things! Maybe one of these days I'll write a blog about why I have such disdain for that company, but not as long as I have friends that still work there.
Saying that I was greeted well from the guys that work there, and even a former manager, and all eager to buy a round and hear some stories about Munich ;). By the end of the drinks there were just as many former Sharp employees as current ones! There were some rueful smiles when I said that out loud.
After this I went to Reading with some friends (including fellow bloggers Sarah and Erik, which you may remember from previous posts). We went for a meal to a Micro-Brewery come Italian restaurant called Zero Degrees. That's an odd mix but a great combo! Some of the best pizza's you're going to get and also a large selection of their own-brew beer.
Then I think we went to Yates' (maybe) and I know we lost Erik at some point. Post a comment Erik and let us know where the hell you went!
I had an early flight on the Sunday morning and I promised my parents that I would't drink much on Saturday night so that I would actually get up when my alarm went off. But what they neglected to mention for a while was that they were having friends over for a meal. Time just flew, those guys were such a laugh. Then I thought "Shit, I need to finish packing", but then at the same time dad thought "ooh now would be a great time to get the Gin out" suffice to say I didn't finish the packing until 2 hours later, after the booze flavoured chocolate and more drinks.
I still got up when my alarm wanted me to, albeit grudgingly. At the airport some dudes way overpacked their luggage in my queue and I was waiting for ages for them to sort it out, to the point where I nearly missed my time to have cleared security. Ah well. All's well that ends well eh? I got to Munich with basically no trouble.
Getting to my home was a different challenge. I didn't fancy spending €50 on a taxi so I took the normal route I go, 2 stops on the train and then a bus that drops me practically at my front door. Great plan. Unless you are stupid enough to forget that the bus (like everything else in Munich) doesn't run on Sundays. Crap, I said. Okay I'll get a taxi from here. Crap, I said. No taxi rank.
The only thing I could really do was walk, it's only 7km. Not so bad. But when you add a 13Kg sports bag with the most uncomfortable carrying straps and a heavy(ish) rucksack it gets a bit trickier. As I got nearer home I realised I hadn't eaten all day and I started flagging. It took well over an hour to get home, and I didn't even put it as "backpacking" in my endomondo program!
I dropped off my bags and went straight out to a beer garden for the biggest schnitzel you can imagine.
Viel Spaß homies!
Monday, 6 June 2011
D-Day
This is an interesting topic. Can an Englishman in Germany celebrate D-Day? Do even Englishmen in England celebrate D-Day? I don't see it as a day to celebrate, but certainly one History should never forget. The greatest deception in History and possibly the most important day in recent History.
It's said that Churchill, King George VI & Roosevelt had speeches prepared for if the day did not go well. What a world we would be in if they had to be given!
All of us English know what we say when we first go to Germany. The words from the legendary Fawlty Towers "Don't mention the war". I feel I am breaking this rule with this post, but heigh ho.
Here is a picture I see every day on my way to work:
Obviously left over from WWII, if there is another tank crossing the bridge then slow down :). I hope this sign is never taken down.
Edit: I learned that this is not in fact speed limits for tanks, but if the tank has a weight classification of 70 only 1 can cross at a time. Silly silly ausländer!
If the Allies lost the Battle of Normandy what language do you think we would be speaking? Still English? German? Russian? Japanese? American? Let me know what you think.
I think we all agree that it all worked out well in the end.
Viel Spaß homies!
It's said that Churchill, King George VI & Roosevelt had speeches prepared for if the day did not go well. What a world we would be in if they had to be given!
All of us English know what we say when we first go to Germany. The words from the legendary Fawlty Towers "Don't mention the war". I feel I am breaking this rule with this post, but heigh ho.
Here is a picture I see every day on my way to work:
Obviously left over from WWII, if there is another tank crossing the bridge then slow down :). I hope this sign is never taken down.
Edit: I learned that this is not in fact speed limits for tanks, but if the tank has a weight classification of 70 only 1 can cross at a time. Silly silly ausländer!
If the Allies lost the Battle of Normandy what language do you think we would be speaking? Still English? German? Russian? Japanese? American? Let me know what you think.
I think we all agree that it all worked out well in the end.
Viel Spaß homies!
Sunday, 5 June 2011
Zu Hause - Part 1 (Comic Con)
There's no place like home. Even if it's in Bracknell.
This week was the German public holiday of 'himmelfahrt' (say that out loud!) so I decided to take the whole week off and come home for a RELAXING holiday. It turned out to be much busier and tiring than I expected.
It started with the London version of Comic-Con, a sort of geek-festival where you see some guys dressed up as comic book, sci-fi and fantasy characters from alsorts of weird and wonderful worlds.If I had more time to prepare a costume I would have done, but thankfully my friends Sarah Jane & Sarah I had a t-shirt in the form of Lego Darth Vader, awesome :-)
My friend Sarah made a better blog about this here & here. Check it out!
This was closely followed by drinks in Reading with a former colleague at Sharp, Dave Nash. Was good fun until the way back I paid £32 for a 6 minute taxi! I'm sure I was conned!
The next morning I was once again hungover, which would be a recurring theme until the morning I got home :-)
Okay, so this was a fairly long post so I'll split up my home holiday blogs into 2. Stay tuned!
Viel Spaß homies!
This week was the German public holiday of 'himmelfahrt' (say that out loud!) so I decided to take the whole week off and come home for a RELAXING holiday. It turned out to be much busier and tiring than I expected.
It started with the London version of Comic-Con, a sort of geek-festival where you see some guys dressed up as comic book, sci-fi and fantasy characters from alsorts of weird and wonderful worlds.If I had more time to prepare a costume I would have done, but thankfully my friends Sarah Jane & Sarah I had a t-shirt in the form of Lego Darth Vader, awesome :-)
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| Home made t-shirt FTW! Lego Darth Vader |
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| Real Darth Vader walking in the background |
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| Anyone know who these guys are? Post a comment |
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| Sexy girl with a gun - ahh probably Lara Croft... |
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| "Ghost" from MW2, a real badass |
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| GET OVER HERE |
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| Final Fantasy 7 characters, Cloud, Aeris & Tiffa |
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| More FF7 characters :) A more awesome Cloud, Vincent & Yuffie. Vincent and Cloud are the secret characters in the game. |
My friend Sarah made a better blog about this here & here. Check it out!
This was closely followed by drinks in Reading with a former colleague at Sharp, Dave Nash. Was good fun until the way back I paid £32 for a 6 minute taxi! I'm sure I was conned!
The next morning I was once again hungover, which would be a recurring theme until the morning I got home :-)
Okay, so this was a fairly long post so I'll split up my home holiday blogs into 2. Stay tuned!
Viel Spaß homies!
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