My Weekend in Pictures

We took an all-too-short trip to Munich (and beyond) this weekend for our friend Nico's birthday. He's a lucky dude, I tell ya. We don't sit in school-holidays-induced Autobahn traffic two days out of three for just anybody!

The drive from Munich through Austria is really quite stunning, even as seen through phone pictures

I was worried Nico wasn't going to plan anything fun for his birthday and just go simple (you know I like to celebrate), but luckily, I was very wrong. He came up with the awesome idea to go white water rafting in Ötztal in Austria so Saturday turned out to be much more exciting and exhausted than we could have expected.

Ummm, how phallic is that center cloud?

I hadn't been white water rafting in a while - the last time was when I went with Natalie in New Zealand and our boat flipped going down a waterfall! (oh yeah, we've got photo proof that we must share one day) - so I was happily surprised to get the chance again.

I swear I wasn't doing a childish I-have-to-pee dance in this picture. I think I was cold...yeah, I'm always cold, let's go with cold.

So early Saturday morning - 8am is much too early for my tastes on a weekend - eight of us packed up our swimsuits and some warm layers and set off on the two-ish hour drive through the gorgeous countryside leading up to the Alps. With a necessary breakfast stop on the way that consisted of weißwurst, pretzels, and Hefeweizen (of course) and then indulged in a pre-rafting, pre-wetsuit time beer once we arrived at our destination as well.

The crew, with birthday boy Nico in the middle

Rafting was super fun and lasted a whole lot longer than I expected - almost 1.5 hours. And sweet valley high was I sore the next day! I had not expected that either but the Austrians made us work! There were frequent shouts from the guide of "put your whole upper body into it!" At one point, we even had to get out and carry the boat about 100 meters on the side of the river because the dam that was installed there was too dangerous to go over. He described it as basically like a washing machine that would keep you underwater forever. Eek! Thankfully, we escaped that and at the end, as we floated through calm waters back to their station, we even got to jump in the water and cool ourselves down a bit. And when I say a bit, I mean I had no idea ahead of time that the water there literally feels like ice. I lasted about 2 seconds before I screamed for someone to pull me back on the boat before I froze to death!

On Sunday, I got to have a nice long visit with Emily, Artur, and my favorite little monkey, Charlie. Could he be any cuter?! He still remembered me and I'm happy to say we bonded even more. (Favorite auntie status, here I come!) He's quite the little face grabber.

 Mmm, you're face looks interesting...wonder what your nose tastes like...

Micha stopped by briefly before we had to head off home again and got some cuddle time in with Charlie, too. Clearly, they have similar styles.

Oh hey, who are you? ...Ok, you're cool, this spot on your lap will do.

Weekend visits just aren't enough for me anymore, though. I think I need to suggest a new policy to my company of three-day weekends for everyone so that I can really maximize my fun time. Who's with me?

My Weekend in Pictures

This weekend was my long-awaited first meeting with little Charlie. I'm still somewhat sad that I only got two days with him, but it was a very lovely and relaxing (yup, relaxing with a baby, can't say I expected that!) two days, spent mostly outside in the glorious pre-spring sunshine and warm temperatures we so eagerly took advantage of. (The weather is already back to its usual chilly gray self today, though. Sniffle sniffle.)

Charlie's various reactions to the new chair I schlepped on the train for him. He has a very expressive little chubby face that I just can't get enough of.

Teeny tiny foot | Mom & dad

T-shirt weather at the Biergarten

Unhappy? Ready to cheer? Someone decide for me!

  Love this picture of mom and baby

The love between us is mutual, I promise. He just didn't like the flash! No, really...

Sunday brunch

My favorite two pictures of him: Happy little smile | Freaking out whole-body fit (which lasted about 2.5 seconds until he got his return-pacifier-to-mouth service. He's generally a very good egg.)

One of the best things about anywhere in Germany is that as soon as there's even a remote bit of sunshine, every single person emerges from their houses and spends the day outdoors. Which makes for the perfect beer garden atmosphere, full of friends, and not nearly as many Maß beers as the pictures make it look like.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching wee Charlie's constantly changing facial expressions and moods. When he wasn't eating or sleeping (his two most frequent activities), he usually just couldn't decide what the heck he wanted to do. Somtimes he grumpily complained until someone took him on a walk around the apartment or bounced him on the stability ball (his favorite!), and sometimes he contentedly just hung out on mom's lap and practiced his smiling or lip-licking (his newly learned trick of the weekend). Either way, he never stopped being ridiculously adorable.

We had breakfast at Kitchenette on Sunday and I love that they served everything on étagères. The website doesn't do it justice, the place is absolutely precious (despite the seemingly-grumpy-but-not-really owner) and definitely worth a visit if you're ever in Munich.

And to round it all out, neither of my trains this weekend were delayed, hooray! That is quite the accomplishment for the Deutsche Bahn. It made the 6-hour journey so much more manageable (well, that and the first six episodes of Homeland which I am now completely obsessed with, as if I needed another show...). But I seriously can't wait for them to one day build a high speed route from Berlin to Munich so I can visit ALL THE FREAKING TIME.

I hope you had a lovely weekend as well!

A little Parisian flair in Munich

Hello again!

I just realized that tomorrow is March, and Nicole is almost back from her trip, and although I promised to guest post while she was gone, I have only posted once! Well, that's life with a newborn, but I did want to check in again before Nicole regales you with more amazing tales of Filipino adventures.

And lest you think that people with newborns don't do anything but sit around the house and cuddle (which we do a lot of) I wanted to share with you this AMAZING café in Munich that I visited with my mom and my 6 week old son yesterday.

Ladencafé Marais in Munich is actually a former 20s era textile shop converted into a Paris-style café and vintage/handmade shop. It's one of those places that just oozes charm and ambiance and makes me want to spend every day sipping a foamy cappuccino by candlelight and gazing longingly at the extensive collection of (for sale!) vintage china and kitchenwares.

view of the original interior merchandise shelving 

vintage wares

The entire original 20s store interior was preserved by the café owners and now houses an eclectic collection of vintage wares - for sale!

Marais hosts regular "Marais Soir" evenings with romantic four course menus - and the counters are brimming with french candies and mints. 

The original exterior and display cases hint at the roots of the café.

Even the original cash register is charming!

Rotating exhibits by local artists line the back wall

And my absolute favorite feature of the café - there are sets of tables and chairs in the former display windows, so you can sit and watch passersby... or just pretend to be a mannequin.

And in case you were wondering - they are very child friendly! They even have a vintage high chairs and a basket of French and German children's books. If you ever find yourself in Munich, make sure to visit this lovely locale.

All photos by Ladencafé Marais 

Our Alpine New Year's Eve in Pictures

I promise after this post I'll catch up to the current date, really.

Scuba diving in an old sauerkraut factory

Bavarian derby hockey game: Munich vs. Augsburg with a stellar (read: cheesy) Star Wars-themed intro

Breakfast in Austria

Ready for adventure

Three serious Germans...

Sleddable stairs

Our New Year's Eve winter wonderland

A common sight

Käsespätzle heaven

A torch lit winter walk

A toast deserves a serenade.

Well-wishing woodland creatures

 Quite clearly my favorite part of the night

I wisely took the week off work between Christmas and New Year's so we decided to spend it in Munich with lots of good friends, since we were headed to Austria for New Year's Eve anyways (and because Micha could work from his company's office there while I gallavanted around town). The trip was just what I needed: some r&r with Emily (Babywatch 2011 has now turned into Babywatch 2012 but the little guy is still staying put), some party-throwing with Claudia (for her in-between-the-holidays birthday), and some hockey watching with the boys (it's so much more relaxing when it's not your team playing!).

We also managed to squeeze in a day of indoor scuba diving to prepare us for our next tropical adventure, which was perfect since I was in dire need of a refresher course (our friends Nico & Claudi are pros). I haven't been diving since we learned to in Malaysia and were attacked by a fish the size of my torso. After which I proceeded to lose a fin but surprisingly, not my will to dive. Remind me to tell you that story some day.

On the 31st, we and eight other friends (some friends of friends thrown into the mix) drove across the border to Austria and hiked up a very snowy mountain - in fact, it didn't stop snowing all day - to a picturesque little cabin to party it up in. And that we did...

Happy belated New Year! Let's make 2012 a great one!