Largest Flash Mob Dance @ Eurovision

O and I watched the Eurovision Song Contest Saturday night. Hooray for Germany/Lena's win!

But what caught my spirit was the largest flash mob dance the broadcasters did live in many countries simultaneously. It was touching to hear the lyrics about love and getting the world connected by Madcon (Norwiegian Group) while people of all nations shared a moment of happiness and dance together.

I hope they do this again next year. This time it's Europe but wouldn't it be great if it included all races, color and religion?

Marionette Theater Munich

    

This cool marionette theater just happens to be in our neighborhood.

Buergerspital Vineyard

A couple weeks ago, O and I visited his daughter, H, at the Buergerspital Vinyard in Wuerzburg, where she is interning for the summer. What a treat! Not only did we get to see her, but she was in her element.

The Burgerspital vineyard is one of the most established vineyards in the Franken region. It dominates a large hill overlooking the town of Wuerzburg on the Main river (same river Frankfurt is on about one hour north west). It has the charge of not only making wines but to rehabilitate older citizens through their nursing facility. So it's social program is quite impressive.

Our timing was perfect. When we arrived, we landed right in the middle of a wine tasting. It was fun to learn  the etiquette of wine tasting. Funny enough after a while, if you don't succumb to the call of the wine gods and swallow every slurp, you start to taste the different flavors.

In between tests, H took us on a personal guided tour. It was cool to see all what it takes to produce wine. Some of the places are truly beautiful like their collection of fine vintages which have to be rotated. There they have statues as center pieces.

While some production areas deep in the basement give you the heebie geevies.

The vineyard also boasts owning one of the older bottles of wine in existence. The oldest bottle they have is dated around 1540 A.D.

Later on, we had a great time walking through the vineyards.

The best was when we walked it at night without any light. There was something so earthy and deeply satisfying when our eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness and we hiked around the hillside, through the grapevines.

Buergerspital, Wuerzberg, Germany (near Frankfurt)

Rainy Day in Munich

Rain can be so romantic when you're visiting Munich.

Although, anyone who lives here can kill you for thinking that. No amount of beautiful sunny days can make up for the endless gray and rain they had all winter and spring.

But I like to think it's romantic since I've had a couple weeks of great weather here.

Tantris Food Temple

O and I were with J, W and C at Tantris, the temple of food in Munich. BTW, the place is under historic preservation due to it's extremely unique style of the 70's. This modern space is completely colored in orange, with orange carpeted walls and ceilings. The shag carpets are out but imagine it was there on opening day. Photos of glamorous models stepping out of cars adorn the walls.


The 'Variations of Goose Liver' was the best everyone has ever had. And our friends were fine food connoisseurs. But the other dishes were just okay. Of course we are complaining at a high level. However, considering that it is a temple of food with 2 Michelin stars and they charge like it too, then it's kind of disappointing.


Luckily, we had some extremely fine, fine, fine, fine...did I say fine?...wine to compensate. Here's a magnum bottle of Castelo Di Ama 1998. It was so amazing I took the empty bottle home.


We'll off to more wine tasting 'sans' spitting.


Tantris Restaurant
Johann-Fichte-Straße 7
80805 München
Tel: +49 89 361959-0

Death's Art for sale

In Munich, anything goes.

Down the street from us is an art exhibit titled "THE LAST THING". The art pieces consist of coffins and urns, all for sale. Not just as art but as the final purchase of your life. If you never bought a piece of artwork, then here's your chance to kill two stones with one.

I love the coffins.

Munich Comic Bookstore

Naturally I had to visit one of Munich's best comic book stores: COMIC COMPANY on Frauenhofer Strasse just a few blocks from our apartment.

I went crazy over the many Jacques Tardi  crime series and nearly cleaned the store out.

In pouring over the many comic books and graphic novels, I noticed that historical material seems really popular. Of course they have the usual American superhero stuff with Marvel, DC, etc.. having a dedicated section. But there is an abundance of "drama" type books mostly written and drawn by the likes of Marc-Antoine Mathieu, Jason Lutes, Isabel Kreitz, Andreas Dierssen, Matz Mainka, Reihard Kleist and Tobias Meissner. and that's just a sampling!

Also prominent are Mangas by Hideshi Hino, Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi, to name a few.

The selection here is great. What they try to do is to provide the complete series rather than "left over" volumes. And like good comic store people, they know their stuff.

Can't wait to read what I got and hope to get more before I leave.

Comic Company

Fraunhoferstr. 21
80469 München

Telefon: +49-89-2014385

Telefax: +49-89-20236763

Aaah Munich!

Back home in Munich. People, architecture, place... the essentials to feeling like you belong.
We've been lucky with the weather. Hope this keeps up while we're here.