A Working Vacation Week Comes to an End

It's always sad when you have some time off and then you realize you have to start working again.

Granted, this week wasn't completely free for me, I had floors to mop, clothes and sheets/pillowcases to iron, milk and bread to buy, recycling to take care of, and cleaning of the whole house. But I did make sure I did something fun for myself everyday this week, starting with Monday when I went to the ballet and made a chicken pot pie, then Tuesday when I went to the butterfly exhibit and made a buttermilk chicken dish (picture below).

On Wednesday I did go to the Olympia-Einkaufszentrum, which I was hoping would be much more than it was. It turns out, it was just a mall. What was interesting was how extraordinarily typical it was to an American style mall. I have no pictures to share as it was a very typical mall, but I did make tortellini soup for myself which was delicious.

Thursday was a tad bit rainy, so I decided to do an inside activity: visit a palace! I went to Nymphenburg Palace (information link) which was truly gorgeous and was a whole experience in itself. Not only did I get to tour the whole castle, but I also got to tour the porcelain and carriages museum (all in the same area). I am learning a lot about the history of Bavaria, and the two kings I have heard or read the most about are Kings Ludwig I and II. The first king I don't know as much about as the second, but I do know that the first king had quite the fascination with female beauty and had an entire hall devoted to it. King Ludwig II was titled "the fairy tale king" because of his desire to have lavish artwork, castles, and sleighs much like those from fairy tale stories. Needless to say, his reign was not very popular, however today his palaces and carriages are very popular to visit. I took many pictures of the palace and I have shared some of them here. Less interesting, but still important for me, was I made the caramelized shallot dish, but with a slight twist. I used roasted cabbage instead of brussels sprouts, and did make my homemade bread to go with it.

Palace Nymphenburg in the background, lots of birds, including swans, in the foreground.

The Main Hall. So gorgeous.

Painting in the Main Hall.

Many of the ceilings had elaborate paintings.

King Ludwig I with the Gallery of Beauties description.

Some of the paintings in the Gallery of Beauties.

The royal bedroom where one of the King Ludwigs was born.

One of the many carriages/sleighs in the exhibit. Truly impressive.

King Ludwig II loved his horses. This one is actually taxidermied, and he had dozens of paintings made of his horses.

The porcelain exhibit was amazing. They had beautiful sculptures and dishes.

The dishes above were my absolute favorite in the exhibit. I think they are just beautiful.

My roasted cabbage with caramelized shallots and homemade bread dish. Yum!

I had checked the weather report in advance to see what Friday was going to be like. And it was absolutely gorgeous. About 45 degrees Fahrenheit, bright sunny day with only a touch of wind. It was absolutely the perfect day to go to the zoo! Hellabrunn Zoo is a wonderful place to visit, and I had a wonderful time looking at the animals and taking lots of pictures... until my camera had reached memory card capacity, and then shortly after trying to erase a few pictures, the battery died. I made it about 3/4 of the way through the zoo before it died, and the only depressing part was that it died before being able to take pictures of the big kitties. My favorite part of the zoo, which was something I had never experienced before, was an area named "Villa Dracula." What it is is a smaller building which is very dimly lit inside and houses dozens of free flying bats! Which means I got to walk into an room where bats were flying around me and chirping like crazy! It was surprisingly fun and I now have a new fascination with bats. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures, first because it was too dark to take pictures, and second because my camera was dead. This area housed free-flying tropical birds as well on the other side of the building which was also very neat.

Ducky. There are many kinds of ducks in the world, but I always remember seeing pictures of this particular breed and wanting to see it in real life.

I have always loved flamingos.

A cozy red panda.

Big fishy.

Mississippi Alligators. In Munich, Germany. Who knew?

These were the biggest tortoises I have ever seen in my life. At least three to four feet long and two to three feet high.

A seal basking in the glow of the sun.

My grandma's favorite animal: giraffes!

No zoo would be complete without elephants.

Horseys in the children's part of the zoo.

Me petting a goat at the zoo.

And that just leaves today. I went to the grocery store to pick up milk for the family, as well as pick up the dry cleaning and "ein kleines Bauernbrot" (one small farm bread). Then I got to have a new experience after I dropped off the recycling, which was feed the goats. The host mother had been telling me that there is this path next to the recycling, and it leads to a very pretty area and passes goats. I had never really wanted to go over there. There's something creepy about following an unmarked trail next to recycling bins that passes a herd of goats, but I decided that I didn't want to compost the apples and purple cabbage the mother had left behind. So I went off onto the very muddy trail like Little Red Riding Hood, carrying a plastic bag full of goodies to deliver to a herd of goats. Fortunately, I didn't have to walk far, it was only a three minute walk, and there were the goats off to the left. Now, maybe it's just me, but feeding a herd of goats who are being loosely held in an area by a few very flimsy wires, and not having any idea who the goats belong to as there's no farm, just kind of a loose standing hut in the middle of the goat enclosure, made me a little nervous. I was half expecting a crazy farmer to appear out of nowhere, cursing at me in German telling me to stop feeding his goats and get off his property. Fortunately, my imagination is just a little wild, and when I got to the enclosure, a few goat heads popped up. They were all huddled in the middle. I looked at the edge of the enclosure and found quite a bit of thrown fruits and vegetables. I threw a quarter of the purple cabbage into the enclosure. A brown goat took a step towards me. I held out another quarter of the cabbage. A few more steps and a couple more goats did the same. I dropped the cabbage. Suddenly, all goat eyes were on me, and a herd of goats walked to the fence area where I was standing. I started trying to feed them the apples but they were all just so excited that the apples kept slipping into the enclosure. It was oddly exciting for me, and when I was done I found myself really wanting to own a small farm.

Expectant goats.

Hungry goats. Goats are kind of fun.

Not much else going on today. I woke up not feeling so great again and I think I will take a nap before working a bit on my German vocabulary. Tomorrow is church and homework day, and then it's back to normal routine. I'm not sure when the family will come back. I assume it's today, but they may arrive tomorrow too.


March is already around the corner. Spring will be here soon!

Enjoy!