Munich, Germany

Her name was Jennifer and I met her during the Third Reich tour in Munich. The tour started with a short travel by tram and she came standing next to me. ‘Are you from Munich’, I asked her. ‘No’w’, she answered with this typical Australian accent, ‘from Sydney’. ‘You travel alone?, I asked, not believing that an attractive woman like her would do these things. ‘Sort of’, she said and explained that she would meet some friend in France later that week.

The Third Reich tour was terribly boring and tried to avoid most interesting places in Munich, which is hard to do. But between the so called highlights we had much to discuss. She just graduated from an almost identical study as I did and was on a world tour in Europe. After the tour I invited her for a coffee which turned out to be a beer - how could it be different in a city like Munich - and after that for dinner in the evening. In the mean time she had to check in and I visited a bit more of the city, like the Residenz museum and the Olympic stadion.

That evening we met again in front of the Bahnhof. Jennifer was a bit mysterious with her large black sunglasses, too long jeans, and her face changing expression every second. The meal we decided to have was in the English gardens, a huge parc outside the center where many people gather to have their liter of beer. But god save the queen we decided to first make up wih the famous and infamous Hofbrauhaus, where Hitler started his speeches and where his beerputch in 1923 took place (which considering the amounts of beer they serve in one glass did fail, not suprisingly). The tour that morning had of course only showed the outside of the building. Conveniently sitting under a large screen on the terrace a thunderstorm broke out, maybe symbolizing the history of the place. A bit drunk after the three glasses of beer we later made an evening walk through the old center.

The next day we rent a car to visit the absolutely fabulous Disney castles of Ludwig the Second who had decided to build these fantasy castles high on the rocks in the Bavarian alps. Most famous is Neuschwanstein near Fussen. Ludwig the Second was as unfortunate in live and love as another royal person (which especially later in the week became clear), as he could hardly enjoy his castle, because before it was finished he died. And unlike Lady D., my princes was not killed in a car accident with a drunk driver (although, how long it takes to get rid of all this beer?), but it was close when I almost missed this crazy German driver approaching the crossing with at least 195 km/hour.

After having visited the castle and some mountain towns, it started raining. It was as if the weather wanted to underline our saying goodbye later that evening. Jennifer had to catch the train to France and back in Munich we spent the last evening in a lousy Italian restaurant and a half empty beer garten. At twelve I brought her with her much too heavy backpack to the railway station, where we kissed farewell.

The next day it was still raining. I visited the enormous Deutches Technology museum, but it was too huge and I was too tired to enjoy it. Its’ airplanes and aerospace department reminded me of the distance to Australia and the measurement department of my increase in weight due to the beer. The same day I left Munich for Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The city would never be the same without this young mysterious independent Australian woman.

Read/buy books about Munich
The Universal Human : The Evolution of Individuality : Four Lectures Given between 1909 and 1916 in Munich and Bern