Eating and Drinking in the Old World aka The Bavarian Pattern

This is at the Hirschgarten. It was a five minute walk from the hotel in Munich. This is was our first meal and the beginning of a pattern, the Bavarian Pattern: Beer, sausages, pretzels.













You wish Sofia, give that back to Javier.













Pick a glass and rinse it out.













Hacker-Pschorr was just one of the fine beers in Munich.



















I think this was on our second day in Munich. The fam went to a game and Sofia and I hung out somewhere else. We met up at this joint (I don't remember the name). It turned out it was also the hangout of an American and his Brazilian wife, who live in Munich. They came over and sat with us; we were at their table. They were pretty cool and also have a condo in Ft. Pierce, so maybe we will see them sometime in the future.













The schnitzle was divine. Actually during our trip I think Javier the Elder had about 10 weiner schnitzles.













Some of this is difficult, because a picture like this almost goes into World Cup Craze in the Old World. But in the end, I decided to put it in the Eating/Drinking section. If the flag were waving it would be another story.



















Another hard choice, but since the waving of the flag came on by wind, it will go in this section.













On to Prague, we had Roasted Pig Heads. Yum.













This was an important stop for me in Prague. Being an advocate, I had certain responsibilities.













We were in Prague barely two days, then down to Vienna. This was Javier and my second breakfast on the train.













Demel was tasty. I had a Cafe Pops, or what you might call an Irish Coffee.













I don't know the name of this restaurant, but it may have been our best meal. I had venison. Sofia loved her beef carpaccio.













Leti is frowning in this picture, but we know she was happy, because she had Tin Tan Margarita. TIN-TAN-MARGARITA! TIN-TAN-MARGARITA! TIN-TAN-MARGARITA!













Javier and I chose to skip the ice cream, I really regret that decision now.













Salzburg. This was part of Chris' tour. We wanted to stop at O'Malley's, but it hadn't opened yet and we were only there for a few hours. We settled with the next best thing, Shamrock.













Inside it was stinky and cavelike, as I had heard. It was also empty, we were the only ones there. The Irish bartend was very welcoming and even turned on music for us.













Sofia, again holding someone else's stein.



















Give that back. You can't really see it, but I'm also holding some meat. This was at the Aug, my favorite beer spot on the whole trip. Unfortunately we did not have a lot of time there.













Me celebrating, in one of the Aug's beerhalls. Everyone was outside, because of the perfect weather.














Back in Munich, we went to the Hofbräuhaus for our final dinner.



















One for the road.













Ending the way we began.

Biking in the Old World

Next! We took two bike tours while there, one in Munich and the other in Vienna. Besides a skateboard, a bike is the best way to explore a city.
















This is the part of the tour where we were fed massive amounts of Munich history.

Here we learned that Mein Kampf is outlawed and so is being a National Socialist. And about those buildings, which have some historic relevance I'm sure.























Over the shoulder shot, nice.
















Those two on the left are our tour guides. We had just entered the Englischen Gartens.
































We were blocked by this marathon, but we just bulldozed through them. No problem. Stupid runners.
















Berlin Wall. I was just about to scale it when the tour guide yelled at me.
















Some of the best surfing I've seen live: in Munich. In a river. That's sad.
































Pretty much beat. Check out that awesome shirt. Why dont you have one?























In the English Gardens: a Chinese tower. I don't know. Actually, that is another thing we learned. Munich is basically made of all the best aspects of art and architecture from all over the world. They stole, but at least they stole the good stuff.
















Halo Benders (Only one person will get this reference).























Shredding as always.
















Then in Vienna, it was raining for most of the tour.
























Victor, our tour guide is on the left. Look at the way Javier is staring at him. I think we have a love connection.























I put a poncho on, but only for these pictures. I had a bright red shirt on and Victor made me sweeper. I would not stand out if I had on the same ponchos as everyone else and it would be a dereliction of my solemn duty.
















The Fat Boys invade Vienna!
































Sweeper style.























I had to sweep up Leti a few times, but most of the time I was bombing around in the back. There was this one annoying couple from Utah I think. They were so slow, especially the chick. I was constantly riding up on them, just to keep them with the group. The girl, I could have sworn went to West Orange, but nobody would ask her.

After the ride Javier made plans to meet up with Victor later. They exchanged emails and promised they would write.

Shredding the Old World

Instead of putting all our pictures up chronologically, I thought I'd separate them as groups. Obviously this first set is about skating on the trip. This will be quick, since there was hardly any time to kill it.
















Right off the plane, waiting for the bus in Munich.
















Our hotel in Munich was down the street from the biggest beer garden in Europe. So if your ever in Munich, go there and you'll find this mini pyramid setup near the loading dock. It looked like fun.
















Then it was off to Prague. Most of Prague is covered in cobblestones. This square was one of the few places of smooth marble. Too bad it's inside the Palace grounds and highly guarded. Because of the cobblestones and annoying rain (which was heavy enough to hamper skating, but light enough to walk around in) we never got a chance to thrash, save for a few minutes beside our train before heading off to Vienna (I had to at least push around a bit).























Vienna was by far the best city to skate. It was not as sprawling as Munich and it was butter smooth compared to Prague. It felt like I was going downhill the entire time in Vienna.
















This is at the Hundertwasserhaus. It looked smooth enough, but we were on a bike tour so nevermind that.
















Near Karlsplatz, it looked promising but ended up a dud. I checked out the rest of Karlsplatz though, it was fun.
















Action shot.

Mozart and me.

Keep it locked, more to come.

Coming Soon

I have tons of pictures to work through, but our Euro trip will be up over the next few days. For now I offer you a true gem of photography:
















Thug Life.

This was taken from Chris' "space."