Vier and Sechs in Munchen, on Dispatch from the Razor's Edge

Day Two: Myriad Nymphs and Copious Bier

So Tag Zwei opened with the traditional free hotel buffet breakfast. Normally I try to eschew these things – I don't eat breakfast in real life, and so when I eat them in hotels (walking trips aside), I'm just eating them because they're there. And I end up eating a lot of crap like – Frosted Flakes. Or rolls. But, funnily enough, this Deutsches Fr�hst�ck had – not only a huge meat and cheese bar (which could have been predicted) – but also a seed bar (which could not), plus fresh strawberries. Yummers.

I'm suddenly trying to figure out why anyone, anywhere, would be interested in what I had for breakfast on 09 May in Munich. I have no answer. I'm just babbling here. Come to think of it, it's hard to imagine any of this being of any real interest to anyone who wasn't actually there, or maybe also immediate family members. I don't know. Anyway, on with the photos. (This time, at least, there's hardly any text even in the captions, so you can really zip right through 'em.)

We headed out for our new tourist destination, passing what was not <em>quite</em> Zambonistrasse, but it had to be photographed

Here's that destination: Schloss Nymphenburg – a kick-ass baroque palace, and former summer residence of the Bavarian monarchs. (We decided to go because they reportedly have scads of nymphs, hence the name.)

This botched group photo turned out better than the unbotched one

This is the back garden, after you walk through the building

While I have a little space here: we went inside, bought tickets to everything, and – while Alex did his racehorse routine – I bought some beautiful little souvenir Schloss Nymphenburg magnetic bottle openers which, it turns out, probably inevitably, are total crap at opening bottles.

This was me taking a knee, popping up over a hedge, and sniping Alex and Anna at full zoom

This is in one of the outbuildings, in the 'back yard' – supposed to be one of the finest rococo interiors in, well, anywhere

This next video does explain itself, ultimately, but allow me to apologise for the fact that neither little boy was, in the end, either bitten by a goose or dragged into the water. Maybe next time.

This was sort of the grand hall or ballroom at the center of the palace

This is when we wandered off for a tour of the chambers

So the titular Nymphs of the Schloss actually resided in King Ludwig I's 'Gallery of Beauties'; full text is available a little further on, for the curious

This is me, by the way, photo-documenting my favourite Beauties

So then we repaired to a <em>really</em> lovely biergarten we had passed on the walk to the Schloss

Now <em>this</em> place was sublime – cool and pleasant and pefectly tree-shaded

The only trouble came when I sort of accidentally ordered us three <em>litres</em> of beer

I mean, I know what a litre is, and the menu said litres, but I was so engaged working out my German to make sure Alex didn't get stuck with a <em>half</em> litre, I was just kind of thinking pints and half-pints. Rather than, erm, litres. Heigh ho – <em>Prost!</em>

Yes, there was a certain danger of Anna actually falling into hers; but we figured we could always fish her out

Alex and I got into one of our regular, furious soci-econo-political debates for awhile here. Anna indicated that the spectacle of these two Titans of Rhetoric having at each other hammer and tongs was "hot." Hence this video.

Here's the outside of the biergarten looking in (on our stumble out)

This is Alex endeavouring, naturally enough, to hurl Anna into the canl

This is him getting a swift kick to the Jimmy for his trouble

<em>Fishies!</em> Did I mention that we had collectively drank <em>six litres of beer</em> by this point?

Hence my photography. I think I was trying to capture these hot chicks – another sign that we were drunk, that I would try that on with Anna here, and that she would let me get away with it. This totally didn't come out, but I really like it.

Then here's Anna trying to get a shot of the two of us – but we kept having our necks snapped by the sightly stream of female joggers. (Nymphenburg was a bit of a joggers Mecca.)

Feh! Did I mention the six litres of beer? Oh well, I like this one, too.

Unlike with the prior day's expedition, we'd gratefully spotted a taxi rank back at the Schloss, so we wouldn't have to battle our way home

Unfortunately, by the time we got back to it, es war Taxi-frei

So there was little to do but for Alex to try to throw Anna into the lake

After we figured out no cabs were coming, I called for one…

…then amused myself shooting the outbuildings of the palace

When we got back to the hotel, at something like 6pm, we made vague assurances of getting back together for dinner. Of course, no such thing happened. I dragged myself out and, finding a 'Pizza/Pasta/Salat' fast food joint, and being amazed that there seemed to be, from my questionable translations, a wide variety of things on the menu I could eat, I ordered all of them and brought them back. I think we all then fell asleep at about 8:30pm.

alex anna architecture art drinking food photography travel video

Dispatch from the Razor's Edge is owned and operated by novelist, technologist, vegan, exercise junkie, classical liberal, rambler, and Londoner Michael Stephen Fuchs.

Fuchs is the author of the novels The Manuscript and Pandora's Sisters, both published worldwide by Macmillan in hardback, paperback and all e-book formats (and in translation); the D-Boys series of high-tech, high-concept, spec-ops military adventure novels – D-Boys, Counter-Assault, and Close Quarters Battle (coming in 2016); and is co-author, with Glynn James, of the bestselling Arisen series of special-operations military ZA novels. The second nicest thing anyone has ever said about his work was: "Fuchs seems to operate on the narrative principle of 'when in doubt put in a firefight'." (Kirkus Reviews, more here.)

Fuchs was born in New York; schooled in Virginia (UVa); and later emigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lived through the dot-com boom. Subsequently he decamped for an extended period of tramping before finally rocking up in London, where he now makes his home. He does a lot of travel blogging, most recently of some very long walks around the British Isles. He's been writing and developing for the web since 1994 and shows no particularly hopeful signs of stopping.

You can reach him on .

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Dispatch from the Razor's Edge is owned and operated by novelist, technologist, vegan, exercise junkie, classical liberal, rambler, and Londoner Michael Stephen Fuchs.


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