Day One: Hirschgarten

Today we planned an afternoon at the biergarten (don't panic; the beer bit was closed). The Hirschgarten is the largest biergarten in Munich and the former hunting grounds of the royal family. What remain there are deer (Hirsch = Deer, Deer Garden, see?). These deer are extremely tame, perhaps because they spend most of every day being fed vast amounts of food by local children. Unfortunately, I'd never been there before and assumed that there'd be the option to buy deer food there. There isn't, but fortunately the toddler is charming enough that we relied upon the kindness of strangers and the deer did not go hungry. Mostly, they seem to enjoy dried pasta in many, many permutations. Who knew?

This is the toddler in question at the beginning of our adventure. You can feel the anticipation, can't you?

Goats and deer. It was baby heaven. I let her off the reins for this bit.

It had never occurred to me that deer would go mad for dried spaghetti, but it was great for little fingers - no chance of getting bitten and plenty of crunched-off leftovers scattered on the ground to be picked up for another round. The deer seemed to enjoy it too.

Feeding goats is almost as cool as deer. Almost.

I don't know what he was saying to her, but she was enthralled.

Not pictured:

- getting a hug from an extremely friendly bulldog
- licking stones with a baby friend until they had matching dirt moustaches
- walking around the mostly-empty biergarten tables and benches (it must be like a maze when you're only 90cm tall)
- running around on the grass
- acquiring vast amounts of dirt about her person
- becoming averse to shoes and socks and insisting on rolling her trousers up to the knee
- being forcibly kept awake on the tram home

I'm looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings. I hope I can convince her to put her shoes on.