Sunday 3 April 2011

Day Three: Michaeligarten

It is absurdly sunny and warm here today. Just getting that out there. My original plan had been to take the tricycle I've been saving for a sunny day and go to a local park to have quiet family time. We've been particularly hectic recently and I looked forward to just spending the day together, the three of us, having fun. But we were invited to a biergarten by a friend, lots of other friends were going and crucially so were their kids. One of our friends in particular has two boys who are among the sweetest little people I've ever met and so we went along to see them.

I feel like I should explain the biergartens to people who aren't familiar and who might suspect that actually I'm using the 30 days as an excuse to drink my way around Munich. I'm not, really. Meeting friends at a biergarten usually involves bringing some food to share (we were disorganised and brought chocolates, others who were less spur of the moment baked), having loads of kids running around the playground areas, and spending long afternoons in the sun with a couple of beers - or soft drinks - and good company. And on all points, today was wonderful.


We started off today's trip wishing Nan a Happy Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day, Nan.


We settled down in the playground with today's fun accessory: bubble mixture and a collection of fun things to make bubbles with.


Here are the aforementioned sweet souls helping us set things up.


Before you know it, a crowd had gathered. It got bigger and bigger until we ran out of bubble utensils.


Even after the bubbles palled, the boys stayed with the toddler and treated her like a very tiny equal. My heart was warmed.


Skimming stones and spotting swans.


Meeting a friendly dog. Who knows, maybe we'll see this friendly dog again soon?


Food sharing is just as well, since this small girl reached out and grabbed the cupcake from the tray.  


I did say it's not all about the beer. But it is a bit about the beer. I'm pretty sure this was empty when she started it, but her father took this picture so I can only trust his common sense.

Earlier on today I was a bit put out that we were missing out on a family day in the park. But what we did instead was to go out and play with our other family. As foreigners living in a city being friends with other foreigners in the city, we're apart from our extended families and sometimes it's hard going. Days like this are the next best thing - and when it comes to small girls learning what it might be like to have big brothers showing her how to skim stones and teaching her to blow bubbles, it's just as good or even better. Thanks everyone. We had a lovely day.

1 comment:

  1. The glass was rinsed twice with water before being half-filled with tasty Munich tap water which was then quickly emptied once she got the hang of the Bavarian super-heavy glass mug.

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