Munich
May 12, 2011 

For three nights in a row here in Munich, I’ve gone to dinner with colleagues.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy them and had a great time.  But I can’t get used to the concept that, if I agree to to dinner, I have to realize that there’s nothing else I’ll get to do that night except crawl back to my hotel and go to bed.

Oh, well, it’s not as if I really did have anything important to do back in the hotel room.  But it still takes some getting used to.

I think the main reason I find it exhausting is that, if I’m still with clients, no matter how congenial things get – and they’ve gotten pretty damn congenial on this trip – I’m still on guard.  I’m still a little bit “at work.”  Meaning I’m not really relaxed.  That’s why I feel a little bit “behind” when I get to my hotel at midnight and I haven’t really had a chance to unwind from the day.

On the other hand, our four hour dinner last night was wonderful.  I had the best schnitzel I’ve had to date.  Ordering schnitzel was a bit of a cop-out, since we were in a noted Bavarian restaurant, and schitzel is of course Austrian, but I’m still glad I ordered it.  Yum.

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At lunch we checked out the surfers.  Surfers in Munich?  You betcha.  There’s a small canal called the Eisbach which flows through the central part of the city and then through the massive Englischer Garten.  Right where it enters the park, there’s a natural wave that local surfers have augmented with blocks (or maybe a tree trunk) a bit below the surface.  And on this wave, which is all of 15 meters wide, they take turns surfing!  It’s really something to see.

Complete List of Surfing Movies I’ve Seen

• Riding Giants (2004)