Germany has a lot of castles. On Friday we stopped at Schloss Schleissheim (try saying that fast!) built by Germany Elector Max Emanuel and then rebuilt after WWII. It is huge and was meant to be much larger but politics interfered with Emanuel’s ambitions. One interesting fact; Emanuel and his wife, the Electress, had state and bedrooms separated by a 57 meter long hall (about 180 feet) and each set of rooms was huge. The hall overlooked the gardens. There was an Alte (old) and Neu (new) castle; we toured the new one. It was nice to tour a museum that was quite void of tourists. There were lots of Baroque paintings, Van Dyck, etc. very dark and pessimistic, but looking at the birth and death dates of the subjects of the paintings…60 was very ripe old age, I can see why, it wasn’t a healthy or safe time.

Saturday I took the train to the airport where I had a hotel room, then took the train back to Munich where I went to the market, briefly walked through Marionplatz and did a bit of shopping before returning to the airport, about 40 minutes away. It was weird to see so many Americans and here American accents. The tournaments I play are not normally in the big cities or in places on the American bucket list when touring Europe, so normally they are a rare site, especially at tennis tournaments. The market was fun, there were a lot of exotic fruits, particularly from Thailand that we don’t normally see, as well as all sorts of cheeses, sausages and meats. The last of the white asparagus was being sold; by law in Germany,  no one can harvest it after a certain date in June, which this year was right about now. Most towns in Bavaria have a maypole; the one in the market for Munich is a very interesting one.

It was a great trip but going home is always wonderful. Happy Summer everyone.