Londoning: Cocktails, Steak, and Book of Mormon

May 25/26, 2014

For several months now, our friends Kieran and Janey have been talking about taking us out to some of the world-renowned London cocktail bars before we leave the city. With the bank holiday yesterday, Sunday evening seemed like a perfect opportunity.

We met up at White Lyan in Hoxton, a concept bar that doesn't use any ice or perishable items like fruits or juices, and makes all of their cocktails ahead and then serves them from the refrigerator. They also foresake branded spirits and create their own by working directly with distilleries. With special ingredients like pomegranate paint, absinthe rice, beeswax, and vinegar, the menu definitely piqued our interest. Of the four drinks we tried between us, Joe and I preferred the White Guiness - it was delicious even if it did leave an ash mustache on your upper lip for the first few sips. (Time Out review here. World's Best Bars review here.)

From there Kieran and Janey lead us to Nightjar, an internationally acclaimed cocktail lounge feels like a speakeasy and has a themed menu to match (divided into eras like Prohibition and Post War). We couldn't get a reservation ahead of time so we queued up for about 20 minutes - at 10:30 on a Sunday night, that should give you an idea of how important it is to call ahead here. You can only order if you have a seat; no standing room here.

The unmarked doorway is the entrance to Nightjar, very near Old Street Station

Where White Lyan's approach is all about consistency and eliminating errors, Nightjar is all about flare. The menu reads like a book; each cocktail has about 8-12 ingredients in it and they all are served in unusual containers. The Yorkshire Punch that we ordered to share while we all took our time reading through the menu was served in a Rooster-shaped metal watering can with the smoke from dry ice spilling out the back. We later received drinks in an owl vase, a coconut on ice, with a dehydrated lime garnish, and with a peacock feather, among other novelties. All of this showiness might undermine the actual cocktails if they weren't so delicious. The Yorkshire Punch was probably the best cocktail I've ever had. For our LA friends, Nightjar reminded us of both the Edison and Seven Grand. (World's Best Bars review here.)

 

One of the best parts about our London cocktail adventure, however, was the fact that it made the birthday surprise I'd planned for Joe the next day even more surprising. Joe's birthday was at the beginning of April, but the Book of Mormon tickets I got him as a gift were for a showing at the end of May. What he didn't know is that Kieran and Janey were coming, too. He even asked them for suggestions of where we should eat dinner before the play without realizing that they would be there with us.

When we walked up to Flat Iron off Regent Street to find our friends standing with the hostess, Joe thought it was all a coincidence. He didn't realize that the dinner had been planned until we sat down and didn't think that they were going to the play with us until I said something. I'm proud but surprised by how well we were able to pull this off.

Briefly, Flat Iron is a steak place that's all about doing one thing really well. This is the menu:

They also have specials like beef belly, sirloin, or steak burgers sometimes. The simplicity of the menu makes it easy to order because you know that what they do is going to be done very well. Our meal was delicious!

simple presentation and a mini meat cleaver

From there it was just a short walk to the Prince of Wales theatre for Book of Mormon. We had our own four-seat box on stage left. This gave us the freedom to move around as we wanted and bring drinks to our seats.

Seeing Book of Mormon in London was especially fun for Joe and I because it reminded us of so many friends from home that our British friends can only imagine. We were laughing out loud from curtain to curtain. (It was also interesting to speculate which actors were actually Brits doing American accents.) Such a hilarious show!

Thanks Kieran and Janey for two great nights (in a row)!

Munich is for Drinking (and eating)

May 15-19, 2014

Given our relaxing and music-infused experience in Vienna, we were sad to leave. Again, it poured rain on our travel day so we skipped Salzburg but left it open as a possible day trip from Munich.

Our arrival in Munich was sadly underwhelming. While our hotel (Eurostars Book Hotel) was nice enough inside, the neighborhood was horrific, especially after the leafy green streets of Vienna. All around the central train station (Hauptbahnhof, which Joe and I called Hop-on-Hop-off), there is nothing but hotels, casinos, and sex shops. It feels a little like Las Vegas but without the glitzy glam. If the hotel hadn't already been booked, we may have just turned around and headed back to Austria.

The next day we headed further in Munich to join a city bike tour in Marienplatz. Mike's Bike Tours is the most popular in Munich and it deserves the distinction. (The city tour is the #3 highest rated activity in Munich on TripAdvisor.) Despite the cold and drizzly weather, this tour - and our awesome guide Chris - gets the credit for turning us around on Munich. In the summer, Mike's runs tours in the morning (11:30) and the afternoon (4:00), which was perfect for us.

Our original impression that Munich was dirty and run-down (the same impression I think people who come for Oktoberfest may walk away with) couldn't have been more wrong. The city was beautiful! There were so many green spaces and relaxing, open parks. I can only imagine how nice it would be to spend summer days laying out in the Englischer Garten, drinking and socializing in the biergartens and riding along the Isar river.

Englischer Garten, our favorite part of the tour, reminded us a lot of Hampstead Heath. We made a drinking stop at Chinesischer Turm, a Chinese-style pagoda and biergarten in the park. The tour also included historical sites, of course, but I didn't get many good pictures. (Still, I have since been planning a France-Germany-Austria trip for high schoolers specifically because I want to take them on this bike tour.)

Charlie and our guide's turtle friend, Gustavo

Mike's Bikes operates in Amsterdam as well, and would be worth looking up in either city. They also have run Bus Bavaria, which guides the coolest Neuschwanstein Castle tour I could find (though we couldn't go with them this time, I would definitely want to work with them if I come back with students). Bus Bavaria is also in the Top 10 activities on Tripadvisor - this is a truly great company!

After our 4+ hours of biking around Munich and freezing our fingers it was time for beer. We headed over to Hofbräuhaus at about 8:30 pm and couldn't find a single open spot to sit in the multi-room restaurant. It was a Friday after all, so we left, discovered delicious Latte Macchiatos, and returned about an hour later. We stayed until we were kicked out at closing, enjoying the boisterous atmosphere, beer, and community seating. (We first sat with a group of Brazilian tourists and then ran into some of our fellow bikers from the afternoon tour.)

Our waitress was particularly entertaining as she wasted no time dealing with tourists. If you weren't ready to order when she arrived, she'd leave before you could finish saying "Uhhh" and instead of politely setting each different brew in front of the appropriate customer, she just plunked all of the drinks for the table in the middle and expected us to figure it out. We loved her no-nonsense, German efficiency. 

This was taken on Monday afternoon when the restaurant was effectively empty. 

Even though rain was predicted for our entire visit, we got lucky (again) and actually had some sunny days. 

Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall) in Marienplatz

The famous Glockenspiel on Neues Rathaus.
(No, we did not wait around to see it do its dance.)

We visited many brewhouses and restaurants as the main goal of our visit to Munich was to drink beer (Joe) and eat German food (Sarah). We'd recommend ordering with moderation so that you can pack four or five different food/drink stops into a day. For example, it's worth a stop at Weisses Bräuhaus on Tal (just beyond the Old Town Hall from Marienplatz, across the street from Paulaner im Tal) for a pint of Augustiner Helles and a bowl of pretzel soup. From there you're just steps away from Hofbräuhaus, Augustiner am Platzl, Paulaner (of course), the Viktualienmarkt (with its biergarten), and Cafe Rischart (which is all over the place but the one that looks down on Viktualienmarkt has the deliciously tempting ice cream sundaes).

Charlie & Bert with the Munich lion (near Mike's Bike Tour office)

a statue of Juliet with an apparently lucky right breast (under the clock at Old Town House in Marienplatz)

In all three countries on our trip we saw an abundance of asparagus of both the white and green varieties. In Vienna and Munich, many of the restaurants we visited had seasonal asparagus menus! Since Joe and I both love asparagus, we found these special offerings very welcoming.

fresh asparagus!

In the afternoon on our second day we wandered through Viktualienmarkt, the outdoor farmer's market just beyond Marienplatz.

some of the largest leeks, beets, spring onions, and radishes I've ever seen (and then mini artichokes)

Viktualienmarkt biergarten (on a cold day!)

Saturday night we headed to Kilian's to watch the Bayern Munich v Dortmund game. Ironically, we ended up in an Irish bar surrounded by Aussies and Brits, many of whom were there for the Arsenal v Hull City game that came on before. There we had a great time hanging out with some people we met (a Brit who is from the exact area in London where we live now and an Aussie couple we hope to visit with again on their travels later). Then we grabbed a quick dinner at Guido al Duomo next door before trying to get to bed "early" for a big tour day on Sunday.

Whenever we have four nights in one place I like to get out of the city at least once to see something more rural. Living in London, even our green area of Highgate, means we don't see a lot of rolling hills or snow-capped mountains. We took the tour to Neuschwanstein Castle because my Uncle Bob recommended it, but the day would have been worth it even if we hadn't gone inside the castle because the drive through the countryside was so beautiful.

First we stopped at Linderhof, a sort of miniature palace in the mountains. This was King Ludwig II's tribute to French design and was modeled after Versailles. Ludwig II is often referred to as the fairy-tale king because he spent so much of his time and money building castles and funding the arts, particularly the operas of Richard Wagner.

 short walk from the bus to the palace

I liked the sculptures on the right side especially. They seemed more sassy.

After Linderhof we drove on to Hohenschwangau, a small village at the base of one of the lower Bavarian Alps where Ludwig II built his personal refuge, Neuschwanstein Castle. From the village there are several options for getting up to the castle (bus, horse-drawn carriage), but we would recommend walking/hiking without hesitation because that is the only way to take in the gorgeous scenery.

A view of Alpsee and the Bavarian Alps about a third of the way up to the castle

For some reason our photographer thought we wanted Hohenschwangau castle in the background, not the infinitely more beautiful lake and mountains that ended up directly behind our bodies. 

Walking is also the only way to reach the Marien bridge above the castle and get the views looking down on it with the valley behind. There are also several other trails around the castle that we would have loved to explore if we'd had more time. (For this reason I would recommend Bus Bavaria's tour; they spend the whole day at Neuschwanstein, biking, picnicking, and - if you are up for it - paragliding.)

Neuschwanstein, one of the many European castles that claims to be the inspiration for 

the Disney castle, and the alternate view from the castle back to the bridge.

enjoying every moment of the forest climb down from the castle

An iphone pic through the tinted bus windows and it's still gorgeous

Our last day was 70 degrees and gorgeous. We had one major stop left on our list: the Deutsches Museum of Science and Technology. We had crossed the Isar River during our bike tour but it was so much prettier in the sunlight. This picture doesn't do it justice - the river shimmered emerald green.

Joe and I always love a good science museum, but the astronomy exhibits in this one are particularly good. One was a 3D model of the Orion constellation that helped put in perspective that even though we may see the three stars of Orion's belt as even and in a straight line, they are actually at different distances away from us and seem unrelated if viewed from a different perspective. We followed a sign to an "observatory" area and expected a viewing platform like the ones we reach when climbing church towers but we were shocked to find ourselves in the museum's solar observation center where scientists use this telescope to monitor sun spots. The staff member on duty even opened the dome for us so we could take a look. So cool! (They also do night-time visits for people who want to use the telescope.)

Munich totally won us over. Joe drank lots of good beer and we enjoyed eating German food at every turn. (Soft pretzels, mustard, sausages? Saurkraut and red cabbage? Yeah, I'm sold.) Despite our original impressions of the city, we were sad to leave. Munich was a success!

5/8 of these are in Munich and there were more

Vienna is for Music (and eating)

May 11-15, 2014

After two warm and sunny days in Budapest, it poured all day on our travel day to Vienna. Due to the rain and lack of any concrete plans, we skipped a stop in Bratislava, Slovakia and headed straight to Austria.

Our arrival in Vienna could not have been more welcoming. Upon check in at Le Meridien Wien we were informed that we'd been upgraded from the standard queen room we'd booked to a king suite. Minibar drinks would be free every day.

The bed was the most comfortable we've slept in since leaving home. And the chaise lounge gave Joe a place to watch Ducks playoffs while I was sleeping.

Not only did this room have a huge bathtub, but the shower was in its own room. That's the towel rack inside the shower and the water sprayed from above and two other horizontal spots - BEST. SHOWER. EVER.

Besides the hospitable staff and the amazing room, the location of the hotel couldn't be better: just across the street from the State Opera House and Burrgarten, it is within walking distance of anything you'd want to see in Vienna.

The State Opera House. Beautiful venue, though there was nothing on that we wanted to see during our trip.

As usual, we booked our biggest outing on our first full day. This time we took a quick bus tour of the city and then headed out to Schönbrunn Palace,  the summer palace of the Habsburg monarchy. Most of the palace is a memorial of Maria Theresa, the Queen and Holy Roman Empress who ruled or influenced most of Europe in the mid eighteenth century. Of her sixteen children many made advantageous matches, but the most famous is Marie Antoinette, the ill-fated Queen of France who married Louis XVI. (There was also another queen, a duchess, and two Holy Roman Emperors among them.) In fact, in the game Civilization, Maria Theresa's great power is "Advantageous Marriages."

 Notice anything weird about this statue at first glance? What about that extra leg in the front that belongs to this third wheel guy?

This lion statue tried to eat Charlie and Bert!

Vienna is an incredibly beautiful and clean city. The architecture is somewhat similar to that in Paris, but the boulevards seem even wider and lined with even greener trees. We were enchanted by the city not just because of its aesthetic appeal, but also because of the many large parks and the city's celebration of great art and artists. Rather than statues and memorials to war generals and kings, the most beautiful monuments in Vienna are dedicated to composers, writers, and artists. Around Musikverein there are even Hollywood-style stars on the sidewalks with the names of classical composers and musicians.

Stadtpark

Johann Strauss

Franz Schubert

W. A. Mozart in Burrgarten

Surrounded by all these reminders of the music that has flourished here, it was impossible not to do as many music-themed activities as we could. We saw not one, but TWO performances at Musikverein. The first featured a pianist and violinist playing Schubert, Prokofiev, and Beethoven. The second was a performance of the Vienna Mozart Orchestra playing this city's most famous composer's most famous pieces in period dress (and charging what effectively is a tourist tax for the tickets as they cost more than twice what the same seats cost for the non-Mozart orchestra). The Vienna Philharmonic also performs at Musikverein.

We purchased tickets in the afternoon for that evening and the following one and had no problem procuring the levels we wanted. There are standing room tickets for the Gold Hall that cost only 5 euro, but we opted for the seats behind the stage for a bit more money so that we didn't have to stand for 2 hours. Both performances were great for different reasons. The duet we saw on the first night was impressive because of the immense talent of both performers and the incredible amount of sound that they were able to produce with just two instruments. The Mozart concert was fun because so much of the music was recognizable, but the tourist factor was turned up a lot and it got kind of frustrating to see some people more concerned with taking pictures or recording audio than actually listening.

Other music-themed sites in Vienna included Mozarthaus museum and Haus der Musik. We had planned to visit both anyway and there's a discount if you buy a joint ticket to both attractions. Mozarthaus offers a detailed history of Mozart's life, family, and contemporary musicians and composers with whom he performed, collaborated, and competed. It is beautifully done.

Haus der Musik should really be called House of Sound (in fact, its tagline is "Catch the Sound"). It is a five story museum that includes exhibitions on everything from how sounds are produced and processed to how great composers create their masterpieces. It's scientific and playful at the same time. It's not until at least the fourth floor that you enter the exhibits on major composers including Strauss, Schubert, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, and Mahler. At the very end there is an interactive exhibit that lets visitors "conduct the Vienna Philharmonic."

Near both of these attractions is Stephansdom, or St. Stephan's Cathedral, with its all-too-inviting climbable tower. The 342 steps in this tower counted for our day's exercise and offered a nice aerial view of the city. The viewing area was enclosed, which isn't ideal, but we were still able to identify most of the city's major sites and our hotel from the windows.

Just behind the cathedral (and very near the entrance to the tower) is Haas & Haas teahouse, one of our favorite finds in Vienna. We went the first time because it was next to Stephansdom, but we loved our teas so much that we returned the next day for more. The food was good, but this is really a spot to stop for tea and a pastry before or after visiting any of the surrounding attractions (Stephansdom, of course; Mozarthaus around the corner; Stadtpark nearby). They even have cronuts!

Our favorites were the Fig Rose and White Peach, which we bought to take home.

A couple other favorites that we'd recommend include 1516 Brewery next to Haus der Musik and Gmoa Keller near Karlsplatz for after theatre dinner. 1516 offers some good beers, yummy soft pretzels and apfelstrudel, and a pleasant atmosphere. The owner is also a hockey fan, which Joe appreciated since it meant there were games playing when we were sitting at the bar.

We sought Gmoa Keller after our first evening at Musikverein based on its inclusion in our Top 10 book. It was a little strange to find, but if you pass the Vienna Konzerthaus, you're on the right track. This place gets busy when the theatre lets out as a lot of performers seem to flock here. Choose the downstairs area if you can as it is nicer than the bar on the ground level. The food and wine were yummy, the service was fast and pleasant, and the kitchen doesn't close at 10 pm - an all around win for a restaurant in Europe.

We loved Vienna and were very sorry to leave, but the rain on our travel day signaled that it was time to move on. This was perhaps our favorite stop on our European adventure tour so far, so we sincerely hope we'll be able to go back soon.