City of Lights..Baku

To Germany & Back

Highlights of my 4 day trip to Europe!

Miami-Munich : 12 hour flight... in total. Flew to Germany on Air Berlin.. not a bad airline, I must say. I was pleasantly surprised by the level of service and efficiency. Its a no nonsense type of airline.. everyone buckle up and off we fly.

Lucky for me - weather has been amazing the week before Easter. Sunny, warm, spring weather - almost deceiving as Munich is not this nice in April. I spent one day recovering from the trip and every evening hanging out with my lil munchkin 2 yr old brother.. the rest of three days, I spent lunching, shopping and antique hunting. Consider this list of recommendations for the unique places to go :

Cafes & Restaurants:

- Hermannsdorf : organic and locally grown produce + lovely cafe; Hermannsdorf is actually a little farm outside of Munich that grows hundreds acres of wheat, barley, corn and 12 acres of fruits and vegetables. All produce, cheeses, yogurts, deli cuts, breads are locally produced and sold through Hermannsdorf stores. They also have a yummy cafe with a changing menu every day. All food is prepared in an open kitchen right in front of you..everything is made on the spot, nothing is premade. Amazing pumpkin soup, liver dumplings with fresh salad and mouth watering apple strudel. Definitely check it out if you are up for some home made cooking!

Limone:

Oh la la .. a combo of Italian cuisine, French presentation & German service. Heaven! Delicious courtyard restaurant featuring salt crusted branzino (a must! ), compliments of the chef tuna salad, pumpkin ravioli and aromatic German reisling. Love love the food! Located in trendy area called Schwabbing - right across a vintage book store. Owner is the maitre d' and always there to greet the guests. Hardly any tourists - always a young professional and elegant local crowd.

Vintage/Antique Shopping:

Go check out Tricia Leonard's store on Baaderstrasse... she has such a fine collection of vintage lace, purses, jewelry. I bought an original pair of pre WWI children's shoes - 20 Euros and they are 100 years old! Tons of other neat stuff - especially the lace! Cupboards full. Vintage lace is heavenly - and hard to find...other than in antique markets of Provence & Avignon. Very reasonably priced as well. Address is: Baaderstr. 53, 80469 Munich, Germany; tel: 089 45207552. Did I mention she is a jazz singer? And she is amazing!

Maximilian Strasse

Very typical Madison/5th Street type of stores - all the high end designers. Nothing too exciting yet.. couple of cute bags at LV and a few more trendy sandals at Gucci. Dolce & Gabbana was a disappointment - where is the style heading? Where are ripped jeans, big buckles, james dean and marilyn monroe t shirts? This has been replaced with grandma style eyelet dresses and quido white linen pants. And guess what? You are bound to spot a Russki trying to fit into an ultra tight leopard dress!

Brot & Butter - try their fresh baked Rogen bread.. baked only on Wednesdays & Saturdays! Come early or it is usually sold out. Dalmayer - kind of like Dean & Deluca or Epicure (for my Miami peeps) but a notch higher! I wouldn't go 'ga-ga' for the food but definitely for the bakery, champagne and pastries!

Eilles Tea shop - best place to buy tea! All different kinds sold by grams. Also you can find yummy German biscuits and chocolates. Situated perpendicular to Maximilian Strasse.

Ah.. all this talk about food, wines and shopping... making me dreamy! Time to sleep... as I am still jetlagged from my 4 day jetset to Europa! Stay tuned for a next overview of what is interesting and unique in Miami.. as I am bound to be here, chained to the MBA for another month or so! XOX