It’s about time for an update from Munich. The good news is that I have handed in the first version of my thesis and am now waiting on corrections, which may, unfortunately, take some time since it has to go through three important, busy people with other things to do rather than read about radar signal extinction rates in ice. The bad news is that I managed to injure myself by tearing my calf muscle at a mini-tournament last weekend. Unfortunately the calf is required for pretty much everything including walking, running and cycling, but I should be back to at least jogging in three weeks or so. In the meantime I’m down to using one crutch and has me feeling a little bit like Dr. House.
Other than staying up late watching live Olympic coverage from here in Europe, I’m not up to too much and decided another blog post was in order. To start are a few pics from Christmas holidays at home in Canada. The first image in the post is from Revelstoke, B.C. which has a great new ski resort. There are beautiful, long runs, and despite it having been one of the busiest ski days of the year, there are so many runs, that I barely saw anyone while skiing until you hit the lift line-ups.
Since Christmas is so long ago, I’ll avoid the Christmas-themed pictures, but here are a few from the Crossiron Mills mall north of Calgary which Dev helped build. In addition to the usual stores, there are themed areas (lots of cowboy related stuff). I was impressed by the straw rebar and hay bale lamps, a huge fake firepit, and the entire Bass Pro Shop, which includes 150,000 square feet of taxidermy, boats, a waterfall and a huge aquarium with public feedings.
Plus the mall has huge landmarks in front of every entrance which can help you remember where you parked your car or to act as a meeting point for disoriented family members who get lost in its enormity. Dev on his crackberry standing next to an imitation oil derrick.
And a few of the family, including the great gingerbread house Kiran built – check out the stairs and patio. That engineering degree paid off!
On their way back from India in January, it was great to see my parents for a few days in Munich. Although it was their second visit, we still found enough touristy things to do.
Marienplatz
Bavarian Opera house; I love the look of the statues dusted with snow.
Residenz (former palace of Bavaria’s royalty)
Can you believe this was made in 1080?
Other Bavarian Crown Jewels
And after all that you can certainly work up an appetite for some delicious Indian food.
