I rested well last night but my cold is continuing to get worse. Nothing in the chest at this point, but the throat is tender in the am now as well.

We got up and had breakfast in the hotel tea room. It was good for a free breakfast: Several fresh granolas and yogurts, assorted cold cuts and good cheeses, baskets of actually interesting breads, rolls and biscuits, coffee and teas, etc., as well as a whole bunch of condiments a la olives, pickles, and relishey things. I had a pot of earl gray along with my munchables.

After food we wandered around the city all day. It was clear and very cool out. I opted for shorts and short sleeve shirt again, since this tends to allow me to cool off quickly after lots of walking.


There were a handful of old cathedrals again, these much more severe but just as majestic as the ones in France.

We wandered through another open air market with whole foods that can’t be found.

Along the way we stopped into a pharmacy for some cold drugs… Not sure how the exchange went but I ended up with something that resembles mint candy more than anything else. It claims to have something that looks like a topical in it, but it’s not doing much. “It will disinfect the head” she said.

Munich is a perfect city - if you have a lot of money. Everything is clean and beautiful. There is no trash on the streets, nor is there any evidence of graffiti. It was heavily damaged during the war, and heavily rebuilt. The people are gorgeous. The weather is pleasant.


Still, there is something here that grates, but I can’t identify it. I know the language barrier is bigger for me. I can’t speak the most rudimentary German - can’t phonetically reproduce sounds off of a menu, and that makes me insecure. In France, I could at generally do pleasantries, even if hearing through the actual accent was beyond me.

The opera was a complete spectacle. The interior of the opera house itself is cotton candy pink with whipped cream accents, and plenty of pink velvet. Gorgeous and supergay. The usual concession stand was completely out of control. It was a gourmet dessert shop. They had every drink imaginable. And there were multiple classes of seating available for the concession during intermissions. There was stand and wander class, stand at a high table class, sit at a table in the open class, and sit at a table in a closed room class. Everything but stand and wander are by reservation, and will - at your request - have your drinks and chosen dainties available when you come down. As they staged Orlando with 2 intermissions, I got to witness this fabulosity in detail.

The very basic story of Orlando is similar to Alcina - someone loves someone else who loves yet someone else. And someone isn’t doing their duty as a soldier. But in the end, Orlando sees the error of his ways and will get his shit together. This production made Alcina look powdered-wig traditional though. The costumes and set were highly militaristic, and sort of campy pre-cold war - or futuristic in some areas. There are two walls of orange neon tubing. One of the leads dodders around in thigh high red patent platform boots, while another one wears tight acid washed jeans and rhinestone cat eye sunglasses. It was NUTS.

Again, this was an opening - the directors and designers came out and were booed quit loudly.

Roy’s had several network points here - the director, designer, and several singers had all worked together before. And there were several other friends of that group that came as well. The opening marked the last play the director would do for the Munich opera, and was the last of 3 shows the operas general director would put on. At the cast/friends party afterwards, he spoke for almost an hour while the audience alternated between complete boredom and adulation. A very engaging speaker (in German), but shitty sense of timing. He called for a toast at the end of this hour, and only the sneaky sorts who had been running around grabbing drinks instead of listening to him could actually do a proper toast. I entertained myself through this by watching all the “super” boys. Super being Supernumerary, aka non-singing extras. They were all hot (of course) and played buff soldiers filling up the empty spaces.

After the show, the core group headed out for dinner and drinks. Roy managed to convince the staff to reopen the kitchen and serve us food, which was fun. It got a little uncomfortable when several of the ppl at our table decided not to eat and just ordered drinks instead. Oops.
I took almost no pictures. While the people were lovely and friendly, I had a difficult time staying present thanks to my cold. We got back to the hotel and I collapsed into sleep.