Munich.. one of the hearts of Bavaria

This past weekend Matt and I took a trip to the beautiful city of Munich in the heart of Bavaria. Bavaria is a region in German that most Americans associate with Germany in general.. lederhosen, dirndls, hummels, oompa bands, and last but not least BEER. Of course the world famous Oktoberfest is held in Munich every year starting in September.

We had an outstanding weekend, much in part to the beautiful weather, sunshine and warmth.. something very rare in the German spring. Back home in the Eifel region where we live, temps were in the 30s whereas we were enjoying highs of 75/80.

We stayed at a great hotel called the Marc Munchen, just a few minutes walking from the central train station, the Marienplatz (a large open air mall) and of course the other Munich institution the Hofbrau Haus beer hall.

One thing we were delighted to see what how the traditions of Bavaria are not only strong but still celebrated in this area. It was not unusual to see teenagers and old couples alike strolling in their Lederhosen and Dirndls. This wasn't even a phenomanom amongst tourists, people in this area truly enjoy wearing them and did so proudly, just as easily as Americans would a T-Shirt and Jeans.

I hope you enjoy the city through pictures as much as we did by being there!

Glockenspeil

Marienplatz

Domes of the Cathedral in Munich

Metzgerei in the Viktualienmarkt

2012 May pole

A penny!

Lowenbra Haus

English gardens

Beautiful museum

Monument depicting 25 years of peace between Germany and France after the war of 1871

Part of the buildings and grounds of Schloss Nymphenberg

The summer residence of the heir to the Bavarian throne..son of King Ludwig I

Me and baby  boy kowalski.. 7 months and 1 week!

BMW Headquarters

Cutest little electric car

Electric sports car

An OLD BMW

My dream car.. BMW M3

A 475,000 euro  Rolls Royce 

BMW Museum

The grand daddy of our car.. BMW 328i

Designer model of our car.. the new body type for the BMW 328i starting in 2013.. our baby!

I was in love with this car.. the whole body is made of FABRIC! The lights and displays shine through the fabric.. if you need to get to the engine.. you unzipper it!

Hofbrau Haus

Mmm pretzel!

Happy 29th Bday lunch to me!

Matts goulash

My pork and potatoes..we shared buttered spaetzle

Dinner of champions.. PIZZA! But it was no ordinary pizza.. pizza from italian immigrants living in Germany... SO. GOOD. So much so that we ate there twice!

Mountain man Matt... this is what 2 weeks of not shaving looks like!

7 months... almost there!

I will be officially 7 months preggo on 4/24. My has the time gone by quickly!! I wanted to update you all on the "bump". Finally, I have a bump! It isn't huge but it is there. I am having my professional maternity shoot done on May 9 and Matt and I are very excited! Hopefully in the next couple weeks my bump will pop some more so we have even better photos. I recently went to a military baby shower and it was amazing. The organization putting it on (MOPS..Mothers of Preschoolers) went ABOVE and beyond! They gave out amazing prizes that ranged from brand new pack n plays, strollers, bassinets, high chairs... to toys and clothes!

I even received diapers and wipes!! I am going to put some pictures of all I received from the shower on here, as well as some amazing gifts from amazing friends!!

On the way to the MOPS baby shower.. there is my bump.. finally!!

It's tiny but its there!

You can only rally see it from the side

Me and some of the other Buechel Mama's to be at the event!

Clothes that I generously received at the baby shower from MOPS

So cute

They also gave me a full double pack of wipes and cute bundles of diapers

Some diapers... cute booties from Grandma Perrone

Shoes Matt and I bought for when the lil man arrives.. black shoes are from MOPS

More clothes from MOPS

Our new glider!

Some decorations in the babys rooms

To the right is a baby picture of me.. full head of hair! To the right is a picture of Baby Kowalski in a cute frame from Ross & Natasha Friedman!

Awesome baby bouncer from Diana and Ryan!

Our changing station is almost there! Just waiting on the cover for the changing pad. Mrs. Coleen Flood was so amazing to have bought us the changing pad as part of my shower gift

Baby foam washer from Auntie Adrian and Car seat strap covers from Auntie Ashleigh and Tommy!

More generous gift from Col and Mrs. Flood :)

A Keltie baby back pack ruck sack from Auntie Adrian, Uncle Bill, Bella, Carina, William, and Baby Weidmann

Matt and Me + Baby makes 3!

So this pregnancy is slowly moving along. I have reached the 6 month mark with virtually no changes. Still down about 26 lbs, I "gained" 1 lb so far, but technically I didn't since the baby now weighs 1 lb. The baby is also about 8 inches long at this point. No real baby bump to speak of, but I think it is on its way. My meals are becoming smaller than before and I get full quicker. The Dr thinks I should have the traditional baby bump by May. Let's hope so, since I scheduled my maternity shoot for May!
We are almost done on the nursery at this point. We have all of the major furniture items (minus the glider and ottoman which are currently on their way from the states). We just need to take the last couple boxes out of the room and move our suitcases and we are pretty much set. Then it is just time to decorate, which we hope to do soon. Thought you would all enjoy the photo evidence of Matt putting together the crib (with a little help from Hoagie :) )

P.S. We have also received the first gifts off of our registry thanks to The Maldas and Diana & Ryan.

Terry cloth bath robe from the Maldas, our lil bean can look like a shark at bath time :)

Me modeling the robe

Awesome bags the gifts came in from amazon.. this one was also from the Maldas, an extra base for our car seat so we can put it in Matts car.

Matt starting to assemble the crib, we ordered everything white since we didn't know what we were having when we ordered it :)

Some of the other baby furniture, a dresser that will be used as a changing station and his very own armoire

The crib is getting there! This is basically what the crib will look like when it is converted to a toddler bed. The mattress can be lowered and their is a safety rail

Hoagie came up to supervise

What is all this stuff Mom?

Matt is almost done!

Final product. The crib is done, with the mattress inserted with a crib sheet. The beautiful baby blanket was made by Grandma Perrone and baby boy kowalski has some friends to keep him company :)