München Part I: Meeting PASOs

This the first part of a three part series on my trip to München. I left with all of my BME colleagues to catch a plane on Thursday afternoon to München. From there we drove to Oberpfaffenhofen, home of the Columbus Control Center, to meet up with the Safety Flight Controllers called the PASOs. We arrived at this little rustic inn just in time for dinner. Everything was made of beautiful, sturdy wood in the traditional Bavarian style. After lugging our stuff up to our rooms, we made our way to the Inn’s bar for a beer. It was refreshing to have something other than Kölsch. I like a little variety in my life you know. I knew I had to pace myself though because there would be a lot more opportunities for beer on this trip.

We left the inn to meet up this the PASOs for dinner at an old castle that had turned into a small shopping square. Now traveling with the BMEs is a little complicated because there are three companies represented in the six of them. Each company had to rent a car for the trip because you couldn’t share cost across companies. However, this means we didn’t have a car big enough to fit all of us in… or so we thought. Frits, the Lead ESA BME, is also quite an encyclopedia on cars. He realized when he saw the Wyle car that Bjoern grumbled about the whole ride out to Oberpfaffenhofen because it was a, “mom car with only 5 gears”, that there was a hidden third row seat. Now getting to that third row seat was a bit of a challenge and took all the engineering power we had, slightly compromised by beer mind you, to get the seat up. Now the reason the rest of us didn’t know there was a third row seat was because we didn’t think there was any room for one and with the majority of the BMEs being close to and above 6 feet tall, we certainly made it look like a clown car. Luckily the ride was short and the singing made it fun.

The restaurant was also traditionally Bavarian. Frits, suggested for an appetizer that I try some Franziskaner wine and an onion cake. Now Erin was nice enough to introduce me to Franziskaner wine before she left, but I was skeptical of the onion cake. However, before I could voice my reservation, Frits had already ordered. It was time to put on the adventure hat.
Just then the PASO entourage came in. It was not just the 3 PASOs but their NASA counterparts and some Houston Support Group members who were involved in the three day simulation. So our cozy group of seven exploded into a rowdy 17! It was no matter, Bavarian restaurants are not known for their quiet atmosphere and we were in a separate room.
I honestly don’t remembered what I ordered. I know that when the onion cake came I was amazed. It was sweet! It went very well with the sweet new wine. After the appetizer, I know I had meet and spätzel and I was in heaven. I’m really going to need to learn how to make it properly because it is turning into one of my comfort foods.

I’m certainly glad that it was a hearty dinner because we stayed a bit afterwards just trying to figure out where everyone was from, what their role was and what they found most interesting about the area. I sat next to a born and raised Houstonian, which is hard to find in Houston, never mind Germany. There were a few Italians, a few British and a lot of good stories being passed around. It was difficult to believe that we were actually going to meet these people at 8:00 the next morning, but we eventually said our good byes and wandered to the Inn.