Monday, April 18, 2011
Furth im Wald, Germany to Munich, Germany
Munich was not originally on our travel itinerary, neither was Salzberg (our planned next stop) but were put there after talking with S & S. Local knowledge, you know.
We were picked up by Shane and Sonja at about 10:10am, bundled into a luggage filled little car, and off down the road, a fond goodbye to the Fellner Gasthaus fading in the mirror. An adventureless two hours later the Munich air port loomed large in front of us. Don't get me wrong, adventure at 160km/h is not a good thing and I'm glad all went well. The autobahn was awesome, and Shane is a great driver.
We had a quick lunch with S & S after dropping the rental car, then goodbyes and got on the 'S' Bahn - stands for Strasse Bahn, or street level railway. Yes, the 'U' Bahn is a subway. Unter, see, you're leaning German. Great ride to the HaubBahnHof (remember, main train station) chatting the whole way with a flight attendant from Jordanean Airways. She was born in Georgia, just under the Soviet Union on the Black Sea, grew up in Spain, and now lives in Aman, Jordan. I wish I could remember it all, so interesting, a fascinating young lady up close with the clash of the Muslim faith.
We exited at the train station, found the tourist info booth, were directed to a room, and checked into the Leopold Hotel. Dropped our bags and out to explore, and found we were about five blocks from the Marionplatz and its famous clock with dancing characters at 11:00am and 1:00pm. About 3 blocks down the street we're at, ... wait for it ..., the super world famous HofBrauHaus. Site of Hitler's speaches generations ago, still spooky. We had lunch there, and beer and wine, and more beer and wine (whadda ya gonna do, its the home of beer, Munich) finally hiking back to our hotel, via a detour to the hauptbanhof to get our ticket to Salzburg for Wednesday morning. In between, we wandered, took a thousand pictures, wandered some more, a lovely bustling place but very clean and neat. Not fanatical, just neat and clean with benches to sit at for people watching and lots and lots of flowers in planters. Everywhere. And, of course, there was the Hofbrauhaus, and the beer and the wine. Glad we included this place in the agenda.
Tomorrow, more to explore.
