Trip's end.

 Last time at the Marienplatz

 CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES!

Monday morning , both Shelly and I woke up with mild colds. so we decided to take it easy. We had breakfast at the hotel, then retreated back to the room.

Late in the morning, we ventured out down the tram route to investigate the little shops we had spotted along the way. We then hopped on a tram to the Marienplatz, grabbed a little lunch then headed up to the English Gardens, to check out some parts we had not seen before. The weather was again wet and cool. Occasional showers, plus our colds, pretty much eliminated any chances of going on any extensive tours now.

After browsing through the Gardens, we made our way to a tram station and rode back to our normal jumping off point, the Effnerplatz, then back to the hotel for a nap. We were both a little sapped from our colds.

That evening, we met Gordon at the Hofbrauhaus for a last "German" dinner. I was glad to still have a bit of an appetite, so I enjoyed the meal, and the beer. Gordon says beer and chocolate are good for colds. I felt pretty good after the meal. 

Back at the hotel we began to pack and organize for the trip home as we watched the World Cup.  Very big in this part of the world.  Actually, probably everywhere but the US. 

Tuesday we packed in earnest, getting all the stuff ready to go. We would be carrying an extra bag home with some of Gordon"s stuff.   Also, the other large check in bag had his things, too. He'll be coming home two weeks after us!! Man, those bags were getting heavy!

We took it easy that day, didn't really do too much. That evening, Gordon came by and we had dinner at the local Italian place. Gordon explained how to get to the airport, and came up to the room for a little while before saying goodbye. 

Next day was the travel day! Raining again, we first walked to the U-Bahn to get our pass for the Airport.  We then checked out and went to the tram to make the connections. At the airport, we got through 2 security checkpoints and grabbed a sandwich and one last beer. 

The Lufthansa flight to Chicago was pleasant enough. This is a good Airline. Complementary wine and pretty good food too. Chicago's O'Hare is huge! We taxied for 20 minutes before getting to the gate. Then through Immigration, Customs, and Security. We then had to re-check our bags for the United flight back to SMF. By the time we got to our gate, boarding had begun! The 2 hour lay-over proved to be barely long enough!


The United flight from Chicago to SMF was very different from the Lufthansa. We were squeezed into a cattle car like seating arrangement. I lucked out because they needed someone to sit at the emergency exit, so I got extra legroom! For a 4 hour flight, there was no food offered at all, at least we got something to drink! Upon arriving at SMF, I was glad we have a relatively small airport. 

Our check-in luggage did not make the connection, so it was delivered the next day. We hopped on Super Shuttle for the long ride home. Back to the house about midnight. It had been a long day!

The weather in Munich our last day was just like our first day there!

Overall, this had been a good little trip. We didn't have any grand plans as we had in Australia, so we weren't too disappointed by the weather, or by catching colds. The weather broke in time for us to enjoy the Zugspitze, the Eagle's Nest and Salzburg and Bad Tolz, so I couldn't complain. It was great to see Gordon doing so well over there, I think he's going to return to Germany at some point in the future.

Europe is an interesting place to visit. It's so similar yet so different. And of course, everything is about 10 times older there than over here! I think it's best to take it in small chunks, so maybe this is the beginning of many trips to Europe!!

Happy Birthday Munich!

Sunday morning we met Gordon at the Marienplatz and found the place hopping! It turns out that this weekend was the celebration of Munich's 852 birthday!! Lot's of stalls were erected. All sorts of vendors and such. 

Gordon recommended this kind of pizza bread like thing which was baked in free standing ovens at the stands. We also enjoyed some potato chip like snacks which are cooked while you wait. They are thick and kind of crispy and chewy at the same time. We eventually had to wash these snacks down with some brew and strudel. I was trying to get as much pastry as I could before I had to go. 

Shelly found a guy who made jewelry out of coins. For us, he took a California Quarter, then drilled, cut and filed out the design, then polished it all. It came out real nice.

  Gordon beside a tiny BMW!

There was an exhibit of old cars, including one of those tiny old BMW's that open from the front. I got Gordon to pose next to it, I don't think he could actually fit in it!


Time to catch a bus to the west side of town and hit Nymphenburg. This was a huge place, with formal gardens and  pools and fountains. Next to it are the botanical gardens, which were the real reason we went there.

 Schloss Nymphenburg.

The gardens are themselves really large, and not too well marked, we got lost a couple of times but eventually made our way through them.

Alpen section of the gardens.

Dinner tonight was provided by Gordon. He has been learning Chinese cooking from one of his friends who actually is Chinese. We took the U-bahn back to Gordon's dorm.  He was preparing Chinese spaghetti for us which was pretty good. While he was cooking, Shelly and I went to the one place you can buy groceries on a Sunday night - a gas station! We picked up a variety of beer and some cookies.

After dinner, Shelly and I threaded our way through the maze of the U-bahn system back to the hotel.

Return to Munich.

 The fire-crew at the train. Their helmets were just like old WWII German Army helmets.

We caught a train for Munich Saturday Morning. Everything seemed okay but at a stop about 15 miles outside of town, we had to get off the train! A fire-crew came up and inspected the last car. Seems to have been some sort of fuel leak because they brought a fan and a HAZMAT clean up kit, along with fire extinguishers.

Well, this took some time.  Eventually the conductor told us that there were busses outside of the station. We began to head to the bus stop when another train suddenly arrived! Everybody who was heading to the bus turned around and dashed for the train, so we did too! We just squeezed in, and got the Munich about an hour and a half late. We still were able to meet Gordon on time that afternoon.

We went to Gordon's dorm and met some of his friends. We'll be back tomorrow for dinner! Tonight, we picked up his bags we will be taking back to the states..

 Gordon's dorm.

Dinner this night was at the Italian place near our Hotel with Gordon. It was the night of the USA's World Cup game vs. England, so as we were getting ready to go some Americans were gathering near one of the TV's set up on the porch. Pretty fun, we've started to follow it. We watched some more back at the room.

Salzburg and Berchtesgaden

Salzburg

We now caught the train to Salzburg, about 2 hours by train from Munich. Although we had left some luggage with Gordon, walking to the tram station, we realized we were still taking too much stuff.  And Shelly, who had opted for a duffel bag, was missing the rolling feature of the suitcases. Too late now, though, we had to work with what we had.

CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES!

We got to the Hauptbahnhof via the tram, not messing with the U-Bahn at all. Once we got our tickets, thanks to the DB people who helped us out, we had breakfast and got on the train.


It was a nice ride, and as we were pulling into Salzburg station, we saw our hotel, right next to the tracks! This concerned us at first, but it turned out to be a blessing! It was only about a 10 minute walk to our lobby. With our luggage situation, that was really fortunate.


After checking in, we went for a stroll. We had lunch at a very small cafe off the main drag, then entered the old section of town. Salzburg really feels crowded, and it is the most crowded around the old section. Lots of little souvenir shops all over the place. The more I see of those, the less I feel like buying anything! (They seem to have the opposite effect on Shelly!)


Eventually, we got into the Palace area which features a wide open area, and a huge cathedral. We wandered around here for a while, finding a restored water wheel at a small bakarie which was pretty cool. Overlooking everything is a fortress, sitting atop a hill. There is a funicular, a tiny inclined train that runs up to it, but we tried to hike up. Did I mention the heat? Boy, it was starting to get hot, and humid, so when we got up to the first gate and found an entrance gate which charged about 7.50 euros, we decided to pass for now. It looks like you can hike up to the top, so we'll try that later.


Even so, the views from where we got to were striking.

We walked back through town to our hotel via the Mirabell Gardens, which were featured in the "Sound of Music". Some of the sculptures are instantly recognizable.


Finally, back to the hotel. We decided to have dinner at the "Gastgarten" attached to the hotel. The menu was varied and not too expensive, and the beer, Stiegl, was excellent. Especially the dark wheatbeer.


Day 2 began with the breakfast at the hotel restaurant. The inside dining area was too stuffy, so we went into the Gast Garten, the same place we had dinner the night before.


It is a self serve breakfast which offers juice, coffee urns at the tables, eggs and meat, and a selection of muesli, yogurt, fruit and breads. Bread with lunchmeat and cheese is a popular breakfast here.  Really nice and convenient. Most of the food is very good. We wish we had this at Munich.


After breakfast, we were picked up at the hotel by the sightseeing group for the "Sound of Music" tour. We were brought to an area just besides the Mirabell Gardens, which is featured in the film. Shelly and I had already explored these the night before. The guide said to meet at the bus in about 10 minutes, and in the meantime, just look around the gardens because they were featured in the Movie. Well, so much for insightful commentary.


The guide was a pretty interesting fellow though, he mentioned that most Austrians and Germans were pretty unaware of the film, yet it has probably brought Salzburg millions of dollars through tourism.


We were soon on the bus heading out to the suburbs of Salzburg for the first stop. Along the way the guide pointed out the real Von Trapp house, it was mostly obscured by trees. We finally got to another place, on the grounds of which is now placed the gazebo from the movie. The film makers presented the gazebo as a gift to the town after the film. It suffered through a couple of moves before finally being placed in this garden.


On our way to the next stop, the guide mentioned we were pacing the house used for the front of the Von Trapp home 'over there'.  We craned our necks and maybe spotted it, but too late for a picture! Oh and that's the Abbey on the left with the 'red roof', but too many red roofs to tell.  On to the lake where the boating scene took place. The closest you can get to that is from across the lake. Well, you can see it alright, but its  a little distance. This was where the Gazebo was originally placed.

The Wedding Church!

It was now off across the country side to the Mondsee. The drive was really beautiful, I was getting more from that the the tour itself! We finally arrived and walked to the church where the wedding scene took place. This is really a stunning little church on the inside. It's in an interesting place, too, but we didn't have a lot of time to explore. I was able to grab a nice piece of cake with raspberry and cream topping from a bakery.


Then back on the bus and back to Salzburg.


I suppose if you don't have a lot of time, this tour would be better than nothing, But if you can spend a little time and investigate a few things, you could easily do this yourself.


It's starting to get hot in Salzburg. We strolled around some more, then found a laundramat to wash some clothes. We met a couple from Laguna Beach there and had a nice chat with them. Then back to the hotel and dinner.

The Eagle's Nest.

The next day's tour of the Eagle's Nest near Berchtesgaden was more interesting. We had a lady guide who drove us up in a small van. The drive was through some great mountain roads, some very narrow ones indeed.

Andechs Bier-Monastery, Garmisch and the Zugspitze

Today we took the long awaited trip to the Andechs Monastery. This is the place Gordon described in his blog, and we were looking forward to it.


We caught a train from Munich into the countryside, got of at a small town and soon found the signs pointing the way! We followed a trail through town and up into the hills and the woods and finally arriving at the monastery. It's quite a busy place, and the weather was really quite nice, so lot's of people were there. We got some food and tried the famous appelweiss bier. The beer is really fine, and the food was pretty good. The Monastery is right next to a small village which lies on the side of the hill opposite of the town we arrived at. Lots of people drive or ride bikes and motorcycles here.


We headed back to town and caught the train back to Muenchen, we had dinner at another brauhaus, then up to the hotel for some cards with Gordon at our room.

  View from the Biergarden.

Day 3 in Germany dawned sunny and dry! It was definitely time to go to the mountains. Gordon joined us, and we all caught the train to Garmisch. It was about a 1 1/2 hour ride, going through some very pretty rural countryside. We were surprised how much open land is out there. Lots of agriculture still goes on in Germany.


We arrived at Garmisch and had to wait for the bus to Eibsee, about 30 minutes. Wandering around, I spotted a souvenir shop displaying the Tyrolian hat I'd been wanting, so I went in and asked how much. The salesman told me the amount, but I couldn't understand, I thought he said 70 rather than 17...I told Gordon about it a little later and he thought 70 was a bit much, so he went in and asked again, and he got the correct price and I got a hat! So much for my German!


We were soon on the bus. This bus winds through several tiny villages on a very narrow road. A funny thing happened on this ride. A passenger, an old lady, had some sort of disagreement with the driver. At her stop, she was talking with him when all of a sudden, she blurted out, in English, "I don't care! You're a son of a bitch!" Too funny, we a laughed about that one.


My original plan called for a cable car ride up to the top of the Zugspitze, then a long trek back down to Garmisch. This is the hike described in the Lonely Planet Guide book. Unfortunately, due to the conditions caused by the long rain and snow seasons this year, this walk was not possible. There was several meters of snow blocking the trail at this time. Besides, a fellow next to us said we would have to start very early, more like 6 to 8 a.m, rather than 11!


Oh well. We decided to get the round trip pass and go up the cable car and down the cog wheel train. The cable car ride was a spectacular one, rising several thousand feet in just a few ear-popping moments.

On the Zugspitze

Upon exiting the cable car, you enter a huge complex of shops and bier gardens on the top of the mountain! It's surprising how developed this spot is! The view is amazing, of course. We enjoyed a bier and a light lunch and wandered around, then took another cable car to the Schonn Alpin. This is the terminus for the cog-wheel train which runs all the way back to Garmisch. It's also the base for several ski lifts. Many years ago I came here for skiing. There is a small chapel erected up here as well.


After we had explored this area a while, we got in line for the cog-wheel train and headed down, It's a pretty steep drop...and much of the first stretch is tunneled through the mountain. Eventually it comes out and you are back in the trees down to the Eibsee. A while later, and you're back in town.


We still had plenty of time, so I proposed a walk to the Olympic Stadium which would have been the terminus for our hike had we trekked down from the Zugspitze.


It was an easy walk to the site, which is still used by the German Team. There are 3 ski jumps, although I think only 2 are used. One is huge and very modern looking, another is smaller but looks functional, and the last is much smaller and looks like its falling apart. Behind the stadium is a popular hiking trail which goes to the Partlaklamm Gorge. We walked up to the toll gate. If we have the time, I'd like to come back and visit this. We'll see.


Shelly and Gordon (yeah we are such whiners!) were starting to complain about walking so it was time to head back and get dinner. We wandered through town a bit before we came to a nice Italian place.  After dinner, it was back to the train station and back home to Muenchen. It was late but we caught the tram and our return to the hotel was uneventful.

How about some pictures!

 At the Hofbrauhaus

 Well, it's about time I got around to including some pictures. Here a web album from the first few days here in Germany.

  Ah, the pretty German countryside!

Check the link below for an album...

CLICK FOR SOME MORE PICTURES....

Germany, day 2

Marienplatz in ribbons!

We got a late start today. It's a holiday here, Corpus Cristi, so most commercial sites were closed down, so we weren't in a big hurry.

Gordon met us at our hotel at 10 and we went to the Marienplatz to grab a coffee and a bite. While there, we saw the scaffolding which was going up yesterday coming down! I'm afraid we missed that show, but we did catch the entire Glockenspiel show at noon!

Michael Jackson's shrine.

Gordon led us through some interesting parts of town, including Dodger's alley. We passed through a promenade which had an old statue which has become the site of an impromptu shrine to Michael Jackson! We then went to visit the Alte Pinakothek, an art museum which houses tons of art from mostly the 13th through 15th centuries. They included Rembrandt, El Greco, a very large collection of Rubens, and even a Da Vinci. It was easy to spend a lot of time there, the Rubens' included the Lion Hunt, which I can remember seeing as a child, it made a strong impression on me back then.

After that, Gordon went to his dorm and Shelly and I went to see Dachau.

Dachau is out in the west suburbs, a good half hour on the train out of town. It seems like a pleasant little town, then you get to the Concentration camp grounds.

A very grim place indeed. we were suprised by how big the grounds were. We passed through the Arbiet Macht Frie (Work Makes you Free) gate and visited the museum, which is pretty stark. Two of the barracks have been rebuilt, along with the foundations of easily 40 more. The path that separates the rows of foundations is lined with old poplars, which were planted at the time of the camps construction.

After the camp, we got back on the train and headed back to town. We met a couple from Houston who were driving through the area. Seems like a nice way to travel, they never make reservations and always stay at hotels on the outskirts.

Got back in town just in time to meet Gordon for dinner at the Schneider Weisse Brewery. Good food.  We enjoyed Weiner Schnitzel and Cordon Blue, and beer, of course.

Weather has been dreary, raining practically all the time!!

Germany Day One: Travel

We started the day at 2:30am, getting up to catch "Super Shuttle" for Sacramento International. SS picked us up at about 3:30 and dropped us off.


We were actually pretty early for our 7:40 flight and we did not have any excessive waits at check in or security. We ran into my co-worker, Johnnie Powell there.  He was going to D.C. as well, but on a different flight which actually left an hour before ours.


The first leg of our trip, SMF to Dulles, was uneventful, but United is getting very sparse in their flights.  There wasn't even a snack service on the 4 hour flight. When we got to Dulles, we were starved and found a "Gordon Biersch" brew pub, and we got some lunch and Marzen.  Our first of many beers on this trip.


The second leg of the flight, Dulles to Munich, got off to an inauspicious beginning when we were put on an indefinite hold on the tarmac due to thunderstorms over the NYC area. We caught a break, though, when the FAA let our flight be a "pathfinder" and we were airborne after about 20 minutes or so.


This United flight was a little more generous than the previous one. We got drinks and snacks, and a dinner, which I ate, but Shelly passed on since we had had that lunch at Dulles only a few hours before. We both tried to sleep, but didn't have too much success. There were a couple of movies to choose from, and I was generally mesmerized by the "Map" display, which shows the planes progress and altitude, speed, etc.


It was almost 8 hours before we deplaned at MUC. It was about 8 a.m, raining and gloomy out. We cleared security and customs with incredible ease, and there was Gordon to greet us! He got the morning off from work and picked up some U-bahn passes for us.


Gordon is now an old pro at German living. He explained the U-Bahn and S-bahn to us, and guided us to our Holiday Inn. Although it was only 10 a.m, they let us check in and drop off our luggage in our nice, though small, room.  Interesting that European rooms only provide a comforter and pillow, no sheets (well a bottom sheet).  It was a bit warm on some evenings and we were never in really hot weather.

After that, Gordon took us to the U-Bahn, we both rode for a while, then he split off to go to his office, and Shelly and I went to the Marienplatz. There we got to the Neue Rathaus just in time to see the Glockenspiel sounding off at 11:00, we missed the big show at 12, because we were wandering round. We grabbed a couple of sandwiches and checked out a couple of the impressive churches nearby. Shelly was looking for a pair of shoes because her clogs were not really great in the wet weather.


We were beginning to really feel our lack of sleep, so we headed back to the hotel for a nap. We managed to get turned around departing our U-Bahn station, but caught our mistake and got to the hotel. All this occurred during a steady light rain. We were both grateful for the Gortex jackets we got for our Australia trip.


We both practically passed out that afternoon, I slept for a good 2 hours. We needed to be at the Marionplatz at 7 to meet Gordon for dinner, so we forced ourselves out of bed and back to the U-Bahn.


We arrived just before 7 and hung around the Fountain at the Marienplatz. There were a lot of people around, as it is the start of a long weekend, Thursday is Corpus Cristi, a state holiday here. It was fun to watch some of the kids around here. There was a bunch near us who were kind of like Gothes" with all the black and the body piercing, but they were well behaved if a little noisy.


We finally spotted Gordon, he had been around but we both missed each other. First thing to do was to buy a couple of umbrellas. We found a good selection at a shop called "C&A", a popular department store. Interesting thing about retail purchases here, is that all the taxes are already figured in the price you see on the tag, so there's no surprise when you ring it up.


We had to go to the Hofbrauhaus this trip, so we did that for dinner. It wasn't super busy there in the dining hall. We decided to order off the menu instead of going to the buffet, because we wanted specific items (like red cabbage). The bier was wonderful, of course. A 1 liter mug, or mass, is the usual serving size here! 

We enjoyed a dinner which included a stuffed cabbage roll, various sausages with sauerkraut, and more beer, and pretzels and bread. After finishing, we strolled around the lower level of this massive complex. Downstairs was more individual sitting, with lots of people drinking! I think this area was more used by the locals, and tourists use the upper floor.


During dinner Gordon mentioned he needed a couple more examples of coasters to complete his collection, so we decided to add to it after dinner. We stopped by a "Paulaner" brew pub, and sampled some more beer, and Gordon, of course, wanted a dessert. We got an apple strudel and some wiessbeir, but no coasters. Sehr gut!


By this time, 11 p.m, it was time to call it a night, we said good bye to Gordon at the U-Bahn.  He took one line and we took another. Then we had our first adventure of the trip. When we got to our transfer point, we found that the trains for our spur had stopped at 8 p.m! What to do? We could take another train up one more stop, but that still left a considerable distance to our hotel, and we had no reliable city map, so we wouldn't really know where we were going. Since we were at a pretty large stop, we figured we'd have a better chance of catching a cab there, so we went up to the surface, and sure enough, there was a lineup of cabs.  A quick cab ride got us safely back to our hotel.  

The next day Gordon figured out how to get us home in the evening using the tram system.  Gordon has really eased our way into German life.

In Munchen!

The Glockenspiel at the "New" Rathaus!

Gordon and his mom...

Hello all, we've made it to Germany!! Here's Shelly and Gordon at the Hofbrauhaus...no Shelly's not drinking 2 masses', she's holding mine while I snap the picture.

We've already seen a bit of the town, I'll supply more details and pictures later...just wanted to drop a line while I'm at a computer.