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.