Day 14 - July 30 - On Our Own in Munich

At 5:45 am we are out the door of the Imlauder Pitter hotel in Salzburg and seated in a Mercedes 6 passenger SUV with our box breakfast in hand and the driver is heading to the Munich Airport.

There were 10 of us, 2 SUVs, and I clocked our speed on one of their aitobahns at just around 198 km putting it at 113 mph.  It reminded me of driving from Denver to Custer SD at about 100 mph.  Howard asked me if we were flying.  I gave it a good try and so did our driver this morning.   175 km  from Salzburg to Munich airport, and we arrived at 7:10 am.

The Hilton where we are staying tonight is between Terminal 1&2 allowing for ease tomorrow morning.  We were able to store our baggage and now while we wait for the world to wake up, we've had coffee and some of the box breakfast given to us.  

We'll check in online for tomorrow's flight shortly and then take a taxi downtown.  Wayne is going to show me the Marianplatz, which appears to be a pedestrian square with lots of stores, a church and a glockenspiel. 

Now may be as good a time as ever to reflect on some crazy things that have crossed my mind in no particular order.

Toilet paper.  No, my fixation is in taking pictures of toilets.  But I have to say, the toilet paper in the countries we've visited has been amazingly excellent.  If I use the word sturdy, I can stop talking about it.  Nothing flimsy here in the EU.

Tunnels, tunnels, tunnels.  I have never driven through so many tunnels EVER!  It's obviously due to the number of mountains we have driven over and through.  The Alps! The best way is either through the mountains and if not, over using lots of switchbacks.  Anyway, lots of tunnels.

Stairs and toilets, (again).  I guess the real estate they save might be the reason.  But I haven't met a rest room, a/k/a water closet on the first floor in 15 days.  Up, down, Up, up, up...and then the required down, down down.  When you gotta go, you gotta go!

Covered highways.  With all the traveling we've done, I've noticed many mountain roads have covers or large overhangs to keep the snowfall, avalanche, rockslides from covering the roads.  Travel to ski resorts and the resulting tourism income makes this a requirement.

Bread.  I expected amazing Austrian pastries and 'to die for ' Swiss chocolate.  Let me tell you, I found all that and then some.  Oh yeah, I found those Bavarian pretzels too!  Some, better then others.  It's my upbringing, a South Philadelphia thing!  Comparing them to my beloved pretzels.  What I didn't expect was the amazing bread I ate everywhere.    I came back from Italy wanting to buy a capachino machine.  Now I know I either need to make my own crusty delicious bread or just buy good artisan bread, 'cause Arizona bread, just "ain't" cutting it.  It's soft, mushy and sticky.  Man, am I going to miss the bread in Europe.

Last, Duvets.  Not my favorite thing here in Europe.  Heavy, heavy blanket with a duvet cover but just the length and width of the bed.  Nothing hangs over the edge. Don't ever think of turning over and having it stay on you.  I have picked them up in the middle of the night so many times, I lost count. I guess I'm going to have to learn to sleep on my back without moving on future trips to Europe.

Enough reflection.  Taxi time.  We took a cab to the Marianplatz, a pedestrian only square.  There we heard the glockenspiel.  It only plays twice a day, at 11 am and noon.  

We had lunch right across from it, outside in the square so we could watch the show at 11 am and then, again at noon across the square from the Rathausturm. How ornate the building is!    

Lunch was beer, white sausages, pretty good, and a pretzel. Wayne ordered a second pretzel and I had to try their apple strudel

After the two shows, we walked around the square taking pictures and another taxi ride back to the hotel.  Oh yes.  I forgot to mention, I used the water closet at the restaurant.  Guess what, it was downstairs!  Yup, steps down and up.  And another European thing.  It cost 1 euro.  Have your Euros ready!

We're back in our room now until we emerge for the flight home tomorrow.

Pictures of the Hilton hotel at Munich airport 

An optical illusion walking down the hall to the room