Left a little late from the Hostel today as we were packing up after 3 days. Tried to take care of making sure that we got to Austria in one piece. We made it out of Munich unscathed and made our way through the German countryside out towards the Austrian countryside.
On the way to Salzburg we had heard that there was a very interesting castle built on an island in the middle of a lake. The place was called Castle Herreninsel in the Chimsee. This was a palace created by King Ludwig II. Reasonably impressive looking place that was lifted (copied) in style and grandeur from King Louis XIV. We had to take a 20 minute Ferry ride to the island and then we very much wanted to go inside the place so we were forced to take the guided tour.
I think that I would be remiss if I did not at least take a moment to mention the worst meal by far that any of us have had during the trip. Of course, eating in the location that we ultimately chose was the fault of Dipper. We were not expecting glorious food but what we actually had was a Snitzel Sammul, a Cheezburger, and a Salami Sammul ( we can only assume that Sammul is sandwhich). The cheezburger was nuked before it was given to me and it looked worse than any mcdonalds hamburger. The Snitzel was like a piece of fried pork between a sad looking bun. The salami sandwich.. was … just like it sounds. Of course this ended up costing us about 18 Euro. … 28 dollars. There are pictures that will be posted later (probably by Dip).
After we got up to the Castle from the boat dock (about a 10 minute walk), we made our way through multiple gardens and fountains to the massive stairwell into the castle. From here were guided by our tour guide (English speaking!) into the main entrance of the castle.
The experience was awe-inspiring. The room had a huge branching marble staircase and vast ceilings and walls covered with French (inspired) paintings. Most of these paintings were either of Louis the XIV himself or battles that he took part in. King Ludwig was absolutely enamored with Louis the XIV. From here, we were informed that we were not allowed to take pictures inside. Upset at this fact, I snapped a few quick shots of the ceiling and then placed the lens cap on. I would soon find out that it would have been nearly impossible to take pictures in the Castle anyway because of the lack of light but, still it was amazing.
Nearly every room full of gold, porcelain, and candles. There were entire statues and flower bouquets made out of porcelain. In King Ludwig’s dining quarters there was a table in the center of the room that was attached to an elevator that could be lowered into the servant’s area so that food could be placed upon it and then raised back up. The elevator took two people 10 minutes to raise and lower. This was all done because King Ludwig did not want to have to deal with the servants personally. While continuing to describe the place is probably difficult without pictures, it is worth while to mention that King Ludwig lived in this castle for 9 days before dying in bed. The place itself had something like 50 rooms. Only 24 of which were completed because he ran out of money. You can actually look many of the uncompleted areas though. Pretty cool stuff.
Ryan of course wants me to mention the fact that it is STILL raining/cloudy outside. Glorious.
We finally headed back to the car and made our way towards Salzburg. We had to stop at the Austrian border to pick up a neon green vest to wear in the event that we ever needed to exit the vehicle on the highway. This gave us the opportunity to pick up a few snacks that we could not eat in Ryan’s car due to the new nature of his vehicle. Regardless, it was almost enough to hold us over until we could have an actual meal. This was becoming more and more necessary as we realized that we didn’t have anything to eat for dinner the night before.
Austria is absolutely beautiful. Salzburg is by far my favorite city so far. It is very small. A bit more touristy than Munich but only to a microscopic degree. They have a small bit of publicity due to it being the birthplace of Mozart but other than that it is a small town nestled in the mountains with no less than several cathedrals and a castle on it’s horizon. We were staying in what can only be described as a Catholic school dorm room. This is also the nicest place we have stayed in thus far. We had our own room with three beds and our own shower/bathroom. Awesome. This was nice to have given that our previous evenings did not actually involve copious amounts of sleep.
In order to arrive at the hostel, we had to locate a position that the GPS that has been saving us all over Europe could not find and then once it was located we had to drive down a pedestrian pathway and get yelled at by an upset Austrian woman. While this was irritating, we were ale to be on our way in reasonably short order. We got in the Hostel and were very pleased with the luxuries we were presented with. Our own room AND bathroom. Magical. We had internet and showers so we could not have been happier. We had plans to go to dinner at a restaurant that was famous for giving a Mozart concert and a 3 course meal all in the style/genre of Mozart.
We got dressed and left significantly early for the restaurant so that we would have time to wander the streets. Salzburg is incredibly clean and very pretty. It is ever so slightly more touristy than Munich but not even so much that you notice it. Munich had the atmosphere that an 18 -22 year old would love but Salzburg is much more comfortable for a slightly older crowd. As you walk around the city your sights are filled with green hills, amazing architecture, and castles on the horizon. The city is separated down the center by a very quick flowing river and everything about it brings a smile to your face.
We tried to use the GPS to locate the restaurant but were unable to make it cooperate properly so we ended up having to ask someone in a hotel if they could help us find it. Apparently the place is reasonably famous so he knew where it was and quickly had us on our way. We reached a large open area where the restaurant was located in a corner. I noticed that right next to it there was a large door and we had some time so we went in. What lay inside is probably the most beautiful church I have ever seen. This is no easy feat due to the sheer number of churches I have visited and my propensity to be insanely cynical about religious landmarks. Regardless of religious leanings this place is amazing. I learned shortly that the church was St. Peter, Salzburg. It didn’t have any crazy remains or body parts of saints in it but it was dedicated to St. Peter and Paul. The ceiling is absolutely amazing and painted within ellipses at the highest points. It is filled with marble and the pews are carved out of very heavy wood. They aren’t comfortable to sit in (none are) but they are very nice to look at. I will have to post pictures of this place later. Utterly awe inspiring.
After leaving we went over to the restaurant and were sat in their concert haul. We were pretty densely packed in but I was not uncomfortable. The plan was to have a concert intermixed with our particular courses. Before we got started the group performed selections from Don Giovanni and then our first course was served. This was Lemon Cream Soup with cinnamon. Very very tasty. Something I have never had before but it was very satisfying. After that course the group played selections from Le Nozze de Figaro. Given how much I have been listening to this opera, everything was very familiar to me and quite well done. We were then served our main course which was Roasted Capon Breast with polenta and truffle-sage-cream sauce, potatoes and vegetables. This was also very good. We were then presented with selections from Die Zauberflot. Desert was a semi frozen parfat of honey. This was probably my favorite course as it was just the perfect amount of sweet and cold. Yum.
As I am slightly elitist about musicianship, I must point out that all of the pieces were preformed by a 6 piece string orchestra with harpsichord accompanying a baritone and a soprano. Both were very effective but the baritone’s voice was a bit darkly toned for my taste. The soprano was very pretty and looked like she could not have been more than 25. She had a very powerful voice but had a tendency to power her way through sections in Le Nozze that could have benefitted from a bit more finesse and subtlety. Other than that, a superb evening. After the concert/dinner we headed home feeling like we wished we could spend more time in Salzburg but knowing that we had to leave early for Venice in the morning as it was about a 6 hours drive.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Europe Day 3 (Wednesday)
Right. Well another long day. We took off at around 9:30 to head over to the BMW-Welt to pick up ryan's brand new Beemer. We were able to reasonably swiftly work the Munich Subway to get over there in a timely fashion and due to the early nature of our arrival, we were actually able to arrange for delivery of the car early.
There was an extensive presentation that came with picking up the car that involved a run-down of all the car's features in a really neat presentation area with touch-projection screens and displays. Ryan also took part in a virtual test drive of the car to experience all of the features first hand. This was done because people who buy vehicles in the US never get an adequate test-drive. It is normal in Europe for a person to take abmw out for 2-3 days before purchasing it, much less the 10 minutes we in the states normally get the vehicle for. This was impressive and after we were finished with the presentation, thebmw representative took the three of us down to view the brand new car (0 miles).
This was quite an experience. They had a spotlight on the car and it was on a turning platform. The full treatment. After once against explaining all the dials in the car, they took a picture:
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=287038
And sent us on our way. Part of the experience is actually driving the car out of the Welt. Ryan did NOT stall the vehicle and we drove it out as intended. After having a snack at the (premium) lounge we headed back out to the car and decided to head out to Dachau for an uplifting (sarcasm) experience. This involved finding petrol for the vehicle and driving the streets of Munich for the first time. With the exception of driving down a two way street obviously intended for only 1 bicycle, the experience wasn't too bad. Gas is probably the equivalent of 8 dollars a gallon here. Probably cost us about 120 dollars to fill the tank from 1/3 full to full. Ouch. Good times though.
Dachau was probably the most sobering moment of the trip so far. The memorials are striking and touching. Although I spent quite a bit of time in school (during the course of the history minor) reading about the horrors and ill treatment of the jewish population during WWII, there is absolutely nothing like experiencing the location first hand. Once you walk in the gloomy looking gate you are blown away by the expanse and enormity of the compound. Most of the barracks were torn down when the camp was liberated in 1945 but several remain where the museum and several memorials are now located. The information areas and displays within the old barracks are very well done and leave absolutely nothing to the imagination. It is incredibly difficult to not at the very least be choked up at the site of the imagery presented and descriptions/captions. We were there for probably an hour and a half and it was very difficult to consider staying much longer.
Dachau was not an extermination camp but a camp where more than 250,000 people were housed and more than 40,000 killed/tortured/murdered. This was one of the earliest camps and when the SS took over in 1939 ( that may be slightly off ) became a model camp for the rest. Regardless, quite an experience.
When we finished here, we moved on to a monestary/brewery/beer garden that was many kilometers outside of Munich called Andech's Monestary/Brewery. I don't know if it was just luck but the three of us seem to have had a knack thus far for finding places that are the bare minimum of 'touristy'. However, this is the first place that we have went where I felt like I was being looked at purely on the basis of the fact that I was speaking english and carrying a camera. I normally don't mind but it made me feel a little awkward here. The monestary itself was actually quite gorgeous. A little too Jesus-Y for my taste but you know how it is. The monestary had a gift shop that sold 75% crucifixes. Seriously. More crucifixes than I have ever seen in my entire life on one wall. I took a picture of it but I actually needed my wide angle lens to get them all inside. Praise Jesus.
I took alot of pictures of the whole place but what was a little more impressive was the beer. Glorious. We also had a slab-o-pork and some potato salad whch was pretty glorious although i did feel my heart exploding inside my chest. Which was good. Right? We are talking one layer of dark meat. One layer of fat. And one layer of fried skin. This is like something Scott would love. Although I must admit it was tasy.
After the what turned out to be extremely strong beer ( I only discovered this during the drive home when I felt exceedingly sleepy), we headed back to the Hostel to relax a bit. My feelings of sleepyness were shared with the other two guys so the Hostel seemed like the best course. Here we hung out and had more beer (probably more beer than I drink in 3 months in 3 days here). Happy hour at the Hostel goes from 6-9pm and during this time beer can be had for 2 euros. Pretty nice. The Champions League cup final (futbol) was on so we decided to watch it there amongst the rest of the young people. We met a few interesting people and had many drinks with them and realized that we all felt a bit old here. I went to bed at around half time as I was bloody tired.
On a final note, Ryan would like me to point out the fact that the weather is crap here. I have not seen the sun since I flew into Heathrow and even there, it dissapered in the time I had there. There doesn't look to be much of a chance that we will see it untill we get to the US as the weather report remains rather grim. I normally enjoy the cloudy weather but it is kind of taking away from the overall incredibly green and fantastic scenery. The roads and scenary in Germany are pretty breathtaking.
Take care for now all.
Ciao!
There was an extensive presentation that came with picking up the car that involved a run-down of all the car's features in a really neat presentation area with touch-projection screens and displays. Ryan also took part in a virtual test drive of the car to experience all of the features first hand. This was done because people who buy vehicles in the US never get an adequate test-drive. It is normal in Europe for a person to take abmw out for 2-3 days before purchasing it, much less the 10 minutes we in the states normally get the vehicle for. This was impressive and after we were finished with the presentation, thebmw representative took the three of us down to view the brand new car (0 miles).
This was quite an experience. They had a spotlight on the car and it was on a turning platform. The full treatment. After once against explaining all the dials in the car, they took a picture:
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=287038
And sent us on our way. Part of the experience is actually driving the car out of the Welt. Ryan did NOT stall the vehicle and we drove it out as intended. After having a snack at the (premium) lounge we headed back out to the car and decided to head out to Dachau for an uplifting (sarcasm) experience. This involved finding petrol for the vehicle and driving the streets of Munich for the first time. With the exception of driving down a two way street obviously intended for only 1 bicycle, the experience wasn't too bad. Gas is probably the equivalent of 8 dollars a gallon here. Probably cost us about 120 dollars to fill the tank from 1/3 full to full. Ouch. Good times though.
Dachau was probably the most sobering moment of the trip so far. The memorials are striking and touching. Although I spent quite a bit of time in school (during the course of the history minor) reading about the horrors and ill treatment of the jewish population during WWII, there is absolutely nothing like experiencing the location first hand. Once you walk in the gloomy looking gate you are blown away by the expanse and enormity of the compound. Most of the barracks were torn down when the camp was liberated in 1945 but several remain where the museum and several memorials are now located. The information areas and displays within the old barracks are very well done and leave absolutely nothing to the imagination. It is incredibly difficult to not at the very least be choked up at the site of the imagery presented and descriptions/captions. We were there for probably an hour and a half and it was very difficult to consider staying much longer.
Dachau was not an extermination camp but a camp where more than 250,000 people were housed and more than 40,000 killed/tortured/murdered. This was one of the earliest camps and when the SS took over in 1939 ( that may be slightly off ) became a model camp for the rest. Regardless, quite an experience.
When we finished here, we moved on to a monestary/brewery/beer garden that was many kilometers outside of Munich called Andech's Monestary/Brewery. I don't know if it was just luck but the three of us seem to have had a knack thus far for finding places that are the bare minimum of 'touristy'. However, this is the first place that we have went where I felt like I was being looked at purely on the basis of the fact that I was speaking english and carrying a camera. I normally don't mind but it made me feel a little awkward here. The monestary itself was actually quite gorgeous. A little too Jesus-Y for my taste but you know how it is. The monestary had a gift shop that sold 75% crucifixes. Seriously. More crucifixes than I have ever seen in my entire life on one wall. I took a picture of it but I actually needed my wide angle lens to get them all inside. Praise Jesus.
I took alot of pictures of the whole place but what was a little more impressive was the beer. Glorious. We also had a slab-o-pork and some potato salad whch was pretty glorious although i did feel my heart exploding inside my chest. Which was good. Right? We are talking one layer of dark meat. One layer of fat. And one layer of fried skin. This is like something Scott would love. Although I must admit it was tasy.
After the what turned out to be extremely strong beer ( I only discovered this during the drive home when I felt exceedingly sleepy), we headed back to the Hostel to relax a bit. My feelings of sleepyness were shared with the other two guys so the Hostel seemed like the best course. Here we hung out and had more beer (probably more beer than I drink in 3 months in 3 days here). Happy hour at the Hostel goes from 6-9pm and during this time beer can be had for 2 euros. Pretty nice. The Champions League cup final (futbol) was on so we decided to watch it there amongst the rest of the young people. We met a few interesting people and had many drinks with them and realized that we all felt a bit old here. I went to bed at around half time as I was bloody tired.
On a final note, Ryan would like me to point out the fact that the weather is crap here. I have not seen the sun since I flew into Heathrow and even there, it dissapered in the time I had there. There doesn't look to be much of a chance that we will see it untill we get to the US as the weather report remains rather grim. I normally enjoy the cloudy weather but it is kind of taking away from the overall incredibly green and fantastic scenery. The roads and scenary in Germany are pretty breathtaking.
Take care for now all.
Ciao!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Europe Day 2 (Tuesday)
The three of us probably slept a combined 4-5 hours Monday night so Tuesday started at a crisp 4:30am… at least for ryan and I. We tried to go back to sleep at around 5:00 just on account of our own self preservitory tendencies but snoring bitch was having none of it. Woke up around 7 and had our 3.90 (euro) breakfast that consisted of meat, foul coffee, lots of oj, swiss and cheddar cheese , lots of jams and chocolate sauces… you know … different sort of breakfast but… edible for the price. Note, dipper last to get up.
Although we knew from the start that getting through the day was going to be rough, we had no idea how bad it would actually be. We went to Viktualienmarkt which is a reasonable sized farmers market of sorts that is the absolute opposite of ‘touristy.’ Spent time wandering around and looking at wares. Lots of non English speaking germanish stuff going on. Very few of vendors spoke more than a dozen word English. Isn’t culture fun. We spent some time discovering how to ask questions that may, at least at a glance, make us look less like American dbags without a clue. I think we almost mastered how to ask if someone speaks English. Our pronunciation needs work. Note: Germans seem on the whole less overly poite than the English or our folk state side (even superficially)
They had huge numbers of very interesting looking spreads and meats here. Possibly will sample later. German food note: Raw fish and onion sandwich with skin on.
From here we decided to take a shot at getting our BMW tour early. As ryan is picking up his car on Wednesday, we initially thought we would do it then but why not give it a shot? The BMW factory is in across the street from Olympiapark the home of the 1972 olympic games. Huge building, very modern, have pictures. Tons of gorgeous cars. Spooge.
Highlight #1. Premium lounge. Lounge available to people doing Euro delivery on their BMWs. Pretty exclusive shit. Free food. Free all. Had two meals here. Tons of coffee. Countless sodas. Only possible improvement. Beer.
Had to wait for the 1:30 tour, Premium lounged it for nearly 2 hours. Ballin’ out of control.
Tour over two hours. We had several fade in and out moments due to extreme exhaustion. Overall, very impressive. Car building robots, bloody amazing. Car painting robots, impressive. Robots. Badass.
Note from Ryan: From a mechanical engineers perspective, these robots (specifically the assembly line ones) were a real thing of beauty. The speed, precision, and dexterity of these machines is something you can really only comprehend when you see it. Massive arms probably extending 20+ feet with several twisting and rotating joints in between made moving these giant steel car parts look like nothing. Now picture countless of these robots working in series perfectly choreographed like a dance. Amazing.
No pictures inside of factory but it was definitely something to behold. After tour, made an attempt to caffeine up a bit more at the ‘premium lounge.’ We were insanely insanely tired so this was the only means of survival at this point. Caught an early glimpse of ryan’s car that we are picking up tomorrow and got to watch an extremely excited azn pick up his white bmw. Red Leather. WTF.
Decided to take the subway back to Odeonsplatz to take a gander at some of the recommended sites in Munich. Really neat architecture. Tons of pictures. Also, lots of really expensive shops. Rolex, D&G, Prada, etc.. Win. Watches that cost more than ryan’s car. Good game. Ugly watch too. Sould have taken a picture of the 34k Euro watch. Wtf?
We walked back to the hostel knowing we were unlikely to make it much further. This was probably around 6:30 and we decided to chill in the Hostel lounge for a few hours to try and even out our schedules. Jet lag was in extreme need of being owned. Ryan made me stay up. Dick.
In his endeavor to this, he brought out beer after beer after beer. In his defense, they were only 2 euro. Happy hour! Spent nearly 2 hours attempting to talk dipper out of being a moron. Little success achieved. Lots of breath wasted. Work in progress… Same old story.
Went to bed at around 11:00. Ryan and Dipper decided to stay up a bit longer and chill w/ the Chicago croud. Loud bitches.
Although we knew from the start that getting through the day was going to be rough, we had no idea how bad it would actually be. We went to Viktualienmarkt which is a reasonable sized farmers market of sorts that is the absolute opposite of ‘touristy.’ Spent time wandering around and looking at wares. Lots of non English speaking germanish stuff going on. Very few of vendors spoke more than a dozen word English. Isn’t culture fun. We spent some time discovering how to ask questions that may, at least at a glance, make us look less like American dbags without a clue. I think we almost mastered how to ask if someone speaks English. Our pronunciation needs work. Note: Germans seem on the whole less overly poite than the English or our folk state side (even superficially)
They had huge numbers of very interesting looking spreads and meats here. Possibly will sample later. German food note: Raw fish and onion sandwich with skin on.
From here we decided to take a shot at getting our BMW tour early. As ryan is picking up his car on Wednesday, we initially thought we would do it then but why not give it a shot? The BMW factory is in across the street from Olympiapark the home of the 1972 olympic games. Huge building, very modern, have pictures. Tons of gorgeous cars. Spooge.
Highlight #1. Premium lounge. Lounge available to people doing Euro delivery on their BMWs. Pretty exclusive shit. Free food. Free all. Had two meals here. Tons of coffee. Countless sodas. Only possible improvement. Beer.
Had to wait for the 1:30 tour, Premium lounged it for nearly 2 hours. Ballin’ out of control.
Tour over two hours. We had several fade in and out moments due to extreme exhaustion. Overall, very impressive. Car building robots, bloody amazing. Car painting robots, impressive. Robots. Badass.
Note from Ryan: From a mechanical engineers perspective, these robots (specifically the assembly line ones) were a real thing of beauty. The speed, precision, and dexterity of these machines is something you can really only comprehend when you see it. Massive arms probably extending 20+ feet with several twisting and rotating joints in between made moving these giant steel car parts look like nothing. Now picture countless of these robots working in series perfectly choreographed like a dance. Amazing.
No pictures inside of factory but it was definitely something to behold. After tour, made an attempt to caffeine up a bit more at the ‘premium lounge.’ We were insanely insanely tired so this was the only means of survival at this point. Caught an early glimpse of ryan’s car that we are picking up tomorrow and got to watch an extremely excited azn pick up his white bmw. Red Leather. WTF.
Decided to take the subway back to Odeonsplatz to take a gander at some of the recommended sites in Munich. Really neat architecture. Tons of pictures. Also, lots of really expensive shops. Rolex, D&G, Prada, etc.. Win. Watches that cost more than ryan’s car. Good game. Ugly watch too. Sould have taken a picture of the 34k Euro watch. Wtf?
We walked back to the hostel knowing we were unlikely to make it much further. This was probably around 6:30 and we decided to chill in the Hostel lounge for a few hours to try and even out our schedules. Jet lag was in extreme need of being owned. Ryan made me stay up. Dick.
In his endeavor to this, he brought out beer after beer after beer. In his defense, they were only 2 euro. Happy hour! Spent nearly 2 hours attempting to talk dipper out of being a moron. Little success achieved. Lots of breath wasted. Work in progress… Same old story.
Went to bed at around 11:00. Ryan and Dipper decided to stay up a bit longer and chill w/ the Chicago croud. Loud bitches.
Europe Day 1 (Monday)
Europe Day 1
Arrived in Heathrow at 7am. Long taxi into Terminal 4 followed by a commute to the fated Terminal 5. This terminal is brand new (opened in February) and by now is almost infamous for an absolutely catastrophic opening few months. Tons of baggage lost and confused travelers. British Airways and Heathrow seem to have been making a conscientious effort to improve things and based upon my experience they have succeeded to at least a reasonable level.
Immediately off the plane I walked onto a bus that took me to Terminal 4 where I followed tons of signs to connections for Terminal 5. Once I got down to the lower portion of the terminal I was directed towards another bus driven by a very terse English woman that was destined towards Terminal 5. The ride took almost 20 minutes and went through long underground tunnels and other forgettable portions of the airport.
Terminal 5 from the outside is a dauntingly gorgeous piece of engineering. It looks almost like an enormous (like the size of a military hangar) glass and concrete wave. Once inside, I was pushed through security for the 5th time in 3 days by reasonably efficient English folk who at first glance didn’t seem to hate their jobs.
After I got through security I was blown away at the size of the inside of the Terminal. The ceiling was more than 100 feet above my head and the terminal itself is supposed to be more than a quarter mile long. The inside is densely packed with high class shops (prada, coach, etc…) all of which are crazy expensive. Its almost like a ritzy mall that planes just happen to take off from.
Reasonably comfortable though as there are copious amounts of chairs and lounges. There is also a ‘multi-faith’ room (wtf????)…. Where people can go to meditate and pray. I figure if there is one volatile area in the whole airport, that has got to be it. I went in for an obligatory “praise jesus” and then was on my way.
I had almost 5 hours to kill before my connection to Munich was schedule to depart so I made an attempt to sleep. I failed. I was pretty wrecked regardless of my inability to sleep. Attending Elizabeth’s wedding on two hours of sleep and then having to wake up at 8:30 to leave for the airport with the Woodruffs did not make for any more alert of a day.
Flight to Munich was pretty short. Tried to sleep. Failed.
Munich airport is brutally efficient and easy to get through. Customs basically looked at me, stamped my passport and then peaced me. Easy. My bag was essentially waiting for me when I walked out of customs. Unfortunately I had to wait almost an hour for Ryan and Dip to arrive from their terminal with the ride.
Our ride was a very nice gentleman by the name of Ralf. He works for BMW and gave us a ride into the Munich city center where our hostel is. He also sat down with us and gave us a rundown of many of the things to see and do in town.
Hostel is pretty good actually. Not in any way skeezy or dodgy. I was honestly expecting crap so this place is pretty good. Bathrooms are very clean, rooms are freshly painted and very clean. We have 3 beds in a 14 or so bed area. All of the people are nice and diverse in nationality. There are the obligatory college students from the states and some others.
Once we got settled we went out for some food/beer. On our way to finding food we walked into a group of incredible musicians doing a concert. They performed the overture from Rossini’s Barber of Seville on one violin, one bass, one cello, and an accordion. I was blown away how good they were. I could have probably stayed there and watched for a long time but hunger took over.
We visited a restaurant mildy off the main road in an effort to find something less touristy. Although we seemed to be frowned upon ever so slightly when entering the place due to our lack of ability to speak German, we quickly warmed up to the very good beer and food. I figure if the three of us have 1 goal for this trip, it should be to be able to order beer in all of the languages of the places we visit. Seriously.
After the food we walked down the road to the Hoffbrauhaus which is a huge touristy beer hall where they serve… beer. Shocking. Its very loud and reasonably atmospheric but the idea here is beer. When I say beer I mean big fuck-off liters of beer. The three of us all went in and did one. Given our lack of sleep and sub-par nutrition due to traveling we were all pretty wrecked at this point so we headed back to the hostel which has a bar that is open to 4am. We had waters here and then decided to go to bed. Tried to sleep well but it was hard once the buzz went away. Bitch ass dude kept snoring. Put iphone headphones on and listened to Mozart for an hour to try and make it to sleep.
Notes:
- travel pussy – (condom brand in the beer halls… awesome.)
- t – Punkt (T-Mobile in Germany)
- Christ (some shop that is everywhere… everytime I see it… I think… oh nm)
Arrived in Heathrow at 7am. Long taxi into Terminal 4 followed by a commute to the fated Terminal 5. This terminal is brand new (opened in February) and by now is almost infamous for an absolutely catastrophic opening few months. Tons of baggage lost and confused travelers. British Airways and Heathrow seem to have been making a conscientious effort to improve things and based upon my experience they have succeeded to at least a reasonable level.
Immediately off the plane I walked onto a bus that took me to Terminal 4 where I followed tons of signs to connections for Terminal 5. Once I got down to the lower portion of the terminal I was directed towards another bus driven by a very terse English woman that was destined towards Terminal 5. The ride took almost 20 minutes and went through long underground tunnels and other forgettable portions of the airport.
Terminal 5 from the outside is a dauntingly gorgeous piece of engineering. It looks almost like an enormous (like the size of a military hangar) glass and concrete wave. Once inside, I was pushed through security for the 5th time in 3 days by reasonably efficient English folk who at first glance didn’t seem to hate their jobs.
After I got through security I was blown away at the size of the inside of the Terminal. The ceiling was more than 100 feet above my head and the terminal itself is supposed to be more than a quarter mile long. The inside is densely packed with high class shops (prada, coach, etc…) all of which are crazy expensive. Its almost like a ritzy mall that planes just happen to take off from.
Reasonably comfortable though as there are copious amounts of chairs and lounges. There is also a ‘multi-faith’ room (wtf????)…. Where people can go to meditate and pray. I figure if there is one volatile area in the whole airport, that has got to be it. I went in for an obligatory “praise jesus” and then was on my way.
I had almost 5 hours to kill before my connection to Munich was schedule to depart so I made an attempt to sleep. I failed. I was pretty wrecked regardless of my inability to sleep. Attending Elizabeth’s wedding on two hours of sleep and then having to wake up at 8:30 to leave for the airport with the Woodruffs did not make for any more alert of a day.
Flight to Munich was pretty short. Tried to sleep. Failed.
Munich airport is brutally efficient and easy to get through. Customs basically looked at me, stamped my passport and then peaced me. Easy. My bag was essentially waiting for me when I walked out of customs. Unfortunately I had to wait almost an hour for Ryan and Dip to arrive from their terminal with the ride.
Our ride was a very nice gentleman by the name of Ralf. He works for BMW and gave us a ride into the Munich city center where our hostel is. He also sat down with us and gave us a rundown of many of the things to see and do in town.
Hostel is pretty good actually. Not in any way skeezy or dodgy. I was honestly expecting crap so this place is pretty good. Bathrooms are very clean, rooms are freshly painted and very clean. We have 3 beds in a 14 or so bed area. All of the people are nice and diverse in nationality. There are the obligatory college students from the states and some others.
Once we got settled we went out for some food/beer. On our way to finding food we walked into a group of incredible musicians doing a concert. They performed the overture from Rossini’s Barber of Seville on one violin, one bass, one cello, and an accordion. I was blown away how good they were. I could have probably stayed there and watched for a long time but hunger took over.
We visited a restaurant mildy off the main road in an effort to find something less touristy. Although we seemed to be frowned upon ever so slightly when entering the place due to our lack of ability to speak German, we quickly warmed up to the very good beer and food. I figure if the three of us have 1 goal for this trip, it should be to be able to order beer in all of the languages of the places we visit. Seriously.
After the food we walked down the road to the Hoffbrauhaus which is a huge touristy beer hall where they serve… beer. Shocking. Its very loud and reasonably atmospheric but the idea here is beer. When I say beer I mean big fuck-off liters of beer. The three of us all went in and did one. Given our lack of sleep and sub-par nutrition due to traveling we were all pretty wrecked at this point so we headed back to the hostel which has a bar that is open to 4am. We had waters here and then decided to go to bed. Tried to sleep well but it was hard once the buzz went away. Bitch ass dude kept snoring. Put iphone headphones on and listened to Mozart for an hour to try and make it to sleep.
Notes:
- travel pussy – (condom brand in the beer halls… awesome.)
- t – Punkt (T-Mobile in Germany)
- Christ (some shop that is everywhere… everytime I see it… I think… oh nm)
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