I am on a "Flixbus," an intercity bus from Munich to Freiburg, for 7 Euro, which is about the best bargain I've encountered on my trip. They have complimentary Internet (I am typing this now while listening to Jason Mraz on my headphones!) and they even give you free pretzel. I am headed back to my original city to pick up my other suitcase, and then head to the Frankfurt airport tomorrow for departure.
Well, the voting is in, and I must say Munich is the winner as my favorite city. My hotel, the Platzl, is right around the corner from the Hoffbrau House (NH). The HH may not be the place where everybody knows your name, but it is the place where everyone is friendly, and soon language barriers go down, and everyone is laughing and drinking giant glasses of beer and listening to a Bavarian band over the din of everyone else carrying on.
I arrived Saturday afternoon, and after getting settled in my lovely little room, I headed over to the Hoffbrau and ordered a tall beer and a pretzel, and there was a fellow at our communal table (where eight people were seated -- you just grab an empty spot anywhere you can) named Sean (or Shawn, not quite sure) who hailed from Atlanta (a retired school superintendent and military retiree) age 52 who spent quite of bit of time in Chicago, and was very familiar with Wisconsin -- Madison, Prairie du Chein -- and soon we were swapping stories.
I had dinner at a different restaurant of sausages and sauerkraut, which were delicious, with more beer. I went back to my room after that, and went to bed, tired from the beer and the 6 hour train ride from Berlin.
The next morning, Sunday, I had the hotel's lovely buffet breakfast, which is included with the room. I then bought a ticket for the city tour, with my major stop being the BMW museum and showroom. This is Munich's No. 1 tourist attraction, and it's easy to see why. The complex itself is beautiful, and the museum is topnotch. I have never owned a BMW, but it's easy to see why they attract so many devotees. I wasn't too interested in their motorcycles, but their cars are fascinating through the decades with their "3-series" being their most successful line. Loved their little one-seater that I think of the "Cousin IT" mobile from the Addams family movie; the car opens from the front like the door on a refrigerator. From the museum, I went to the showroom and got to sit in several BMWs, all of which were the sedan and limousine varieties (I am not built for the sport models!). Oh, and did I mention that the normal 8.50 Euro admission fee was waived today. Outstanding!
I caught the tour bus back to the stop closest to my hotel, and then changed into the terry robe and slippers provided and went to the hotel's Turkish spa and soaked my feet in the footbath for about one half hour. What an absolute treat. The perfect treatment for my tired and aching dogs. From there I stripped down naked and sat in the wet sauna and had a luxurious experience in the shower habitat that has about a dozen nozzles that spray you in about every direction except one, and I'll leave that one to your imagination.
I changed into street clothes and walked over to the HH, which was not as busy on a Sunday and they had a different band. I sat at a table with only one other person, who I soon learned his name was "Pete," born the Black Forest region of Germany, but currently lives and works in Switzerland for the government weather department as an IT person. Spoke enough English that we could carry on a very nice conversation about many things. He really wants to visit the United States and visit Washington DC, and Gettysburg of all places because he is a big historian of the US civil war ever since he saw the movie, and he wants to visit the place where it happened. Can you imagine such a thing? Anyway, we spoke at length about the South and if it different from the North and whether racism still exists there and other things. He also bought me another giant beer, which was very nice of him. Both times I went to the HH I found friendly people. Pete raved and raved about the Deutsches Museum, and how I must go if I like science and technology, and I told him I wanted to go, bit I thought all museums in Munich and Germany were closed Mondays, but he checked his Smartphone and found the museum was open Monday, so I am SO going! I was planning to simply visit the city market, and spend the day in the hotel spa/fitness center, but I guess my dogs will have to last me one more day. I simply cannot pass up this opportunity. If you visit their website, you will see that there are so many things to see there that you cannot see anywhere else in the world.
So I woke up Monday morning with a "new plan" to see the museum. I had another delicious breakfast, purchased a ticket online for a Flixbus ticket, then checked out of the Platzl and took a taxi to the Deutsches Museum and got right there when they opened at 9 a.m. The place is so frickin' huge I knew I couldn't see it all, but I wanted to see, in no particular order:
* the underground mine (takes about an hour by itself), musical instruments, technical toys, printing technology, photo and film technology, computers, microelectronics, and chronometry of course (time measurement). I am not exaggerating when I say you could easily spend a day in each section, but I did the best I could with the 4.5 hours I had there, including about a 15 minute snack/rest break. The collections are absolutely fabulous, and even though I had to put up with teeming hordes of school children (I guess some things are the same all over the world!) it was so incredibly worth it. My inner nerd was certainly well fed today.
From the museum I caught a taxi to the central bus station, and caught the 15:05 Flex to Freiburg. We were on the Autobahn for a while, but now our driver is on the twisty turny local roads for some reason, and the Internet keeps popping in and out, and it feels like I am on a carnival ride. After about two hours, the driver makes a 15 minute break stop to use the toilets in a small train station, grab a snack form the one concession stand, or do whatever else needs to be done. There is a toilet on the bus, but it appears tricky with the bus rocking and rolling all the time.
The last half hour into Freiburg is a gorgeous ride down the mountainside with switchbacks and tunnels and steep grades. This was a great experience coming by roadway and see the scenery in a completely different way. We arrive at Freiburg at 8:05, and the InterCity Hotel is right there, and I luck out getting a single room without having a reservation. This will allow me to get a few hours sleep, shower, and shave before reclaiming my extra bag, and boarding the 5:52 a.m. train to Frankfurt Airport to begin my journey home.
I am trying to think of something profound to say here at the end of journey, but I am tired and have been fighting a cold since last Thursday that has been dragging me down. I guess I must go back to last Spring when I decided that the winter getaway would have to be forsaken in place of this trip because, financially, I could not afford to do both. As luck would have it, we had a very bad and unforgiving winter this year, and I kept thinking: "I wonder if the trade off will be worth it? Will this trip to Basel and to Germany be worth all the sub-zero temperatures, the snow shoveling and snowblowing, and frozen pipes?"
I can now answer that with a resounding, "yes."
Love,
Bruce
Great report, so glad the trip was worth it for you!
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