Germany 2007 |
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In an effort to utilize my airline credit that I built with my canceled flights to London in 2006, I worked out a little trip to Germany with Robb in 2007. Well the whole airline credit thing didn’t work out as expected but I got a wonderful trip.
My pictures are not quite ready, but Robb’s are posted at his online gallery at http://robby-helen.smugmug.com/gallery/3325931
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Leaving Phoenix, layover in Philadelphia and the first few hours of the of the transatlantic flight. |
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Germany customs, the S-Bahn, city navigation, dinner and beer. |
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Sleeping in :-), wandering around Munich, surfers in the English Garden & an amazing venison and mushroom dish with spatzel. |
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Oktoberfest grounds, duckwoman, doner kababs with Islamic gangsta style rap. |
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Breakfast of champions (Weissewurst & Weiss Bier), hiking in the Bavarian mountains, & Garmish. |
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Breakfast buffet, Parknachklamm, Zugspitze. |
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Schloss Neuschwanstein, Stuttgart, Alpirsbach (Black Forest ) |
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Black Forest. Triberg waterfall, lunch at Titisee, Hinterzarten. |
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Last day in Munich, finishing off the list. The beergarden. |
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Another adventure on US Airways |
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I get my luggage back, and drive my 350 Z again. |
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August 7, 2007 |
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My alarm begins blazing at 6:45 AM, and I manage to avoid the usual snooze game where I try to squeeze a few more minutes of precious sleep. Today I don’t care about how tired I am at the start of my day. Today I theoretically have a chance to sleep all day long once I get things started. I take my morning shower and finish stuffing the last couple items in my bags. I double check for my wallet and passport as I hop into Dave’s car as he drops me off at the airport after we breeze past everybody else’s morning commute ( courtesy of the carpool laneJ ).
Tickets in hand, bags offloaded, time for a breakfast burrito and then security. I get to the terminal with an hour to kill before we board. I didn’t really feel like reading so I booted my computer and used the free wireless internet at PHX and chatted with Tish for a good segment of that time. About 10 minutes until boarding I decide to use the facilities and pick up a pack of gum, so I power down the laptop and take care of things. During this time I run into a couple of friends. Well the are actually Nico and Melissa’s friends, but I have known them for several years now so I don’t fell out of line in using the term ‘friend’. Turns out they had a whole bunch of issues with their flight a couple hours earlier and ended up on my flight on they way to Connecticut.
Boarding goes quick enough and I get to my nice window seat right up at the front of the plane. Now is when the sucking began. My flight is through Philadelphia and I guess that is within the Washington DC flight zone and there are a lot of restrictions, basically we are delayed in our takeoff. We taxi out and wait forever and finally the captain announces that we are next, and what do you think happens? Well it sure as heck wasn’t takeoff, as that would hardly be worth writing down. Well I wish I knew the actual answer, but I believe the words that were communicated to us were a “medical condition” occurred and two passengers needed to be returned to the gate. They asked if there was any medical professionals on board to help until the paramedics got there, but the rest of us were asked to remain seated as we return to the gate. We pull up and a couple security guys come on followed shortly by a fireman. A lady was rolled out in a wheelchair like thing (designed for the narrow aisles in the airplanes). She was conscious and appeared to be having some sort of anxiety attack or something as she was breathing into a plastic bag. It is very unfortunate that something had to happen, but better for all involved that it happened before takeoff then when we are in the air. EMT response time is much better and we didn’t have to make an emergency landing anywhere.
This little adventure sucked up enough time that we missed our flight plan and had to sit and wait for a new flight plan to be assigned. ARG!!!!! I just want to start my vacation. Anyways, once the technical mumbo jumbo was complete we were informed that we getting to buck the line and take off soon, instead of waiting for all the other planes. It still seemed to take a while, but at approximately 12:00 my 10:30 flight was now airborne.
The movie on the flight was “Shrek the Third”, not a bad choice as I never got a chance to see that movie and I enjoyed the first 2. It was alright, but not powerful enough to keep me awake. Somehow during the attacking of the castle I managed to drift into sleep that held me until the credits began rolling. Not sure how much I missed, but I will catch it another time. After this I pull out my books on Germany and begin reading more on what I want to do during my stay. Unfortunately I am not much closer to my post Munich agenda then I was when we started, except I know a lot more details of what I could do.
The tentative agenda for my trip is as follows. Wednesday: Arrive in Munich, find my way to the hotel. I may take a quick nap before showering and then exploring the city center. At 6:00 I will meet up with Robb at the Hotel and we will go drink some of this infamous German Beer I keep hearing about. Thursday – Friday: are more of the same. There are some museums and parts of Munich that I want to check out. For example the English Garden is a huge city park in the city. It is one of the largest park of its sort in Europe and is even bigger then Manhattan’s Central Park. There are several museums and historical sites I can check out, as well as tours I can take. I read today of a brewery tour, and some castle tours. Not sure what I will do on these days, it sort of depends on the weather and how easy it is to find things. Saturday-Wednesday: Robb and I are gong to rent a car and explore around Bavaria and its surrounding areas. Again the agenda is still in the works. I have been reading some books and Robb has been checking with coworkers to get ideas. The agenda ideas (in no particular order) are
There are so many things that we can do, it is tough to decide. And the books keep recommending 3 and 5+ day agendas per area. I went trough the books and underlined the areas that interested me the most, Robb and I can figure out the details and I will write them later.
I entertained myself with the books for the majority of the rest of the flight. I obviously was playing some tunes on my iPod the whole time. I wasn’t too interested in the rest of the TV entertainment they provided, so I just read and listened. I eventually played a movie on my iPod and chilled until we began our decent into Philadelphia. This decent seemed to take forever, and once we got down they didn’t have a place for us to pull up. We were scheduled to pull into a gate relatively close to the gate I needed to get to for my connection, which was convenient since my landing was a approximately 1.5 hours late. But they moved us from concourse A to Concourse C. So I get off the plan and quickly hoof it to gate A20. As I am getting really close I hear them announce that US Airways Flight 706 to Munich was now departing to out of Gate A13. This was ironically about half of the distance that I had already traveled from concourse C since Concourse A is broken into 2 parts. But I get there in plenty of time to board.
I get to my seat, this time throwing my bag in the overhead compartment instead of under the seat in front of me. I really could have used that leg room on the way to Philly. By now I am tired of reading on Germany so I pulled out my snowboarding magazine for a little bit and entertain myself until we can turn on electronic devices. Dinner was nice, BBQ beef with mash potatoes and veggies and a couple other small sides. It hit the spot, especially since I was starving.
The Movie was “Blades of Glory”. I saw this one in the theater, but I enjoyed it and gladly watched it again. This is a nice transition into my next gripe. I almost feel bad griping about the delay out of Phoenix., of all things a Medical Emergency seems the most noble of reasons to delay a flight. However that doesn’t change the fact that it was very inconvenient, and it seems the captain could have requested a new flight plan a little sooner when they were dealing with the medical situation. Anyways, I drift. Back on course, because I really want to catch up to the present time so I can take another nap. THIS PLANE BLOWS!!!!!!!! I know I griped a lot about United over the past few months, but their international plane was nice, as was British Airways and Lufthansa. I figured they were all the same with subtle differences. But this plain is significantly different. Not sure if it is just that this is an older plan in the fleet, or if US Airways is just cheap. I will wait for my return flight to pass to much judgment, but let me list the things I do not like about this flight.
The best thing about this flight is the lack of people. I am in a bank of 3 seats and the only passenger here. I am all spread out and it is nice.
Alrighty that pretty much brings us to the present. It was a while ago that I pulled out the laptop and started typing away. Since then “Shrek the Third” has come on so it looks like I don’t have to wait after all. It is now at the last portion that I clearly remember. It is the part where Pinocchio does his “Kittyism” (an overly complicated way of wording something with a series of negatives to confuse people. For example ‘I am not not not not happy to see you’ would be considered a Kittyism). Anyways it looks like I missed quite a bit of the movie, but now we are square.
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August 8, 2007 |
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After the movie I try for a little shut eye, but didn’t get much. I was too hungry and afraid I would miss a meal if I drifted to deep into sleep. The rest of the flight was rather uneventful (but that is a good thing). One annoying thing is the stupidity of the people on the flight. I was close enough to the lavatory that I could have folded a paper airplane and accurately hit each passenger that went in there. And I got to watch first hand each a lot of passengers unable to figure out how to get into the bathroom. I will cut them a little slack because the design was not intuitive and probably would have confused me, but I am not a moron and would have figured it out. It wasn’t a simple door, it was a funky door that folded into itself, but thye had a handle that screamed ‘pull me’ so that is what everybody did. But you needed to push. I was amazed at the number of people that stood there looking for a while and then started walking off until I or another passenger enlightened them on how to use the shi---r.
Customs was really quick and easy, but that is probably because I was way up towards the front of the plane and got out quickly. The customs officer asked where my final destination, duration of stay and nature of visit and that was about it. On to baggage claim, again very easy. I went to the restroom and when I cam back my bags were on the carousel. On to the next and final customs stop where they ask you if you have anything to declare. He specifically asked if I had any “tobacco or anything”. I stated that I had no tobacco but I brought a couple bottles of beer. I got a really funny look and he asked why I would bring my own beer when German beer is much better. Not wanting to get into details I just said I brought it for comparison sake. The reality is that it is 2 bottles of the home brew that Robb helped us make. I though he was entitled to consume some of it as well.
Next stop I convert Dave’s rent money into Euros. That was pretty simple. It is convenient that most everybody I encountered spoke English. Now with the local currency in hand I begin aimlessly wandering the terminal looking for some sort of indication as to where the Train or S-Bahn is. (S-Bahn is the above ground train system, U-Bahn is the underground). I eventually saw a sign with a logo that looked like it was probably a train so I followed it out to a pseudo covered courtyard market type place with lots of stores for shopping and a couple of sand volleyball courts with people playing. I wander until I see the sign for the S-Bahn and I go down the stairs.
Now the fun began as I tried to figure out how to purchase a train ticket. I had a good idea of where I wanted to go, but I just didn’t understand the pricing structure. It is based on a zone system so a cheap ticked is good for a zone, and I just didn’t understand which ticket I needed. I contemplated this for a while and a gentleman came up to me and spoke something in German that couldn’t understand, I started to apologize and he asked if I spoke English. He informed me that he was heading to Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) and that he had a 5 person ticket. He was willing to sell me one of the those seats for 10 Euro (5 Euro if he found somebody else to go in on it). Well that happens to be where I was heading. I am not entirely positive that 10 Euro was a deal, but I think it would have been more like 20 if I just bought a single ticket myself. I liked the simplicity of it and it isn’t like I was going some random place, or round about way for cheaper. It was simply a cheaper version of the ticket that I was trying to buy. He found somebody else so the 3 of use hopped on the train and took the ~40 minute ride to the city center. However there were a couple of odd feelings about it, for example, why did this guy traveling by himself have a ticket for 5 people? Perhaps he is meeting up with 4 people when he gets there, who knows. I did pay attention to his behavior when we exchange money, he wasn’t skittish looking to see if there police around or anything, it felt legit.
Foreign navigation is not my strength. And living in Phoenix (an almost perfect grid system) doesn’t really help either. I came out of the train station and looked for some familiar street names. I wandered a bit and thought I had it figured out. But I was wrong. I was starting to get really frustrated and about ready to pull out my compass and at least find out which way was North, but I stumbled on a couple of street names that I recognized. Turns out my frustrated wandering was in the correct direction. Once I got my bearing, I was at the hotel in no time. Except they didn’t know anything about my arrival. Whatever arrangements Robb made got lost somewhere. But have no fear, Robb gave me the number of his Munich counterpart so I called and was able to have Robb talk to the woman at the desk and boom I am in the room.
I took a couple minutes to unpack my clothes and relax. I decided that I should let my sweatshirt dry out before exploring the city (it was raining when I got off the train). That was a mistake because I laid down on the bed for a couple minutes and next thing I knew a couple hours had past. I got up, took a shower and wandered around a bit. I found my way to Karlplatz and then turned back in order to meet up with Robb at the hotel. After meeting up with Robb we ironically headed right back to Karlsplatz for dinner.
Seeing how both of us were pretty much starving (I hadn’t eaten since I was on the plane) we ate at one of the closest beer hall restaurants, Augustiner. This is enough of a touristy area, that most places seem to have an English menu, that is convenient since my German is not so good. Robb and I pretty much had the same meal, just with different animals. He had the roast duck, and I had the suckling pig. Both were served in a sweet brown sauce with a potato dumpling and cabbage salad. I wasn’t a big fan of the salad, but the meats and potatoes were excellent. The pig was awesome, especially when you dipped it in the brown sauce. Robb’s duck was also very good, both meats were moist and full of flavor. The potato dumpling was a bit odd, rather the texture and consistency was odd. It had kind of a suspended and doughy feeling. By suspend I mean sort of like oatmeal or grits, grains suspended in a thick liquid. It kind of felt like that but it tasted like potato. It also resembled some of the Asian dumplings, the steamed doughy bread. I am not really sure how to describe it, but it tasted pretty good, especially with the brown sauce. We each had a couple of beers with dinner. We started off with a dark beer, it was really good. Next round we had a white beer, it was also really good, but not as good as the dark. We wandered around the area a little bit as Robb pointed out a couple of places that I would come back to the next day in better light. We ended up going to the Hofbrauhaus. This is a rather famous brewery and location. They actually have a few other locations including Las Vegas. This place was packed, inside there was nothing close to a seat. We joined a table with some Asian gentlemen for a while but couldn’t get any service so we moved over to another table as it cleared out. Started off with a dark beer, but this time it came in a 1 Liter stein. But it went down oh so nicely. Next I ordered a white beer (only came in a .5 L) with some Kasespatzel, what appears to be the German equivalent of Mac & Cheese. Spatzel is a flour based pasta, basically you mix flour, water and an egg into a batter, run it through this funky cheese grader looking pasta maker over a pot of boiling water. The pasta was served with a cheese sauce and some crispy fried onions on top. It was very, very, very good. After that I tried to get a .5 liter of dark but they would only sell it as a full liter. So I had another before we headed back to the hotel.
The beer here seems to either come in a 0.5 liter, or a 1 Liter glass depending on where you are. If you are in a restraint it seems to be more the .5 Liter size (roughly a pint) and the beer halls seem to serve (or at least offer them) in a full 1 Liter mug (that is roughly a quart) . After it was all said and done, Robb had consumed 3 Linters of beer, and I had consumed 3.5 Liters. If anybody is metrically challenged, 1 gallon = ~ 3.7854118 Liters. So we had both consumed > .75 gallons of beer each.
Boy was I tired, and after the ½ hour or so walk back the hotel, I was ready to crash. We got back somewhere between midnight and 12:30. Robb went into the bathroom and I sat down on my bed and was waiting to take out my contacts and brush my teeth. I hit the pillow and the next thing I know I wake up to Robb’s cough. The simple fact that I can read the clock tells me that I didn’t take out my contacts and then I realize I am cold and lying on top of the sheets. At this time I change out of my walking cloths and put on a pair of shorts and t-shirt to sleep in and crawl into bed for the first time. The bed is awesome. The mattress is rather firm, but the pillows are the best. They are both soft and firm at the same time. When you lay down you slowly sink into the pillow. I am tired just thinking about it.
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August 9, 2007 |
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I guess I deserved a chance to sleep in, weather I did or not, I took it today. It isn’t like I sleep in solid with no concept of time, I woke up many times and contemplating getting up, but 2 thoughts rang deep in my mind. 1) I didn’t want to get up, sleep sounded so good. 2) I didn’t have to get up early. I had no set agenda At 10:30 AM I decided that it was time to get up. The only TV I found that is consistently in English is the news, and I recall really liking the BBC when I was in London, so I turned that on while I got ready. Did anybody know that this is the 60th anniversary of the separation between India and Pakistan? That was one of the big topic because there is a special coming up, I think kind of a ‘then and now’ type of thing. It sounded rather interesting, but I will probably not see it. They were also interviewing some British official on his stance of the British and United Nation’s stance on Iraq. And there is also a special on the 100th anniversary of Boy Scouts.
Anyways, it took a while to get ready and I hit the street ~ 11:15. I walked straight to the area we were last night, specifically I headed to the Neus Rathaus (new town hall). If you have seen pictures of Munich (other then Oktoberfest) you have probably seen pictures of this building. It is a neat looking building , with a huge tower in the center with the famous Glockenspeil. It looks greatly different from the pictures because must be under renovation, there is scaffolding everywhere and most of the tower is not visible from the courtyard :-(. I went into a little bakery and had a look around. There was a little pizza bread thing that looked really good. It was some sort of a bun with a slice of ham, pineapple cubes and cheese. Not likely a Bavarian classic dish, but it hit the spot. It was raining slightly so I found some cover to eat, I stood in a walkway that housed a big wind operated toy next to the Toy Museum. It was kind of neat. It had a fan like blade that spun in the wind and at the axel of the blade it had a seashell gear like thing that a rod sat perpendicular to. As the rod went from the wide part of the seashell shape to the narrow the rod would trigger different bells and then a symbol clash. Evidently, this is also the 100th anniversary of the Teddy Bear, assuming I translated the big signs properly, but that sounds about right.
After I finished eating I headed south though the Viktualienmark, a big outside food market full of petty much everything. Immediacy I came by a bunch butchers with some very odd looking forms of meat. I moved on further to the tented areas full of fruits and vegetables. I bought some cherries (I needed something to wash down the pizza), they were very good, but boy were they expensive. She said to say when and then grabbed a huge handful, I said when immediately. It ended up costing me 4 Euro which is a little over $5 in the US. But at least they were good. I wandered around a bit nibbling on my cherries and looking at the different fruits and shops. There was a seafood market, and a bunch of fountains to wash off your fruit in.
I took a bit of time to get my bearings as realized I was just east of the Rathaus, I walked by there again to head north toward the English Garden. Right next to the Rathaus on the east side I saw the Fischbrunnen (fish fountain). By it self it wasn’t that interesting, except I had read about it in my book and it was left over from the medieval markets, this is where they would keep the river fish alive and fresh.
A little north of the east side of the Rathaus is Max-Joseph-Platz. Here there was a huge statue of Max Joseph. He is significant because he proclaimed Germany’s first constitution in 1818. To the north side is the Residenz, this used to be the housing for the royal family, and was used from some time in the 1300’s until the early 1900’s. There was also an opera house and an old post office. Interesting details on the opera house, I am told that it was one of the first buildings to have a sprinkler system and was thought to be ‘fire proof’. Well turns out it wasn’t, the fire occurred shortly after it was completed, but in the winter time when the reservoir of water had frozen. By the time the fire heated the hosing enough to allow the water to flow, it was too late. The king was heartbroken as he loved the opera and didn’t have the funds to build another building. So he had a great idea. He imposed a tax on beer and raised the money in no time.
On to the English Garden. This is a huge park in the middle of the city, it is the biggest of it’s sort in Germany I believe the 2nd biggest in Europe (I here there is a bigger garden in Ireland). It was started in the late 1700’s buy an English gentleman and build in an English style (hence the name). There are a series of little streams or canals that look very man made running through it, but they are very dirty and swimming is not recommended, except in one place where there is a man made wave that people surf at. That is right surfing. The boards are a little shorter then their Southern California brethren, but it was very entertaining to watch. As it was rather overcast I was afraid I was going to find this spot empty, but as I approached the sound of a waterfall or wave I saw a couple of people in wet suits carrying boards, I know I was in the right spot. Evidently some WWII vet introduce surfing her by modifying the canal to create a permanent wave in this one spot, and the locals have been riding it ever since. I wandered around the garden a bit more, but it was too big, and I was getting really tired of walking, There are a few beer gardens in there, but they are all further north then I wanted to travel so I headed out and walked back through the city to the west of the garden
I was really thirsty, and I didn’t see much besides restaurants and pubs, so I eventually went into a Starbucks to get something to drink. I though I was getting an apple juice, and a bottle of water, but I was wrong. The apple juice was carbonated and much like sparkling cider. It tasted fine, but not what I was expecting. I couldn’t really tell that it was carbonated until I opened it though, same with the water. The water was nasty and I eventually threw it out. Interesting how many Starbucks coffee shops there are here. Not nearly as many as back home, but still quite a bit. I walked by another huge statue area, I have no idea what it’s significance was, but I took a couple photos and headed south, I found myself at the Max-Josef-Platz again. At this time my feet were killing me so I decided to head back to rest for a bit.
I walked all the way back to the hotel and got back into the room to find that the cleaning services hadn’t gotten around to it yet. I walked in and sat down for a while in the darkness of the room with the shades drawn shut. Shortly there was a knock on the door and I had a brief conversation with a woman who’s English is only slightly better then my German. But basically there were going to do the room soon, so I headed out for a little bit. I was going to sit in the lobby and read, but it was full so I wandered the streets in he area of the hotel. There is quite an interesting mix of people here. Much more world culture then I was expecting. This part of Munich has a strong Middle Eastern (or at least Muslim) population. Everywhere you walk there are women with the face veils, or scarves around their head. It was very ironic to see some of them wearing make-up, I would have thought that that not allowed in their culture. But I guess there are various degrees of interpretation in the scriptures. I wandered through the area looking at the little grocery markets and eventually stopped at a bakery. I picked a small pastry that was sort of horseshoe shaped with almonds on it. I have no idea what else was on there, but it was really tasty. I wandered around a little more to kill some time before heading back up stairs. When I got back, the room was clean J
I kicked off my shoes and then took a little nap before Robb arrived. When he got here we were starving and headed out to the Spaten Haus. He had been there before and said it was pretty good food. He went there on his last trip back in February and they had Rain Deer on the menu. He didn’t recall much, but that he liked it. They didn’t have that again, but they had something that was AWESOME. It was a small cut of venison served in a light brown sauce with mushrooms, veggies, a cream sauce, buttered spatzel and a pear covered with tiny cranberries. Everything was outstanding. I picked out the walnuts, but I ate every thing else that was on my plate. The mushrooms were amazing., and there was a strip of bacon that if you took a piece with the mushrooms made it even better. The venison was great, especially dipped in the brown sauce, and the cream sauce was great for the veggies. The left over brown sauce was soaked up by my spatzel. It was about this time, while I was drinking the dunkel weiss beer (dark white), that the idea of sweets with this beer didn’t disgust me (usually I don’t like sweets with beer, especially birthday cake). So I ordered some desert, I ordered apple fritters, they came wit this Bavarian Cream frozen custard, whipped cream and some raspberry sauce to dip in. it was really good. The meal was so good that Robb has decided that form now on I will do the food ordering, evidently every meal he has had since my arrival has been orders of magnitude better then his previous experiences. He noticed that he was always getting my primary or secondary choice, so the plan no is to get my top 2 picks and he will eat one of them.
After dinner we stopped at the Augustiner Beer Hall again (had dinner there the night before) and had ourselves a liter of beer before heading back and turning in. It almost turned into 2 more liters, but I talked Robb out of it. After our fist night his co-workers could tell he was out late due to the redness in his eyes and the lightly hung over look about him. He needed to get a lot done on Friday so I suggested we just call it a night. We came back to the hotel and talked a little about our road trip.
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August 10, 2007 |
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I got up early this time. I didn’t want to wait all day for them to clean the room. By 8:30 I was up and out of bed, and by 9:15 I was on my way. I decided to hit the grounds where Oktoberfest is held, it is only 10 minutes away from the hotel. It would have been a lot more exciting except for a couple of things. A) it was raining and B) a lot of the area was fenced off and listed as private land. Oh well, I have now been there and during my short visit I wandered around the areas that I was allowed to and took a few snapshots of the construction.
Taking the pictures reminded me of what an extraordinary marvel the Human eye is. This thought often comes up when I am taking pictures. It is odd how amazing some pictures can look yet they still pale in comparison to the real site. The human eye is able to see amazingly intricate details that I just can’t get to show up in photographs. Perhaps I mainly need a better camera.
On my hike back from the grounds, I came across duck woman. She was some random jogger running along the sidewalk, but she was duck foot and had the most awkward run I have ever seen. Imagine if you had a small dumbbell hanging from the front of you belt, just a few inches off the ground. Now imagine trying to run without kicking this, you would swing your legs wide around the weight. That is the best I can describe her run. It was very odd to watch.
Next I stopped for lunch at one of the Middle Eastern places. I had what Robb had been recommending , a Donor Kabab (have also seen it spelled Kabap). This is a thinly sliced pile of roasted lamb on a roll with onions, lettuce, tomato and a creamy sauce. It was very tasty, but it was a little heavy on the onion, so I picked a few out. One of the funniest things about this place was the content on their TV. It was basically Middle Eastern Gangsta Rap. It had a bunch of guys with their bling, and their off balance, crossed arm poses looking down at the camera. And there were flashes of ghetto girl dancers. Very unexpected. After this I headed back to the hotel to figure out what to do with the rest of my day, I was tired of walking in the rain. My room hadn’t been cleaned yet, so I went down to the lobby and read my travel books to see what else to do. I read up on the Olympic grounds, but I didn’t really want to go there and aimlessly wander, and I couldn’t come up with a specific game plan. I noticed then that the Glockenspeil went off in a ½ hour so I though I would get there for the show. It wasn’t that exciting though, but perhaps some of it is disabled while it is under construction. Basically there was some characters that spun around like a merry-go-round up there.
At that point in time I decided that there wasn’t much more that I wanted to see in Munich. Not that I had seen it all, but that I either didn’t care, or there wasn’t time to bother. There are all sorts of historic churches and whatnot, but that doesn’t interest me too much. There are all sorts of museums, but again aimlessly wandering and looking for displays in English didn’t sound fond to me. One of the tours might have been cool, but I waited too long to look into that, so I decided to head back to the hotel and relax my feet for a bit. I chilled there for a while, took a nap and watched some TV until Robb got back from work.
Robb gets back and we drank the bottles of home brew that I brought. They were good, but missing something, they feel thin if that makes sense. Then we began making travel plans for our road trip. We came up with a flexible plan, since we don’t know how long things will take. We will hit as many of these as we can in the time that remains. 1) Hike trail at Mt. Herzog 2) Go to the top of Zugspitze (highest peak in Germany) 3) Visit one or two of Ludwig II’s elaborate Castles 4) Visit the monastery/brewery that has been in operation since the 1300’s 5) Visit a couple of lakes, and water fall in the Black Forest 6) Visit another monastery / brewery in the Black Forest.
Now off to dinner, we went to a beer garden, but there wasn’t anybody at the outside area as it was a bit overcast and kind of chilly. We sat at the patio. Our waiter was a bit of a character. I think his accent was a bit French. When I ordered the dark beer, he told me that it was bloody awful and he only sells a couple of those a year. I go ahead and order the light beer, it doesn’t matter it’s all good. My top 2 picks were the Wienerschnitzle and a boiled beef dish. Both were very good (not as good as the venison, but tasty none the less). The weinerschnitzle was a very thin slice of veal with a very buttery, and crusty breading and came with roasted potatoes in a light oily seasoning (like Italian dressing or something). The boiled beef was equally good, it came with the same potatoes and a side of spinach. The spinach was one reason I ordered the dish, as I wanted some veggies. It was basically a couple of slices of brisket, but the flavor was very good. There was a side of horseradish, but I didn’t know what it was and took a fork full as if it were some funky sauerkraut or something. Boy was I surprised, especially since I don’t really like horse radish.
We move on to a place that Dana recommended called the Schneiderhaus, that supposedly has the best white beer in Europe. But we weren’t able to find it. We found something similar, but it looked like a fancy place, and was a couple blocks away from Dana’s description. We wandered around a bit, but eventually went into the Hofbrauhaus for a couple rounds and a pretzel. The pretzel was very good by the way, the one I had earlier was a lot harder and closer to the Rold Gold pretzels, then to the soft pretzels I like so much. But this one was awesome, a light crisp on the outer crust, but a nice and soft in the center. At last call we finished our drinks and headed to an after hours place. This was alright, the beer was nice and we ordered a pizza and chilled there listening to the American Hip Hop with a little Euro something or other mixed in there. On the way back we hit another Middle Eastern place and split a Donor Kabab. It really sounds like we ate a lot here, but it isn’t that bad, it is spread out over 5-6 hours and the portions weren’t too huge. I also got a picture of Sub Wayne on the way back, he is the mascot for Subway, a sub with a big pair of lips, eyes, and tennis shoes. We went to bed and evoked the double digit rule. Not getting up before double digits (10 am).
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August 11, 2007 |
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I actually had a hard time sleeping in. I got up ~7:30 or so and typed a bit and did a little to prepare for my trip, but then jumped back in bed to sleep a little bit more. When 10:00 came around we got up, and ready and headed to breakfast. Both the book and Robb’s coworkers recommended we try Weissewurst (white sausage). It is a Bavarian delicacy that is only served in the morning. It has a thick skin that you peel off, and you typically dip in a sweet mustard and consume with a white beer. There was a specific place we were supposed to try, but it was really tough to find. The rain was getting harder, and it was getting later so we were starting to get frustrated, but when we were about to give up hope, we found the place. It is called the Nurnberger Bratwurst Glockl and is located in Marienplatz next to the big church with the two dome towers. It was very tasty. The book indicated that very few people outside Bavaria like it, but I thought it was pretty good.
While sitting at breakfast I looked up on the wall and roughly translated a sign on the wall. I cannot say for certain, but from the few words that I recognized and the years listed I believe it was saying that the sausage house was open for over 100 years before being destroyed in 1944 and was then rebuilt in 1949. Again I don’t know for certain what it read, but it was interest being able to put together something knowing a couple words on the sign and a little history about the area.
When we left breakfast, it was raining even harder. We both stopped in a shop on the way back and picked up a jacket, and I also picked up an umbrella. A very worthwhile investment as we will be doing some hiking in the Alps. With our raingear on we headed back to the hotel and took a nap before hitting the road.
Newly refreshed we pack up, and check out of the hotel. Quickly grab a bite to eat (the sausages were small and not so filling) and then grab some bottles of water and hit the road. Within a few minutes we were on Autobahn. Unfortunately we have a crappy econo car and not the Audi A3 we were hoping for. Robb got a good deal going through work, but the car isn’t too exciting. But at least it has a “Never Lost” navigation system. The road was wet and crowded, and the car didn’t feel very good at high speeds, so we took it easy. We ended up taking a more scenic rout to Garmish-Partenkirchen that winded through the Mt Hertzog area that we were thinking of hiking tomorrow. We drive through some small towns with really neat buildings so we stop and take a bunch of pictures. Most of the buildings have flower beds outside the windows, mostly with red flowers. And may of the buildings have elaborate paintings on the sides. I hear that is a Bavarian tradition dating back a couple of centuries. The paintings look to be mostly religious, but they were very nice to look at. While driving along we realize that we are basically at one of the trailheads to where we were planning on hiking tomorrow, and thought we would just give it a try. We grabbed our cameras and water bottles and hiked uphill. A couple little water falls, and almost view points and we stumble on the mother load. Or trail was at a saddle point and a 50 yard hike between view points and we could see both lakes around the mountain. We could only see a bit of Walchensee, but we had driven by that earlier and taken lots of pictures already. The amazing view was just off the trail, a hillside vista point with a remarkable view of Kochelsee. We saw a few boats out there, but it was mostly calm water sitting in a valley surrounded by mountains. Parts of the ground were very spongy and soft to walk upon. After the view point, we started heading back as we began hiking at almost 6 PM and wanted to get to town with daylight. The problem was every 5 minutes there was something amazing that we had to stop and get pictures of. We eventually stopped in this little town and picked up a nice Map of the area, and I got some candy. It was good stuff, basically a fruit jelly surrounded by flavored beads. They tasted like different fruit flavors.
A little further and we reach the gondola that goes to the top of the mountain that we just tried to hike, but the lift closed at 5:00, so we couldn’t have done that anyway. But we did look at the map and saw that we were definitely on a trail heading to the top, but we were a long ways from there. The scenic stops continued for a while as we drove along the lake and then a stream with a really sweet waterfall.
We eventually pull up to Garmish and are right next to the Olympic stadium from the 1930’s, so we stopped for a couple pictures before moving on to find a hotel. Getting a hotel was a little tough. We walked into 3 hotels that were full, and we were starting to get depressed but our last hope was a goldmine. A nice little place with restaurant on the fist floor. The price was alright so we took it and spent the night at the Gasthof Frauendorfer. Now the tough part, getting the car here. It was a complicated mess of 1 way streets in a city that is built on a mountain side. We drove around forever, but couldn’t find a way to get to where we needed, so we just parked in a public garage and carried our crap a few blocks. Hertz Neverlost navigation wouldn’t have helped as we didn’t know our hotel address. It was an adventure none the less. We dump our gear and headed down for dinner. Robb was craving a steak and didn’t bother to consult me, but he enjoyed the meal so it was fine. I ordered a Pork dish with creamy mushrooms and potato cakes. They were the same mushrooms as the Venison dish from before, it was yummy. Robbs dish came with fries and he polished off every last one. The place was really neat, there was a live band playing oompa music, they were even yodeling for some songs. It was a short dinner and we headed upstairs to hit the sack, however we heard the music for another couple of hours. We were right next to a major church, and we heard that bell ring every 15 minutes the entire night. At ¼ past it rang once, at ½ past it rang twice, at ¾ past it rang 3 times, and at the hour it rang a few times, and then chimed in once for each our in a different tone. Since we were hot in the room and had the window open, this got quite annoying.
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August 12, 2007 |
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8:00 came around soon enough and we jumped out of bed to start our day, as we had a lot planned. We cleaned up and headed down for our free breakfast. It was quite a spread. Brad rolls, cereal, yoghurt, and fruit. They also brought a glass of OJ, and a small plate of smoked ham and cheese. We stuffed ourselves and then ran upstairs to pack and hit the road. It was interesting to see some of the more local types chilling and having their morning beer.
Our first stop of the day was Parknachklamm. This was a really neat hike that one of Robb’s co-workers recommended and turned out to be the surprise highlight of the day. It was basically a creek running up a steep canyon. But the water was a deep bluish green (sort of like Havasupai in AZ) and the canyon is recorded as being 80 meters (roughly 240 feet tall) but it felt much larger. This is a very interesting hike because much of it is in carved out rock way underneath constantly falling water falls. It was like hiking in the rain. But I hear and read that this is amazing in the winter as the mini falls freeze into huge ice cycles. The hike was filled with scenic spots with sun rays piercing the canyon through the dense trees above, contrasted with the deep color of the water. And there were several spots in the caves where there were religious statues either carved or mounted. We reached the end of the hike we intended, and it was too cold and wet to head back that way, so we dared to try a different route that looked solid on our map. The first ½ mile or so seemed like a huge mistake as we basically climbed a staircase of slippery tree roots and rock. But it eventually leveled out in to this amazingly scenic meadow with a very so tiny village. The best part was that when we reached the center of the little village they had a beer garden that was open. We each drank a pint of weiss beer and chilled at the top taking all sorts of pictures. Then we dipped down in to a series of switchbacks that put us a bit above the previous trail and we took some pictures of the woods, waterfalls and of the trail below us. We came out back at the 1938 Olympic Stadium that we parked at earlier and Robb ran to the bathroom. We hopped in the car and headed to Zugspitze.
Zugspitze would have been a lot better under 2 conditions. 1) it didn’t sit above the cloud line and 2) we hadn’t just come from some amazing scenery. All in all it was what we expected, but just didn’t compare to our surprise at Parknachklamm. We took the cable car up to the very top and tried to take some pictures, but most points of interest were blocked by the thick layer of clouds not to far below us. We dropped down to another peak in another cable car. There was a woman with a lab next to us, the poor dog was shaking with fear, and jumped towards the exit when the doors opened. We explored around the other peak for a bit, heading down to the little tiny glacier that remained. Evidently there is so much ice here in the winter that they have a full blown ice bar in the wincer, sort of like in that bond movie. We went into the lodge for some lunch, we ended up with the Weiner schnitzel and fries and a beer. The beer was bottled, and my pour was so bad I had 90% head in the glass. Not sure how that happened, but Robb had to take a picture. We took the cog train down the mountain. This was a painfully slow train that twisted down the mountain in a long and boring tunnel, and then peaked out enough to reminded you that there was a breathtaking view you were missing in this stupid train. The same trip in the cable car that took 10-15 minutes to get up the mountain, took ~ 45 to get down in the train, and you had maybe 30 seconds of view, vs the whole ride up. Oh well, it was fun anyways. The ride down was so boring that I was bobbing and evidently almost ended up in somebody’s lap until I moved seats and leaned against the window. We were done in plenty of time and decided to get a jump start by driving close to Schloss Neuschwanstein and see if we can get a place close to there as we hear they are very crowded.
On the way up we hit a couple other sites recommended by Robb’s coworkers. Kloster Etal is the monastery I mentioned earlier that was formed in the 1300 and is also a brewery/distillery. Being a Sunday, we weren’t sure if we would get a chance to see the brewery, and we didn’t see any signs, but we wandered around and took some pictures. It was spectacular, especially inside. The intricate paintings on the ceiling and walls were amazing and I was able to snag a couple of photos.
Next down the road was Oberammergau, this place is known for their paints on the building sides as I mentioned above. The paintings had a strong religious overtone. Unfortunately we turned away too soon when on foot, and were not able to get shots of the best part in town, as there was traffic behind us, but there was some very nice artwork. There was also lots of wood carvings for sail that looked very nice.
The countryside was amazing. Unfortunately most of it was into the sun, so pictures ere not much of an option, just a waste of MB, so we didn’t bother for most of it. But we did get some good shots. Next thing we know it we see this amazing castle on our horizon and know that our ‘neverlost’ system is taking us to Schloss Neuschwanstein. The castle is amazing looking, but almost amazing is how far away people are parked that have come to see it. This is a bit unnerving, and we are glad that we are driving up close to see about tickets and lodging close by. “Neverlost” takes us to within a block or two of the ticketing office, since we are so close so we try a couple of hotels. The fist is booked, but the Hotel Muller Hohenschwangau has a room, and even better they can get our reservations for a 9:15 tour (complementary for guests). The woman at the desk was funny, she was very enthusiastic to help us. If there weren’t so many other American tourists, I might think she was just excited to work on her English, but there was no shortage of English speaking people. The funniest was when we asked about parking, and she jumped up and had us follow as she ran out to the parking lot. The very best part is that the hotel was actually about 30% cheaper then I predicted. The accommodations are great, two comfortable bets and several outlets to let us charge our electronics. I immediately drop my crap and hit the showers. After a brief discussion on the next day, we head down for dinner.
We chose the beer garden at the next hotel for dinner, that place seemed a little less fancy and thought it might have a better crowd. Since we didn’t check out the crowd at our hotel, it is hard to compare, but there wasn’t much here. We sat down and ordered our liters of beer (Robb ordering light, and I ordered dark). I guess not to many people order by the liter here, because everybody in the joint turned around to watch us when they came, and we drank that first sip with pride knowing we had an audience. We once again went with the Brian’s first and second choice for dinner, but this time it didn’t quite work out. Well, it might have worked out but there was such an order of magnitude behind my first choice that it was disappointing. Robb basically ordered my meal from the night before, but the mushrooms were not the same Austrian mushrooms we had before, and the gravy was not nearly s good, but overall the dish was alright. I had a Red Venison Goulash with spatzel and cranberries. This dish was outstanding as the meat was so tender I didn’t even need a knife. Not quite as good as the venison dish in Munich, but a very close second place. For my next couple rounds I had the white beer, and also ordered an Apple Strudel with a vanilla sauce (instead of ice cream). After we were done and closed the tab we headed bake to our hotel to get one last round to take up to our room and enjoy while plotting tomorrows route.
We used the ‘neverlost’ to plot our route and after catching the castle we will head to our north most destination in the Black Forest . We will spend the night there and head south to our other couple of sites before heading back to Munich.
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August 13, 2007 |
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6:30 came around pretty darn early today, but that was the designated time to get up. One thing that might not be clear from my writing is the fact that we have been getting in more each day then expected. This can be attributed to strategic routing and an anal retentive attention to detail in scheduling and schedule padding on both our parts. A couple days back we didn’t think that Schloss Neuschwanstein was going to happen, but because we have been getting an early enough start and spent the time the night before planning our routs we were able to make it so.
Spending the night next to the castle is probably one of the best decisions we have made. If we got up at 6:30 staying right next to the place, imagine if we were a ½ hour away. We were up and showered and ready to roll at 7:15 (right on schedule) and headed down for another Bavarian Buffet. It was very similar to the one the day before, but the fruit didn’t seem as fresh. But it was a great breakfast to start our day. We finish breakfast with 10-15 minutes to spare, so Robb takes a power nap before we check out and head to the castle, Robb had a rough night of sleeping for the 2nd night in a row. The combination of the church bell ringing every 15 minutes, a rain storm hitting at 4 am, and my occasional snoring made the last couple hours of sleep rough for him. 8:15 we checked out of the hotel and got our tickets for a 9:15 English guided tour of Schloss Neuschwanstein. We declined the tour of the other castle, as it is much less elaborate and we wanted to get on the road and cover a lot of ground today.
We begin the 35 minute hike to the castle, but made really good time and decided to take a slight detour to Marienburcke (Mary’s Bridge) for some scenic photos. This is the vantage point where most of the famous picture of the castle are taken from. This is the castle of castles. Construction began in 1869 and was stopped in 1886 after King Ludwig II passed away. The king was most likely mentally ill, as he had built 4 castles under his rule that came to roughly the equivalent of 90 Million Euro. Schloss Neuschwanstein is by far his greatest work and was constructed on a magnificent hilltop with fantastic views. The entire castle is a dedication to the operas created by Robert Wagner, and almost every room is deducted to different scenes and plays from Wagner’s work. I don’t recall the exact details but the King’s bed took something like 15 wood carvers 5 years to create. He also had a personal toilet shaped like his thrown, and hidden in a secret compartment of his bedroom. The actual throne room was probably the only room that wasn’t designed after one of the operas, but it had a bunch of religious and kingly designs. The actual thrown was never created, but was to be carved of ivory. In fact only about 1/3 of all the rooms were ever completed. After only 6 months of living in the castle the King received notice that he had been diagnosed as mentally ill and was to resign the thrown and move to a special hospital in Munich. He was found dead the next day and supposedly nobody knows the ‘truth’. They say that he was never properly diagnosed as mentally ill and that his family had doctors come to that conclusion based on specific behaviors. But it seemed clear to anybody walking through this elaborate piece of art could only be crated by a complete genius or a nut. The man had running hot and cold water, flushing toilettes, electricity, a telephone and a hallway that looked like the inside of a cave. Within days of the king’s death his family stopped all construction, and within 6 weeks it was opened to the public as a museum.
When we returned to the hotel to hit the road we fully appreciated the books advice of getting an early start, we noticed a few people lining up as we ate breakfast, but there were hundreds in line when we left and I would say over a hundred cars back up trying to get in to the area, It was awkward driving through the close by towns on the narrow roads and with all the incoming traffic, but because we started early, but 10:30 we were on the road heading towards the Black Forest. A couple hours later after driving by a handful of neat looking villages we arrive in the outskirts of Stutgart. It was lunchtime and we had a little time to kill so we turned off the ‘neverlost’ and headed toward the city center. It took a lot longer then expected and we drove underground for about a mile of tunnel (with 2 way traffic and merging lanes and a traffic light) before arriving at the city center. We parked for a bit and wandered around for lunch. They had a public pay toilette, it cost .30 Euro to use and it supposedly rinsed and sanitized itself after each use, it was an experience. We just hit a little bakery in the train station for lunch and had a pizza thing made on pretzel dough. It was good, with tomatoes and ham slices and there was this salsa like peppery base. The architecture in the city was very interesting and looked a bit older then Munich. We suspected that it was probably mostly original buildings that didn’t have to be re-build after WWII. After that we hit the road, next stop the Black Forest.
I am not so sure why I am drawn to the Black forest, but for the better part of the past 15 years I have had the desire to go. Perhaps it is because I have always liked the ham and cake, and when I took German in high school I found out it was a real place. Regardless of the reasoning, it has been on my list of things to do. It isn’t really like any forest I have been to in the US, in fact I think it is more of a region of the countryside or a cluster of forests then a single forest because there are huge clearings of grassy plains and entire towns here. We stopped in a little place highlighted in my book because they have a Monastery dating back to medieval days that is also a brewery. The water in the area is so soft it gives the beer a special quality. We pull into town, and it is huge compared to what we expected. I was expecting a couple of streets and a hotel, but it had neighborhoods of houses and a train station. Finally in a little town in the Black Forest we have run into a couple of people that don’t speak English, but we have still found enough that did. The brewery only has tours in English only when plans are made in advance, and tours are daily at 2:30 PM, and occasionally at 11:00 AM. So we might be able to get a tour tomorrow or perhaps not. We won’t stick around until 2:30. Many of the hotels don’t open until 5:00, so we sat down at one that did and had a couple of beers to tide us over until we could get a room. The beer was nice. It was a bit more carbonated then the other beers we had been drinking. We could see the bubbles fizzing as the drink sat there. it was also a bit more bitter, and not as smoother. But still very tasty and refreshing. We manage to get a room in the fist of the hotels we try after 5:00 (the Schwanen Post) and chill in the room before heading downstairs to eat.
Ohh what a meal. Robb went rogue and picked his meal without my consent, but it worked out alright as this was his 2nd best meal (behind the venison at Spatanhaus). Robb had a steak with mushroom cream sauce (like a beef stroganoff would usually come with) and a sauerkraut spatzel that was fantastic. My top two picks were (what my German translation skills deduced) were the butter seared trout and beef stroganoff. I chose the beef as we planed on drinking and I wanted a denser meat in my system then fish. It was a bunch of beef chunks in a paprika sauce with spatzel on the side. It was very good and I enjoyed every bite of it. We sat down there chilling in the fresh country air for several hours sippn’ on suds and talking about whatever came to mind. We had some fun playing with my German phrase book and the odd choices it published like ‘do you wan to thumb wrestle’ (Willst du daumenziehen) or ‘do you want to hear me burp’ (Willst du meinen rulpser horen). It was good times as the owners were chilling outside and hanging with what appeared to be some friends a couple tables over. We managed to get one last round after they closed and I think they were all hanging out until we turned in. I am not sure, but we might be the only gests in this place. They had a black lab mix (it had a curly tail that is not usual among labs) that loved hanging out with Robb and I and sat by us letting us pet him until the owners shared a pizza with some others, then the dog left us alone.
I wish I knew how much I had to drink tonight, but we just kept ordering. We were dinking the weiss beer most of the night, it was awesome. It was very refreshing but had a bubbly, sparkling sensation and look. Like the light beer, it was constantly bubbling. The weiss wasn’t so nearly as hoppy as the light beer but outstanding. The weiss beer in Alpirsbach was probably my favorite beer that we had in Germany.
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August 14, 2007 |
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They had the same breakfast as all the other hotels, except this one also offered apple juice and their smoked ham was really, really really, really good. After eating breakfast and checking out of the hotel, we headed to the brewery to see if they were going to offer a morning tour. They were not offering a tour until 2:00 pm which was too late to hang out so we wandered and took some pictures before hitting the road.
Next destination is the waterfalls at Triberg. We set the neverlost to pick the shorted distance, instead of fastest route, this way we wind and twist through various cities and get a more scenic route. We picked Triberg based on the description of the waterfall in my book on Germany. It described a river dropping 500 feet over 7 huge granite steps.
The mental image I had of the waterfall was nothing like the real thing, but it was rather impressive. I envisioned something like a Cliffside with looking somewhat like a giants staircase with water flowing forming this 7-stage waterfall. But this was very far from reality, I kind of wonder if the author of that book ever actually saw the waterfall or just heard about it because I describe it much differently. The waterfall itself, wasn’t really as impressive s the area, it was basically a hillside turned into a hiking park with a series of switchbacks that hike along side the rivers decent through the hillside. It was heavily forested, and somewhat windy, and therefore difficult much of the waterfall at a time. it really seamed like several different waterfalls instead of 1 big waterfall. And it also seamed more like a stream then a river as the trail crisscrossed the waterfall/stream a couple of times with a walking bridge that couldn’t have been more then 50 feet wide. I guess I am sort of painting this image with a disappointing tone, but that really isn’t the case, if I hadn’t picked up my book before writing this my tone would probably be much better. It is just that I disagree with the wording in the book and it, but the site was awesome.
It feels funny to use the work ‘hike’ with the waterfall though. I mean that is what were doing, but it just felt funny to think of myself as hiking (even though I have a water bottle and hiking shoes) when the person hiking in front of me is in flip flops, pregnant and pushing a stroller. It was very touristy as there were handrails and it was paved (as you might have guessed with the stroller). When we got towards the top of the waterfall we were now out of the ‘paid’ region of the park (it cost a couple Euro to get in) and there was a trail going to the top, or a small trial going off to the side down towards where we came from. We figured since we had left the paid area that we had seen the best of the waterfall, and opted to hit the trail heading down. This was more of a real hiking trail. It wasn’t paved, and there wasn’t a constant hand rail. It was fun to hike down looking at the densely covered trees and moss covered rocks, and occasional overlooks at the city. We though we found a shortcut back to the main drag through town, but it didn’t pan out, it was actually a hospital parking lot and we weren’t sure where those stairs led to so we backtracked to the trail and followed it back.
Triberg is also cuckoo clock central, and there were places all over the place that claimed “Haus der 1000 Uhren” or House of 1000 clocks. Oddly enough I actually like cuckoo clocks, but not enough to buy one and ship it to myself. I did however buy myself a baseball cap, it caught my eye on the way in and was less then 5 Euro. It was realatively simple black, with red and yellow (or maybe gold) the colors of the German flag, and it reads “Deutschland” which is how you say Germany in German. We get close to the car and decide that we are hungry, but can wait until the next stop to eat.
Titisee was the most disappointing part of the entire trip. I was never disappointed with Triberg, just frustrated when went back and looked at the wording. But Titisee I was genuinely disappointed with. It felt like a typical tourist trap. The wording in my book read “The Titisee, carved by a glacier in the last ice age, is the most scenic lake in the Black Forest .” This leads me to one of 2 conclusions a) the author has a significantly different definition of scenic or b) the other lakes in the Black Forest suck. Since we didn’t go to any other lakes I do not have a point of reference, but I don’t understand what was so scenic about this. it was a nice looking lake, but not unique. I was expecting to see interesting contours in the hillside from glacier movement, or something. but it was just a small body of water with a bunch of rented paddle and row boats. It had a small beach with docks and employees wearing goofy yachting outfits. The place was packed too, there were tons of so called boats out on the lake and people everywhere. We only snapped a couple of shots, and then headed to the food area. We started off with a beer and then got into the food line. Robb and I both ended up getting almost the same thing. We actually ordered the same thing, the white currywurst, but I ended up getting red currywurst. It was sliced bratwurst with a ketchup like sauce and curry powder, served with fries. Robb got the white sausage, and I had a read sausage. The curried ketchup was really good though, I will try that at home one of these days. Ohh, and it went really wood with a white beer.
One more town to hit in the black forest, so we once again punched in the neverlost and took ourselves to Hinterzarten. This town sounded really cool from the book, reading “The lovely 800-year old town of Hinterzarten is the most important resort in the southern Black Forest. Some buildings date from the 12th century among them St. Oswakdskirche (St Oswald’s Chirch) built in 1146. Hinterzarten’s oldest inn the Weisses Rossle, has been in business since 1347. The Park Hotel Adler was established in 1146, although the original building was burned down during the Thirty Years’ War.”
I like old stuff, so this excited me. The idea of staying in an inn that was established in the 1300’s sounded really cool. I once again had frustrations with the author of my book, because we went to the tourist center and picked up a map and couldn’t find any of the sites on the city map. We went to the person at the counter and they helped us out. The really old church was actually in another town just down the road, and the inn from the 1300’s wasn’t open anymore. Odd how an inn can survive for 650 years through the black plague and world wars, but can’t survive the 6 years between me purchasing a book on Germany and actually making the trip. The Park Hotel Adler was alright, it was a really fancy looking place. There was obviously an older and a newer building to it but it was a nice little walk through the city. We got a chance to walk through a couple fruit stands that were selling those little cranberry things we had been getting in some of or meals. This area of the Black Forest also claims to have invented down hill skiing, and city of Hinterzarten also has a museum dedicated to the history of downhill skiing and its beginning in the 1890’s and they also had one of those ski jump ramps off in the distance. We head down the road a few miles to the church. This was tucked back in the middle of nowhere, and we had to walk a couple hundred yards, to get there. It didn’t seem nearly as impressive as the monasteries we saw, but this was a bit older. It was expecting it to be a bit bigger, and to be made of stone, but it was wooden. It had a sundial like thing on the side of it too. I passed them off as just markings, but Robb noticed that the marking with a shadow happened to be the time. We head back to the car and decide to head back to Munich.
As mentioned before, the scenery while driving through in the Black Forest was amazing. Many of the areas were steep rolling hills covered with a deep, deep green grass and topped with very dense patches of trees. Parts of the terrain almost looked unreal, like it was a model or something.
The drive back to Munich wasn’t so interesting, especially since we had driven most of the same route coming into the Black Forest. On the way out I did see the sign at the border. I didn’t see it well enough to translate, but I am guessing it said something on the order of “Leaving the Black Forest ” or something. All I really read was Schwartzwald which is German for Black Forest . I only mention this because I was surprised that we didn’t see anything when we entered the Black Forest, we must have been busy talking and missed it. We decided not to get dinner in Stutgart as it was a bit out of the way, we decided instead to hit something off the highway next time we gassed up. When that time came upon us I didn’t see anything very appetizing in the gas station, and just across the way I saw some Golden Arches and we went for some McDinner. The McDonalds menus is a little different in Germany. There wasn’t nearly as many options as I am used to, and there were a couple of different items on the menu. I don’t recall the details but it appeared to be Mediterranean inspired. I went with the McRib I haven’t had one of those in years. If you don’t recall it is pressed pork in the shape of a mini slab of ribs covered in BBQ sauce with some onions and pickles. I picked off the onions and enjoyed. I don’t recall for certain, but I think that the McRib originally used Bullseye BBQ sauce.
We eventually make it back to Munich and begin the search for a hotel. We found a few places recommend by Robb’s travel book, but ran into some issues them having parking, or availability for 2 nights. We end up walking around a while going to several places and end up coming back to the first place Hotel Bristol for the first night and then used their internet to book a room for the next night via hotels.com.
Have you ever taken 15 minutes to park a car before? Boy was this an adventure. This was a tiny garage that had like 8 spots. We had to park our car on a ramp thing. It was a metal plate that was ~ 1.5 inches wider then the wheel base of the car and we had to drive up putting the entire car on this ramp and getting the front tire over a bump (chock so it cant accidentally roll off. This must have been some double decker parking system, because there was a big hole under it, but I don’t know for certain. The toughest thing was that you had to come in at an angle and then manage to straighten it out on the ramp itself. would have been okay if it was a little wider, but there was just no room. we would get partially up an hear the unbearable squeaking of the side of the tire on the metal ramp. Also the light in the parking lot would only stay on for maybe 2 minutes at a time, so I was constantly going back and hitting the switch. It took several tries, but Robb was able to get it done, but boy was that stressful and frustrating. But do you think our adventures for the evening ended with that, hell no.
Checking into the hotel required a passport, mine was handy so I grabbed mine, but when we got up to the room Robb got nervous because he couldn’t find his passport. He checked the 2 primary spots and no sign of it, he got very nervous and basically unpacked everything before realizing that he had put it in the side pocket of his backpack. Phew, we almost had a busy last day in Germany finding the American consulate and replacing Robb’s passport.
We clean up and reserve tomorrows hotel room and then head out for some food and beverage. It is ~ 10:00 and the weather is amazing, it is shorts and flip flops :-). I am so excited to be wearing my flip flops, I pause to take a picture of my feet. We go to the Augistiner beer hall that we have gone to a couple times before, because we figure they are probably about the only place still serving food. We sit down at the outside pick nick table area and try to order, but they are only serving a cheese plate. We figure what the heck and get it anyways. There were some really good cheeses, I wish I knew what I was eating because I wouldn’t mind getting that again. There was this funky cream cheese like spread , I think it was like a Bavarian deviled egg or something. It was a seasoned cream cheese with bits of hard boiled egg. I have no idea what was in it, but it was alright. The seasonings gave it a bit of an orangeish color.
After a couple rounds of brew, the bar closed and we moved on to the next place. We went to the same after hours bar that we went to before. We had a couple of white beers and I polished off a little pizza and we headed back to the hotel. On the walk back I saw some really cool looking graffiti. It was a character of a monk or something and I liked it so much I stopped for a picture. I guess that was a bit weird because the locals walking by were staring at me as they walked by. Oh well, it was cool looking.
As we were heading to bed, Robb reminds me to charge my phone. A little inside joke, you see on the first night of our road trip I mistakenly reminded Robb to charge his phone instead of his camera. Ever since then Robb would jokingly refer to his camera as his phone. Probably not so funny to the average person, but after sharing tiny hotel rooms for a week, it was funny to us. He was dong it so much, that he actually started doing it unintentionally.
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August 15, 2007 |
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I had some weird dreams last night, some of theme were like out of the storyline for the TV Series Prison Break. And when I of the storyline I mean as if I was in the story line with the characters. I don’t remember the specific details, but it was intense. Then I dreamed about a paintball adventure with Elliott and several friends from Oregon. We divided into two teams and went to our starting points. I don’t recall the objective, but we crossed through a nice clothing store (like Meir & Frank or Macy’s). Elliott had a funny feeling about a clearance rack and he tossed s paint greade like think and we here a couple of people squawk ‘crap’ as they came out to reveal the kill. I remember crawling along the along the floor and walking upright a little and taking a sliding dive underneath a racks of jeans and slacks as we made our way through the store trying to avoid the store employees and managers. BTW, this is a very rare occasion where I woke up and remembered a significant amount of my dream.
This is a chill day. Hang out in Munich and take care of the last couple of things on the list. 1) Drink in a real beer garden 2) Eat in a beer garden (1/2 roast chicken and ribs) 3) Consume 4 liters of beer.
We started off by sleeping in a little and then heading to the next hotel to see if we could secure a parking spot. Tonight’s place of residence is Hotel Mark, a little place right just down the street from the Courtyard Marriott we stayed in for the first few days. Luckily they were able to check us in right away (without waiting until the afternoon) and we were able to just stay parked on the street. It was a German holiday and we didn’t have to plug the meter. The only drawback is that we had move the car by 8am. Not too bad since we need to leave around that time to get to the airport anyways.
We checked into our room and moved all our crap up to the room to pack for our flights home and to clean all the junk out of the car. We took a few minutes to do a preliminary packing of our crap and then headed out to check crap off my list.
We taught ourselves a crash course on the U-Bahn (Munich Subway system). There is a button on the ticket machine that selects the language that the screen text is in. I missed this the first time I tried, this helped a lot. We picked up an all day pass and hit the train heading toward the English Garden. We ended up on the wrong train and the train turned west instead of heading north, we figured it out pretty quickly and got back on track toward the English Garden. I think this was also opening week for the local Soccer (or Futball) team, and the train was full of people heading to the soccer stadium.
We finally get to the English Garden and then find the beer garden on the lake. This place was awesome. There were little row boats and stuff on the lake, and lots of people out there, but we were all about the beer. For our first round we got food and beverage, starting of coarse with the beer, so we cold drink while waiting for food. We both grabbed a Helles (light beer). Robb had a ½ chicken and fries, I went straight for the ribs and huge pretzel. The ribs came with the BBQ sauce on the side that was really good. I would dip the edge of the rib and inhale. The pretzel was really good too, nice and soft on the middle and plenty of salt.
Next round Robb and I decided to try the Radler. We had been talking of that for the entire trip, wondering what it was like, but never had the nerve. I made a spontaneous appearance on my list, so we did it. A Radler is basically a 50/50 mixture of Helles (light beer) and Lemonade. It sounds nasty, but wasn’t too bad. I don’t know that I will ever order one again, but it was interesting to try just a little too sweet for me. Next round I wanted to try a Russn. This is similar to the Radler, but used Weiss (white beer) instead Helles (light beer) again, it was alright and I am glad I tried it. But just like the Radler it was too sweet and I probably will stick to the other beers in future German trips. We have been chilln’ at the garden for ~ 3 hours or so now, so was time for a little more food, I grabbed a ½ chicken with my next beer (went back to Helles). Wow, was that good. it was similar to the rotisserie chicken you get in the stores, but it was just better. It had more of a crispy glaze on the outside and was just so yummy.
After 4 liters of beverage (only 3 liters of beer because the Radler and Russn were only ½ beer) and a lot of food, it was time to move on but as we left we felt the overwhelming urge to lie down it the grass. After a 45 minute nap we moved on to the Chinese Tower. Robb’s book states that the Chinese Tower is the oldest beer garden in Munich and is know for having the drunkest Umpah band around. We couldn’t tell much because it was dark, but we had 1 last round of beer and another pretzel. The beer garden started shutting down because most of the venders were closed and the band stopped playing so we headed out and went back to the hotel. We were back to the hotel by 10:00 and so worn out from all the beer and sun (we did get our 4 liters) that we were ready to turn in.
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August 16, 2007 |
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I know why this hotel was so cheap, the bets were terrible. They were like somebody stole the mattresses and we were sleeping on the box springs. Every time I rolled over the wood frame would creak. At 4am there was a street cleaner right outside our window, wow that was rough. Fortunately we turned in early enough, and I was tired enough that I was able to sleep decently enough. It was a no frills hotel, but it had the basics and the price was right.
We packed up and hit the road to the airport just in time to avoid paying for parking J We get to the airport and drop off the rental car easily enough, for some reason Robb had to go in to the counter to drop off the Neverlost system, but oh well, it was only a few minutes and as it turned out we were there too early anyways for US Airways.
We proceed to the ticketing counter to check in, but they are just opening and we have to wait for the actual terminals (operated by Lufthansa employees) to open. I don’t know what peoples problems were, but they took forever at the ticketing counter. Robb and I got right through, but for some reason there were several people between us and I had to stand there and wait. On to security checkpoint 1, I guess that the security is a little less strict because we had to go through 2 levels of security, once as we entered the terminal, and then again once we got to the international wing by our gate to the US. Oh well, it wasn’t too rough. We get a sandwich at the coffee shot in the wing and chill waiting to board.
We get on board and seated, for a long time it looks like we might have an empty seat between us, but it turns out not so much. There wasn’t much exciting to write about on the return flight. The girl in the seat in front of me had it reclined pretty much the whole time, so I couldn’t work with my laptop, about all I got done was exchanging pics with Robb. I read a bit and listened to tunes. I napped a little tiny bit, but tried to keep myself awake as much as possible. I don’t recall what moves they showed, but they were not interesting to me so I didn’t bother. I watched a movie on my iPod and then some comedy routines when I got really bored. The plane and service were pretty much the same as on the way there. The same crappy chairs, a single projected screen and only 1 decent meal, this was probably my last US Airways international flight. We land in Philly a bit late (big surprise there, US Airways was late) no problem getting some food and getting to our gates in time, but not enough time to check out the US Airways members club that we had free passes to. We hit the food court and grab ourselves some grub. I had a turkey club wrap and we conversed a little more before making our separate ways for the final flight of our journey.
The flight was boarding on time and all was looking good right up until we taxi’d out and sat in a huge line on the runway for a really long time. By the time we took off, we were over an hour behind schedule. ARG, I was really looking forward to getting home ASAP. We finally take off and it is more of the same. I don’t really care for the movies showing so I read and chill with my iPod. Eventually we arrive in Phoenix where my ride has been waiting in the stand-by lot for almost an hour for my flight to arrive. I rush to baggage and wait. I finally see my bag and as I grab it, something is different. I don’t recall leaving the shoulder strap on the duffle bag so I look at the tag. It isn’t my bag. I wait a while longer and then head to customer service to report my missing bags. I wait there for a while and a huge line forms behind me. I talk to a relatively friendly customer service agent and he informs me that this is not uncommon for flight out of Philly and that they will probably arrive the next morning. I get my paperwork and run outside and Dave drives my tired, luggage less body home where I take a wonderful shower and hit the sack. My flight was supposed to land at 8:30, and I didn’t leave the airport until well after 10:00.
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August 17, 2007 |
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I wake up nice and refreshed about 6:30. Definitely glad I kept myself awake on the plane because I just crashed when I got home. Anyways, I go online and pay a couple of bills and then ~ 7:00 my phone rings and my bags are at PHX and they make arrangements to deliver them between 8-12. Bags come about 9:00 and the only thing missing was the European coins that I stuffed in side pocket of my duffle bag. Some punk ass baggage guy must have heard the jingle and opened the zipper and stole my coins, luckily there wasn’t more then 2 Euro there, but it is the point.
After my bags come I grab my laptop and head in to the office while climbing into the ever so familiar and comfortable seat of my 350Z. Vroom vroom I am off.
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Epilog |
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I have a hand full of thoughts that I wasn’t necessarily able to squeeze into my day by day writings.
Beer seems to be more of a way of life here. There is didn’t seem to be anything taboo about it, and there were often families there hanging out. Drinking was not limited to the men, and the women were drinking by the pint too. Everything seems to be open seating (at least in the beer halls) you just walk in and find a seat. If there isn’t an open table, you just find a couple seats available at another table and have a seat. And if there are available seats people will just come up and sit by you. If Robb and I weren’t speaking English, random people might have engaged in more conversation with us. Another interesting is it was not uncommon at all for people to walk away and leave half of their beer when they go. In the US you will rarely see somebody leave anything more then the nasty remnants of a warm couple sips of macro brew, in Germany it was not uncommon to leave ½ of a liter of beer. It was very odd and almost painful to watch the waitress take them away the wasted goodness.
This may seem like a big ‘duh’, but there are several ways that Germany is very different from the United States. Besides the obvious different language, and different currencies there were several things that differed. For one example there was the ‘flies and 2 buttons’ system in all the nicer bathrooms. The urinals (in the nicer places) had a sticker of a fly or a bee inside them. This seemed odd to me, I mean I see that and I think of the poor bastard that had to place that sticker in the urinal. Hopefully that was done in the factory. I was told that it is a psychological ploy to get men to aim better. I will admit I aimed. Another thing I noticed was a lot of the toilettes had 2 buttons, a small button and a big button. And they corresponded to a small flush and a big flush if you know what I mean J.
One thing that seemed universal was the shower head. Everywhere we went had the same exact thing. It was the adjustable handled shower on a hose, but it was connected to a sliding mechanism on a vertical bar inside the shower. Basically it allowed you to physically move the shower head to any height you wish. I never measured the bar, but it went from a bit above my head to center chest, a pretty wide range for the average person.
What one thing that still has me in awe was the level of discipline and obedience in the dogs that we saw. Every dog that we encountered was extremely well behaved. They were rarely leashed and stayed right alongside their master and barely barking and never running off. Not what I am used to seeing. I recall dogs darting as soon as their leash’s come off and barking up a storm if any other dogs are present. There was an occasional uttering form the dogs, but as soon as their master said something they shut up and chilled. I was wondering what could be the difference, I kind of though dogs and dog techniques would be relatively universal and not differ so much across the pond, but somehow these dogs were so much better behaved. I wonder if it comes down to the people and their training techniques. I wonder if they were trained form the beginning to obey instead of be cute, and their masters were not afraid to use a little force (the level that we Americans may consider somewhat abusive). Whatever it was hats off to them. It was amazing to see dogs just sitting under the pick nick table at the beer garden, or running with their master in the park, or just crossing the street in the city in perfect obedience.
I have never given it much thought, but I guess I do take the internet for granted. Ever since I started college in 1994 I have had steady access to the internet until I hit German soil. In college it was simple to get it on campus, and since college I have always had it in my house. Even last year when I traveled I had it at the Intel campus and Risa had it in her apartment. Access to the internet was never something that I had to pay an excessive amount of money for. I wanted to write, email and do other things, but was heavily limited in my internet availability. Not I don’t mean to imply that they are backwards and it wasn’t available, but more that I couldn’t justify spending that much. When we were in the nice hotel we could purchase internet in the room for 5 Euro per hour or 13 Euro for 24 hours of access. There were internet cafes all over the place, but I didn’t want to sit at a public system, I wanted get connected with my computer. There were a lot of places that were T-Moble hot spots, but that was expensive too, it required that you were already a T-Moble subscriber and then it would basically add a 0.18 Euro roam charge for every minute you are connected. LAME.
Germany is expensive. A lot of that is the strength (or should I say weakness) of the US Dollar to the Euro, but some of it was just plain expensive. I mean I spent 1.5 Euro on an 8 ounce can of Coca-Cola. A decent dinner and a couple of beers typical ran ~ 25 Euro per person, pretty much where ever we went. It is a good thing that the food was soooooo good. I have a really hard time spending good money on bad food.
I have a new appreciation for German Automobiles and their engineering. I don’t mean to imply that I am a hater, I spent a decent amount of time over the past 6 years test driving BMW and Audi vehicles in Arizona. And the reasons I never bought one was because 1) I decide I needed to get myself in a house first and 2) when I got settled in my house and started getting that bug for a new car, my friend was selling his 350Z and the price was right. Anyways, while I didn’t drive much on the German Autobahn, I did drive enough to get good idea. Now if you have never been on the Autobahn, or have never talked with somebody who has, you mental image is likely to be very wrong. Mine sure was. I grew up hearing of this Autobahn in Germany where there were no speed limits and people drive really, really, really fast. I pictured a single highway with a huge 6-8 lanes of traffic with cars blurring by. The Autobahn is much less of a signle road, and more of a network of roads that scatter across the country, kind of like our interstate highways. The average place on the Autobahn seems to be 4 lanes (2 each way) with an occasional 3rd lane for a short period of time, and they are not all without speed limits. Many areas do have posted speed limits, or limits during inclement weather. And it appeared that trucks always have speed limits. For the most part the drivers are very disciplined and obey the rules, when there were speed limits people slowed down, and there was almost no passing on the right (which is illegal). People drove in the right hand lane and passed in the left lane. This was a nice smooth efficient system when there wasn’t too much traffic. However when you had a bunch of trucks it got much more complicated. Now you have trucks driving slower, and you have your slow, Sunday driver types that need to pass the trucks. Now you get a huge line of cards driving inching past the trucks until the slow person passes the lead truck in the caravan an pulls over, then it returns to normal for a couple minutes until we hit the next caravan with another Sunday driver type passing. Overall there was a lot of changing between fast and slow, especially when you need to dart into the passing lane in the small hole available. I see why they prefer to use a manual transmission as it allows you to pre adjust to what you are ding and you don’t have that lapse in power while the computer figures out you need to speed up. The highway is full of twists and turns, and we even saw some exits that had banked turns. It was really cool, I would have enjoyed driving it a lot more if we were driving on Sunday (trucks are not allowed to drive on Sundays) and if we were in a slightly better car. Robb got it up to about 110 mph (175 kmph), but when I was driving I was uncomfortable with the feel of the road once we hit 85 mph (140 kmph). Here are a couple of sites with more information on the Autobahn. http://gettingaroundgermany.home.att.net/autobahn.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahn
German Beers I haven’t figured out all the details on beer yet, but there seems to be 3-4 main types. Light beer, dark beer, white beer and a dark white. I don’t think that light means what it does in the US. I think it is referring the color being light (vs dark). The light beer is similar in color to many American beers, but it seems a bit richer and deeper golden color. Maybe like a dark apple juice. The dark beer also has a rich and deep color to it, but it is obviously darker. But it remains very translucent, and almost transparent. The white beer is similar to the hefeweissen we get in the US. It’s taste is a bit milder, and even a little fruity, and it doesn’t have the transparent qualities of the dark or light beers. It has the thick cloudy look like you would expect from a hefe. Some of the places offer a dark white, that is really good, and probably my favorite of the beers so far. It is a little bolder then it’s white beer cousin, but shares some of the soothing qualities going down.
All the beers have a very pure sensation. The light and dark beers have an amazingly clean look and feel to them, and the go down so smoothly. Even when you have been nursing you drink for a while and it is relatively warm, it still goes down so nicely. Not like many of the US beers that you need to choke down when they get warm.
Traveling 101 Now that I have made a couple of international trip, I have device a couple of BKMs (Best Known Methods) for my future travels.
1) Hiking clothes are worth their weight in gold. I am not sure why, but for some reason I intentionally decided to not bring my hiking clothes with me to Germany, even though I knew that we would be doing a little hiking with Robb. I have a newly found appreciation for the wonders of hiking clothes. Let me count the ways. a. Compact and lightweight, the easily stuff in luggage and you can just shake out the wrinkles if you care about that. b. The insulative properties tent to work both ways. They are designed to keep you cool when it is hot, and they insulate alright when it is cooler. More specifically related to this trip, they insulate well when they are wet. The cotton clothes that I brought (jeans, t-shirts and sweat shirt) hold in the water and insulate well at first, but then they are just cold, heavy, wet annoyances constantly reminding you that you brought the wrong clothes. c. Other parts of the world are not as well suited for the lazy lifestyles of the US. In us pretty much all the major tourist sights are handicap friendly. You can basically drive right up to them, and they are typically air conditioned. For example at Schloss Neuschwanstein we had to walk a good ½ hour to get there. We could have ridden in a horse drawn buggie up to the top, but that was about it, even the tour busses dropped you off at a carton spot and you still had to walk 10 minutes to the castle. The point to be made is the ‘sweat happens’ and hiking clothes are much better had handling the sweat. The clothes don’t seem to smell as bad the next day and they remain relatively comfortable if you need to re-wear. 2) Navigation system rule. Many times I mentioned the Hertz Neverlost GPS unit that we had, this is because we heavily relied on it. It is possible that we may have gotten buy without it. but it would have involved buying a few different maps and several hours of map reading. Here we just had to punch in a name and let it do the work for us. If we missed a turn, it would detect and re-calculate the next best route. I don’t know that I will travel in a strange new land without one again. I have begun researching them online and will probably purchase one before my next big adventure wherever it may be. I hear that you can purchase and install maps for foreign countries. 3) Know how to use the features of your camera before you leave. I have had my digital camera for several years now, but there are several features that I have not really figured how to do yet. For example I tried to do some panoramic shots and I learned that there is some external software I need to use to stitch the picture together. Also there are several manual modes and setting that I can use to get some of the effects I want with adjusting focus and whatnot, but I never learned them and didn’t bring the book. Therefore I was stuck with point and shoot mode. 4) Don’t fly US Airways for international Flights. I have spoken my piece enough about my complaints about US Airways international. They are a decent airline for domestic flights because they are relatively cheap and go almost everywhere. But moving forward it will have to be a heck of a deal for me to book them for future international travel. Avoid the Philadelphia Airport whenever possible. Since Philly is basically a huge US Airways hub, I will avoid this in the future by avoiding US Airways. But I have two complaints about the Philly airport. 1) from the customer service dude in Phoenix I learned that it is not that uncommon to have lost luggage from Philly 2) the wait on the tarmac was unacceptable, I am told that it was because they share so much airspace with New York and Washington DC and their throughput is really limited. Whatever the reasoning AVOID the Philly Airport!!!!!!
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