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Day 11 Friday, July 21, I decided to sleep in a bit. I got up about 8:30, threw on some clothes and went to the Campanile Hotel restaurant for breakfast. I had signed up for the breakfast the night before. The breakfast was completely self-service buffet style. They had croissants, french bread, hard rolls several different sliced breads, sliced cheeses, sliced luncheon meat such as salami and ham, fruits, juices, jellies, butter, cereal, milk, coffee, tea and eggs. I found out the hard way that you boil your own egg in the little basket located on the buffet table. I loaded up on a lot of the selections. The french bread was absolutely the best I have ever tasted. Why can't we make bread like that? I went back to my room to shower and pack, I guess I left Metz at about 10:00am and got back on the A4 autoroute headed for Munich, Germany. These autoroutes are mostly toll roads, but they are as good as any in the U.S. They have rest stations about every 10 miles or so, and I stopped at several of them, even though I only needed gas once. The rest stops usually included a park area along with a convenience store / gift shop / gas station and sometimes a restaurant. Each one seemed to be sponsored by the fuel company that was available at that particular stop. Some I remember are Elf, BP, Fina, Total and Esso. Reading the road signs was rather dicey, since they were all in French. I was driving along just fine, enjoying the scenery of rolling hills, old church steeples and farmers out on their tractors harvesting something. Oops, I think I missed my turnoff to Karlsruhe. Oh, well I have plenty of time. I'll just go down to Strasbourg and cross the Rhine into Germany there. Oops again. How could I have missed that turn off to cross the Rhine? Oh well I'll continue on down the Rhine valley to Colmar and start going East there. I got to Colmar, France and took the turn to go to Freiburg, Germany. Oops, Freiburg seems to be blocked off because of the Tour de France bike race in the Breiasch/Freiberg area. I'll bet I was delayed two hours following detour signs, but I really got to see a lot of quaint German villages that I would have missed otherwise. I also saw PLENTY (hundreds, it seemed) of bicyclers pedaling along side the highway. Finally I got on the famous German autobahn, A5, heading north to Karlsruhe. No problem. At Karlsruhe I switched to the A8, which goes through Stuttgart, Ulm and on to Munich. The autobahns are much more crowded than the French autoroutes, probably because they have no toll roads in Germany. In most areas, there are no speed limits on the autobahn for passenger cars. (There is a speed limit for trucks and busses.) You just stay in the right hand lane unless you intend to pass and then pass quickly. I went as fast as 90 mph in my Punto, and I am sure cars were passing me going at least 130 mph. The drivers in Germany seem very competent and skillful and are very aware of the traffic flow. I made it to Munich about 7:00pm and did a lot of driving around in the
suburbs. I went downtown looking for an ATM because I realized I had no
German money. I found one and parked illegally to use it. Parking is a
HUGE problem in Munich.
I inquired at the desk if they had a single and the lady said,"yah". It was 80 marks per night ($40.00). I paid cash because they didn't accept credit cards. The room was on the 4th floor (no elevator), but it was a very nice room with a modern bathroom and oriental-type rugs on the floor. The bed was made in the style of my dorm room at Hartpury, with a comforter, which I mentioned earlier. I actually think the hotel is partly a hostel for the bottom two floors. I don't remember eating any meals outside of breakfast that day, but I know I must have eaten something, a sandwich, perhaps, at one of the rest stops along the route. I do remember eating a bag of French cookies, which were delicious. I watched a little German tv (no English) and went to bed about 11:00 End Day 11
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