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Day 12 Saturday, July 22, I got up about 9:00 and checked the wash I did the night before. Things were not drying as fast as I needed them to. It must have been a little more humid. The weather had been marvelous all during the trip, though. I went downstairs and loaded up on the buffet breakfast. The choices were cereal with milk, hard rolls, several different kinds of sliced breads (no white bread), lunch meats of ham and salami, sliced cheeses of swiss and havarti, orange juice and coffee. I got everything but the cereal. About 10:00 I decided to just start walking down the main street in the town of Karlsburg (Dachaustraffe), towards Munich. I figured if I got tired I could always catch a bus. Well, I walked and walked. It was starting to get a little warm, but I kept walking. Over the railroad yard, over the autobahn and through a little nature hiking/bike trail that runs parallel to my road. I finally got back to my road and decided to wait for a bus. I hopped on and got a ticket for zone 1 (downtown). The bus didn't go very far before all the people got off the bus at a
stop. I stayed on. Oops, the driver didn't notice I was still on the
bus. He had pulled around behind some buildings about a block away and
was due to take a break, I guess. I asked him if I should have gotten
off at the last stop and he said, "yah". I left the bus and went right.
The bus driver said, "left, left". I went left and soon saw the train
station to where all the other people on the bus had been heading. A
train soon came along and I got on it. As we neared the Munich city
center, the above-ground train turned into a subway train. I decided to get off at
the main Munich train station, which was in the middle of the downtown area.
I walked around the area a little and saw a visitors center. I went in to see what that was all about. The center was very busy, with people at the counters helping the tourists. The center also had numerous brochure racks with information about different attractions in and around Munich and Germany in different languages. I wish I had cut my walk a little shorter, because I learned by reading one of the brochures, that the tours of the Dachau WWII prison camp occurred only at 10:00am and 1:00pm daily. I looked at my watch. 1:05pm, the bus had already left. Rats! The tours are conducted only in English, by the way, and this visitor center was the only place I ever saw anything about the prison camp. I imagine the Germans would like to forget about that part of their history. Seeing the camp was one of the primary reasons I included Munich in my itinerary. Oh, well. Maybe next time. I bought a ticket for a Munich bus tour and sat on top of the double decker. It didn't seem like there were as many identifiable landmarks in Munich as there were in London (probably because much of Munich was destroyed in the bombings of WWII), but the tour did point out some of the more historic districts and the different types of architecture that were used under various rulers. Very interesting. After the bus tour, I
started walking toward the center of the action. It seemed like Times
Square in New York City. Thousands of people were enjoying Saturday in the
scores of sidewalk beer gardens, and were shopping and buying groceries at the
department stores.
The cab driver, of course, spoke English, and I asked why things start closing down at 4:00. He said that people would be there all night if all the stores were open, and the people that worked in the stores needed the time off. He didn't know my hotel, but we easily found it. By the way, the taxi was a Mercedes. I have never seen so many Mercedes', BMW's (manufactured in Munich) Audi's in my life. I am not exaggerating when I say that the Mercedes is as common in Germany as a Ford pick-up or Buick is in Lubbock. (There are very few pick-ups in Europe,) When I got to my hotel about 6:00, I went up to my room for about an hour and rested from all the walking I did that day. About 7:00 I got in my car to go driving around a little. Oops, I had left my car radio on. It seems that European cars are a little different in that there is no steering wheel lock and the ignition key doesn't necessarily turn off all the accessories. No problem, however. The car started just fine. I went to a gas station and filled the car up with gas. Yikes!! $48.00!!! Gas was more expensive in Germany than in France. I was glad I had a small fuel efficient car. I drove up to a little suburb on a hill with windy roads. I was keeping an eye out for a restaurant. I saw a few restaurants, but every time I saw one, there was no parking space for several blocks around them. I drove around some more and finally went back to the hotel. I checked my nearly dry laundry then decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood. I knew I could always go to the McDonald's a block away across the street. Finding no restaurants on my walk, I ended up at McDonald's and had a Quarter Pounder with cheese, a Big Mac and a coffee. I don't know why but it seems like the McDonald's and Burger King's food is actually better in Europe than in the states. Maybe I was just hungrier than usual. After dinner, I walked over to the convenience/liquor store next door and bought an ice cream thing kind of like a nutty buddy, a liter of water for my trip the next day and the only can of beer I had on the trip. I think it was a half liter of Amstel. They charged me 2 German cents (1 US cent) for the bag when I requested one. I went back to my room and watched some German tv while drinking the beer. I guess I got to bed about 11:00. End Day 12
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