Back to the USA

Our return to the U.S. as uneventful, and predictable:

• We found the train to the airport, and (it being Germany) it was on time.
• We got to Munich Airport early, and (it being Germany) were able to enjoy one last Kellerbier in the outdoor Biergarten between Terminals A and B.
• Our flight from Munich to the U.S. (it being Germany) departed on time, and we arrived at Newark Airport early.
• Our connecting flight to Richmond (it being Newark Airport, and not Germany) was delayed 3 times and actually departed about 2 1/2 hours late.
• Our shared salad, single beer, and glass of wine at the only restaurant in the A Terminal (it being Newark Airport, and not Germany) cost more than our amazing dinner the night before in Munich.
• The A Terminal (it being Newark Airport, and not Germany) was a balmy 90 degrees F with 90 percent humidity.  There we sat and steamed for roughly 5 hours before boarding the plane and sitting on the tarmac for another hour.

So Adam picked us up with a sleeping Mason in the back seat (they'd spent the day at Busch Gardens) around 10:30PM instead of 8:00.  But we got home fine, with luggage and intact, if tired.

Postscript, from my dad.  Check out what's featured in yesterday's Washington Post Travel section:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/a-german-town-pop-2135-welcomes-some-2-million-visitors-for-martin-luthers-500th/2017/06/22/45e54b7c-4c6e-11e7-9669-250d0b15f83b_story.html?utm_term=.658f57d10271

Last day in Munich

Today is the Stadtgründungsfest, which translates as "City Foundation Festival."  There's a main stage at Marienplatz, but we spent more time at a side stage that hosted an "Irish/Bayrisch" festival with some Irish folk music (Patrick Walker trio) and dancing (Emerald Dancers) as well as some Bavarian folk music/cabaret (Vogelmayer) and American folk/blues/R&B by a duo called Solly.

Solly

Local color at Stadtgründungsfest

We had one kind of surreal moment.  While Solly was playing, there were two loud explosions interspersed with what sounded like gunfire from the direction of Marienplatz, and my immediate reaction was, "oh no."  But very few people reacted and nobody came running in away in our direction.  I'm still not sure what it was, but I'm guessing mid-day fireworks or something?  Really weird.

In any case, it was another beautiful, laid-back day.  We walked around a lot and had a delicious dinner - again, way too much food at a very reasonable price.  Then back to the room to pack: we want to be out around 9:00AM to get to our flight.

Ah, Munich!

Our train from Wittenberg to Munich was mostly uneventful.  It was a little disconcerting when we boarded:  I'm not sure where the train originated (Berlin?  Hamburg?) but it was FULL and we had some doubts about finding a seat, lugging bags that weighed about as much as we do.  We found a couple of reserved seats without the reservees (is that a word? You know what I mean) anywhere in sight, so we grabbed them, in some fear that we'd be on our feet for the next 5 hours after getting to Leipsig.  Just the opposite: loads of people piled off in Leipsig, and we were able to get some reasonably comfortable seats together.

"Reasonably comfortable" is the key phrase.  I don't know if this generalizes, but there was a huge difference between our ICE (which stands for Inter City Express) train from Munich to Wittenberg, and our IC (Inter City, skip the "Express") train from Wittenberg to Munich.  BTW, we could've taken an ICE train, but (1) it would have cost 45 euro more, (2) we would have had to change trains, I assume in Leipsig, and (3), we would have only saved 4 minutes.  Not a good deal.  BUT... there was no internet access on the IC, the seats aren't as nice, the food car isn't as nice (word to the wise - never order "currywurst."  Ever.), and the AC isn't as good.

All those snarky, spoiled American comments aside. it was fine.  The weather has remained great, and the scenery along the way was great.  Judy and I are inspired to figure out whether there's a non-stupid way to cross the US on Amtrack, because it was such a great way to travel.

We are staying at the Hotel Belle View, just a couple blocks south of the Munich Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and a couple more blocks from Neuhauser Strasse, the entrance to the old city and Marienplatz.  Our first time here, we stayed literally a block to the west, at Hotel Goethe, which is run by Turks.  When we returned on the tail end of that trip, we stayed about a block north, so we know the neighborhood.  As I said then, it is a largely Muslim neighborhood.  Much of the signage (and the talk on the street) is in Arabic.  I know that some of your are probably thinking, "not a great place for lily-white Americans," but I think you're wrong.  We shop here, we've eaten here, and we've slept here.  I like it.

It is a place of interesting contrasts.  You see some rather modern hijabs (head scarfs), but no burkas (full body coverings).  Women's attire is relatively conservative, there are also a lot of sex shops and strip bars in this neighborate.  The younger (and many of the older) immigrants are hanging out in the bars, nursing a beer.  Let's just say that most of these folks are "lapsed," at least by the stereotypical Islamophobe standards.

So anyway, we got to our hotel, and of the 3 places I've stayed here, I think I like this the best. All had very small rooms, but (1) this one has great AC, (2) it's got a great shower, (3) the staff are super friendly, (4) they've got a great included breakfast, and (5) they have free mineral water, juice, and awesome coffee beverages from dawn until 11:00PM.

We checked in and tried to regain our bearings from 5 years ago.  It was surprisingly easy, and we made our way to Neuhauser Strasse, working our way through Marienplatz (home of the famous Glockenspiel) and managed to find our favorite restaurant, Opatija.  We found this on our first trip and have revisited every time we've been to Munich.

Opatija is a place in Croatia, and the folks who started this restaurant are from there.  The prices are very reasonable for the area.  The portions are not.  Judy and I left more than half of our food on our plates.  And we were really hungry.  Bloated and exhausted, we shuffled back to our hotel and called it a night.

This morning, we had a hearty breakfast at the hotel and headed back down to the old city.  We found a couple of churches that were closed last time we were here.  The first - and I might be screwing this up - is the Burgersaalekirche, which translates to (I think) as "city hall church."  The building itself is quite impressive, but the entrance is nondescript:

You walk into the "Unterkirche," a worship area below the main sancturary.  Most impressive here is a series of statuary detailing the passion of the Christ. Here are a few of them:

The "Unterkirche" is pretty small.  

The upper church is decidedly not.

 From there, we went down the road to St. Michaels.  The name confuses me, because Michael is an Archangel.  To me, "Saint" is decidedly human.  Michael has wings.  I don't think he qualifies.  But then, I'm not a Catholic theologian. Maybe I'm missing something.

Entrance to St. Michaels

Entrance to St Michaels 

Inside St. Michaels 

St Michaels

We walked around some more and came back to St. Michaels for a meditation service at 12:30.  Afterwards, we went down to an outdoor market for lunch:  for me, Weisswurst.  For Judy, a large Brezen (pretzel).  For both of us, a .5l Bier.  Pretty awesome.

We went back to the room: Judy rested, I did some grading.   Then back to the old town.  In the evening, it's pretty fun.  We heard some good music on the street, then went to the Augustiner Brauhaus for some (frankly) mediocre food and beverage.  Then some more walking around.  Both of us got to about 18,000 steps today.  We'll see if we can get past 20,000 tomorrow.  I think there's a pretty good chance.

Something big is going on in Old Munich tomorrow.  They're setting up stages, and the festivities will go from 10AM until evening... but I can't figure out what it's about.  The signs translate as "birthday party," but I'm not sure who/what's birthday we're celebrating. And I can't find an answer online.

Whatever.  We'll see parades and bands and eat street food tomorrow.  And we'll get on a plane, no doubt bloated and exhausted, on Sunday.

Just when you thought you'd seen all that Wittenberg had to offer...

We got up early this morning and had some breakfast.  I looked up things to do in Wittenberg and thought we'd done it all 3 years ago... then came across something that sounded interesting.  There's an artist named Yadegar Asisi who's been doing what we used to call "cycloramas:" 360 degree images viewed from within.  Well, he's taken it to the next level, blending live 3d photos with computerized digitization and lighting and music to create a 360 degree view of Wittenberg in October of 1517.  It cost 11 euro each to get in, which sounds kind of high, but was well worth it.

Here's the flat view of what he created, but it doesn't do it justice:

Here's more of what it looks like from the ground, which is kind of like being inside a really wide silo:

You really feel like you're kind of in the middle of it.

The pictures are "painted" by computer onto about a 3-story wall, with lighting changes projected from a platform in the center.  You can climb up two levels, or stay on the floor and walk around.  The installation moves from daytime through night and a violent revolution (which actually took place, and which Luther rebuked), and back into morning.  I'm going to try to insert a bit of video, although it doesn't come close to doing the experience justice.

In the afternoon, there was a 3:00 worship service at St. Mary's held in English.  It turns out that they've been doing this since 1997, but I suspect infrequently.  It's an English language ministry, and they bring in pastors from all over to preach.  Our pastor was from Brazil.  Sadly, we were the only folks there besides a church group from Manhattan, Kansas.  

That's actually a kind of sad thing about this trip.  Before dinner, we had a beer down by Schlosskirche and talked with a local.  The government has invested millions in preparing for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, and attendance has been well below projections.  We'd been surprised at how easy it was to find a room in what we expected would be prime season, and we've been surprised that it hasn't been very crowded.  I feel bad for the local citizens.

We also walked down to see what the Elbe looked like when it's not in flood.  We were basically "trapped" in Wittenberg for a day 4 years ago because the tracks toward Leipsig were under water.  Here's what the Elbe looked like then:

And here's what it looks like now:

Next: on to Munich!

Back to Lutherstadt Wittenberg

We pulled into the Lutherstadt Wittenberg Hbf at 8:50 and following about a 15 minute walk arrived at the Best Western.  It's a nice hotel, and our room is spacious and comfortable.  Given the late hour, we weren't very picky about dinner, and simply walked across the street to a pizzeria.  I was expecting tolerable at best, but it was the best pizza I've had since Dan and Leah took us to a place in Brooklyn... which pretty much makes it the 2nd best pizza I've ever had.  

We turned in around 11:00 and took our time getting out this morning.  The day was overcast but quite comfortable - Wittenberg is actually further north than Juneau, Alaska.  The temperature was expected to get close to 70 degrees F during the afternoon.

Breakfast is included in our hotel bill, and I was delighted to see bacon, sausage and eggs along with the more traditional breads and cold meat slices.  Actually, I'm pretty sure I haven't gone more than a day without eating some pork product since getting here, but not good ol' bacon.

I went back to the room to finish some grading while Judy walked around.  There was an organ concert at the Schlosskirche (castle church) at noon, so we headed down there.

Schlosskirche

We arrived about 15 minutes into the concert but remarkably, there were still seats in the pews.  This is one of two important churches in town: this is where Martin Luther posted his 95 theses.  The last time we were here (4 years ago), the interior of the Schlosskirche was under renovation in preparation for the festivities this year, so this was the first time we'd seen it.

Interior of Schlosskirche as concert attendees are leaving

Looking toward the rear of the church, at the organ.

There are, of course, statues of Martin Luther and his right-hand man, Philip Melanchthon.

Martin Luther

Philip Melanchthon

We also returned to the other important church in town, St. Mary's.  This was Martin Luther's parish church, and where most of his prodigious body of sermons were preached.

St Mary's, Luther's "preaching church"

There is a rather remarkable (and beautiful) set of paintings above the altar in St. Mary's seen below.  The left panel is devoted to baptism, and shows Philip Melanchthon baptizing an infant.  The center panel focuses on communion, while the right panel shows a scene of granting absolution.

Paintings above the altar in St. Mary's

Afterwards, we walked around for awhile, and I remembered a local restaurant/brewery called (originally enough) Brauhaus Wittenberg.  Their beer is unpasteurized and unfiltered (another Kellerbier), and the Dunkel Bier (dark beer) is pretty fantastic, and their Spargelcremesuppe has huge chunks of fresh white asparagus - the best soup I've had here yet.

Kellerbier and Spargelsuppe.  It doesn't get much better than this.

Afterwards, we headed back to the room for a break.  I went up to the train station to get our tickets to Munich (we don't have a secure online connection in the hotel).  Later, we went shopping (Judy found some fake Birkenstocks for about 1/4th of the price of the real thing), then walked around some more.  We came across this mural on a building.

I tried to look this up on Google Translate.  If I got it right, it translates as "they are called patience and fairth, and their fate lies in my hands."

Around 7:00, we went out to look for dinner.  We'd seen a small restaurant that I wanted to check out, but it was so smoke-filled that we left and we were too tired to look around, so we headed back to the Brauhaus again.  It didn't disappoint.  We had the best meal I've had since coming to Europe.  While there, we were seated next to a couple from Kansas City that we'd bumped into on the street the night that we came in.  They're on a church tour that will be hitting all of the high points of the Protestant Reformation.  They're actually staying at the hotel associated with the Brauhaus, and it appears to be really charming.

Now back to the hotel, with about 20,000 steps each on our fitbits!  I expect a lot more walking tomorrow.

Oh yeah, one more thing.  Earlier in the day, we ran into Martin Luther and his wife, Katharina von Bora.  Nice couple.

It wasn't ALL good

Those in the know may recall that we were accused of breaking a washing machine at an AirBnB in Paris a couple of winters ago.  We tried to use the washer there, and it never started.  Not our fault.

Well, this time, we really broke it.  Our hostess had a washer for guests with (although we didn't know it at the time) instructions on how to use appropriately in a folder she left for us.  We didn't look at the folder.  We put in the clothes incorrectly.  It jammed.  We couldn't open the door.  So we left a load of wet clothes in a broken washer, and a promise to wire some money once it was fixed.  I feel horrible.  Our landlord (Cornelia) is wonderful, and we left her in the lurch.

BUT... we did successfully book a series of trains from Oberammergau to the Holy Land, Lutherstadt Wittenberg.  For the infidels out there, this is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg church, kind of a seminal moment in the Protestant Revolution.  We're on an ICE train (with wifi!) from Munich to Wittenberg as I write this, more or less following the Saale River and approaching the station in Jena Paradies... somewhere midway bewteen Nurnburg and Leipsig.  How do I know?

Because I have wifi and Google Maps on the train, dude! 

I just finished grading and posting results for an assignment for our Online MBA students... something I was expecting to have to do when we arrived at our hotel in Wittenberg.  How awesome is that?  So now I'm blogging, although the wifi is too slow to upload pictures.  Sorry.

If any of our presidents was serious about investing in infrastructure, a decent rail system on the coasts would not be a bad place to start, and the rail system in Europe would be a good place to look.  From our tiny train from Oberammergau to Murnau, to high speed ICE train now, everything is modern, clean, and any idiot can figure out how to book tickets.  Even ones who can't figure out how to load a washing machine without breaking it.

The weather continues to surprise... in a really good way  When we left, the weather report had 2 rain-free days out of 14.  So far, we've had brief sprinkles on 2 of our 8 days, and I don't think we've gotten wet since our arrival in Innsbruck last Sunday.  Right now, we're somewhere between Nurnburg and Leipzig, and the sky is virtually cloudless as we roll through the countryside.  Yeah, we'll spend about 8 hours on the train, but in comfort and style.  And getting work done!

We're scheduled to arrive in Lutherstadt Wittenberg near 9PM, and I'm not super excited about getting in so late.  It's a tiny town - beautiful, but tiny - and we're going to be hungry.  Not that missing a meal would hurt us.  You don't eat light in Germany.  Well, we don't eat light in Germany.  Maybe this is a good thing.

The storybook homes of Oberammergau

Oberammergau has a lot to recommend it, but one of the really cool things is the way people paint stories out the outside of their homes.  Two of the most famous are the Hansel and Gretel house:

And the Little Red Riding Hood house:

Even many of the newer homes that don't have the fancy painting have really ornate woodwork:

After walking around a while, we decided to check out the Maxbrau restaurant, right across the street from us in the Maximillian Hotel.  We wanted just a snack (strudel for Judy, onion soup for me), but the really reason for stopping is that they had kellerbier.  Kellerbier is a beer that is not filtered or pasteurized.  According to Wikipedia,

The term Kellerbier literally translates as "cellar beer", referring to its cool lagering temperatures, and its recipe likely dates to the Middle Ages. In comparison with most of today's filtered and pasteurised lagers, Kellerbier contains more of its original brewing yeast, as well as vitamins, held in suspension. As a result, it is distinctly cloudy, and is described by German producers as naturtrüb (naturally cloudy). Kellerbier and its related form Zwickelbier are often served directly from the barrel (for example, in a beer garden) or bottled. These beers do not undergo the above-mentioned modern precautions. Thus they are less nonperishable and so it is advisable to drink them as fresh as possible.

The only other time I've had Keller bier was in Munich, and it was delicious. This was, as well.  While we were eating, an American tourguide sat down at the table next to us.  He's been in this part of the world for 18 years and lives in Garmisch.  He is friends with the brewmeister here, and has lots of stories about the area in particular, and Germany in general.  Really cool guy.  Here's Judy with her wine and my Kellerbier.

Ode to Spargel (reprise)

I wrote this and posted it originally in my Jim & Judy's Excellent Adventure blog when we first visited Innsbruck 5 years and one month ago.  It was spargel (asparagus) season then, too.  The white spargel is absolutely out of this world: there is nothing like it in the U.S., which mystifies me.  I was so inspired that I wrote this 5 years ago.

This is auf Deutsch, or at least my attempt to do so.  Apologies to those who know better.  You can correct me (please!).

And if you don't speak German and want to know what it says, open Google Translate, cut and paste with initial language as German and output language as English. 

Ode an den Spargel

Ob zum Frühstück, Mittag-oder Abendessen
Spargel kann ich nicht vergessen

Im Frühling oder Sommerzeit
Spargel is lecher Fröhlichkeit

Ich mag es, in Salaten und auch in der Suppe
Ich mag es, allein oder in einer Gruppe

Ich mag es als Hauptgericht oder also Vorspeise
Ich würde wahrscheinlich wie Spargel-Eis

Amerikanischen Spargel is wirklich erbärmlich
Aber Deutschen Spargle is wahrlich himmlisch. 

Fütter mich Spargel.  Sag nicht "Nein!"
Gib mir mein Spargel und ich will fröhlich sein.

Amen.

My fitbit says I climbed 146 stories today

It's now evening on June 10.  We have (according to my fitbit watch) climbed 146 stories, which I'm guessing is 1,460 feet by fitbit.   That's pretty close.  Oberammergau is at 837 meters above sea level, Kolbensattelhutte (the Kolbensattel hut, where we ate) is at 1276 meters.  Subtract and convert to feet, and that's 1,140 up, not including any variation in between.  Fitbit says we walked over 18,000 steps and over 8.4 miles (which I know is low - fitbit measures steps and guesstimates stride length, and I've tracked it against actual.  Easily 9 miles).  Here's a map of our journey.  Start in town, go up to the Kolbenalm, follow the squiggly red line to the left above that to the fork - left is our aborted attempt to the Kofel, right is up to Kolbensattelhutte.

From a map we found in town.

The Sesselbahn (the T-bar ski lift) brought us from Kolbensattel down to the Ammergau River, a bit north of Oberammergau.  I think we kind of missed the boat here - there was an Alpine Coaster that schussed down the mountain - basically, a mountain-length rollercoaster - but we didn't realize it would take us all the way to the bottom.  Oh well.

We got off the Sesselbahn and walked back to town, and noticed some discount groceries along the way, and loaded up with supplies.  Wine around 2.40 - 5 euro, some soap, cherries, milk... stuff for Sunday.  Then back to the apartment to put groceries in the fridge and load up on ibuprofen.

Back in town, we visited the woodcarver's shops.  Their work absolutely amazes me, and is one of the few places I actually enjoy window shopping.  We haven't bought anything yet, and we will see if we do - we got some 5 years ago, and the prices have not gotten better, but it is truly stunning carving and painting work.

We ended up getting a relatively light dinner at the Hotel Alte Post.  Their spargelsuppe (white asparagus cream soup) is simple and amazing.  I had a salad and a beer from a local monastery.  Judy had some pork in dark beer sauce and a glass of wine.  Then we hobbled back to our apartment.  I want to share some pictures of where we are, because it's a pretty amazing location.  These are from just prior to sunset, which may not do it justice.  More tomorrow.

Our backyard,

Our backyard - think I'll sit and have a glass of wine,

The two windows on the ground floor are for our apartment. 

Yeah, I could stand to stay here for awhile.

Funny... it was only an inch on the map!

We caught a train from Innsbruck Hofbahnhof at 12:30, changed trains in Murnau, and arrived in Oberammergau around 3:30.  Our apartment here is maybe 1/2 mile from the bahnhof (train station), which is the end of the line for the only trains coming into town.  Murnau is on the line between Innsbruck and Munich, a few stops past Garmisch.

Our hostess was awaiting us and showed us into a truly charming little apartment, right across from the Reptile zoo, and coincidentally next door to the Dedler Haus, where we stayed 5 years ago. Here's our place:

Pretty sweet!

We just bummed around town after arriving: grabbed some dinner, walked around, then turned in early.

The next morning, we got more ambitious.  One of the landmarks of Oberammergau is a cliff called the Kofel.  You can't miss it from anywhere in town.  It's a stark tower of granite, with a big cross on top.  After a cup of coffee and a little bread and cheese, we thought, "hey, we ought to try to climb that!"  And I looked at the map that our hausmeister had left us, and it was only about an inch long trail on the map, with only one switchback, seemingly when you got to a ridge behind the cliff.  Piece of cake.  

The Kofel, from the Ammergau river (a block from our apartment).  Piece of cake.

So we headed out, in the back of our minds thinking, "well, if it's too tough, we can always turn back."  We learned that Germans don't use switchbacks, not because they're not needed, but apparently because doing anything but walking straight uphill is wimpy.  And we are wimps, and grossly out of shape.  It was OK when we were passed by 20-somethings.  It was even OK when we were passed by locals our own age.  But getting caught by the guy with the 2-year-old running beside him... that was just sad.  

In fairness, we did beat them to the top, but I'm pretty sure I heard the man say to the boy, "let's take a break and wait awhile... we don't want the pathetic old people to feel bad."  

I can't be sure, because he was speaking Russian, but I'm pretty confident that was what he meant.

Judy praying to Jesus that we're almost there.  All prayers are answered... just not necessarily the way you want them to be.

Passing Kolbenalm, a stopover for skiers looking for a hot or cold beverage.  Closed for the season, less than 1/3rd of the way up.

"Are we there yet?" No.  Kofel on the right, just to the left of the highest tree.

AND we're still climbing.  Kofel looks to be below us (but it's not).

We got to a fork in the trail and couldn't decide whether to go left (which would take us back toward the Kofel) or stay to the right (which was clearly the main trail).  Judy saw a local bopping up the trail toward us and said, "do you speak English?" to which he responded "but of course!"  

Of course.  

He told us that the trail to the left would, indeed, take us to the Kofel but would get pretty robust pretty quickly.  The trail on the right, in contrast, would take us to the Kolbensattel, a ridge between two peaks with a lodge with beer, food, and music... and a ski lift down to the base of the mountain.

I know what you're thinking, but you're wrong.  We didn't wuss out.  We opted for the tough trail for the Kofel.  

For 10 minutes. 

After which the trail turned into something for mountain goats, or at least not out-of-shape 60-somethings.  Invoking the wisdom of the old and infirm, we said, "screw this" and headed back to the main trail.  It was still no picnic: another 45 minutes of steep climbing, and we reached the promised land of Kolbensattel.  Dunkles Weissbier.  Zweigelt wine.  Schweinschnitzel and suppe.  2 guys in lederhosen playing Bavarian folk music on accordian and guitar.  

Families playing and dancing.  A glorious day - partially cloudy, probably 70 degrees in the sun and 65 when clouds passed over.  

We took our time eating, drinking, and enjoying the music, weather and company.  Then we found the T-bar, paid the fee, and hopped on... only to get yelled at by a guy who wasn't paying attention when we hopped on.  It took a few seconds (after we were airborne) to realize that he was telling us that we weren't allowed to hop on without assistance.  Oh well.  We got on just fine, nobody fell to their deaths, and we got a nice view on the way down.