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Published: November 4th 2005
The Fast Train!
Well 250km/h is fast for me...Pickled Fish for Breakfast
Up early again (6:00am), quick shower, dress, pack, and downstairs for the complementry breakfast. And what a breakfast! All manner of cold sliced meats & cheese, a selection of cereals & juice, and (now I know that I'm in Germany) pickled herrings!
Kate looked over her toast & nuttela with distain at my plate of manufactured meat, cheese, & pickled fish!
When in Rome
I say...
Fast Train to Munich
We go straight to the station and ask for the next fast (250 km/h) train to Munchen (Munich) and were told to go to platform 8 at 8:50. Change trains at Manheim. Too easy!
On the train and we eventually decode the First Class/ Second Class, Smoking/Non-smoking (the Germans LOVE to smoke!). Much to Kate's excitement work out that we have 1st class Eurail Passes, so much so that an hour later when we change trains at Manheim she makes a bee-line straight passed half-full 2nd class carriages to a packed 1st class carriage.
I want a TV in my seat DAMMIT!
But you can't understand more than 4 words of German...
We paid for 1st class, I'm travelling 1st class!
OK, whatever...
On the carriage and 30 secs later it pulls away - we're commited now. At first
First Class Travel.
I could get used to first class... the best we can manage is a single seat in seperate 1st class cabins, but eventually we get two seats together when we convice an American couple that a more appropiate place for their luggage is in the corridor (where everyone elses is).
While talking to them we discover that they too had caught the train from Frankfurt, but they hadn't changed trains like we had, they had been on the same one the whole time and they had actually left at 8.54, four minutes after us.
It seems that I had got a VERY literal answer to my question and should have asked
"When does the next direct train to Munich leave?" Oh well live and learn.
Off the train and the Loney Planet Europe guid directs us to a cheap hotel near the station - the Hotel Pension.
The Lonely Planet Guide also suggests a visit to the Dachau memorial, but I'm not so keen. It dosen't come under the heading of "fun", but it does unfortunately fit under "educational" and "cultural", so we're off...
Dachau
A train and a bus and we're there, 3 euro gets us a map and an
Our room in Munich.
Kate sitting on the window sill. audio guide and we're through an imposing gate (not big, just...ominous) and inside the compound. I wont say much more, just a comment on an unexpected response that I experienced while there. I felt uneasy but still OK through all the buildings and displays including the most horrific photos and descriptions, but while walking up the road between the barracks (prisoner dormatories) that is now a tree lined avenue, the emotion was almost overwhelming. I barely kept it together... Even being in the crematorium or gas chamber (aparently never used - but still spooky) it didn't affect me as much as that simple tree lined gravel path. I don't know why.
Hoffbrau House
Anyway, back to town in search of sausage. Quick change and the desk clerk at our hotel tells us to go...here! (circles a building on a map he gives us) we work our way through town towards this unknown destination. A couple a wrong turns, a couple of detours, and the occasional pause to browse for souvenirs, but eventually we come across a huge line of people disappearing into a very large building "Hoffbrau House" this must be the place. I wonder what it is?? Up
Dachau Memorial.
Standing in the parade square. two flights and we are at the entry to a large hall. Twenty euros gives us a traditional German buffet and show. Jackpot! I'm almost half stuffed with roast meat, potato dumplings saukraut and three kinds of sausage when the slap dancing starts! Then comes the yodelling, then more slap dancing. An elderly Japanese gentleman comends me on my choice of woman, more oompa music, and its back out into the cold with a belly full of beer looking for somewhere to lie down.
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Ed
non-member comment
Edelweiss
Psstt where are the updates...... I need to know if the full range of sausages were sampled. I need to know the beer list ... did you have rollmops and matjes herring at the street market yet ... come on now don't leave us hanging here. Ed and Bridget