A day in Munchen to Recover, then off to San Vigilio di Marebbe!

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My hotel room in Munich

Alors, je suis arrivée, finalement! I know, I know, I’m not traveling to any French-speaking countries on this trip, but I’m practicing for my upcoming French class. And the arrival of our French lawyer later tonight. But anyway, let’s begin at the beginning.

I left New Jersey on Tuesday evening, just about making it to the airport in the allotted time, since my car’s driver felt the need to test out almost every highway in NJ. The flight was Lufthansa, which I had high hopes for, since they usually have more comfortable seats. However, this was a newer plane, with a lot less room and a lot more people, and since it was full, we were packed in like sardines. That, combined with two crying babies and a guy behind me loudly reciting some sort of religious phrases equaled almost no sleep. But I arrived in Munich, got through passport control and had my bags within about fifteen minutes. I instructed the cab driver to head to Dachauer strasse, to the Kings Hotel, First Class - it’s important to be specific, since there are actually two Kings hotels in Munich, about two blocks from each other (and both close to the hauptbahnhof, or train station). Because my flight had gotten in around mid-morning, the hotel had a room for me right away, which was wonderful. It was a little bit strange that they didn’t need to see my credit card when I checked in, but I was too tired to think anything of it.

My room was typically European (aka small) and strangely oriented, so I actually caught my jeans’ pocket on the closet door as I was walking past this morning. I quickly shut the shades and tried to tune out the noise of construction going on, which, because of my jet lag, was easy to do. I slept for almost seven hours straight, something I desperately needed after the seven hour flight that I was mostly awake for, and then decided to do a bit of reading before having some dinner. I’d found that the hotel information binder was a bit odd - there was one section of A-Z information that was in English as well as German, but otherwise, everything was in German. I seemed to be able to find other information in the room and on the hotel’s website in English, but unfortunately, not the room service menu. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to translate “tomatencremesouppe” and after I visited my favorite free translation website to see what my other options were, that’s what I decided on. It was strange that I had to call down to the front desk to be transferred to room service, and there was no direct dialing them, but the soup was delicious, and I was happy to find that some of the other mini bar snacks were as well. Unfortunately, they didn’t seem to have any still water and I was really dehydrated from the flight (despite drinking as much water as possible), but I made do. They did have Coke, which made me happy.

I finally went back to sleep and woke up around nine this morning. My dad wasn’t picking me up for the drive until at least three, so I lazed around reading and packing up. I know I should have been touring around some of the local sites, but I was just tired and unmotivated! I had more tomato soup for lunch, and this time, signed a room service slip, which I hadn't done the night before (another weird inconsistency). My dad picked me up just before four, and we set the GPS for San Vigilio di Marebbe. We were off.

However, it was harder to find than you’d think.

I’ve always been a big fan of the autobahn and its speeds, and in southern Germany, the land around the highways is really beautiful, so it’s always an enjoyable trip. This was no exception, with the mountains rising in the background, looking majestic. We stopped at a rest stop to pick up a required car sticker for Italy and Austria, and I had some more tomato soup (it’s really good in Germany, if you’re a fan, and I wasn’t in the mood for schnitzel). It was the first time I’ve been to a rest stop with real plates and cutlery, let alone a decent meal, so it was a good experience. Outside of having to pay to use the restroom, of course, which still managed to be only a fraction cleaner than other public toilets I’ve been in.

Once again, we hit the road. We made fairly good time through to Innsbruck and headed towards the dreaded Brenner Pass. I’d seen it on tv just weeks previously, and it looked to be a bridge over a sheer drop between two mountains. I kept picturing it in my head as we were driving, and my palms were getting sweatier as we came closer to it. However, in the dark, I missed it completely and we were soon seeing signs for towns past the Pass. I’m sure I’ll see it in all its glory on Sunday, in full daylight, as we’re driving back to Munich.

Finally, we saw signs for San Vigilio, but as we drove, the GPS woman told us that we needed to make a U-turn. Thinking we’d missed something when we went through a series of three tunnels and lost the GPS signal, we turned around and headed back. The GPS led us up steep mountain roads, so narrow only one car could safely fit at a time (although there were a couple of occasions when we had to hug either the mountain wall, or the edge of the drop to let another car pass). I was on the inside side of the mountain, but still nervous about the height. Suddenly, we came to a turn and found that the road was completely blocked with snow (obviously, our GPS didn’t get that memo). We had to try to remember our way down the mountain as the GPS intoned “As soon as possible, make a legal U-turn.” We stopped to ask two guys for directions, but they were new to the area and didn’t know anything. As we drove down, I could see how high we were, and how steep the drop was. In the distance, I saw two headlights; a car was coming. We backed up (on the drop side of the road, mind you), and I had to close my eyes as we inched as close as possible to the guard rail to let them safely by. As another car whizzed up, I thought I’d have a heart attack. But we survived and found the highway again. It turned out that we hadn’t gone far enough when the GPS told us to turn around - obviously, some sort of mechanical hiccup. I wanted to kiss the ground when we arrived in San Vigilio!

Our host for the weekend met us by the town’s Church and we followed him to a local restaurant where he was having dinner with the others who had already arrived. It was a simple, rustic restaurant with delicious food, and I greatly enjoyed my gnocchi - especially since I’d only been eating tomato soup for two days! The atmosphere was relaxed and jovial, and it turned out that a little dog even lived there! He was very cute, and reminded me of home, so I was happy to be able to pet the little guy. We dawdled over our espressos as the evening wound down, and then headed back to La Bercia, our destination for the weekend.

I’m looking forward to exploring a little once it’s not nighttime, but tonight, I went straight to my room. Tomorrow, I’ll be sharing it with our Czech lawyer - she had planned to come, then cancelled because of a dislocated shoulder, but has been cleared to come again. The room is very cozy, with knotty pine floors, solid wood furniture, and unbelievably soft beds. We’ve even got our own bathroom in here. And for only 40 euros a night (including breakfast), it's a real bargain!

Tomorrow, it’s off to the slopes. I think I will try skiing, though we’ll see how it goes. It will just be the bunny slopes for me - or the "baby" slopes as some were calling them earlier. I understand I won’t be alone there, so it should be fun. I’m nervous, but what better place to learn to ski? Maybe I’ll even learn to ice skate in the outdoor rink on Saturday - we’ll see. Tomorrow should be a fun day regardless, exploring the village and having new adventures!

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