Day 83 – to Augsburg
- After a relaxing morning of cooking breakfast, eating, cleaning up, and packing, we hung out in the lobby of our hotel for a little while. It was busy with a few others doing the same. We had about a 1km/0.6mi walk to the train station, but it was great weather of 22ºC/71ºF and quite pleasant. We hung out at the station until closer to our train time (running 10 minutes late), then at our platform briefly. Our train arrived just before the adjusted time. Everyone loaded quickly and efficiently. I wish airports could be this easy. I get that they can’t (and why), but I still wish.
- We didn’t have any people acting like stow aways, but we did have German TedDEY using his “outdoor” voice and a dad who was fully incapable of noticing, being embarrassed, or parenting him in any way at all. I knew I was among friends when I caught other people shooting them the same looks that I do. My NC earbuds helped, but sadly weren’t enough to block it all out. The thing is, the kid was just bored. His dad had “stolen” some creamers for him to play with. There was also a small monster truck just bigger than a Hot Wheels car, but interest in that had long-since waned. Then came the singing. Then, he crawled under the seats and wailed some Dory-esque whale singing while his dad took a fuckin’ nap. He was bored and his imagination was running. He needed something to do. Dear all parents everywhere, please bring something for your kid to do. A book. Colors. A quiet toy. Something. Anything. PLEASE. Meanwhile, the guy across the aisle from me was using the table as a plate for his sandwich between bites. I guess it was too heavy to hold and came from a place with no napkins. Gross. This is why we clean the tables when we sit down.
- Our train ride to Augsburg was a couple of hours. With some very pretty views of farms on rolling hills.
- About 25% of the way into the ride, German TedDEY and his incompetent father disappeared. They were gone for a really long time. Somewhere in that time, 4 women in cute neutral (like cream/tan/beige) dirndln arrived. They looked adorable and were obviously headed to the big giant party in Munich. Then, a little over half way through our journey, German TedDEY and his incompetent dad got off our train. Whew!
- The free bus wasn’t running until 4pm (on a Saturday? During Oktoberfest?), so we grabbed an über to our hotel. We love kiosk hotels. You use a code to get in, you go to your room, you have access to help via WhatsApp if you need something. It’s perfectly simple. We even got room #305 (the area code for #theU).
- We settled into the room, opened the windows, turned on the fan, and headed out for dinner. He found the Ratskellar for us, just like my college campus. But this one was quite fancy compared to our pub (which has since been torn down and built anew.) We both had their fabulous schnitzel, of course. It was amazing. And the fries were so good they didn’t need ketchup. I also had some yummy German lager.
- On the way back to the hotel, we passed two opera singers performing along the promenade.
- A little while later, we hit a nearby market for provisions. And then we had a womp womp. Not long after we got back to the room, unpacked our haul, and got comfortable, he said, “I have some bad news.” The next day, all the stores would be closed. We had only bought evening snacks and breakfast stuff. So, we’d have to venture back out to get enough stuff for an additional day. Our second trip was in another direction and was a closer and nicer market. So, we stocked up for a couple of days to save us some of the hassle of finding a place and eating usually-mediocre-despite-being-expensive food. Best laid plans.
- We spent the next part of our evening watching/gaming/working. Then, he found the A&M game via a VPN/login which got the game on our TV. Thank you, Limehome™ for a TV on an arm and physical/digital access to the ports!
- During half time, I was listening to the restaurant/cocktail chatter on the street below us. It reminded me of one of our evenings in Porto, Portugal. I was amazed that we, as Americans with our upbringings, could have an experience in Germany that reminds of an experience in Portugal while we call Denver home. We are so damn lucky. Sometimes, I feel like we live in a movie; it’s a really boring plot line, but the visuals and natural audio make for some amazing moments.
- Sadly, the Aggies ran out of time.
Day 84 – Maximilianmuseum good; football bad/good
- We slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, and lazed about. We wanted to go to a museum, but wanted to go later in the day to avoid any crowds.
- Maximilianmuseum was a weird little museum with some very odd stuff and some very cool stuff.
- At Genuss Kaffeehaus, I tried spaghetti eis and he had eis schokolade.
- We spent the evening gaming/working/watching, and cooked dinner.
- For Sunday football, the Broncos were so bad that we turned it off (but then they ended up winning). He eventually found a site with the Cowboys game and it was not any better, so we went to sleep (and then they won, too). It’s going to be a tumultuous year for football.
Day 85 – resting
- 7am construction awakened us. After an hour of grinding metal, I gave up, got up, and closed all the windows. He went right back to sleep. Eventually, I did too.
- We then went for a pricey lunch at Wirtshaus. It was good, but it was a lot of food (we easily could have shared one meal if we liked the same things), and our lunch bill was $74USD.
- We just used the day to rest and relax. I didn’t even work much. While he gamed, I watched the new Lizzie Borden show on Netflix.
- Later, we cooked dinner and made a grocery run for more supplies. It was a nice, quiet, restful day.
Day 86 – Schaezlerpalais and Schnitzel
- We had a leisurely morning with our DIY Room Service Breakfast, did some chores, and relaxed. There were two singers outside this morning. One played a guitar and knew exactly one chord progression, so his pop song choices were all the same. The other was singing some very old hymns or something that sounded a little like the Muslim call to prayer. Unfortunately for everyone, they were performing close to each other, and unfortunately for us, they were both quite close to our windows.
- When we were about ready to head out, we packed sandwiches and went to another museum, the Schaezlerpalais. This one had a very ornate and grand ballroom. It also had a cute garden with a small fountain. All around the fountain, there were tiny bowls filled with what we assume is sugar water. There were 8-12 bees in every bowl. They seemed to be in heaven as they carbo loaded for fall and winter.
- We found a sunny bench to eat our lunch. He bought us a Coke to share, so then, a couple of bees would not leave us alone. I tried to explain to them that the garden had more sugar water, but they didn’t seem to understand English. I don’t even speak American Bee or German, so German Bee was not something I could do.
- On the way back to our hotel, we passed a couple of purse stores and did a little shopping. I’m looking for a unicorn. I want a wristlet for going out to dinner, especially on cruises (instead of my rugged and large travel purse). But I need it to double as a travel pouch of some kind so it can help me stay organized and not take up too much extra room in my luggage. I have half a mind to make one, but that might be beyond what I could do in that vein.
- The next portion of our evening was accompanied by a guy playing an accordion and singing.
