Exploring Europe

Julie Andrews The Sound of Music

Well, we have entered a whole different culture. It is so much fun but confusing at times. Our first weekend was traveling to Munich Germany with a stopover in Austria. I know I heard Julie Andrews singing a song on the radio from "The Sound of Music" as we were driving through this beautiful snowcovered Alps country. We arrived in Munich at the parking garage and took 15 min. to figure out how to get a ticket for the gate to open. We went to Old Town Munich and saw structures built back in the 1100 - 1500. That was a LONG time ago. Everything was absolutely beautiful down to the carillon in the tower of the town hall that dances around at noon and 3 pm. Food was fantastic there (hard to read what we were eating). They do eat horse over here. Now USA needs these: the toilets have a container of cleaner that cleans the seats when you flush. The seat actually turns in a circle as the cleaner sprays it clean. Went to the Hofbrauhaus beerhouse and everyone was dressed in traditional clothing, band was playing typical beerdrinking german music, people hollering, no empty tables unless you sit down with a bunch of happy drunks at a long table for 16-20 people. It was too noisy so we left. We came, we saw, and we left - went to a quaint romantic restaurant and had the same beer and wine and weinerschnitzel. I thought it was going to be like a hot dog, but it came out like a fried pork chop with the best german potato salad. After a full day of walking, we started home. Now John S. loves the autobahn. It has no speed limit and it was like a racetrack. Stay out of the left lane unless you are racing. John S. really likes the mercedes we were in and took it to 200m -uh-sometimes I would look and it was at 250m. OK, it was time to step in and slow it down. I wanted to get back in one piece. Driving through long tunnels is nothing here. They just build a tunnel on hwy instead of going over the mountain or cutting through it. Whew, we made it home in one piece. Next report will be our trip to the Stein amRhein Falls. It is a castle and you climb down the mountain to the largest waterfalls in Europe.