Taking random trains around Europe
This post covers my backpacking trip around Europe in late October through early November of 2009.
A little while back, my friend Lindy decided to move to Stockholm, Sweden for a semester of graduate school. She sent an email to friends asking if anybody would be interested in visiting Europe with her. I said yes and, unfortunately, everyone else said no. I've always liked Lindy and her spunkiness and it would have been even more fun with some of our mutual friends. I ended up flying solo into Berlin, Germany on Oct 27th to meet up with Lindy.
We had talked about doing various things and I had bought some new luggage, but just before I left for Berlin we decided to play it all by ear and I took my backpack instead of the luggage. We also decided to create a vague plan based on train schedules and committed to not trying too hard to be anywhere at anytime other than to be back in Munich to meet her parents. This image is of everything I brought as I walk in a memorial to the lives lost in WWII.
It took a little bit of effort, including my first Taxi ride, but Lindy and I met up in a hotel in Berlin. From that point, we asked for general advice from the hotel staff and it didn't take long for us to get ourselves lost on purpose to start our adventure.
We ended up eating at a Greek restaraunt and managed to order food even though the staff only spoke Greek and German. One of the things that I was worried about was the language barrier, but making it through dinner using simple gestures, being polite, and paying people to be nice to the dumb American worked out pretty well.
We ended up eating at a Greek restaraunt and managed to order food even though the staff only spoke Greek and German. One of the things that I was worried about was the language barrier, but making it through dinner using simple gestures, being polite, and paying people to be nice to the dumb American worked out pretty well.
Day 2: Berlin
After the long volunteer weekend I put in just before getting on the airplane, the long flight, and the time change I was totally wiped out. I think I slept for 12 hours. Lindy likes to run every morning and I didn't hear her leave or come back or shower. I think she must have been at least a little frustrated to be in Berlin and have me sleep in so late, but she was pretty good about not saying anything.
We packed, checked out, and then headed for the central park called Tiergarten. The weather was overcast and drizzly and a little bit on the cool side, which fit my stereotype perception of Berlin. We headed to the Brandenburg Gate after a breakfast at a small cafe:
We packed, checked out, and then headed for the central park called Tiergarten. The weather was overcast and drizzly and a little bit on the cool side, which fit my stereotype perception of Berlin. We headed to the Brandenburg Gate after a breakfast at a small cafe:
The gate starts one of the most famous roads in Berlin, the Unter den Linden. It also marks the general vicinity of the Berlin wall so that "East Berlin" starts on the other side of the wall. Truthfully, I didn't see too much of "West Berlin" so I can't say much about the differences. One thing that was a little surprising, though, is that most of the historical buildings, including the churches, seemed to be in pretty good shape. For some reason I was under the impression that the Communist party had gone about taking buildings down and/or repurposing things. The next picture is of a church with crosses and intricate stone works of Christ on the east side:
Berlin was a nice warm-up for the rest of the places we would visit. In retrospect, it wasn't nearly as impressive as some of the other cities, but as a first time visitor to Europe everything there was exciting, even if things I found "amazing" I would now find "cool". I would recommend it for a day or maybe two days, but if you only have a week in Europe I don't know if I would put it on your list unless you're a big history buff.
Anyway, after a long day of walking Berlin we headed to the train station not knowing exactly where we were going to go or when. However, at the station, which was itself impressive, we were told that a train to Prague was leaving in 10 minutes. Score! We had wanted to head there and the timing was perfect so we handed over the credit card and headed to the platform. I think I rode a train once when I was a kid in Japan, but I'll say this was the first train I remember being on. Unfortunately, it was already dusk when we left central Berlin and dark by the time we made it to the country so I didn't get to see too much.
The train ride was about 5 hours which put us into Prague, Czech Republic at 10 PM with no plans whatsoever. To make things more interesting, it turned out that the train stopped in the northern part of Prague and we wanted to be downtown. And, unlike Berlin, there were no English translations everywhere. And there was no wireless Internet. And we couldn't find anybody (among the few that were there) that spoke English. Hmm... I was starting to feel like we were having an adventure...
We were wandering around through some dimly lit graffiti covered tunnels, wondering out loud what we were going to do when we were saved by an older woman trying to sell a hostel. She pointed out which train to take to get downtown which is where she had her hostel. My guess is that she knows when the trains from Berlin come in and she camps out looking for clueless Americans who don't make plans in advance. She was so adept at picking us out that even as I wallow in my ignorance I feel comforted by all the clueless who preceded us. Whatever her motivation, we certainly accepted her help, if not the room, and we bought a local ticket to bring us downtown a little while later.
We wandered the central train station looking for wireless and fortunately found a free connection which we used to book a hotel on lastminute.com. Google maps made it look like it was just a few blocks through some nice streets to the hotel so, with the address in hand and a rough idea of where we were headed, we left the station... and then things got sketchy. Inside the train station it was modern, but two feet out the door it quickly devolved. To exit, we had to walk along the trash strewn tracks past an old part of the building that was straight out of the communist school of utilitarian design. I felt like I was walking back in time except that the busted windows, weeds, and crumbling exterior with sparse lighting kept reminding me that I was in 2009 looking back at 1959 and that I couldn't tell who was in 2009 looking at the clueless American. Next up, we went through a graffiti plastered tunnel that had one light. Near the end of the tunnel we headed past three guys huddled in a corner while a fourth guy watched us walk directly toward them. After staring politely at the ground and giving my best impression of an American impersonating a Czech with mad street skillz, we popped out in an unlit back street... hmm... However, just when we were both thinking that maybe this wasn't a good idea, we turned the corner and came across a magnificent structure and a small group of people dressed in tuxedoes and dresses. Wow! We had come across people leaving the opera house and never in my life have I been so pleased to come across something related to the opera. It's amazing how much their presence changed my entire perception of the area. We weren't out of the woods yet, but in the picture below you can see the big smile I have as I posed in front of the museum building a little further on:
Anyway, after a long day of walking Berlin we headed to the train station not knowing exactly where we were going to go or when. However, at the station, which was itself impressive, we were told that a train to Prague was leaving in 10 minutes. Score! We had wanted to head there and the timing was perfect so we handed over the credit card and headed to the platform. I think I rode a train once when I was a kid in Japan, but I'll say this was the first train I remember being on. Unfortunately, it was already dusk when we left central Berlin and dark by the time we made it to the country so I didn't get to see too much.
The train ride was about 5 hours which put us into Prague, Czech Republic at 10 PM with no plans whatsoever. To make things more interesting, it turned out that the train stopped in the northern part of Prague and we wanted to be downtown. And, unlike Berlin, there were no English translations everywhere. And there was no wireless Internet. And we couldn't find anybody (among the few that were there) that spoke English. Hmm... I was starting to feel like we were having an adventure...
We were wandering around through some dimly lit graffiti covered tunnels, wondering out loud what we were going to do when we were saved by an older woman trying to sell a hostel. She pointed out which train to take to get downtown which is where she had her hostel. My guess is that she knows when the trains from Berlin come in and she camps out looking for clueless Americans who don't make plans in advance. She was so adept at picking us out that even as I wallow in my ignorance I feel comforted by all the clueless who preceded us. Whatever her motivation, we certainly accepted her help, if not the room, and we bought a local ticket to bring us downtown a little while later.
We wandered the central train station looking for wireless and fortunately found a free connection which we used to book a hotel on lastminute.com. Google maps made it look like it was just a few blocks through some nice streets to the hotel so, with the address in hand and a rough idea of where we were headed, we left the station... and then things got sketchy. Inside the train station it was modern, but two feet out the door it quickly devolved. To exit, we had to walk along the trash strewn tracks past an old part of the building that was straight out of the communist school of utilitarian design. I felt like I was walking back in time except that the busted windows, weeds, and crumbling exterior with sparse lighting kept reminding me that I was in 2009 looking back at 1959 and that I couldn't tell who was in 2009 looking at the clueless American. Next up, we went through a graffiti plastered tunnel that had one light. Near the end of the tunnel we headed past three guys huddled in a corner while a fourth guy watched us walk directly toward them. After staring politely at the ground and giving my best impression of an American impersonating a Czech with mad street skillz, we popped out in an unlit back street... hmm... However, just when we were both thinking that maybe this wasn't a good idea, we turned the corner and came across a magnificent structure and a small group of people dressed in tuxedoes and dresses. Wow! We had come across people leaving the opera house and never in my life have I been so pleased to come across something related to the opera. It's amazing how much their presence changed my entire perception of the area. We weren't out of the woods yet, but in the picture below you can see the big smile I have as I posed in front of the museum building a little further on:
After some mild wandering figuring out the street name system (but feeling better about things), we found our hotel squeezed between buildings. The staff hadn't received our online booking yet so there was some intial confusion, but after passing this last hurdle we went upstairs to our "double" bed room:
There are "two" beds, but they're forced together with a single wooden frame. I thought that this was hilarious and that the framed art showing a woman wearing see-through lingerie was a lovely touch. (In case Lindy's parents see this, Lindy slept opposite of me so that her feet were at my head!) Welcome to Prague!
Day 3: Prague
I again slept in while Lindy ran and later we ate breakfast in the hotel (Nutella, sliced meats, cheeses, and bread). We had arrived at the hotel late at night after moving quickly through foreign streets, but stepping out from the hotel and into the daylight the city looked completely different. What was previously sketchy was now looking like a high end New York City neighborhood. All of the buildings seemed to be a block in length and four stories high, but every eight windows or so the facade would change. There were bright colors, artistic stairs, flowers everywhere, and people moving about on their street walking dogs or taking children to the museum. To be fair, the adult video stores were still on the next block over and there was graffiti on the corners, but by and large I could have been in any upscale U.S. city. And, really, how nervous can you be with giant, yellow rubber duck advertisements?
Walking back towards the train station to buy the tickets for the evening journey, we passed a lot of the things that we had seen. The large building that looked so impressive at night jumped to a whole new level as the details became visible in the light. And one of the tunnels that made our eyes tired from shifting nervously back and forth was even fun:
We made it back to the train station to see where we were going to travel to in the evening. There was some discussion of whether we were going to go to Vienna or Budapest, but we wanted to make it back to Munich in a couple of days and Vienna was a little bit closer. It's hard to make decisions about one adventure over another, but we bit the bullet and booked tickets to Vienna for 12:30 AM which showed up at 6:30 in the morning in Vienna. We figured this was a bonus since we would get to sleep on the train and save money on the hotel.
From the train station, it was a short walk to the start of the "Royal Route" which Prague is famous for. The Royal Route gets started at a famous tower that you can see below:
Before this entrance, Prague felt like an older version of a U.S. city. Maybe San Francisco for example. However, on the other side is the "Alstadt" or "Old Town" and it was impressive.
The road is narrow and surrounded by old buildings that are typically four stories high. As before, these large buildings were broken up by their facades, but now the facades were older with intricate sculpture work. The picture below demonstrates both the changing facades and that the city has recognized the value of tourists and the importance of repainting or detailing these buildings.
After following the narrow road saying "wow!" or "oh wow!" or "wowsers!", it opened up onto a magnificent square. I'll say up front that the pictures aren't going to do it justice. Nothing can compare to the feeling of being there yourself so I apologize in advance for falling short here.
On the left is an astronomical clock that, using only gears, tells not only the day, month, and time, but also the position of the earth, moon, and sun relative to each other. Plus it has some moving figures that come out on certain hours while the bells play. It's mind boggling how they did all of it with just gears back when manufacturing precise large gears must have been a lot of work. On the right side is a magnificent old cathedral. I didn't get any pictures inside this one, but it was wonderful in detail both in sculpture and in the painted walls. There was an organist playing inside as well. After studying just one small section of the chuch in detail, I decided I'm glad I don't go to church there because I would be so distracted by looking around that I'd never hear what the bishop was talking about!
Standing on the other side of the square and looking back provided the following view:
It's another amazing church! I didn't go inside this one, but studying the outside was inspiring. Plus, there's a fountain sitting in the middle of the open space. This was a fun square and when we first entered it we had no idea where to look first. We spent 30 minutes checking out the buildings in this area. We stuck around long enough to watch the dancing figurines come out of the astronomical clock and then we moved on down the street to see what else we could find.
From the square, the road continues across a river and up to the palace. Along the way we saw all sorts of narrow valleys, crossed the Charles Bridge (which was its own work of art), and passed a number of cafes and gardens. This next picture represents a lot of what we saw and is an example of old buildings being filled with new businesses. See if you can spot the American icon:
Sometimes we would talk to people and ask them where they like to eat. Almost universally, people in Europe would say something like "There's a McDonald's about 400 meters down that road." I love a Big Mac as much as any other red blooded American, but the idea of going all the way to the Czech Republic to hang out with Ronald McDonald and see him smiling at me from a tray sends shivers down my spine. The only thing I can think of in its favor is that it's about half the price of everything else. I will say, though, that the many cafes were only lightly busy while McDonalds was absolutely slammed(!) with people when we walked by it.
After gawking at all the people waiting in line for french fries, we continued up to the palace. It was a good vista and from the top of the palace hill just about every where you looked was a new adventure. The shots below capture the feel of the closesness of the buildings with churches every few blocks and all of it set in Autumn colors. Imagine a 360 degree panorama filled with this kind of architecture and backdrop scenery.
After gawking at all the people waiting in line for french fries, we continued up to the palace. It was a good vista and from the top of the palace hill just about every where you looked was a new adventure. The shots below capture the feel of the closesness of the buildings with churches every few blocks and all of it set in Autumn colors. Imagine a 360 degree panorama filled with this kind of architecture and backdrop scenery.
Also at the top, behind the palace, was a stunning gothic cathedral. The mind boggling detail in this church was.... mind boggling. I could have walked around this church for an hour before going inside there was that much to see. Unfortunately, they charged to get in and I was short Euros so I'll have to do that the next time I'm in Prague. It's hidden by other buildings preventing me from getting a long distance shot, but this close-up gives a good idea of what the architecture was like.
The thing about Prague is that no matter what part of the town you were in or where you were looking you saw something else new and amazing. Here's a shot of the waterfront as we came back towards the river from the palace:
We also managed to get lost when I incorrectly guessed which side of the river we were on. (For the record I normally have an impeccable sense of direction, but the map I had put South pointing up and I didn't catch that oddity.) However, it was what Bob Ross the PBS painter would call a "Happy Accident" as we found the palace gardens. Despite some trepidation on our pathfinding skills and our hunger we walked all over the park and found ourselves in a big open area one minute and in a tight forested path the next. Here's a shot of an open area:
From there we managed to get unlost and we ate dinner in a small pizza restaurant just a short distance from the main square we visited in the morning. We grabbed some street vendor ice cream afterwards and made our way back to the river to just people watch and look at the river reflect city lights in every direction. It's not a great picture, but this is of the Charles Bridge at night with the palace in the background:
We ended up getting to the train station a couple of hours early due to a power adaptor issue, but while Lindy tracked down her converter it gave me a chance to relax. And I needed it too! Lindy has a pedometer on her phone to track footsteps and it showed that we had walked about 23 miles. I was beat, but I thoroughly enjoyed Prague.
I had read coming into the city that it's billed as the most beautiful city in Europe, if not the world. I was skeptical of that coming in, (especially to the train station at night!), but having been all over the city center the evidence is stacked in its favor. There was just so much detail, so much art, so much structural beauty that it was overwhelming. In fact, I think it kind of dulled my senses for some of the things we saw later in other cities. River fronts, churches, town clocks and cobble stone streets in other cities were all done bigger and better in Prague. Of all the cities in our journey that I would choose to spend more time in, Prague would most certainly be at the top.
I had read coming into the city that it's billed as the most beautiful city in Europe, if not the world. I was skeptical of that coming in, (especially to the train station at night!), but having been all over the city center the evidence is stacked in its favor. There was just so much detail, so much art, so much structural beauty that it was overwhelming. In fact, I think it kind of dulled my senses for some of the things we saw later in other cities. River fronts, churches, town clocks and cobble stone streets in other cities were all done bigger and better in Prague. Of all the cities in our journey that I would choose to spend more time in, Prague would most certainly be at the top.
Day 3: Vienna and Salzburg
As mentioned earlier, to get to Vienna we took the night train. We figured we'd save some money and sleep on the train. However, the compartments were packed when we boarded. When there was an open seat it was clear that the family in the compartment didn't want us around. The parents would glare at us telling us to move on. We did finally find one where two people were using the two rows of three chairs to sleep on. We moved in and the one gentlemen sat up, but the woman refused to move. This forced Lindy and I to "sleep" sitting up. After walking 20-ish miles the day before, it didn't much matter to me, but it certainly could have been better.
At the Vienna train station, we checked out the departure schedule. We needed to be in Munich the next morning to meet Lindy's parents, but there was still so much more to see. We ended up deciding to spend the morning in Vienna, take a train to Salzburg, Austria for the afternoon/evening, and then head to Munich, Germany that night. From there, we would head to the airport and sleep on benches there. Crazy!
We took the subway to get downtown. When you walk out of the station and into the light, this church is one of the first things you see:
I really enjoy the country side and running around, but I'm blown away by these old churches and palaces. Many of them took generations to build which is something that defies modern comparison. I can't imagine working on a building that my grandfather helped build. To think about the architectural genealogy and then consider how beautiful it ends up being is a testament to hard work and dedication. Here's a shot of the inside of the church:
After exploring the church a little bit, it was time for breakfast. I had read that there were a number of historic cafes in the area. We settled on Cafe Lindstadt after some map searching. The meal was expensive, but the hot chocolate was epic. I know it sounds ridiculous, but this was absolutely the most amazing hot chocolate I have ever had. Probably the best hot drink I've ever had. It was so amazing that I took a picture of it which is an act completely removed from my normal persona.
From the cafe, we headed around the "Ring". All the streets in the area form a ring and the last part of the street names literally mean "ring". You could spend a number of days exploring everything on and in this ring. Unfortunately, we only had a few hours... The next few pictures cover the grand architecture. We stopped only briefly to take pictures, read plaques, and soak things in. There was even time to chat with a local woman who was very friendly and helpful.
After exploring the ring, we headed back downtown. I wanted to take the catacomb tour of the cathedral, but Lindy wanted to go to the city park. We ended up splitting up at the Danube river and we promised to be at the train station in time. I'm sure the city park was cool (or something), but the catacomb tour was awesome. They had buried the plague victimes in the tunnels as well as the bishops. The bishops had nice enclosures and the plebians were tossed into pits. While you couldn't go into the pits, you could look into them and see hundreds of skeletons piled on top of each other. The guide mentioned that there were so many bodies piled in during the plague that they had to suspend church services due to the stench.
There was much more to see, but time was pressing so I had to leave. I made it to the train station, but Lindy was nowhere to be seen. Time was ticking and even though I knew Lindy would be pushing it, I was getting nervous. At the last minute, she did show up and we almost got on the wrong train in our rush. We got onto the correct rain and found a seat just as it was leaving.
Vienna was nice and the hot chocolate was amazing. I don't know if I was super impressed, though. It definitely seemed more commercialized than other cities we visited. Other cities had businesses in their historic buildings, but Vienna seemed to be more outlandish and "in your face" about the businesses. If you're into shopping, though, it should be a prime destination.
So, now on the train headed for Salzburg we found a couple of seats and plopped down. We walked past the "premier" seats and figured we were now in the second class seats we paid for. I started getting suspicious when a very tall and buff German man handed me a moist towel with a water bottle and cookies. I looked around, but I could not find a sign that said which section we were in, though I knew we weren't in the premier section because they had much nicer seating and such. After a few minutes, the tall guy came back looking for tickets and when he took mine he kind of paused for a moment and I knew for certain then that we were in the wrong section. I'm sure he was like "oh great, another dumb American." I hadn't shaved in a few days, I had my backpack in the empty seat and I had already eaten the cookies (although I'm pretty sure I had cleaned up all the crumbs). He was surprisingly nice considering the circumstances and told me that we were in the first class cabins. I guess they have "premier", "first class", and then "second class", but it's different for every train line so my ignorance was only mostly my fault.
Now feeling a little bummed about the mixup we gathered our stuff and headed to the second class cabins. Or we tried to anyway. They over sold the cabins and people were sitting in the aisles or standing against walls. It was a two hour train ride so I was surprised and disappointed that they were allowed to oversell like that. Lindy and I decided to head back towards the in-between section of the cars. The picture below is where I ended up sitting for two hours:
There was much more to see, but time was pressing so I had to leave. I made it to the train station, but Lindy was nowhere to be seen. Time was ticking and even though I knew Lindy would be pushing it, I was getting nervous. At the last minute, she did show up and we almost got on the wrong train in our rush. We got onto the correct rain and found a seat just as it was leaving.
Vienna was nice and the hot chocolate was amazing. I don't know if I was super impressed, though. It definitely seemed more commercialized than other cities we visited. Other cities had businesses in their historic buildings, but Vienna seemed to be more outlandish and "in your face" about the businesses. If you're into shopping, though, it should be a prime destination.
So, now on the train headed for Salzburg we found a couple of seats and plopped down. We walked past the "premier" seats and figured we were now in the second class seats we paid for. I started getting suspicious when a very tall and buff German man handed me a moist towel with a water bottle and cookies. I looked around, but I could not find a sign that said which section we were in, though I knew we weren't in the premier section because they had much nicer seating and such. After a few minutes, the tall guy came back looking for tickets and when he took mine he kind of paused for a moment and I knew for certain then that we were in the wrong section. I'm sure he was like "oh great, another dumb American." I hadn't shaved in a few days, I had my backpack in the empty seat and I had already eaten the cookies (although I'm pretty sure I had cleaned up all the crumbs). He was surprisingly nice considering the circumstances and told me that we were in the first class cabins. I guess they have "premier", "first class", and then "second class", but it's different for every train line so my ignorance was only mostly my fault.
Now feeling a little bummed about the mixup we gathered our stuff and headed to the second class cabins. Or we tried to anyway. They over sold the cabins and people were sitting in the aisles or standing against walls. It was a two hour train ride so I was surprised and disappointed that they were allowed to oversell like that. Lindy and I decided to head back towards the in-between section of the cars. The picture below is where I ended up sitting for two hours:
It really wasn't too bad! The speedometer was easily seen (140 MPH), you could hear the sounds of the train more clearly, and the full height window gave maximum view of the countryside. The next two pictures are examples of what we saw:
We showed up in Salzburg in the late afternoon. We already had tickets to Munich so we immediately headed towards the "Old Town" across the river. On the station side of the river, it was like any other U.S. city. It could have been a city street in San Antonio or Denver except for the signs, but even many of those were in English (especially the signs for the Sound of Music tours). The picture below is of the river that marks the boundary, with the "Old Town" being on the right side of the picture:
Salzburg is where Mozart was born and raised. It's also the location of a famous fortification on top of the cliff above the city. The next picture gives a sense of both:
The Old City itself is small and easily walkable in an hour at moderate pace. What takes a little more effort is walking up the cliff to the castle. After walking so many miles in just a couple of days, the cliff face looked daunting, but I enjoyed the hike. I could imagine how daunting the castle would seem for invading armies as they had to carry all of their armor and weapons up the steep slope and face arrows, moats, and boiling oil. We took our time exploring the fort at the top and then came out on top of the walls. It was later in the evening which made the views magnificent! This next picture above the city at night is one of my favorites from the trip:
From the castle, we headed down to dinner in the main square. We picked a cafe that looked comfortable with nice seating and plopped down for a meal. Unfortunately the food was bad, but there were some very comfortable couches in the cafe part. In fact, they were so comfortable that both of us fell asleep waiting for the food. I don't know if it's because we fell asleep in a restaurant or something else, but we must have screamed "Americans" because two young women sitting at the next table over asked what city we were from in the states. Like every other place I've visited in my life, I'm consistently surprised by the friendliness of the people we meet in various places. Both the food and the desserts ended up being mediocre, but the people were top notch.
We next headed to the train station. We ended up getting lost on the way in the dark, but only mildly so. We didn't wait too long for our train and then we were headed to Munich. I left Salzburg not feeling very impressed with it. (Probably due to Prague.) It was a "day trip" kind of place. If you're in the area then stop on by, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see it and I wouldn't spend more than a day there.
On the train to Munich, we slept through the whole ride. In the last two days, we had covered well over 30 miles with our backpacks, not slept in a bed, been to two countries and three cities, headed to another city and country, and our day wasn't really over yet because we had to get from the Munich train station to the airport. Fortunately, the transition to the airport train wasn't bad at all. And the local train to the airport was kind of fun since we were able to observe daily life. There was a kid on a BMX style bike, a woman dressed in business clothes, and a young family. We ended up pulling into the airport late in the evening, finding a couple of benches and camping out.
It turned out that the airport, for whatever reason, had free showers. Crazy! I was wondering how they could financially justify it (and why an airport would even have them) when I saw that the foot covers were not free. And that various adult materials were sold right next to the foot covers. Hmm. I briefly considered the "coincedental" placement and then bought the foot covers.
Showered and bemused I picked out a bench in our "campsite" and crashed out. Note that the benches in the Munich airport are nice for sleeping. They're long, they taper out so that you're cradled along your length, and the center is padded. With free showers and great sleeping benches it's almost like they want you to sleep there.
We next headed to the train station. We ended up getting lost on the way in the dark, but only mildly so. We didn't wait too long for our train and then we were headed to Munich. I left Salzburg not feeling very impressed with it. (Probably due to Prague.) It was a "day trip" kind of place. If you're in the area then stop on by, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see it and I wouldn't spend more than a day there.
On the train to Munich, we slept through the whole ride. In the last two days, we had covered well over 30 miles with our backpacks, not slept in a bed, been to two countries and three cities, headed to another city and country, and our day wasn't really over yet because we had to get from the Munich train station to the airport. Fortunately, the transition to the airport train wasn't bad at all. And the local train to the airport was kind of fun since we were able to observe daily life. There was a kid on a BMX style bike, a woman dressed in business clothes, and a young family. We ended up pulling into the airport late in the evening, finding a couple of benches and camping out.
It turned out that the airport, for whatever reason, had free showers. Crazy! I was wondering how they could financially justify it (and why an airport would even have them) when I saw that the foot covers were not free. And that various adult materials were sold right next to the foot covers. Hmm. I briefly considered the "coincedental" placement and then bought the foot covers.
Showered and bemused I picked out a bench in our "campsite" and crashed out. Note that the benches in the Munich airport are nice for sleeping. They're long, they taper out so that you're cradled along your length, and the center is padded. With free showers and great sleeping benches it's almost like they want you to sleep there.
Day 4: Munich
We met Lindy's parents in the morning. The dynamic changed when they showed up as it was no longer me and Lindy making things up as we went, but me being a fourth wheel for her and her parents. It took a while to get organized, a while for them to get "the perfect" rental car, a while to get where we wanted to go next. We spent most of the day sitting around waiting. The silver lining was that we'd been going, going, going so maybe doing nothing was best for us.
Our destination for the day was the Neuschwanstein castle. We barely made it with a series of delays and then a long walk up the hill. We were the last tour group. The silver lining to squeaking in was the sun was at a nice angle and the crowds were much smaller. I had fun wandering around the castle and seeing the woodwork, architecture, and scenery.
We ate dinner at a touristy cafe near the castle. A very large German woman either really didn't like Americans or maybe she's just gruff with everyone. The food was mediocre. Other than the hot chocolate in Vienna, I haven't found any food that tastes good. Maybe McDonald's is popular here not because it's American but because it has flavor (of some sort).
Day Five: Austria
We took the car across the border to Innsbruck, Austria. Beautiful drive and beautiful destination.
I split off from Lindy and her parents in the afternoon, taking a bus up to a nature trail in the foothills. I enjoyed this well maintained trail, even if it was nestled in a highly populated area. I could see an Ikea, for instance, when I climbed one hill.
Day 6: Back to Germany
We drove back into Germany and stopped off at a small town or two. The thing that continued to impress me was how many grand churches exist, even in small places. Then you read the plaque and it says something like it took 120 years to build it. Unbelievable. I can't think of anything like it in the U.S.
The next stop was Hamburg. Lindy and her parents opted to drive over there and I chose to take the train. I didn't quite fit into their family dynamic and the train gave me time to watch the countryside and read. I even got a window and a real seat.
Hamburg is an industrial town and a notable experience there was climbing 130 meters up an old church steeple. For 5 Euros you can go up a set of creaky wooden stairs to a small platform just large enough for a small chair. I went in with my backpack then opted to leave it on a landing about halfway up. I did this both for the extra maneuvering room and because I didn't totally trust the old staircase. It was a stormy day as well so the wind gusts were making the steeple vibrate and twist around. I'm not too proud to say I was having second thoughts.
The views at the top were good and I felt a sense of accomplishment. I could hear the wooden walls creak with the wind and there was a noticeable sway at the top. I didn't stay for long. Unfortunately, the porthole windows were obscured so the best picture I got wasn't from the very top.
My other favorite experience was stumbling across a bombed out church from World War II. Being an industrial town, Hamburg was a frequent bombing target. They blew up the church and the government has opted to leave the shell of what remains as a grim reminder of the war.
The evening found us all in the airport to take a famous RyanAir flight over to Stockholm. They have super cheap base tickets then charge for everything else, even a single carry on bag. I didn't mind so much except for the constant bombardment of advertisements for credit cards and shopping throughout the flight. We landed not too long after taking off and then made our way to an apartment that one of Lindy's friends owns. Stockholm hotel prices were crazy expensive (like $300 USD a night), so this was a wonderful hook up.
Day 7: Stockholm
My flight out in the evening so I carried my backpack as we walked around the town. I again did some solo stuff and I also spent a little more time with Lindy. The day was cold and wet and I enjoyed it. We didn't get to see too much of anything, instead choosing to walk around and get a feel for the town. My impression was that Stockholm is cleaner and more refined than other places. It felt sophisticated in some way.
Like a lot of other European cities, they really pack the buildings in. Here's me bundled up and looking tired.
Then, in a snap, the trip was over. Lindy and her parents took me to the airport. They were spending more time together in the area and I was headed back to work. I had a wonderful time in this random adventure and with Lindy. Here's us saying goodbye.
As a last side story, they wouldn't let me through security. I had my nickname (Bill) on the ticket due to some mixup with the airline, but my passport said William. They refused to believe that Bill was short for William and several people said that in all their life they'd never heard of the association before. It took 30 minutes of them calling around and verifying before grudgingly letting me through with a stern warning. Then I had a couple of hours to wait for my airplane, but they wouldn't let me sleep. Not even sitting up. They said it was against their rules. So Stockholm had a feeling of organization and cleanliness and some of that came back to bite me as I wasn't within their lines.
Anyhow, I'd do it all again. I'd love to go back and do more church tours, spend more time in Prague, and get around to France, Spain, and Italy. I was impressed with the history and the people. Not so much the food, though, as that was terrible in every city and country except for that cafe in Vienna. And I'd definitely take the same random approach of going to a train station and getting on whatever is going somewhere new in the next 30 minutes.