Munich

We arrived in Munich late in the afternoon, and it was about a one minute walk from the train station to Wombats, our hostel. Wombats isn’t really our style of hostel, but they’ve done a pretty good job of segregating the boring people who sleep in double rooms (us), from the crazies who tend to migrate toward the dorms. Our room was nice, with en suite bathroom, and a balcony that would have been useful if it wasn’t so cold. They had laundry facilities too, which was a much needed perk.

Since we arrived later in the afternoon, we decided to hold off on the sightseeing and accomplish one of our more important tasks – visiting a Munich beer garden. We know what you’re thinking. It’s the middle of October, so Haley and Jim must have timed it perfectly for Oktoberfest. Sorry folks, strangely enough Oktoberfest happens the last two weeks of September. We knew this coming in, but we were hoping to ride the wave during our beer garden experience. We opted for Augustiner-Keller, because it was pretty close to the hostel and because they have a huge cavernous indoor area that takes over the beer garden duties when the weather is bad – and the weather was bad. We had a great time and enjoyed the brew and food. Haley ate one of the best potatoes in the history of potatoes – mainly due to its ample amount of sour cream and chives. Jim went the more traditional route of brats with sauerkraut. The apple strudel for dessert wasn’t to shabby either. We also learned the proper way to order a beer, “eine maß bier, bitte.”

We stumbled home and decided to use our free drink coupons, given to us at check-in, at the “Wom-bar.” I don’t think we were the oldest people in the bar, but we definitely raised the average age by a few years. We had a good laugh when we saw a few of the kiddies singing along to a Guns and Roses song, realizing that they probably weren’t even born when the song was released. We enjoyed our glasses of wine and retired to the safe and sane confines of our double room.

The following day, we toured around and saw the sights. We started off by meandering through the town’s main market which was filled with local vendors selling meats, fish, arts and crafts, etc. We then watched the Glockenspiel do its thing at noon (think really big coo-coo clock). The highlight of the day was our walk through the English Gardens, Munich’s larger version of Central Park. It was a beautiful day and the fall colors made the park just that much better. We devoted the evening to some much needed travel planning, and we were off early the following morning on our way to Austria.

In Berlin

The Euro train system doesn’t allow old-timers like us to buy second class train passes, so we rode in the luxury of first class on the train from Amsterdam to Berlin. The seats were roomy, but since we we were at the end of the train, we had to enjoy the lovely smell of brakes every time we made a stop. We shared our cabin with a nice older couple. The woman was a little scary (in Jim’s opinion), with her gruff low voice and Helga-ish appearance, but we managed to get along just fine.

Once we arrived at the station, it took us a while to get our bearings as the station was massive. It didn’t really occur to us just how big Berlin was, until we saw a map of the maze of train lines, trams, buses and a subways criss-crossing all over the city. Since our hostel was off the map that we had, we needed to scout out a better map and directions before we set off into the city. A very helpful tourist office was able to provide us with the information we needed, and we set out into the city via public transportation.

Our Hostel, Backpackers Berlin, was located in eastern Berlin, not too far away from a main train stop. We checked-in and then went out to explore the neighborhood, which turned out to be a little bohemian and grungy, but it had some lively streets that provided a lot of action and plenty of resources.

Our first full day in the city was kicked-off by the hostel’s included breakfast of Corn Flakes and coffee/tea. We ate Corn Flakes for thirty consecutive days while in Honduras, so we were surprisingly excited to be eating them again. After buying a one-day metro pass, and Jim getting pooped on by a pigeon in the process, we took the train towards the city center where we hopped on the city bus #100. This bright yellow double-decker bus was to be our tour guide for the day as we had heard that it basically follows the route of all of the city’s must see sights. We felt pretty good about ourselves each time we passed by one of those absurdly expensive hop-on, hop-off tour buses.

Due to the increasingly rainy conditions, we rode the bus all the way through the route – getting our bearings as we like to call it (others may call it wussy). At the end, we walked through a huge department store, again waiting for a break in the rain. Finally we left and walked through a street market, got Jim his first bratwurst in Germany and then we checked out the city’s tallest structure, the TV Tower. Back on the #100, we rode to the Kaiser Wilhelm Church, nicknamed the Broken Tooth, as it was bombed in WWII and chosen to not be refurbish as a reminder of the war. Still on our own hop-on, hop-off tour, we rode back down the route again and got off to visit the Brandenburger Gate. We then walked to one of the few remaining sections of the Berlin Wall. At this section of the wall, near the former headquarters of the SS and Gestapo, there was an open-air museum, Topographie des Terrors, displaying tons of information on the rise and fall of the Nazi regime. Next stop was Checkpoint Charlie in the former American controlled section of Berlin where a sign still stands notifying that you are entering/leaving the American sector. We ended the day’s tourist activities by going to the roof of the Reichstag, home of Germany’s governing body, to take in the sunset and a panoramic view of the city.

The final day in Berlin was pretty relaxed as we had accomplished just about everything the day before. Most of our time was spent walking around some quiet neighborhoods, hanging out in a coffee shop and doing some much needed travel planning before we left town that evening.

We had some apprehensions about our night train that evening. All the guidebooks tell you to stay away from the Polish night trains because of all the alleged robberies and crimes. We didn’t want to waste an entire day on a train though, and decided to throw caution to the wind.