ICE 847 in the Munich Hauptbahnhof
We make our way down for an uneventful breakfast buffet (the first of several to come, as it turns out) then gather our luggage and head out for the U-Bahn station. We get to the station and pile up to the DB information counter to inquire about the next train to Munich. The agent directs us to a platform halfway down the station and says "You have two minutes, go now." We do, and bundle into a first-class compartment on train 847 with seconds to spare.
The train ride was completely uneventful - the seats were great, the ride was smooth, and the staff was helpful. The route from Frankfurt to Munich detours through Unterturkheim, and there's a few kinks and twists in the route, so it wasn't a straight high-speed shot - I don't think the average speed was any higher than was London-Bristol on the IC125 service.
The Munich Hauptbahnhof is big, busy, and a little confusing for the first-time visitor. We argue briefly over where to stand while reading our map. Finally we find the S-Bahn entrance and get directions from the agent.
The Munich S-Bahn is cleaner than Frankfurt's. The directions provided by the agent prove to be a little roundabout, we end up transferring to a tram which drops us two blocks from the hotel. The Hotel Kriemhild proves to be a fairly big house in a pretty residential area on the western fringes of town near Schloss Nymphenburg. The place is clean, the room not overly large but comfortable (though not air-conditioned, and it's pretty hot.) The bath is basically cruise-ship size but functional - as with several other places we'll stay this trip, the rooms were not originally laid out with private baths in mind, so adding the bath has stolen some space from the rest of the room. Still, everything fits, everything works, the bed has more of those German down pillows, and Eric and the rest of the staff are helpful.
We catch a nap, then walk to Schloß Nymphenburg. It's near the end of the day, so we spend most of our time in the gardens. DM3.90 for a Pepsi at the Palmenhaus is a little extreme, but DM4.00 admission to the huge and impressive botanical gardens is very much worth the price. If we go back to the hotel we're going to fall asleep, so we keep moving, taking a tram downtown and back to have a look around.
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| Schloß Nymphenburg, the botanical gardens, and some imported fauna. | |
One further note on that Pepsi. In Europe soft drinks and the like are not served as "small" or "large" - you order 25cl, 35cl, etc. All the glasses are graduated so that you always know what you're getting.
Once we return to the hotel - guess what? - we fall asleep. A couple hours later we're out the door to the Hirschgarten.
Mein bloody Gott!
This place is huge! Thousands of people (I think Eric said 8000 seats.) Thousands of liter-size glass mugs. Dogs, kids, a half-dozen different beer-vending buildings, a half-dozen different food-vending buildings. I down a plate of currywurst and, by the time we leave, two Masse of beer. Eva, on the other hand, found a food vendor that sold whole mackerels roasted on a stick for DM25 - she spent the next half-hour picking the thing clean to the bones.
I'm still able to stand, so we make our way back through the crowds and past the ranks of parked Harleys to the hotel. Harleys? Yep, a whole lot of 'em, too. Remove clothes, open all the windows (it's still bloody hot) and crash. God, I love these German down pillows.
Even so, I don't sleep much.
There's the heat, and some residual jet lag.
And, of course, when the beer garden closes up sometime around 11 all those bikes have to go somewhere and a fair number go down our street.
And, later on, my two liters of lager eventually has to go somewhere, too.