11 Jan Tuesday
We got off to a little earlier start today, which means that we are probably nearly adjusted to the time change (or Susanna is). We had breakfast leisurely. Then Alice bought some lunch makings for the train. We checked out DM 257,10 (ca. 112.00) which I paid with US dollars in Travelers’ Checks. The clerk called a taxi and we got to the station with plenty of time to spare for the 11:35 train to Stuttgart.
When we got [to] Stuttgart (one hour) at 12:35 we quickly read the schedule and saw that the next train to Munich left at 12:46 (less than 10 minutes) from Track 16 (we were on 12).
We went under and back up and got on the train but couldn’t find any room in 1st class. We were in the aisle as the train pulled out (on time of course). We finally crowded into place with two men and a woman, none of whom voluntarily spoke English. Susanna soon had the woman (whose name is Elvi and who has an eight-year-old daughter) engaged in games. Elvi and one man got off at Ulm, leaving the other man there alone with us.
Alice broke out the lunch and we gave him some Coca-Cola (from the liter bottle we brought with us). We had some difficult conversation with our very weak German and his very weak English. He confided that he was no longer connected with the church (a statement resulting from my asking a question about the Augsburg Cathedral, that he left it after the war, somehow implying that the church was either the cause of the war starting or the cause of Germany’s losing it. He then told us that he had fought against General Patton and that he had a great admiration for Patton. But he also seemed most disturbed that Germany had lost and was bothered that Germany now only has 12 divisions and that none of them are combat ready.
So far in our trip, we have encountered two older men whose memories are very vivid of the war. Jean-Pierre Wiltzius in Luxembourg seemed offended that I asked if he spoke German since his hatred seems rather intense. This other man, the German (a Berliner) seemed sad over the loss but had no negative feeling about the former enemy. “It was alright to fight Poland,” he said, “but then came France, England, and America.” In both cases, however, there was a substantial language barrier, and we may have totally misinterpreted everything.
We arrived in Munich on time and looked for the hotel information place; it was closed. But as we were standing there looking at the signs a sixtyish woman approached us with business cards, and although she spoke no English, we figured out she wanted to rent us a room, in her “pension”. She took us over to the information office and found a bilingual girl who interpreted for us. We finally decided against the deal. DM 40.- plus extra for Susanna, for breakfast, etc. Mostly we didn’t trust the pension-hustler approach.
We looked in our hotel guide and found that the Hotel Metropol was the cheapest of those listed. We looked out of the train station (Hauptbahnhof) and saw the Metropol right across the street. For DM 79.- plus 3- for Susanna’s breakfast. We took it.
Before dark we started walking down Bayerstrasse, the main street of the central part of Munich. An escalator took us underground to avoid the busy Karlsplatz and we came out into a very long mall with many stores and no traffic. But there were mobs of people, strange for a cool night in January (about 3C - 37F)
We went to the cathedral (the Frauenkirche); the bells were tolling there was a service in progress. This was my first cathedral, and while it is not one of the greatest, it is still impressive, photographs don’t prepare you for the scale, the immense size either from the outside or from the inside.
We decided to sample the Hofbräuhaus, since that seems to be the most important thing in Munich. We ate Bavarian food and had beer. There was a string and accordion orchestra adding atmosphere. Again, Susanna had fun playing and flirting with people at other tables. After we ate, we went to the beer hall portion -- known as the world’s largest beer hall and stayed long enough to see it but no longer.
We walked back and window shopped. When we got to the hotel, I discovered that one of Susanna’s boots had dropped out of my pocket. I walked back no further than a half a block and found it sitting in a doorway.
At this point (night) we haven’t decided whether to stay in Munich another day or to push on to Salzburg. Our hotel, while very nice, costs more than we like to pay.
11 January 2022 - Tuesday
I can't say with absolute certainty that the pictures above correspond to this entry. In reading the journal, they seem like likely candidates. I haven't found pictures of the cathedral in the slides, so I linked to a site about it.
Dad's hand drawn map is pretty good, but for reference, this is the route according to Google:
(Susanna's edits - In the first publishing of this, I had a few typos that were my errors not Dad's. The bilingual girl "Interpreted" for us rather than "Interrupted" for us. And my Dad dropped one of my "boots" instead of one of my "books". That detail may be important soon.)
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