Day 4, Fri, Feb 5 - 2017 Germany Tour Inspection Trip

Rothenburg Dom (Cathedral)

Friday, February 5, 2016

Where were we:
- Erfurt
- Rothenburg
- Ulm
- Neu-Ulm
- Ulm

We were departing at 9-9:15 am for our next long day which would take us to Rothenburg and then on to Ulm. We had a lot of driving ahead of us, and a lot of appointments. I woke up at 8:15 am. Showered, packed, and got down to breakfast about 8:35 am. I enjoyed breakfast with, at varying points Amanda, Nick, Andrew, and Sue, before zipping back up to my room to grab my bags so we could load and head out.

The breakfast at Radisson Blu was fabulous. Great selection of meats, cheeses, bread, rolls, pretzels, eggs, sausage, bacon, cereals, and good coffee too. The room is big and nice and has a good view out. A lot of light. They do a good job with breakfast here. 

We were underway for our long drive to Rothenburg by 9:12 am. We had a lot of time to rest and talk on our drive which was actually quite beautiful. We passed through the Thüringerwald and mountains, which had just had a snow. The trees and hills were all freshly snow covered, and it was like being in some sort of German Christmas card.

We also passed through a lot of mountain tunnels. I think at least seven. One was really long. I apologize for not getting the name but, it was pretty impressive seeing and going through so many of these marvels of engineering.

But, somewhere around 11 am, we left the German state of Thüringen and entered northern Bayern (Bavaria). We then proceeded to the old, walled, and high up on the hill city of Rothenburg around 11:35 am. We took a quick loop around it to see the carparks (to know where the coaches were going to pull in) and by 11:43 am, we were out of the car and in the very charming main square with our guide for the day.

Rothenburg

Rothenburg is beautiful. It’s cobblestone streets are filled with colorful, and very old, houses, medieval passages, and lots places to explore. It is not very large, I think our guide said 10 minutes wide by 15 minutes long. Only 11,000 people live there, but between May and December, more than 1,000,000 visit. I want to fact check that number, but that is what he said. February is the slow season so, as such, the town was really ours, but a lot of places were indeed closed.

Rothenburg is also a walled city overlooking a huge valley. There are no shortages of views here, everywhere you turn there is something interesting. On the tour, we will be stopping here for a good chunk of time as we transit between Erfurt and Ulm. It is a little more than half way between the two cities. Our plan is for a lunch stop - with a fair amount of time - and, for those who would like, guided tours. It should be a nice afternoon here and it will break up an otherwise very long journey.

Our tour was quite extensive and we all liked this town very much. We ended with everyone trying the local pastry delicacy, the Schneeball (a snowball), before getting lunch at about 1:13 pm at one of the four open restaurants in the town. I had a very interesting venison ravioli. Venison is apparently the thing to eat in these parts, so, when in Rothenburg. It was good though. Andrew got some sort of meat special all center around venison, which he seemed to really enjoy. 

The Rothenburg view and the maestro.
I have two puzzles of this shot at home

I didn’t note what time we left Rothenburg, but I want to guess it was around 2:30 pm or so. We were headed to Ulm and had another meeting and hotel inspection schedule for 4:30 pm.

Ulm

We arrived in Ulm at 4:07 pm and immediately checked in to our rooms. We were staying in the Maritim Ulm, which is a big, big hotel right on the banks of the Danube. It stands very high in Ulm so the fews from the hotel are fabulous. I think there were 16 or 17 floors - the restaurant was on the top. The hotel is very big, the rooms are big, very clean, and there is a lot gold everywhere. It sort of reminded me of a Marriott or Hilton or something but from 1996 or something. It’s due for a little modernization in the décor I think, but it’s still quite nice. Someone’s definition or style in terms of classy hotel and beauty is a little different than mine. But, the rooms are very large, comfy, the service is good, everything is very clean.

The Ulmer Münster (Ulm Minster)

Our inspection was rather typical of our hotel inspections at this point. See accessible rooms, see family rooms, see double rooms sharing a bed, see rooms for two people not sharing a bed, see a suite, check out the speciality rooms. There was an amusing interaction we had with our sales manager about Legoland and their need for rooms in July 2017, but I’ll save that tale for another day. This hotel does have a really nice, pool, by the way, and it seems is right next to a beer garden - but you’ll find tons of great places to eat in Ulm.

Once the tour was completed, we went up to the top of the hotel restaurant just to see it and see the view of the incredible Ulm Minster (with its gothic highest spire in the world), and the sun setting over Ulm, Neu-Ulm, and the Danube. It was incredibly beautiful.

Here’s a geography note for you.

Ulm is really two cities, but is small (120,000 or so). It is right on the Danube where the Danube is moving quickly but quite smaller in comparison to its size in Budapest. On the north side of the city is Ulm itself. This is where the medieval sections are and its main Altstadt. Our hotel is here two. There are a lot of bridges crossing it to, wait for it, Neu-Ulm. This is technically another city in its own right, but they share a community. Think one being Westerly and one being Pawcatuck, a few centuries older! Neu-Ulm is the “newer” side and commerce center side (Neu = New).

Now, here is some more for you, Ulm is the German state of Baden-Wittenburg. Neu-Ulm is in Bavaria. So, again, like our little state border. Our border is the Pawcatuck River, there’s is the Danube. Both just as famous!!!

Our plans tonight were for dinner literally just across the river from our hotel at a beer garden/restaurant/brewery place we were going to go scout as the scene for our farewell dinner. Neither Nick nor Sue had ever been there, so this would be an inspection of the truest sort. We were also going to have a big meeting about the tour itself and things we had seen, liked, didn’t, talking about each day and how - as of right now - it would run. Lots of things. But, our reservation wasn’t until 8 pm and we were not gathering back together until 7:45 pm, which was about 2 hours and 40 minutes away.

Andrew and I decided to head out into the city to give ourselves our own tour and get lost with the Altstadt streets.

The restored Ulm Minster has
the tallest Gothic spire in Europe.

The walk to find the city center was very easy. Firstly, the Danube is sort of your border, right where our hotel is, so you can walk along the Danube and enter the core at a lot of points, or just explore and walk in from one of the main streets. It takes about 5 minutes to start to “get to things” but the walk is very lovely, safe, clean, and easy. And, if you needed a lift for some reason, but I doubt it. There is a bus stop right outside of our hotel that willt take you in or a cheap taxi. The other thing is the walk along the Danube, I imagine, will be great in the summer. I could see the charm of this place right away. 

Our walk through the very busy streets took us up, eventually to Münsterplatz where the enormous Ulm Minister - with its incredible spire - stood. Andrew had a great line as we looked at, “they really know how to do cathedrals here…this is a cathedral.” I must say it is something to see. A lot of work is going on with it right now, which is the case with most cathedrals, but it doesn’t take away from it at all. The main square around the cathedral and really on all the streets that sort of wheel off of it are filled with shops, restaurants, and activity. A lot of this area, near the minister, is relatively new construction, this area got hit hard in the war (apparently by the US, but the US helped rebuild a lot of Ulm), but the rebuilds created a really good inner core. Only a few odd buildings here and there.

I imagine in the summer Münsterplatz, which inself is enormous, is filled with restaurants and outdoor tables and art and lot of other life and activity we just don’t see in the depth of winter.

Ah, but there was life, and we were about to join it.

After stops quickly in the department stores of Müller and Kaufhaus Galleria (you can get lots of great things here, cheaper than other places in terms of cloths, toys, candy, food - we’ll tell you all about it — other thing too, make sure we tell you about the shopping bag thing, you have to ask for, and then buy one, they won’t give you one), we kept wandering around Ulm and decided to meander a different way around the Münster to head back.

The Schalmein band! Awesome!

Well, it was the Fasching celebration night in Ulm and, gathering in Münsterplatz were thousands of people, all in costumes. There were bands, there were groups of families, there were local men’s and women’s clubs, there were folks who looked like the Morris Men and others who looked like the Ladies of the Rolling Pin. And there was a lot of joyous celebration everywhere. 

These folks were lining up for this crazy, celebratory, and community wide Fasching parade around Ulm. They were going to scare away the evil spirits and bring joy and life to the city through this parade.

At first Andrew and I just sort of watched this amazing thing assemble, then we heard a band with a weird sounding set of instruments and drums, so we went over to check it out. It was a Schalmein band, a huge one, and we listened to them play, Andrew talked to them, and, at that point, suddenly, the Minister bells starting ringing like crazy, and the parade kicked off.

When you see a parade, and you aren’t really there to watch it, and you discover it is about to parade all around the city and through all the pretty back streets and medieval blocks you haven’t see yet, and folks are in costume and there is a Schalmein band behind, you don’t leave…you join them! So, yes, Andrew and I snuck into the parade group and walked all around Ulm in celebration of Fasching.

I cannot properly put this particular experience into words. Truth was, you just sort of had to be there to see all of this and experiencing it. It was great, great fun. We went the entire route, departing as the Schalmein band was playing Madonna’s Like a Prayer. That was something I never thought I’d hear from a Schalmein band. Actually, I didn’t know what a Schalmein was until we saw them, so…there you have it. Just a great experience. We felt like we were Ulmers.

On our walk around, we did pass a lot of really neat restaurants and old buildings over a brook we crossed. I’ll have to study a map to remember where that was specifically. 

Andrew wins the navigation prize for this evening - yes, he wins - because we left the party to try to get back to the hotel. We were both confused because we crossed a river of some sort. Andrew quickly identified that the river we cross was not the Danube and we had to reorient ourselves properly before finding our way back home. Andrew was indeed correct as our little walk - without care or thought of where we were or going - really twisted us around. I will admit, it confused me. Good job, maestro!

After a 5-10 minute walk or so along the fast moving Danube we made it back to our hotel and found Nick and Amanda in the bar. We waited a few minutes for Sue who had dozed off and then headed across the river to Barfusser, the site of our dinner tonight and potential site of our farewell dinner and celebration in July of 2017.

The restaurant, which in the summer has a large outdoor area too, was great and we think will be a great fit. We have inside and outside options, good food options, good beer and other beverages, it seems to be a good place for us to have a big event at, the staff was very accommodating during our visit as well. Seems to be a great choice.

Our dinner was an enjoyable one, and we had a lot of discussion about all aspects of the tour. There are lot of things we are still working on, and a lot of things we have to decide on, but it was great to have this conversation with all of us together. Things can still and might change, but it is clear that all of us are going to work our tales off to build this tour so that is an incredible and life changing experience for all our singers and followers. We are working very hard on this for everyone, but I have full confidence we will pull it off. This sort of tour summit meeting I think, ultimately will help achieve that quite a bit.

Amanda, Nick, Andrew. Tour planning summit.

A good night and busy day behind us, and a few beers later, we headed back to the hotel just about 11:15 pm. It had been a long day. We headed up to our rooms on the 10th floor and then Andrew and I chatted for quite a while about a lot of thoughts and questions and things we had discussed in our planning summit. There is a lot of work still to do, but we are making such great strides.

FaceTime’d with home for a bit and heard all about the snow from the family, also had a quick FaceTime with the Freitas Four in Florida, then worked on some other stuff for a while, before shutting this computer off about 2 am.

Another great day, more to come tomorrow.

Day 5, Sat, Feb 6 - 2017 Germany Tour Inspection Trip

Ulmer Münster.

Saturday, February 6, 2016

Where were we:
- Ulm
- Augsburg
- Fürstenfeldbruck

- München (Munich)

In Saturday epilogue:
- Regensburg
- München

Great breakfast today in the Maritim Ulm in another good room. I cannot complain about any of the breakfasts so far. They've all been great. Truth be told, it has been the same with the hotels as well. A+ on the selections all around. I was exhausted heading down to breakfast and had only a very quick one, like 4 minutes worth, as I was pushing it on time. We were on our way next to Augsburg to see another restaurant (this time a real, full scale, Bavarian brewery) that would be the site for a party/dinner after our Fürstenfeldbruck performance on the second to last day of the tour (the concert that day is going to be at 5 pm, so we would all gather for dinner and a big party here). 

Augsburg

I believe we left at 8:30 or so and we were to the Hausen-Brau (which isn’t the name of the place), by 9:30 am for our inspection and tour — including beer samples at 9:45 am. 

Augsburg group dinner restaurant.

This place was fabulous. It is such a fun place which great lighting, seating, history, it’s just perfect for a Chorus celebration. We all liked it immediately and, again, were all seeing it for the first time. I think everyone will be quite pleased with it (and it has, by far, the best group sized bathrooms I’ve seen yet. Read that sentence anyway you want).

I know I am the beer lover, but even, fore the non-beer lovers and the under 21s and such, you are going to love this place. We will have a lot of fun here.

Fürstenbeldbruck

Because time was of the essence, we left right 10 am and headed over to Fürstenfeldbruck (FFB), a small city that is a suburb of Munich. Here in FFB we were to see and tour the Abbey and its surrounding (former) monastery grounds. This would be the location of our final performance.

Walking in to the Abbey church.
Massive is an understatement.

Originally, we were looking at this Abbey or the Ottobeuren Abbey. Both facilities are mammoth and incredible beautiful on the inside. Ottobeuren was until relatively recently, the venue we were looking at (it is in a similar town outside Munich), but some recent changes and policies in musical administration were making it far too difficult for a successful Chorus performance there, so ACFEA, working with the music director of the very active South German Chamber Orchestra, Florian, helped connect the Chorus to FFB and its astonishing abbey. Long story short of this FFB has started a huge concert series and has three big events each year - the marquee events of the Abbey - on its “Oratorio Series” where people from all over come to FFB for the concerts. We are the headliner on the series in 2017 and will be performing alongside Florian’s South German Chamber Orchestra. We are very excited about this opportunity and space.

We arrived and immediately went in and toured the Abbey. Its baroque interior and soaring ceiling are something to behold. Beautiful. Amazing. Astounding. You name it. This place is going to be one heck of a spot for our final concert filled with hundreds (maybe into the thousand range) of Germans in just a spectacular venue. Andrew seems very, very pleased with it. Our performance too, will be at 5 pm, so the light coming through the windows next July should be incredible.

My pictures don't do this place justice.
It is just incredible.

I’ll spare you the report on logistics for this venue (but, I will tell you we have the connected “Police Academy” as our holding area!), but it will be great. We are going to have lunch somewhere on the grounds which are big green, open, and likely filled with flowers in the summer. It is just a beautiful place. In fact, it had turned rather mild on this morning and felt like a spring day. Everything about the venue and location seems just right for our final musical farewell to Bach.

The only note I’ll make about our visit inside the Abbey was they took us WAY up to the Choir and Organ loft. We got some incredible pictures from up here of the Abbey church. And, after much nudging, Andrew even play a few notes on the organ. It was really cool. 

We had a nice lunch together on one of the restaurants on the grounds after our tour. Andrew and Florian sat together and talked all things music, and we talked a little bit more through the FFB day with Nick and Sue. There are a few things we need to work on on this day, but, for the most part we are on the same page as we move forward.

Just a little organ. Andrew played it!

With our time in FFB complete after lunch, about 1 pm or so, our ACFEA planned site inspection work was completed. The plan now was for Stephan to drive Nick, Amanda, and me to Munich (to the Maritim Munich near the main train station - the Hauptbahnhof) and then Stephan and Sue would drive back together to Leipzig (Sue lives in Berlin, but she was spending the night in Leipzig). Nick was flying to Manchester, England, later that night, but was going to go to the hotel for a few hours so he would have access to the WiFi. Amanda was flying out of Munich at noon on Sunday, and we were flying out at 3:35 PM on Sunday, so Amanda, Andrew, and I were going to spend the night in Munich.

Our drive to Munich to the hotel was very quick. Less than 1/2 hour or so, and we were soon at the Maritim, unloaded, and check-in. We said a heartfelt farewell to Sue - who truly is a wonderful lady whom I know will help us create such a special tour, and Stephan our incredible driver (who will likely be one of our coach bus drivers in July of 2017!) and they went on there way.

Nick stationed himself in the lobby for a while, but we said farewell to him at this point as well, not thinking we’d see him again.

I can’t state enough how much I appreciate Nick’s work on our tours and the thought he puts in to every decision. Between him, Amanda, and Sue, we have the right people working on this for us. These folks really care about creating and executing for us a fabulous musical tour. They are as passionate about what they do and present as we are - and that gives me great comfort and makes me excited to work with them again.

But, officially, at this point, the site inspection was concluded.

Day 5 & 6, Sat & Sun, Feb 6 & 7 - Epilogue, 2017 Germany Inspection Trip

Epilogue Part I: Saturday afternoon and evening

Dom (Cathedral) of Regensburg.

Where were we in 
Epilogue Part I:

- München
- Regensburg
- München

We always need a Pops extra.

We were all in our rooms and very tired. In passing, and to sort of see if Amanda and Andrew might be interested, I noted that it was early enough in the day that I was sort of thinking about walking that block to the Hauptbahnhof and finding a train to my beloved Regensburg. I hadn’t lived in my “other” home in 26 years. I hadn’t been there to visit in 16. My heart was sort of aching for it. And, at this point being about an hour and forty minutes away by train with a clear afternoon - and, having been to Munich several times in different periods of my life and having no need to “see it” - I was thinking it might be crazy to go, but I really wanted to. That’s a terribly long sentence, but I’m a bit tired.

Inside the Regensburg Dom.

Anyway, I didn’t want to ruin anyone’s plans or abandon Andrew or Amanda, I wanted to hang out with them for the day and if they wanted to go see Munich I was okay with that. And, it seemed crazy. And I was exhausted. So were the other two. We could all use easy days and naps and nothing too crazy. With that in mind, I just sort of let it go, and we were all going to touch base in an hour or so to see if folks wanted to do anything. I was okay with that, I knew it was for the best.

Regensburg on the Danube. Dom.

Andrew Howell is a good man, though. He read through me like a book. I had just taken my shoes off and changed my clothes to lie down on the bed and nap when he knocked on my door. Long story short, he made this point. You want to go, you don’t know when you’ll next be able to go, you’ll be really busy in 2017 and it might not happen then, we’ve got the time, and we can rest on the train ride. Then he told a great story about he and Emily going to Oxford from London sort of like this and he made all great points. And he wanted to go too. So, we looked up the schedule, we could go in 20 minutes, spend 2.5 hours there, and be back to go to dinner at 8:15 pm in Munich, total cost for both of us $30 (combined, round-trip). It all could work.

We checked in with Amanda and she graciously passed on the trip though encouraged us to go, but we made a plan if she was up to it to get together for dinner right when we return. I felt sad leaving her behind, but I knew it was going to be a lot for her and it was my wacky plan (and she later let us know that she and Nick did some quickly city exploration together). I am very grateful to her for so many things. She really is brilliant at her job too.

We got the tickets online and immediately headed down to catch the train. We saw Nick in the lobby and told him what we were doing and, at first, he thought we were kidding. Then he realize we were serious and seemed a little stunned, but wished us a good time and off we went to the Bahnhof.

I must tell you again how grateful I am to Andrew for not only coming with me, but nudging me to make the call to do this - and for us just to go and do it. It was seemingly so silly to have to find my way to Regensburg, but I had to find my way.

Regensburg
Few places, I think, are as charming, beautiful, and wonderful as this city. Every medium to small city I ever visit in Europe, I always compare to Regensburg. There is just something magical about this city - as Medieval in its core as any city. How it has escaped becoming a major tourism site is beyond me - though, in recent years, riverboat cruise ships have begun changing this…Regensburg is the northern most point on the Danube.

I was only there, seemingly for a short time in my life, but its streets, its bakeries, school, the Dom, the Rathaus, the buses, the parks, my friends, all the Bavarian festivals and holidays, they gave me such joy.  

My mom’s responsible for this and the memories I have and share with her and with Nesse, my sweet sister and one of my very best friends in the entire world, are just something that is a part of me and I’m so, so grateful.

As the train rolled into the Regensburg HBF, my heart was racing with excitement. Being honest, I was teary — but you all know me, that’s just me. I felt like I was walking into my old home or seeing a dear family member or friend for the first time in 16 years. It was such a great moment and I am so glad Andrew was there to share it with me and came along.

It was amazing how some things were different but, for the most part, everything was relatively the same in the city. Regensburg’s Altstadt is a UNESCO World Heritage site, so you can’t mess with it. In the war, the ONLY thing in the inner city to be hit was the train station. Therefore, the Altstadt core with buildings from the 8th-17th century are all still there. The cathedral and all these glorious churches are still. The cobblestone is all still there. Sure, modern businesses and stores are in certain streets and neighborhood, but Regensburg’s core looks the way it did when I lived there, and probably the way it did 20 year before that.

Andrew and I walked from the train station through the relatively new part and on Königstraße towards the Domplatz. Regensburg was crazy busy. It was the first Saturday of the month, so stores could be open until 5 pm (usually, on Saturdays in the fall, winter, and spring month stores close at 12 pm or 1 pm). Everyone seemed to be out and walking around.

I couldn’t stop tour guiding, but it was historical facts mixed in with stories about this is where Nesse and I spent our weekly allowance, or this store had the best trains, or here is a good place to get Krapfen (we got some). It was a lot of fun. My internal map of Regensburg was still functioning fine. But, again, the city can’t really change or build, so the old map still works!

Going (to my other) home.
Ahead is the street I lived on.
Unterbachgasse 13.

We made our way to the cathedral (Dom) and Domplatz and it was magnificent. If you are familiar with the famous Cologne cathedral, the Regensburg cathedral looks very similar. It is a bit smaller, but by smaller I mean in cathedral terms. The spires are similar if not identical in height, but the nave in Regensburg is a bit smaller (but, trust, me still large to massive). Regensburg had the cathedral and surrounding buildings very well illuminated. The cathedral was open, so we walked inside.

I had forgotten how beautiful it was in there - it has a beautiful alter and marvelous stained glass. Again, Regensburg didn’t get hit in the war, so most everything survived. I think Andrew was very impressed with the space, and I do not blame him. It is impressive. We spent quite a bit of time in and around the cathedral before we headed in the Altstadt and started a real trip for me down memory lane.

We walked to my old neighborhood - right off Rathausplatz where I used to catch the number 4 bus to school every day. We walked down Unterbachgase to number 13, the 500 year old building in which I lived. Took lots of pictures. We walked back to the Rathaus and I had an idea when I looked at the clock. I knew the bell tower was about to ring, so I texted my sister and told her to FaceTime me right then (I had an international data plan for this trip, so no worries on the data use!). I knew she would appreciate it. So, she FaceTimed, I turned the camera around, let her hear the bells we heard from our bedroom window everyday and then Andrew and I “walked her” back to our building. 

This was my bus stop for school.
I took the #4 each day.

It was such a great joy and moment to share with my sister. She and I had so many adventures during our time in Regensburg. My memories and experience would not have been the same without her. So, getting to share a trip home with her was hugely important and wonderful.

We quickly did a similar call to my mother too, because, without her, lots of things would never have happened. I am so very grateful for what she did and what she has done.

From Unterebachgasse, Andrew and I spent another 20 or so minutes walking around the Altstadt as lots of church bells rang from the various different old churches in this glorious city. Then we crossed the old stone bridge and went to the part of Regensburg called Stadtamhof, which is a beautiful area of town with pastel colored houses and very old buildings on an island in them middle of the river, and saw another astonishing sunset over the Danube and the Regensburg skyline.

At the door of our old building. #13.

We spent a little time in this area of the old city, before navigating back across the old stone bridge and back over the Danube. We continued our historic walk and we headed to the old town gate from 179 AD (!) of Porta Praetoria - this was the original gate from when the Romans came to Casta Regina - Regensburg's Latin name in those days. It is amazing how the remains of this old gate and fort are worked into a 15th century building which was part of the cloister of the cathedral. They certainly knew how to reuse and build creatively back then, but what it leaves us today with is a very great historical site.

You can still enter the Porta Praetoria and go up the stairs, and that takes you into the Bischofshof courtyard. This is the courtyard of the old bishop's residency, which now includes two lovely hotels, a huge area for an outdoor beer garden and restaurant in the summer, and a music school. It looks up to the cathedral, which shines down on this area in all its wonder. It's a beautiful little tucked away area that is quite a hidden gem of a gem of a city. We took lots of pictures in here before continuing our walk.

We were both a bit chilly at this point as the fabulous sunset had brought with it far cooler temperatures. So, we ducked into the local Kaufhaus Galleria to both warm up for a minute and then use the very clean WC. This is a good tip in general for folks for the entire tour. The big department stores, Müller, Kaufhaus, and a few others often have free, very clean, and plentiful toilets within them. They are often a bit hidden within the department store, but trust me, they are often better than a public toilet and there is often no charge. I should say that the train stations all have them, but expect to pay - in coins - 50 euro cents or more for them. The Regensburg train station one, FYI, was a pay one along these lines but was in fact very, very clean. Hotels often have toilets in them, for free, to and if you just walk in and don't make a seen and walk towards the rear of their lobby area to them, no one will stop you. Still, it is worth have a few euro in your pocket, ideally coins, in case you do need to pay to pee!

Warmed up, we continued our walk before realizing it was time to catch our train back to Munich. We were due to leave at 6:44 pm (and return to Munich just after 8 pm, early enough to get some dinner in the old city of Munich), so we began our walk back to the Hauptbahnhof. We arrived at the station at 6:36 pm and, right on time, boarded our train at 6:44 pm to head back to Munich.

It was such a quick visit to this wonderful place, but it filled my heart so, so very much. This entire trip has brought back such warm and wonderful memories of living here as a boy. So many little things have made me happy on it. I cannot wait to share all of this with the Chorus in a year and a half. It is is going to be an incredible tour together. This is just such a great country for so many
reasons.

München
Our train got back to Munich about 8:12 pm. Andrew had texted Amanda while we were en route and, at this point, she was a bit tired and in for the evening, so Andrew and I decided to head into the inner city of Munich on our own to both walk around and explore and find a good German farewell dinner.

Regensburg is old, all over.
You can still touch the wall from 179 AD.

We walked from our hotel, the Maritim, which was right near the Munich Hauptbahnhof and also right in the Red Light district -- interesting surroundings!! - several blocks towards Karlsplatz. There was a lot of life out on the streets certainly - there was a local football match in progress too - but we felt quite safe for our walk. There were also quite a bit of refugees in Munich, more than we had seen anywhere, mostly gathered near the various U-Bahn stations we encountered. But, the folks there were harmless and otherwise just socially and enjoying a lovely Munich evening. It was definitely warmer in Munich than in Regensburg for some odd reason. The two cities are not that far apart.

Our walk from Karlsplatz took us right into town towards the stunning Frauenkirche/Dom (the famous cathedral with its brick sides and two soaring bell towers/clock towers) and around a lot of big buildings and shopping areas and into the main town square which is dominated by Munich's famed Rathaus (town hall). Here is where you find one beer hall and restaurant after another.

We walked around for maybe 30 minutes or so and checked out a bunch of different locales to eat and have a beer before deciding to stop into the Weisses Bräuhaus, a brew hall of the Schneider-Weisse brewery. It seemed to have the best vibe that night, menu we liked, and a lot of actual Germans in it. Plus, Andrew and I are good wheat beer fans, so this was a place for us.

We started with the Karmeliten Kloster Dunkel and ended by enjoying a few of the original dunkel weizens (tap 7). If you can about such things, you can read more about it at http://www.weisses-brauhaus.de/essen_trinken_getraenke.de.php?node=7&lang=de - they have a good website!

For dinner, Andrew enjoyed pork knuckle (it was great) and I had a plate of six different types of local wurst. A full time German experience. Our beer was our dessert, and now a bit  after 11 pm, we decided it was time to head back to the hotel. It had been a fully Bavarian day and a long time since we left Ulm and we had a long flight home tomorrow.

We took a fairly direct but still scenic walk back to the hotel and were there in about 25 minutes or so. Exhausted, we both said good night for the evening. I made a very quick FaceTime call home and, before I even knew it after we hung up, I fell asleep.

What an incredible day.



Epilogue Part II: Sunday and The Voyage Home

Where were we in Epilogue Part II:
- München
- München International Airport, Terminal 2

- Lufthansa 424
- Boston
- North Attleborough 
- Westerly (Andrew)

I overslept for the first time on this trip. I had not set my alarm for the first time, in fact, I fell asleep basically in my clothes we got back last night. Exhaustion had finally caught up to me. Andrew and I were going to try to head back into the city to find a church service with music to hear for 10 am (so we would leave around 9:20 am or so to do it), but I slept until about 9:05 am. I was so behind. We were also going to check out before we left (leaving our bags at the desk). So, I was rushed.

At about 9:18 am I made it fast to the breakfast room and Amanda and Andrew were there already. I had a super fast breakfast, said farewell to Amanda as she was heading to the airport, and then went back to the room to get my gear. Due to me, we didn't leave the hotel until 9:42 am, but we made it into town.

Andrew and I took the U-Bahn to Marienplatz, connecting via Karlsplatz, to first try out the service at the Dom. With thought there was to be organ and choir and trumpet. Turns out there was just organ. We stayed until the start of the sermon in this service - there was a lot of singing, but mostly from the cantor (the organ was heavily used) - and then snuck out of the incense filled cathedral in quest of another location.

We walked a lot around the inner city at this point, noting we had to basically get back to the hotel by about 11:30 am to get our bags and then head to the S-Bahn (to the airport), when we sort of stumbled into the Latin mass in Theatine Church - a baroque church of the 1660s that was undergoing a complete exterior renovation. There was an a cappella choir plain chanting almost all of the service which was really neat. We, again, left though after the gospel and before the sermon. This time, though, it was because time had caught up to us.

An easy U-Bahn trip back to the Hauptbahnhof stop from Odeonsplatz was only about 5 minutes or less, so we were quickly back to the hotel. We got our bags from reception, used the clean WCs here in the hotel, and then walked over to the Hauptbahnhof to catch the S-Bahn to the Airport.


The walk to the Hauptbahnhof was shorter than the work within and than under and through the HBF to the S-Bahn tracks, but we found it eventually. We caught the S1 to the Flughafen, which really isn't in Munich or close at all, and after about 42 minutes, arrived at the airport. Ascending the escalators into the huge outdoor covered plaza that connects Terminal 1 and 2, we found our way into the entrance for Lufthansa, printing our boarding passes, and were on our way to security.

There were no lines at all at security, though I triggered the metal detector and got wanded and "checked out" quite a bit. In the clear for a few minutes, my backpack then triggered something and I was pulled aside with it. They opened it up and pulled things out of it.

I was hanging with the woman conducting this search in German to a point, responding and listening, but eventually I gave up when I couldn't figure out what she was asking me. She then basically looked at me and said, "What do you have that is dangerous and metal?" Confused - thinking I had no such thing - she eventually found the toy Strassenbahn, the toy tram I bought for Charlie that has a metal bottom. After about six guys looked at it, I honestly at this point thought they were going to take it, they gave it back to me, and off we went.

Thankfully, this was the only snafu of any sort for the rest of the day.

Andrew and I got some lunch before heading to the American international gates (there is more checks and security here). I had a panini and he, having enough pork for the next few months, went with sushi.

We boarded on time at 2:55 pm and pushed back from the gate about 3:25 pm. We were in the air, on time and after what felt like 10 minutes of taxiing on the runway, at 3:35 pm. The plane was only about 2/3 of the way full, so Andrew and I each got an extra seat next to us.

The flight home was quite bumpy, but not miserable. Andrew and I both watched Steve Jobs. Both our dinner when we started the flight and snack at the end were plentiful. We both got the little ravioli for dinner (with too much cheese sauce, though) and had the sausage and bread snack before we landed -- we did this because we apparently had NOT had enough sausage in the previous four days!!

Not much more to tell about the flight except again the service was excellent.

We landed a little early, 6:22 pm, and were off the plane and heading to customs at 6:30 pm. It was just before the Super Bowl kicked off.

We then made our way through the ridiculous US customs process. Neither one of us were stopped, but the line was a bit long. They make you go through far too many hoops it seems, well at least when compared to Europe. Neither one of us had a checked bag so that saved us some time leaving.

By 7:07 pm we boarded our Economy Shuttle bus and were headed to the economy garage. Along the way, we realized it had snowed and the car might be covered in it as we were on the roof. The good news, though, is it had warmed up and there had been some sun, so the car was mostly clear. By 7:24 pm, the car was good enough to go and Andrew and I headed to the exit (which was reluctant to let us leave). About 45 minutes later we were back at my home in North Attleborough and Emily and Alisa were there waiting for us. Charlie and Josh were there too - and they gave the best hugs one could imagine.

And there was morning and there was evening, and our journey was complete.

Here endeth the blog.

RS

Over the oldest stone bridge in Europe.

Pointing to the building I lived in. Those top floor two windows were our dorm room.