This is my Memories and Memoirs of the many trips Bob and I have enjoyed together. A sort of Romantic Travelogue of our explorations in Europe, or our road trips in the US to several of our National Parks.
People are always asking me why we travel with an escorted tour instead of doing it all on our own. Today I found out why.
We have 5 days in Provence on our own. I booked 3 nights in Marseille and 2 in Aix-en-Provence. That was my first mistake. Aix is not that far away but with much less traffic. Which brings me to Mistake #2. We rented a car at the Marseille airport and got to experience the thrill ride that is driving in France. Getting into the city center was challenging enough, with exits coming and going and Siri telling us where to go (allegedly), then rerouting us when we miss the turn. Which we did a lot. Stress level was about a 5. Then we got into the city center and stress rose to 10+! The streets are narrow and the cars are numerous. French drivers are insane, IMO, but they probably think Grandpa has come to town when they get near us. Street signs are on buildings, traffic is a nightmare, and there is NO parking at the hotel. There is not even a place to unload luggage! After driving around in the general vicinity of the hotel, we located a parking garage across the street from the hotel. Cost is €30 per day. But it has the advantage of being close. When we checked in we were told of a cheaper lot 100 meters away, and Bob has now gone to move the car. It took both of us to get here - me to navigate and him to try to avoid hitting anybody or anything. I hope he can pull this off sans moi because the deductible on the car is €1500! My insurance agent at home told me to take it because we're not covered in Europe. Is that a normal thing or do we just have crappy insurance?
We are staying at the Vieux Port (Old port), which is smack dab in the middle of the city center and a block from the sea. The room is quite small (compared to the huge rooms we've been accustomed to with Grand Circle. After 13 trips with them we tend to get the best rooms.) but seems comfortable and has all the necessary amenities. So we're happy with the hotel, despite the lack of parking.
The view is not bad, but you can't see the Med. from our balcony. Love the balcony!
Tomorrow our plan is to drive down the the Calanques Nat'l Park and enjoy the views of the sea from the corniche. Thursday we are taking an all day tour to the "Perched Villages of the Luberon." Friday we're off to Aix, where we have no plans other than to drive out into the countryside and see beautiful Provence.
What can you say about Salzburg that hasn't been said already? It was our second trip there, and the first was in 2002. It hasn't changed a bit! Mirabell Gardens was as lovely as ever. The Fortress still stands guard over the city. The streets in the Old Town are still narrow and colorful. The beer is still cold and the Cathedral is still impressive.
The only negative was getting to the Tour Operator at the Main Train Station. When we got to the train station we had to walk forever to reach the tour office. The we had to walk even further to get to the correct track. By the time we walked to the END of the train we had walked 1.2 miles! The ride to Salzburg was beautiful, and we had a walking tour of the Old Town and the area across the river below the Fortress. We then had 3 hours of free time. We elected not to go up to the Fortress, since it would eat up 2 ½ hours and we've seen it before. We missed out on some terrific views I could have captured on digital, but I do have them on film from the last trip. At any rate, Salzburg was nice, and it was nice not to be walking 5 mies like we did the first 2 days in Munich. It was nice, but not great.
The skies were overcast but managed not to rain as we took a walking tour of places Hitler and his gang of thieves got their start in creating the Third Reich. It was a 3 hour tour involving a walk of 4 miles, standing time while we got history lessons and NO sitting time.
Yesterday's excursion was almost 5 miles and when I woke up this morning I felt like someone had beat me with a stick! The last thing I wanted to do was a walking tour, but it was prepaid and non-refundable. We were to meet at Marienplatz a 3:00. We went early so we could see a few more places around it.
We stopped in briefly at the Munich Cathedral, called Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady). I have seen many magnificent Cathedrals in Europe, but this was not one. I thought it rather plain.
Afterwards we went into St. Peter's Church, the oldest church in Munich, and it was more impressive. One € 4.20 cup of cappuccino and we were off to meet our guide.
Frauenkirche (the Munich Dom)
First was the building in Marienplatz where, on Nov 8, 1938, the Nazis planned Krystallnaacht.
The building with the spire is the scene of the crime.
The Torbrau Hotel, the oldest in Munich, gave birth to the SS. .
Hotel Torbrau
We were taken to Briemerstrasse, a main drag in Munich, where the Nazis marched in what was called the Beer Hall Putsch. The police got wind of it and waited in the large square for the Nazis to emerge from the narrow street they were on. It was a pitched gun battle, with 16 Nazis killed and 4 cops. The amazing thing was that Hitler and Goering and some others were in the front line, walking arm in arm. A shot felled the man right next to Hitler and as he hit the ground he drug Hitler down with him. Hitler dislocated his shoulder but had no other injuries.
Hitler led charmed life. There were so may times he could have died, from his sickly childhood, his time as a message runner in WWI (one of the most dangerous jobs. He had to run in from trench to trench Generally no one survived, but Hitler did. He survived several assassination attempts including one in particular that made Hitler look like he had a guardian angel. A fallen angel, to be sure, but he was protected by something. A communist named Elsa planned to blow Hitler up as he was giving a speech. This guy crept into the building night after night a meticulously planted a bomb inside the podium, and covered it with stucco, blending it in so it looked normal. He set the clock on the bomb three days before Hitler's speech, to explode near the end of his speech. However, his guardian angel intervened and brought such heavy, dense fog to Berlin that Hitler's flight back from Munich was cancelled. It was decided that Hitler would have to take a train to Berlin, and to catch the train he had to leave 13 minutes earlier. He was well out of the building when the bomb went off.
Hitler was a charismatic political genius who knew what buttons to push to appeal to the people. Blaming the Jews for the German loss of WWI, the Treaty of Versailles, the resulting collapse of he German economy and rampant inflation. He was elected Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and promptly kicked the President to the curb and took over. Opposition was handled by the SA (the brownshirts) who would crash opponents events and disrupt them with shouts and jeers, and frequently violence. This is what every dictator in history has done. They can tolerate nothing that doesn't conform to their ideology or further their agenda. The opposition must be silenced. The Press was his next victim, as only Nazi propaganda was allowed to be published.
Germany today is a very different place. Holocaust denial is a crime. So is displaying the Nazi flag or giving the Nazi salute. Schoolchildren have been hammered with guilt for what happened long before they were born. The sins of the father visited upon the children.
Our guide told us the story of a tourist (probably American) who thought it would be funny to stand on the spot where the battle of the beer hall putsch and give the Nazi salute. A German woman saw it and informed on him to the police (which is in itself very Nazi-like). The man was arrested and spent the night in jail!
Our tour guide, Alun, was a Welshman married to a German, so his English was perfect. That is not always the case, even when a tour is marketed as English-speaking. Some guides have such thick accents that make it difficult to understand what they are saying.
It was a very interesting tour and if every muscle in my back, legs and feet had not been screaming at me, I would have enjoyed it more. That's one reason I do videos. As I edit our pictures from the comfort of my home, I am not suffering from the excessive walking, or the rain, wind or cold. I can appreciate things more. Malta, for instance, was absolutely gorgeous. But it was really windy and very cold, so I didn't enjoy the actual experience. Yet my Malta videos are of beautiful places, and the wind isn't blowing. I loved Malta once I got home, especially Gozo island. This was the scene of the Dothraki wedding on Game of Thrones and I recognized it immediately! But while I was there I was just cold.
Marienplatz - the Rathouse and the famous Glockenspiel
This is the first day of our 7 week tour of Bavaria, Spain, Portugal, Provence, and Italy.
We arrived at the Munich airport around 10:30 AM. Naturally I hadn't slept on the plane, in spite of buying Premium Economy for the bargain price of an extra $710. That got us a few extra inches of leg room, and it is worth every penny! For an extra $1500 we could have had a bed!
After an € 80 taxi ride we got to the Hotel Leonardo. Little did I know that it is not centrally located. We arrived at 12:30 and were told we couldn't check in until 3:00. I begged to get in earlier, but the desk clerk said no. There is absolutely nothing of interest in this neighborhood, so we were soon back at the hotel. It's 1:15. There is this big circular seating area in the lobby, and I could stretch out and sleep there. At 1:30 the desk clerk ran over to me and told me our room was ready! I guess someone sleeping in the lobby looked bad for the hotel, and miraculously they found me a room! Good tip for future reference.
I collapsed on the bed and slept until 8:15. It was light out but pouring down rain and I literally didn't know if it was AM or PM. My iPhone said 8 PM but I wasn't sure it automatically changed to Central European time. For all I knew it was 8:00 in Colorado! It finally got dark around 9 so I figured it out and went back to bed.
We awakened to the birds singing, loudly, at 5:30 AM. We had breakfast in the hotel for - wait for it- for €26 EACH! It was a good buffet and there is nothing around that serves breakfast (Germans don't eat a big breakfast). The bread was outstanding, as is bread all over Europe. Why can't they make good bread like this in the States?
It quit raining so around 10 we headed to the Deutches Museum (Bob's idea). A 3 block walk and 2 stops on the tram, then another 3 or 4 blocks to walk to get to the museum. I was tired when we got there, and it's a man's museum. All about Power, electric, Marine engines, etc. I didn't care for it, although it is a very highly rated museum, if you like that stuff. Bob was here in 1964 and spent an entire day here, mostly in the aerospace exhibits. This time it wasn't there. They moved it to another facility miles away.
After a reasonably priced lunch of bratwurst and sauerkraut, we left the museum and headed to the Munich Residenz by bus. This was the palace of the Wittelsbach family (Mad King Ludwig). It was already past 3 and they were having trouble with the ticket machine, so we blew it of for today and went a few blocks to the Royal Gardens. Trip Advisor said this was not to be missed, but here it is:
The only flowers in the garden
What a disappointment!
We sat on a bench and rested out exhausted legs for about 10 minutes, then walked out and to the Ubahn (underground), got to the main station and switched to a tram to take us to the botanical gardens. That was the best part of the day! I wish we'd gone there first when I still had some energy.
According to my iPhone, I walked 4.6 miles and climbed 4 flights of stairs (one was out of the underground because the escalator wasn't working. If you have ever been in a subway, you know how far down it is from the street. It was daunting. But it was early in the day and I had no problem. If it had been at the end of the day we'd probably still be there!
So ends my first day in Munich. The forecast for the rest of the week is rain. And thunderstorms. On Thursday we are taking a day trip to Salzburg. We were there in 2002 and I want to go back. In retrospect I wish I could have booked a day trip to Hitler's Berchtesgaden and the Eagles Nest, but it only runs two days week and we missed the first and won't be here for the second.
Tomorrow we have nothing planned beyond a walking tour of the Third Reich places where Hitler got his start. His brown shirts silenced all opposition. They would protest in the streets against the Weimar government, and crash political meetings and beat people up. It sounds exactly like what the Left is doing in our country. It's called Fascism.
