On the Road Again (The Autobahn, Munich, and Zurich)

December 26th meant saying goodbye to most of the group in Riefensberg and setting out for Munich. Tyler's sister Lindsay and his mom were heading back to the States, and his sister Jamie's family was heading for Germany with their friends. Lynne and Tyler were continuing on with us for time in Munich and the Piemonte.

I think I mentioned before that Dave was thrilled with the upgrade to the Audi rental. Hopefully he will comment on his experience driving the Autobahn. The car was ridiculously fantastic- It was somehow connected to know what the speed limits were in each place, and could also switch between different performance modes. I never felt unsafe, and other people were definitely passing us, but I know that Dave and Tyler both had fun with that drive.

As you can imagine, the scenery was great. We drove to Austria in the dark, so on the way back to Munich we got to see everything. There are virtually no ads for anything while you are driving the freeway. The few that I did see were small ones for McDonald's (grrrr), placed on the sides of barns or buildings. I also noticed lots and lots of solar panels. They were on probably 20% of buildings, both residential and agricultural/industrial.

We were able to meet up with Tyler's good college friend, Lars, in Munich. He and his family just moved into a beautiful new home. We had tea and visited while the kids bonded over ping pong, Harry Potter, and Playmobil.

We took a walk to see Blutenberg Castle, and also got to see two of the schools that Lars' children attend. I was interested to hear about the difference between the German and U.S. school systems. Kids finish their school day around 2 p.m., and often have classes or other activities for the rest of the afternoon. They have a basic music class in elementary school, but any instruction with instruments is done outside of school.

We had a fantastic group dinner that evening. I have a hard time making any sense of the German language, but I was somewhat able to order (with the help of Karina and Google Translate). I had pork chops and more spätzle. 


Dave and Tyler found us an inexpensive hostel for the night. They had gone to check in previously, and were worried that Lynne and I wouldn't find the accommodations acceptable, but I thought it was great. We had a private room with clean and comfortable beds and bathrooms- all we needed to spend the night between our travels. I would completely stay in a hostel again, even sharing a room with strangers, as long as I had someone I knew with me.

We woke up on the 27th in Munich and packed all of our stuff into our cars. Our goal was to spend the morning exploring Munich before leaving for Zurich at nap time. We did not stop for breakfast at the hostel, instead opting to find it in the city. That turned out to be a poor choice, because we kept going past the pastry shops in the train station in search of something better. By the time we found a place to eat in the walking area of Munich, all of the kids were frustrated with us. We took a fantastic breakfast of pastries and pretzels (I had as many as possible in Germany- they were even fantastic at the gas stations!). Our poor waitress had to come back three or four times to give us coins for the bathrooms- it was our first experience of paying for the restroom on the trip.

Now that they were fed, the kids were much more amenable to sightseeing. We started in the St. Michael Kirche next door to the cafe. There are gorgeous, ornate churches around every corner seemingly everywhere we go. We continued walking in Marienplatz, checking out Rathaus-Glockenspiel and the Viktualienmarkt (Victuals Market). There were tons of Christmas decorations still for sale, though I couldn't find any Christmas stockings either there or in Amsterdam. We found some tasty treats to purchase, then headed back to the square just before noon to see and hear the Glockenspiel.

Shortly after that, we headed of town toward Zurich, Switzerland. We had train tickets booked from Zurich to Milan for months, so we had to be there the morning of the 28th. After a turn on the freeway, Google directed us on a back road to the Swiss border. Everyone thought it was a very curious route to go, as the road was barely big enough for cars to travel in two directions. At one point there was a one-lane covered bridge. In each location we've visited, we've commented on the difference having a smartphone makes in navigation. Dave and I were last in Europe in 2011, and it took a lot more effort to get around with paper maps and atlases. 

We moved through the Swiss border without stopping, so we must not have looked suspicious. We had put the oranges in the trunk, just in case. We got into Zurich as the sun was setting and found our hostel. This one was run out of a bar, and it appeared that the owners ran both the bar as well as the hostel, living on the first floor. None of us was happy about the lack of an elevator, as everyone had to take all of our luggage up to our rooms to repack for the train trip in the morning. The rooms were old, but clean. We spent a few minutes researching where to eat dinner. Dave was disappointed not to find döner kebap at an earlier stop, so that was the focus of our investigation. We found some tasty döner in the nearby train station and headed back to the rooms to repack.