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May 12-13: travel to Munich

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My last two major trips ended abruptly. In March, 2020 my South American tour ended after a week in Bolivia. In August, 2021, fully vaccinated and COVID-negative, I joined a small-ship cruise in Alaska with similarly-credentialed passengers and crew. Unfortunately, one couple had been out bar-hopping the night before and didn’t feel so good a few days later. Only one other passenger tested positive and the rest of us were sent home a couple of days early with generous refunds. So… maybe the third time will be the charm? I chose Munich because I’d been there twice on business and once on vacation with Ron, my German is decent and I could get there without having to connect in Heathrow. I booked a long layover in Chicago to be safe and to enjoy the Polaris Club at O’Hare. Despite what I’d heard and read about pent-up demand for travel, Kansas City Airport was pretty quiet when I arrived for my 11:30 AM flight. O’Hare was closer to the old normal. I picked up some Duty-Free sco...
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May 14, 2022- Exploring Munich

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I explored in earnest today after a good night’s sleep. The old city was about an hour’s walk, but the area was very pedestrian-friendly and I had plenty of company. My first stop was Mike’s Bikes, to book a bicycle tour for Sunday. I then visited the Stadtmuseum, stopping at various stores to buy organic cinnamon, a few things for my grandchildren and a guidebook with good maps. I’d been using Waze to navigate but realized that it was more suited to driving- it avoided construction and travel in the wrong direction on one-way streets. Siri, for some reason, wouldn’t connect and Google Maps wasn’t making sense so I resorted to Apple Maps. What a mistake. It kept sending me in circles and directions that got me further from my destination. Finally I did something desperate- I took out my paper maps and shut the phone down. I found my way back to the apartment with minimal backtracking. According to my FitBit it was a 15-mile day.
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May 15, 2022- Bike Tour

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Today was the Mike’s Bikes tour. I’d done this about 15 years ago on the advice of a coworker. It’s leisurely, mostly level, with plenty of stops for commentary by the American guides. Bonus- a stop near the end is in a beer garden near the Chinese Tower in the English Garden. This one had a twist- the local soccer team. FC Bayern Munchen, had won a championship last night for the 10th year in a row. There was a charity marathon going though part of my walking route although the guide later informed us that it wasn’t the kind of dead-serious marathon they have oin most places. There are no times. There are no medals. Families with children and those only moderately fit join and get off the route when they’ve had enough. My kind of race. The area where we were supposed to gather, Marienplatz, was cordoned off in multiple areas and overrun with security forces. The victory celebration, it turned out, was taking place at Marienplatz at 1:30. Fortunately we were well on our way...
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May 16, 2022- the German Museum

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Today I visited the German Museum, situated on an island in the Isar river. It’s oriented towards science and I was particularly looking forward to seeing a small, homely green aircraft that had been there on my two previous visits. The story behind it was remarkable- Dr. Gerhard Wagner, an aeronautical engineer, and his two sons had built in secret using motorcycle engines to power it, hoping to fly it from East Germany to freedom in West Germany. They were reported and at trial the experts testified that it really was airworthy. Fortunately, the family (including Frau Dr. Wagner) were eventually able to relocate to West Germany. The plane wasn’t there. I did a fast Google search and found a picture of it and asked a guard about it. The plane was at another one of the Museum’s locations, about 18 miles away. I’m glad I saw it hen I did and learned the story behind it. More datails at this link (which was also the source of my picture).
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May 17, 2022- Der Alte Pinakothek

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This was another repeat visit- the Alte Pinakothek, the museum of classical art (there are also the Neue Pinakothek and the Pinakotek Moderne). I planned a repeat visit to a favorite exhibit here as well- Albrecht Durer’s self- portrait that deliberately resembles Jesus. There were, of course, multitudes of paintings portraying Jesus as a pale-faced European man with auburn hair but this one was the most striking. Painting of St. Sebastian. Ron and I used to joke that every REAL art museum has to have at least one painting of St. Sebastoan being shot with arrows. I found three here.
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May 18, 2022- Travel to Malta

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The trip to Malta started out pretty smoothly- after dithering over whether to take public transportation I decided to save my sanity and take Uber to the airport.   The one suitcase I had was too big for an overhead bin, so I stuffed it all in an ancient cloth tote bag, including all my electronics.   It weighed a LOT.   I arrived at the airport plenty early and took a long, leisurely walk through the huge terminal to get in some exercise, and selected a bottle of wine (main criterion: screw top not requiring a corkscrew) in Duty-Free, and found I had to carry it with me since I was flying within the EU.   Oh, goody- more weight to carry. I picked up a sandwich at a bar called “Fuerst Metternich” (Prince Metternich) because I was tickled by the historic reference, took the quick tram out to the airport’s hinterlands and found similar facilities in the “hinterlands” terminal.   I guess I could have waited. As I was re-organizing and checking everything I rea...
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May 19, 2022- The Old City

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  After a lovely breakfast in the lounge (minus wine) I went back to the Embassy.   The news was good.   They had everything ready for me to sign.   I did need to make yet another trip to get pictures taken (hadn’t thought of that) but they told me that if I got them there by noon they’d have the passport ready by 2 PM.   HUGE sigh of relief.   I was back with pictures at 10:30. After that I returned to the hotel, had lunch, went swimming and went back to the Embassy.   My passport was ready- a slimmed-down version good for only a year but which can be replaced with a full-size one at no additional cost.   I thanked everyone profusely but told them I hoped I’d never see them again! From there I took a car to the old city of Valetta.   This was the real Malta, not the rarefied surroundings of the Hilton (although the Hilton Malta is now my favorite).   I just wandered, people-watching, admiring the architecture and occasionally getting ...
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