May 12-13: travel to Munich

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 scotch and settled into my happy place in the Polaris Lounge. I was not disappointed.

Sample of offerings at the Polaris Club.

The flight from Chicago to Munich took off on-time. Dinner service was a little pared-down- served all at once, including a small carton of gelato for dessert. I also missed menus; I can understand getting rid of paper but they could have been included in the information in the on-board entertainment system. White wine choices were “a Spanish red” or “Chardonnay”. While the Polaris Lounge is spectacular in comparison to the Admiral’s Club, I missed the detailed wine descriptions in American’s menus. And yes, I am aware that I sound like Paul Theroux who, in “The Happy Isles of Oceania”, felt disgruntled when tourists had the nerve to walk on the private beach in front of his rented bungalow. Not bad for a landing on Friday the 13th. We landed a bit early, my new EU SIM card sprang to life and after some wandering around and asking the ladies at the Information booth I found where to meet my Uber driver. I’d reserved my Airbnb apartment starting yesterday so I wouldn’t have to wander around bleary-eyed with my bags till the 3 PM check-in. It was well worth it. The apartment was perfect- a small efficiency but cheerfully decorated with a wonderful balcony.
A rainstorm blew up and then passed as I took a nap. I went out to explore and found that Leopoldstrasse had everything- an organic grocery, several regular groceries, way too many good restaurants and bakeries and multiple ice cream stands. It was easy to find food for dinner as well as coffee and other staples.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

May 18, 2022- Travel to Malta

Image
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...
Read more

May 19, 2022- The Old City

Image
  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 ...
Read more

May 14, 2022- Exploring Munich

Image
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.
Read more