Our trip to Germany began on a 7am train - this being our first real train travel experience as it was to be a 4.5 hour voyage. We started off in some pretty comfy seats, only to have to move 30 min in because we didn't realize we had reserved seats somewhere else on the train (that's what happens when you can't read what the ticket says). Turns out we just randomly happened to be put in the oldest crap car on the train where the air smelled stagnent....thick...sticky.... Ok, like pee, it smelled like pee. Old pee at that. Disgusting. I wasn't all too happy to be stuck there and asked quietly but out loud if anyone else (in my family) thought it smelled like pee. Alex sushed me because he was afraid I'd offend someone. Number one - the likelihood that anyone around us spoke English was pretty slim. Number two - either other people smell the pee too and are like 'YES..I'm so glad I'm not the only one noticing this'; or they ARE the pee, and if they are and haven't remedied the situation, they don't give enough of a crap to be offended by any comment made by some little American girl. BTW - jumping ahead to the trip home, Alex, in playing around with the little dude whispers out loud on the train ' I have a bomb.' C'mon. Really? I get chastized for talking about bodily functions and he gets to say he has a bomb on public transportation?? I had alot of fun with that one. ; )
So, one thing I took away from this weekend is that Germans take drinking beer quite seriously. Our early morning train had people with grocery bags full of beer popping one after another open (and then I question the aroma of urine?) all in preparation for being at Oktoberfest to drink alot more beer, which is provided by the countless breweries in Germany. Many of these people were dressed in traditional costumes called a lederhosen (men) and dirndls (ladies).,,,just looked that up now so I can sound informed, which I'm really not. Let me tell you that I was totally delighted to see everyone dressed up!! It was like going to the Renaissance Faire and seeing people dressed up, only you're not afeard of having a spell put on you by those partaking. Had I had brought some hose and slip on shoes to wear like the costumed ladies, instead of opting for the practical walking shoe/ orthodic, I'd of totally rocked a dirndl for fun! They were selling them right in the Munich train station for only 69.99 Euro on sale. What a deal!
Ah, the Munich train station: otherwise known as where my anticipation of a fun filled weekend lost a little luster to say the least. Since we had to take a 20 min train to Dachau, I made the executive decision that we should just hop on a train right there before we dropped our bags off at the hotel. We really did travel light considering there are 6 of us and we only had 1.5 days there so I wanted to be smart on time. Well, things just weren't too smooth. First, we couldn't buy tickets out of the kiosk because it spit our Euros back out at us and it wouldn't take our CC - apparently Germany is big on the smart chip. They seemingly pretty much give a rude gesture to those who don't have it. So, we ended up having to wait a long time (with all our stuff) for the one English speaking train rep. It was then that I decided to take the kids to use the bathroom. It was then, that I wandered around the train station for about 10 minutes, terrified of getting lost without Alex and STILL not finding any sign of toilets. It was then.... that I was introduced by the *somewhat snotty to Americans English speaking train rep* to the concept of...... 'paid toilets'. At that point, I was glad that I didn't find the restrooms with all the kids considering I had no money let alone Euro coins on me and the whole process probably would have just done me in for the day. We opted to just wait and use the steller facilities on the train.
Shortly after, we were headed to Dachau following the exact directions from the internet as to what train ,and then bus, to take to the memorial. All would have been great had we been able to understand what stop they were announcing sooner instead of missing it trying to gather all our stuff, the children, and the stroller in a much too short stress laden moment when we realized we were *there*. At that point I was rather hating on Germany, as if it's Germany's fault that we are trying to drag our brood around a country whose language we don't speak. So, to make a long traumatic story short - I had to figure out a way to stop giving Alex complete anxiety with my forlorn face, which helped us to get off at the next stop, find our way to a train that would take us back to where we should have got off to begin with (which we did thanks to Alex and an old lady who spoke minimal English), find our way to the bus stop,
Ah, the Munich train station: otherwise known as where my anticipation of a fun filled weekend lost a little luster to say the least. Since we had to take a 20 min train to Dachau, I made the executive decision that we should just hop on a train right there before we dropped our bags off at the hotel. We really did travel light considering there are 6 of us and we only had 1.5 days there so I wanted to be smart on time. Well, things just weren't too smooth. First, we couldn't buy tickets out of the kiosk because it spit our Euros back out at us and it wouldn't take our CC - apparently Germany is big on the smart chip. They seemingly pretty much give a rude gesture to those who don't have it. So, we ended up having to wait a long time (with all our stuff) for the one English speaking train rep. It was then that I decided to take the kids to use the bathroom. It was then, that I wandered around the train station for about 10 minutes, terrified of getting lost without Alex and STILL not finding any sign of toilets. It was then.... that I was introduced by the *somewhat snotty to Americans English speaking train rep* to the concept of...... 'paid toilets'. At that point, I was glad that I didn't find the restrooms with all the kids considering I had no money let alone Euro coins on me and the whole process probably would have just done me in for the day. We opted to just wait and use the steller facilities on the train.
Shortly after, we were headed to Dachau following the exact directions from the internet as to what train ,and then bus, to take to the memorial. All would have been great had we been able to understand what stop they were announcing sooner instead of missing it trying to gather all our stuff, the children, and the stroller in a much too short stress laden moment when we realized we were *there*. At that point I was rather hating on Germany, as if it's Germany's fault that we are trying to drag our brood around a country whose language we don't speak. So, to make a long traumatic story short - I had to figure out a way to stop giving Alex complete anxiety with my forlorn face, which helped us to get off at the next stop, find our way to a train that would take us back to where we should have got off to begin with (which we did thanks to Alex and an old lady who spoke minimal English), find our way to the bus stop,
 | |
| Bus stop |
.....aaaand arrive safely at our destination of the Dachau Memorial.
All was well until we arrived back in Munich and had to find our hotel. We enlisted a cab to take us there. I won't even go into that stupid death cab ride, because others in the van found it to be just fine.... but this photo of Abbie and I says it all from my perspective.... Yes, that's us strapped together in the very back of the van where we swayed and screamed our way through traffic.
All was well until we arrived back in Munich and had to find our hotel. We enlisted a cab to take us there. I won't even go into that stupid death cab ride, because others in the van found it to be just fine.... but this photo of Abbie and I says it all from my perspective.... Yes, that's us strapped together in the very back of the van where we swayed and screamed our way through traffic.
Next up: An actual re-cap of FUN things in Germany!! : )
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