MUNICH

Monday, March 25, 1996 Munich, Germany

We checked out after breakfast and drove a few blocks. Stopped the car and got out to take pictures of the buildings. Got caught shopping in the Kathe Wohlfahrt Christmas store (the same shop that we bought things in at Rothenburg). Jim and I bought one red ball for the tree and small metal decorations for the boys…a butcher for Joe, a fireman for Russ, a cuckoo clock for Jay and a Sailor for Bill and Barbara bought 93 marks worth of glass blown Christmas ornaments and had them shipped home.

Then we walked back to the car just in time to meet the policeman who had just left us a parking ticket. Apparently we should have purchased a time card for our window. We were missing that and also had parked longer than the one hour allowed by the terms of the sign. We paid a 10 Mark fine and were off to other parts with our new parking time sign in the window. We stopped at Ettal Monastery again so that Jim could take video pictures.

While he was there, Barbara and I went shopping for bread, butter, water and soup mixes that Barbara is taking home. A quick pit stop at the WC and off we went in search of the autobahn to go to Munich. Barbara claimed the back seat for her second time and got a quick nap on the trip. I worked on my computer story most of the way. This was only the second day of computer work. The automobile lighter is working wonderfully with the power converter I brought with me. The trip to Munich went very fast but when we arrived we managed to go to the right instead of the left on the Middle Ring. Thus, while we were looking for the BMW Plant and the Olympic Village, we were going the opposite directions from our carefully planned maps. We finally got Jim to stop at a Shell Gas station. Barbara asked if he spoke English….a little bit he said (actually he spoke very good English). She asked for him to point out Leopold Street on the map and he said he didn’t need a map. Make a “U” turn and go back one block!

Thus we’d arrived! Our host, André, arrived within minutes of us.

He has a wonderful European style apartment that he purchased in a building that is less than ten years old. It only has one bedroom and Barbara is sleeping on the sofa bed in the living room. There is a balcony off the living room. Lots of family silver pieces and old paintings. He works for the BBC from home and has stacks of paperwork all over but seems to know just which stack to go into for what he’s looking for. He took Barbara to the basement to show her the wash room for laundry, but there wasn’t any. He sends his things out or takes them to Manfred who has a washer and dryer. We’ll do our laundry at Manfred's when we're there on Wednesday.

We left about 6 PM and drove to Manfred’s home for dinner at a lovely Italian Restaurant within walking distance of his apartment. Afterwards we went up to his apartment which he has owned about five years. It is very new inside of a building built in the 1930’s. It’s on the fourth floor and doesn’t have an elevator. He said this forces him to exercise by walking up and down. Barbara was not thrilled with this but managed to make it up the steps rather rapidly. Absolutely modern. It was once the attic. The previous owner pushed out the walls into the eves and created a loft. The ceilings, loft staircase and loft are of a honey pine wood. The stair rail is very different with reverse curves on the rail. It is very large for a German home with two bedrooms, two baths and the loft. The master bedroom is stunning with a wall of glass doors on the closets. They’re very different from our mirrored closet doors; really classic! It's’ very different from Andrés’ home; but each is individually spectacular. Manfred opened some white South African wine which I enjoyed immensely. André took us home and then after we were settled in he went back to stay with Manfred. He’ll be back tomorrow to take us sightseeing . Found out that my computer works with Barbara’s plug. Now I can work in the hotel room as well as the car.