From Osnabruck to Munich
Subways are fast and clean here
Olympic tower is in view from our place
We took off this morning without a hitch–even Kai was packed and ready in time for the four of us (Mark and me, my mom, Kai) to wheel our three suitcases to the bus, take the bus to the train station, and get on the train to Munich. We were really lucky with the weather; it was supposed to rain but didn’t until late at night. We took full advantage of the amazing German public transportation system and were also once more really lucky. (Boredom alert–I am a tad bit geeky about the wonders of public transport, so here goes: We only had an official 8 minutes to change trains (and platforms) in Hanover, and the train was running late, so we thought we had no chance to catch our InterCity to Munich; the conductor even wrote something on our ticket so we would have been allowed to take the next train, but then they announced that the other train would actually wait an extra 5 minutes! So there was some running involved, but we made it, and were in Munich before 4 pm as planned. We had a subway ride to our vacation rental, but it was only about 20 minutes without changing subways, and a 3-block walk at the end.) The vacation rental was a bit of a disappointment. It is big enough (we rented for six) but the beds are weirdly arranged, with a pretty inconvenient shower/tub in the bathroom and very minimal furniture and dishes (as in, 4 chairs around a kitchen table; we are really going to be six for a day and a half when we have visitors!) But we made do; Kai and I went to the very conveniently located nearby Aldi and got food for tonight & later (40 Euro gets you very far at the Aldi, where butter is 70 euro cents and so is apple juice, while a bottle of bubbly water is 60 cents! Another thing to geek out about–German deep discount grocery stores!).
Then we had our usual German Abendbrot/cold-cut dinner, and Mark and I went for a little walk around the block. This is clearly a multi-cultural, residential neighborhood with a lot of really boring apartment-block houses, but also lots of little stores, bakeries, Turkish fast-food outfits, and discount groceries, but the buses and the subway are close by and there’s plenty of vegetation, so it’s nice. We can also see a tall modern tower from here, and we figured out yesterday that it is the Olympia Tower in the big park / Olympic Games area that was built for the 1972 Olympics. We got home just as it was getting dark around 9:30, and called it a night. Kai has opted to sleep in a small storage room, and we wheeled one hide-a-bed in the living room for my mom, so we sorted out the bedroom situation, and decided to call Kai’s room the garret and Kai himself Harry.