The internet access in Germany is quite affordable. 3,00DM/half-hour at the Heirtel department store across from the Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station for the Deutsch-impared like me). So $2.50/hour, hell it's cheaper than DSL.
Couldn't sleep last night. Got to the hotel rather late, around 23:00. Checked in, drank some water and crashed. I evidently drank a large quantity of alcohol on the plane because I had a headache the size of Texas. I woke up around 5:00, unable to get back to bed. A half-hour of CNN and more water later, it was 7:00. I woke up, got out of bed, and dragged a comb across my head.
The Comfort Inn is quite nice. $120/day during the week and $70/day on the weekends. Since one more day is only $70, I decided to stay there. The covered parking and great location will come in handy...
After a continental breakfast with an unnumerable amount of Americans, I walked the 1.5 km to the European Delivery Center. I could have taken the 36 bus, or a taxi, but the brisk near-freezing weather I thought would make a nice wake-up call.
As I walked around Lilienthalalee I saw a quite interesting site (I didn't take a picture because I didn't want to stop moving). A car overpass from the main car lot to the BMW Customer Centre. Arriving at the gate and saying the usual "Gruess Gott. Sprechen Sie Englisch?" I was driven to the main center. Very snazzy place. They have a Bistro upstairs, sell all sorts of BMW nicknacks around the corner (cheaper than in the US), and have a quite attractive lady asking for your passport and driver's license. A half hour later and a very nice Spanish/German speaking African fellow said "Herr Tamm" and I was off to be introduced to my new car.
You get a lot of crap with the car. Title, insurance forms, roadside assistance, export voucher, receipt of delivery. And you have to keep these with you at all times because in case of theft, you need to produce them all. I'm keeping it in my courier bag. The keys are interesting, too. You get two main keys, a valet key, and a emergency key (who's use escapes me). BTW, there's only a deducatable on theft (10%), everything else is "frei". They were supposed to collect a road-tax, but I think they forgot.
Then he took me behind a glass door and there it was. My brand-spanking new StahlBlau 2001 BMW 330Ci Cabrio. A think of beauty. 5 miles on the odometer. As he went over the amenities I was grinning from ear to hear. 3 years of waiting... Ahh... He was nice enough to take a picture of me in front of the car and I took a couple others. With the key you can open and close the top automatically. License Plate: M-4333Z.
After figuring out how to drive stick (I've stalled twice now, but only once was it bad), I drove back to my hotel. The garage is interesting, each space comes with a lift so two cars can park one on top the other. Too many vacancies for the use of that however.
After a three hour nap interrupted by the housekeeping staff (You try speaking German right after you wake up)... I went to the BMW Neiderlassung Muenchen. After a bit of a runaround, I found the best english speaker in the parts department and picked up the wind deflector ($280 vs $410 in the states), and the CD changer ($350 vs $600 in the states). After going back to the garage to test it out I realized that the adapter for the CD changer was for the 330 sedan, so I had to go back and return it. Tomorrow I'll have them install the right part.
Traffic was murder so I parked my car in the garage and got right on the U2 subway to the trainstation. And before eating, I wanted to update the website. I'm running out of time, so I'll post more later.
20:12 CET
I'll get used to the european keyboard yet. Found an internet chain that was quite cheap. 35m/2DM. That's ridiculously cheap. And they have big screens, and USB ports. (Damn it I should have bought a digital camera).
Ate at Der Hofbraeuhaus. 1 Liter of Dunkles, Potato Soup, and a Sausage Plate. I saw more english speakers there than anyplace I've been, although my table mates were a group of locals. It's everything they say it is: loud, smoky, and touristy. The menus come in four languages, although the staff doesn't. I had to scream "Tafelsilber" so loudly I hurt (but a man need a knife and fork).
It's snowing here, a light sprinkle. It's nice to be near actual winter. The walk from Marienplatz to here (near the main train station) was quite refreshing. After I've updated this I'm going back to the hotel to try and catch up on some sleep. Then tomorrow is another big BMW day. Going to the museum whilst my car is having the CD changer installed.
2 March: Muenchen (Hauptbahnhof)
OK, this was a big day. I can't sleep out here, I keep getting up at 3 or 4AM and thinking about things. So I get ready by 8 and out on the road. Today it was good. I drove to Dachau. It's only a 25 minute ride by car, and getting there before the 9:00 starting time was a good thing. The fresh snow on the ground combined with the ultimate horror behind every turn. It was stunning. I took about a roll of film there. The reconstructed ditch and barbed wire fence, the memorials to the dead, the crematoria, the memorials to never forget, and "Arbeit Mach Frei." Chilling. It is free, but I paid 25DM for a program (to translate the museum into english). I'm still not sure what my feelings are about the whole thing, but I'm glad I went.
So I can't drive stick at all. It's starting to annoy me greatly. I'm getting complacent and I'm not pressing enough on the trottle, my shifting is jerky, I stall. I just plain old suck. But it is quite roomy. The snow and sludge here isn't that good for the car, I need to get it washed soon. I'm figuring that the 8DM I'm going to pay per day for garage parking is quite worth it.
So the Neiderlassung is across from my place and I went there this morning to pick up the remaining part for my CD changer installation. The service department is downstairs and I found the best english speaker in the joint. First thing he made sure was that the CD changer for the 330CiC US was the same as Europe. The E36 (old version) was different... this version is the same. And since my car was prewired (Option 692) it'll cost 95DM to install it (who cares). However the part of the carpet where they mount the CD changer wasn't in stock (they called it the Verkleidung, or something like that... Luggage compartment trim carpet). It being Muenchen, if they don't have the part that day, they'll get it tomorrow. But they are only open on werktagen, so I have to wait till Monday to install it. Kein problem. Half hour, done by four.
I made the decision to spend the weekend in Fuessen, near the Mad King Ludwig's castles (such as the Neuschwanstein). Saturday I'll check out of the hotel and drive on the Autobahn. Then Sunday I'll do the castles, then Monday back to Frankfurter Ring to get the CD changer installed. Just reserved the rooms. After that I should make it out to Salzburg and Vienna.
After dealing with the CD changer, I went to the BMW museum. It sucked. 70s decor and a poorly run cinema projector. The factory tour is cool, but you need to reserve at least 2-4 weeks in advance. So Chris, when you figure out the dates, make sure you let me know so I can arrainge it. After that I went to the Deutsches Museum.
This is the best museum ever. It's the German answer to the Smithsonian, but more like geek heaven! The exhibits include Cryptography, Amatuer Radio, Seismology, Clocks, Astronomy, etc. I spent three hours in it and could have spent double that with some caffeine and a new pair of feet (they provide foot massagers inside the museum). I took a picture of Penrose Tiles and an Enigma Machine. I could/should have taken more but it would have run out of film quickly. It's a must see. It beats the hell out of the crap in the states (plus nearly everything is in English and Deutsch). I'll have to write more later about this... Then I got some nice Italian food from a bistro. Then some internetting, then to bed to try to get some sleep (this time I won't nap during the day). I can't believe I've only been here two days...
Enigma Machine
Penrose Tiles
Cray-1: Serial #26
I finally got some sleep this morning. Went to bed at 24:00, got up at 9:00. Felt good to finally be refreshed. Once I got up, I desided to drive to a Speilbank (casino) where I heard they played poker. After checking out of the hotel, I packed my car. The coolest thing about my car is that when the convertible top is up, the container for the top can be collapsed giving you about 14% more room. I needed that room because the CD changer and CD changer adapter kit take up a lot of room in my trunk. I can't wait till it's installed.
So after only one stall I made it onto the autobahn. There is no speed limit from Munchen to Garmisch-Partenkirchen (with the exception of three .1km stretches in rain). I took the car up to 90 mph (can't go higher because I'm still breaking it in). After travelling through a relatively long tunnel through a mountain, you end up in this secluded valley surrounded by gigantic mountains. It was ridiculously beautiful. This is evidently a swank area considering the prices for homes. I parked next to the casino around 12:00 and waited until 15:00 for the upstairs (with table games) to open.
I walked around the town. It was kind of strange being in a resort town for locals. There is a large amount of skiing nearby. One of the cooler sights is near the train station they have two maps; one for winter and one for summer. The former relating skiing areas, the later relating hiking areas. But, it looked beauiful, like a postcard. I went to the tourist information stand to see if they had a copy, but they didn't, and I was already far enough away that I didn't take any pictures. Then I went in search of an internet cafe. The first one was closed, the second one was too far away, and the third one was open and had terminals, but they don't let you access many sites and using geocities was right out. It was free, so I couldn't really complain.
Cool Garden In Garmisch-P
After getting some relatively bland risotto in an upstairs room of an italian restaurant, I went to the casino. Poker starts at 20:00, it requires a jacket and tie, and a passport, and it's spread limit 10DM-50DM 7-card stud. Not my thing. So I said screw it and got on the road to Fuessen, where I made my reservations. To get from G-P to Fuessen, I had to travel up and over a small mountain pass to get to the Romantic Road. I'm definatly coming back to that during the trip...
After getting a little turned around in Fuessen, I made my way northwest to Hopfen-am-See. Oh my lord is it beautiful. Hopfensee seems to be a typical alpine resort area. The main drag is loaded with hotels, each of which face the lake. I decided to cheap it up (100DM), and got a room without a lake view (lake view was another 50DM). I made that decision in Muenchen, and if I had to make it again I would have paid the money. If you have a car and want to see King Ludwig's castles, I'd definatly say to stay in Hopfen-am-See.
I went to the front desk and asked first if they spoke english, and like every hotel I've been to the answer was yes. Where is the InternetCafe. They mentioned one in Fussen, from where I am posting.
4 March: Fuessen
In this internet cafe (where the access today is ridiculously slow) they're playing Falco's Amadeus in the original Deutsche.
So the day of King Ludwig went rather well. Got up early and had breakfast down stairs. One note: if you wear a baseball cap out here, you are an american. Today, due to the rain, I was wearing a cap. Everyone talked to me in English. I was disheartened.
After making it to Hohenschwangau, I bought a 22DM ticket for both castles (actually palaces, or Scholss). Schloss Hohenschwangau at 10:45, and the Neuschwanstein at 13:00. I had to park twice because I misread the map (cost me 7DM extra). I'll have a picture of my car being overlooked by the Neuschwanstein castle posted soon.
After a short hike, you get to Hohenschwangau, which is the castle of King Maximillian. It was quite nice. It felt lived in. One odd thing is that every table in the place has a birthday present to Prince Leopold (because in 1923 the state took over the Munich palaces). The painting on the walls were increadible (and they've lasted years). After the tour (which I highly recommend), I tried to hike up to Marianbruecke. No dice. It was way to steep and snowy for my shoes and my temperament; and I only had 40 minutes. So I got a pretzel instead.
Hohenschwangau
Neuschwangstein
Marianbrucke (currently upside down)
The only thing worse than the hike up to Neuschwanstein was listening to ugly americans bitch about it. I have never been less proud of my country than during that tour. The Americans were loud, obnoxious, complained about the tour guides accent, and consistenly bitched about everything. The hike is about 20 minutes, and is about a mile uphill, you best be in shape to make it (even if you take the horse drawn carriage). However it is worth it.
Neuschwanstein is an unfinished castle. King Ludwig was killed/drowned after living there for only 6 months. However the whole thing is themed around Wagner operas (I'd suspect by the amount of devotion shown that their relationship was interesting). The throne room of Neuschwanstein is worth the trip. It is gigantic with every angle amazing. The mosaic in the floor, the picture of the sun on the roof, the religious depiction, and the amaying marble throne. You see this room far too early on the tour, the rest is good but much less than. Too bad they don't let you take pictures... Try a web search.
I then drove to Linderhof Castle (stuck behind a moron going 40kph). It was closed, and it isn't as travelled as much. The only time to get an English tour seems to be in the morning or in the summer. In any case, this castle seemed best for its stunning grounds. I'll have to return sometime in spring to get the full effect of all the fountains. Then I drove to Wies Church. This church was, oh what's another word, ah screw it, amazing. I really can't describe it in words, you'll have to wait for the pictures.
Fountains
Castle Entrance
I don't have a reservation anywhere beyond tomorrow, and I have no idea where I'm going to go after the CD changer installation. I'm thinking I'm going to just get a room around here (everywhere has a Zimmer Frei sign...)
A couple random thoughts (should go in the forum but the access is way to slow to deal with it).
- There are no car washes open on Sunday.
- Everything closes really early on sunday (except this internet cafe which is open till 1900)
- I'm overusing the clutch. I think I got the hang of it today.
- Gas here isn't that expensive. It's around 2DM/liter for supreme, which is about $4/gallon. I'm getting around 26mpg (now), so I'm doing better than my estmate of 5m/$
- I can't operate the convertible top from my keychain for safety reasons... I'm angry.
- Heated seats was soooo the right thing
5 March: Munchen
Back at the easyeverything checking some email and whatnot. My car is currently having the CD-Wechsler installed. I seem to be lucking out by hitting the english-speaking personel there. I'm going to have to remember their names (Christian Melk... Michael Mittelbock... I don't know).
I showed up at the dealership late because I slept in and I made a wrong turn. I was going towards south Munich, and I needed to be in north Munich. On the map what looked like quite a nice time saver, since it was far away from the city, was a complete nightmare. Lots of large Oil Diesel trucks. In anycase, I got a lot of practice driving stick in traffic. It's not as bad as I thought, you can stay in 1st gear without engaging the clutch as long as your moving even a little. However the whole down-shift thing is a little harder to get... I don't have the engine at the right rpms usually. Oh well, the clutch is covered.
Ate at burger king for lunch at the train station as I didn't want to deal with yet another continental breakfast. Same as america, except for the regular coke which I still think is too sweek. They have cross-cut fries here, called "King Fries XXL." They tasted like Carl's Jr., for those of you in California. Well enough of my horrible culinary taste.
I think I'm going to kick back a bit today and save up for the trip to Vienna. Since I bought the Autobahn sticker, I felt I should travel through the country. Poker-world, here I come...
5 March: Wien
OK. So a lot has happened. I got the CD changer installed. It's working great. With one exception, the luggage compartment trim includes a hole that needs to be filled by a plastic piece that they ordered incorrectly. I have the number, I can install it myself, I just need to stay in one place and find a service center.
So I got the car at 16:00 and drove towards Vienna. I was reading in my guidebook about Melk, a town with this gigantic abbey. As I was driving on the autobahn, watching the beautiful austrian alps and countryside, I saw this gigantic building on the side of the road. That was the abbey. Seeling a Gutenberg bible to Harvard pays for a lot of restoration. It was larger than any non-Walmart I've ever seen...
Abbey from Road
So I decided to stay the night there. I got a room at the Hotel Pension Wachau. The owner was quite nice. I had dinner in the dining room and since everyone else had already eaten I was talking with him. I explained that I was here for many months with the car, and I made my money in computers. About 15 minutes later he handed me a cordless telephone and asked me to talk to the guy on the other end.
He was trying to establish a business cluster for IT security. Somehow he thought I might have a clue about it. He wanted to meet with me for about a half hour, but on Wednesday, so I declined. After giving him my off the cuff opinion on why silicon valley is what it is in as plain an english as I can, I was served an amaying custard pie with a white-wine sauce. Specialty of the house... I highly recommend.
Then off to Poker-world. This is where I learned that I have no sense of direction in a foreign land. It took me 30 minutes to find out what the hell was going on, filled with wrong turns and cluelessness. After rereading my chicken-scratch directions I finally found the appropriate turnoff from A2 at St. Marks. There, in large letters, is PokerWorld. I parked across the street and walked in.
They make you check your jacket and bag. They were spreading 30-60 stud, 20-1000 pot limit omaha, and had a signup list for 30-60 hold-em. I signed up for the HE and sat down at the stud game. After three folds, they started the other game. The players were horrible. Quite horrible. I was up about 400 AUS early. But they were horrible enough that I got hit by three 23-1 shots (running AA, backdoor flush, running 4card straight). After an hour I was down about 600 schilllings. I bid it a good day.
The coolest thing about the poker room was that it was indistinguishable from an american poker room. All the jargon is english: raise, call, reraise, cap, grosse blind, kliene blind, all-in, sechsig-to-go. Strasse is a straight. I understood all the german, but none of the mandarin (yet another similarity to america). The biggest problem in my play was the smoking, and then my realizing that I was playing the equivalent of $2-$4 holdem. The limits are too low, so I treated it like entertainment.
After a couple hours of the smoke, I was really tired. I started the long drive home. The most ironic thing is that a guy cut me off going 150km/h as the third verse of "Airbag" by Radiohead was playing ("fast German car..."). I got back to the hotel at about 2:00 (Melk is 80km away). I crashed. The next day I went back to the abbey. It's closed until April, but I took some pictures. The ones here should suffice for now. Then I drove into Wien.
Courtyard
Abbey from Danube Tributary
I finally got the car washed, and learned that I should remove the antenna before doing so. Then I found parking place near the Westbahnhof, and got a room at the Hotel Haydn. 790 AUS+150AUS for parking. I'm going to stay here two days or so then get the hell out of the cold.
22:10 pm
After getting some relatively bland soup and a beer at the american-eque 1516 Brewing Company, I went to the House of Music. A little over the top, but cool. You pass from one floor to another, first a museum devoted to the vienna philharmonic, then one devoted to sound, then vienna composers, then hands on music stuff. It's open late, and I didn't feel like sleeping starting at 7pm.
I find this city very, very confusing. Finding street signs and numbers is damn near impossible. The city is quite dirty and obsessed with dogs (so you know I'm loving it). It has a definate rundown feel. The people here are much less friendly than on the rest of the trip so far. Plus it got much, much colder today, and that is affecting my demeanor. It's supposed to warm up during the week, but I think the damage is done. Tomorrow I'm doing all the sights in the old center, then the next day I'll do the big castle Shoenbrunn.
7 March: Wien
OK, so it's actually the 8th, but that's week 2. It's 9:40 and I'm at the same internet cafe. Yesterday, I saw most of the big sights in Vienna. I went to Schloss Hofburg. Schloss Shoenbrunn, the Art History Museum. At Hofburg I went to the Imperial Apartments. Quite interesting. The whole thing is done in rococo with quite lavish art and furniture. Definately interesting, but this sort of thing is getting lost on me.
Next to the treasury. This was very, very cool. They give you these free video monitors that you point at the exhibits and they display all sorts of text about it. Coolest things were the crown of King Rudolf (used as the crown of austria), the crown of the holy roman emperor (used by Charlemange and every HRE emperor till Napoleon ended the empire), and all the exquisite tapestries and clothing. The last room has royal vestments done in gold thread.
Then I went to Schloss Shoenbrunn. This palace was very overdone in scale. I took the tram which leads to the entrance to the castle. I took the Grand Tour of 40 rooms. The imperial tour is cheaper but has 22 rooms. Spend the bucks on the Grand Tour. The two rooms I found the most stunning were in the extra 18. The Vieux-Laque Room is a Memorial room to Maria Theresa's husband Franz Stephan. Black panelling inlayed in Walnut. Amaying. The Million Guilden Room was rosewood with bits of an Indian Tapestry inlayed with gold borders. Very cool. I ate at the adjacent cafe and got Wiener Strudel.
Then the mundane task of Laundry was at hand. In my guide book it mentioned a place about three blocks from my hotel. I went to my garaged car and retrieved the rest of my dirty clothes and trudged to the laundromat. I entered, ask the purveyor (a woman of about 55) if she spoke English. She said in German, "No, but I speak very good Deutsch." I laughed quite heartily and we managed to pick the Grosse machine and my laundry would be done by 17 Uhr. Whole thing was 115 ATS, or about 6 bucks. Not bad considering that all my clothes were folded.
Whilst waiting for my laundry, I went to the Art History Museum. Half the museum is devoted to Italian painters, the other half to german and holland painters. Lots of Rubens, lots of Titian. I saw a painting whose reproduction I had seen earlier in Hofburg. It became quite clear in this museum that my philistine upbringing with respect to art had just bit me in the ass. After a quick tour through the seasonal Persian art exhibit, I got an evian and Sacher Torte and then returned for my laundry.
After watching Ariel Sharon's speech on CNN International, it became clear that I wasn't going to make it to the internet cafe. So I just slept. From 8pm to 8am. Evidently I needed it. I got up, got some breakfast, made a few phone calls, and came over to this internet cafe.
On the whole I was quite disappointed in Vienna. Munich seemed a lot nicer, more vibrant, friendly. I'd make an analogy to american cities, but I'd annoy someone (think old american capitals...). However, I think the weather just got to me. I'm headed to the Dolemites in Italy tonight... whatever gets me out of Vienna. Then hopefully I can take the top down.
