Destination München

Wednesday, 26 December 2007

Today would be a long travel day as we made our way from Interlaken to Munich, with layovers in Lucerne and Zurich. Though most of the day would be largely spent on the train, it was hardly an unsatisfactory experience, especially thanks to the train ride from Interlaken to Lucerne which provided us with some of the most breathtaking scenery we would see during our 2 weeks in Europe.

As usual, there was no rest for the weary and we began the day quite early with our train for Lucerne leaving from Interlaken Ost some time between 8:00 and 8:30. The fact that we first had to catch the train from Interlaken West to Interlaken Ost meant the more punctual the better. So we all bid a fond farewell to the Hotel Rugenpark and trudged along the Rugenparkstrasse towards Interlaken West to begin the long journey to Munich. With the Robertson's having caught back up with us two days ago, our traveling group was one again, and it showed as we walked and rattled our way down the street towards the station with luggage in tow. As we walked along, we soon began to realize that we had lucked out with the weather yesterday because now the sky was gray and the fog and clouds thick.

We soon arrived at Interlaken West, where a short wait was followed by a short ride to Interlaken Ost, where we ended up waiting around for a good 20 or 30 minutes at least because we had erred on the side of caution and did not want to miss our train to Lucerne. It soon became clear from the gathering crowd that we also wanted be able to have a seat on the train as well. As our train arrived it seemed as though everything was going off without a hitch. We found first and second class cars right next to one another to board. Alex and I boarded the second class car while Will would eventually come back to join us after helping his family on along with everyone else in first class. Except that never happended; apparently some Brits had reserved the cars towards the back of the train that we were on, and unbeknownst to me and Alex, the rest of the group had already begun relocating towards the other end of the train. Eventually we got kicked out by these smarmy Brits who insisted we leave their car, yet refused to make way for us and our luggage as we tried to make our way out. Shades of the Gare de Lyon in Paris were evoked when I got on the phone to the rest of the group as me and Alex hauled our luggage and ourselves towards the rest of the group. Thankfully, we did make it without having to frantically dash and were soon reunited with the rest of the group who had relocated to a sparsely filled second class car that allowed for the whole group to enjoy the train ride together, a rarity for our 2 weeks in Europe. Soon thereafter, the train left the station and we were on our way towards Lucerne.

As I have pointed out in earlier posts, Interlaken roughly translates into 'land between lakes' and we had seen Lake Thun which lies just west of Interlaken. Now, as we headed east from Interlaken, we would spend the first part of our trip to Lucerne traveling along Lake Brienz. As the train made its way around the lake, it became clear that, despite the gray skies, this long travel day was going to be anything but dull. Despite the gray weather, the mountains still loomed large over the proceedings as we made our way towards Lucerne, not least as we traveled along Lake Brienz.

Soon we passed through the town of Brienz itself at the eastern point of the lake and moved further inland from there, coming along a more plush, thickly packed winter wonderland as we went. It became clear as we traveled along that in a way, the weather sort of added to the ambiance of our journey through this part of the Swiss Alps during wintertime. At the risk of sounding trite, our trip from Interlaken to Lucerne was proving to be such a typically Swiss journey as we made our way through various snow-covered valleys with mountains soaring on either side and pristine lakes carved out here and there amongst the rugged landscape.

It was postcard setting after postcard setting. No sooner would we snap some photos and put our cameras away before we would pull them right back out to document a majestic setting that we did not believe could be topped, only for the next turn around the bend to reveal something even more romantically varied. Our railcar was now largely empty, allowing us to freely shift from side to side whenever the scenery demanded we do so, which was often. My Mom commented that this was, so far and by far, the most amazing scenery we had seen in Europe. For some perspective, it is worth remembering that only the day before we had climbed over 11,000 feet through the Swiss Alps to the Jungfraujoch and the Top of Europe. It was a comment that my Mom would still stand by at the end of the trip, which is not a slight on the rest of our time in Europe, but merely a glowing superlative bestowed upon that train ride from Interlaken to Lucerne. All things must pass, however, and glowing superlatives or not, the train ride itself was not terribly long and after 2 unforgettable hours, we pulled into the station at Lucerne and disembarked for our half hour layover before making an even shorter train ride to Zurich. By all accounts, both literary and photographically, Lucerne is a city that probably demands greater attention than a brief layover en route to Zurich, but such are the drawbacks of a whirlwind tour of Europe. In the end, however, the weather would not have really allowed for us to fully enjoy Lucerne and its environs anyway. I took a brief moment to wander just outside of the train station and walk down around the nearby Lake Lucerne. My brief observation was that Lucerne has much to offer on a beautiful, clear day and perhaps one day I can return to do this popular tourist destination justice. There was not much time to linger, however, and I headed back to the station to grab a snack for the trip to Zurich. We were moving ever deeper into Germanic cultural territory, so I of course helped myself to a tasty pretzel just in time to board the train with.

As train rides go, the short trek from Lucerne to Zurich was pretty uneventful, certainly compared to our previous one. It was still quite foggy outside and aside from some rolling hills here and there, most of what was witnessed on this ride were the burbs of Lucerne and Zurich. The double decker train was nice, though, with me, Will, and Alex roughing it back in second class and the others living the high life as they do. But this journey was quite short and less than an hour after we departed we were in Zurich, the leading financial center of Switzerland, and indeed, the world. It is also consistently high ranked, often at the very top, as the city with the best quality of life in the world, though it is worth mentioning that Geneva and other Swiss cities such as Berne and Basel never rank far behind.

Originally, our intention had been to spend a few hours in Zurich, eating some lunch and walking around the city a bit, which would have been well worth it. Given our already whirlwind schedule, however, and not wanting to die of exhaustion before reaching Italy, we only had a layover of about an hour before catching our train to Munich. Since we did have an hour, though, we assembled all of our luggage around a bench area which we effectively claimed for America such was the space it occupied, and me, Danny, and my Dad stayed behind to keep guard while the rest explored the enormous Zürich Hauptbahnhof.

Many times, Ryan, Will, and I had told our families about the large Christmas market that stood inside this particular train station and while, alas, it was no longer running on this day after Christmas, the facade of it was left over to at least show the enormity of it. Christmas market or no Christmas market, however, there was still much to do in this train station. It houses a vast underground shopping center with over 200 hundred shops, and apparently, it is the only part of Zurich where shops are open on Sundays (though this was a Wednesday), meaning that on that day, the streets of Zurich are rather lifeless while the underground 'Rail City' is booming. So there was much to do for everyone in this train station.

After a short while of patrolling our luggage area, I insisted to Danny and my Dad that they walk around a bit and venture outside the train station a little so that they could at least say they had seen the city of Zurich, if only in bits and pieces, as I had the luxury of spending a couple of hours here 2 years before, so I had seen much more than they would get a chance to anyway. So they dispersed and I remained the lone solider at Camp America, waving at various members of my party as they walked below and above me in this labyrinth of boutiques and chocolate filled shops.

A short while later, the elder statesmen returned and relieved me of duty, leaving me just enough time to wonder in to one of the chocolate ladened palaces and right a perceieved wrong from 2 years ago when Ryan and Will conspired against me to buy some Swiss Chocolates together, splitting the cost without informing me. Devious was the look on their faces that day when I asked how much my share of the bountiful goodness would cost, with the answer coming back in the affirmative that this chocolate was to be shared between only them. So finally, after two years of anguish and with my time in Switzerland dwindling steadily away, I walked into a shop lined with chocolate bars and, picking out 4 of the best, I firmly laid them upon the check-out counter along with my few remaining Swiss Francs and made the delicious purchase.

Shortly thereafter, it was time to head to the platform and catch our train to Munich. Part of the reason for not spending long in Europe was to catch a train directly to Munich whereas our original schedule had us taking a few layovers to get there. But this 13:00 train would take us directly to Munich with plenty of time to spend the evening acquainting ourselves with the German metropolis. Again, first class and second class status would apply with me, Will, and Alex in one car and the rest in another, though in this case we were at least able to be in cars that were right next to one another. I'm not sure how it went for the rest of the party, but for the second class kids, a number of the seats were reserved, so we had to scurry about to secure our seats, but we did so comfortably enough at the end of the car with me and Will sitting opposite a couple of sweet old ladies with their lapdog stowed between them while Alex had a lone seat to herself, though if memory serves me correct, some standing passengers found it convenient to pervade her space and stand right in front of her which was kind of awkward, but she hung in there like a champ.

This train ride was quite long, about 5 hours in fact, and while it was hardly the most engrossing, it did have its moments. Alex slept a good portion of the ride while me and Will did some reading and listened to our iPods, though Will soon found out that his iPod battery left much to be desired, leaving him searching for others way to pass the time. The scenery was hardly dull, but the foggy conditions meant justice was not done to the Swiss, Austrian, and German countryside that we traversed. But there were a couple of noteworthy sights.

Somewhere around the border of Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, we passed through a town with a couple of frozen lakes on either side of the tracks. However, it was not the frozen lake that caught our attention, but the large number of people who were using this gift from mother nature to play a natural game of ice hockey. In fact, for us local Chattanoogans, it looked the equivalent of an early autumn Saturday at the Redoubt soccer field complex. There were multiple games going on and it seemed a local youth league had taken over the area, but I suppose it was just a good way to spend the day after Christmas with kids breaking in their new skates, pucks, and hockey sticks. It was surreal to see and neat to sort of have this small town offer us a peak into its daily life without even acknowleding our presence, as though we were in the Magic Kingdom with 'It's a Small World' to show us that we all share more in common than we think.

Another memorable moment from this train ride occurred shortly after crossing into Germany. We were not quite in the Black Forest region of Germany, but we were not too far either, and soon it became clear where the Black Forest got its name. We came upon a forest so thickly packed with tall pines that we could not see more than a few feet beyond the trees before everything turned dark. It conjured up thoughts of a fairy tale setting and it did not escape me that many of the tales of the Brothers Grimm were set not far from here. No wonder Hansel and Gretel lost their way so easily. Coupled with the fog and gray skies and you begin to wonder if Tim Burton's 'Sleepy Hollow' was inspired by such a setting.

The journey through this setting lasted a while longer before darkness set upon us and the growing number of pedestrian lights made it clear that we were approaching the burbs of Munich, and finally Munich itself. We arrived at the München Hauptbahnhof some time around 18:00 and made haste to our hotel, which was a relatively short distance from the station, just close enough to walk to in fact. We were staying at the Hotel Tryp München and by all accounts, I think it was probably the nicest hotel we stayed at while in Europe. It certainly seemed tailored to Americans with the abundance of ammenities provided that not all European hotels provide. It would prove to be a comfy and cozy residence for our time in Germany.

We spent a little time situating ourselves before heading out into the cool Munich night to see some of the sights and eat some hearty German food to round off the long day of travel. We headed back to the station to catch the S-bahn to the Marienplatz and the city center. Like Zurich, 2 years before when me, Ryan, and Will were in Munich, there was an enormous Christmas market right here in the Marienplatz, which itself is basically a large town square with several shops surrounding it. Like Zurich earlier, the rapidly diminishing facade was all that was left of the market, but no one would wont for good shopping in this area.

We hung around the Marienplatz for a little while, taking in the New City Hall that dominated the platz, though the New City Hall actually had a neo-gothic appearance while the Old City Hall actually has a much more contemporary look. New City Hall is still quite impressive, though I can never really look at it without thinking about Nazi flags that hung from the top after their rise to power. We did not linger for long as we would come back in the morning to witness the famous Rathaus-Glockenspiel of New City Hall. For now, it was time to eat, and since we did not have any reservations, we all split up.

We all walked around for a little while as we searched for somewhere to eat, but eventually a large group of Ryan, his parents, Susan, Alex, and Beth peeled off as the window menu at an establishment called Haxnbaur caught their fancy and they walked inside. The rest of the group walked around a little while longer before my parents, along with Christine and Kevin, decided to eat at a Hard Rock Cafe to reacquaint themselves with some good American food. Meanwhile, Will and I pressed on in search of a quaint little Bavarian specialty eatery because we were jonesing for a fine Bavarian meal in a fine Bavarian setting.

We eventually found such a place, called Zum Duernbraeu, and walked through what seemed like a backdoor and stood at the entrance, taking in the ambiance of the place as women in traditional Bavarian dress waited on the patrons of the tavern that were mainly seated at long beer hall style tables. We instantly agreed this would be the place to dine and a woman eventually came to seat us at one of the spots at the long, regal looking table. Once sat down, we looked over the menu and we both soon opted for a fine wheat beer to drink before our meal came out. This was Munich after all and we would be remiss if we did not sample the local brew, and we were rewarded handsomely for doing so. Wheat beer and German pretzels do make for a fine appetizer.

The time to order did eventually come and Will went with Wiener Schnitzel, potatoes, and salad, a traditional German meal. I myself opted for an assortment of different Bavarian-style sausages along with some sauerkraut. Needless to say, we were both well fed by our time of departure. People in Germany eat more heartily than any other country I have visited in that the food they eat is quite filling. Sauerkraut, German sausages, and schnitzel do make for an amazing meal, but a few days in a row of such meals would no doubt leave one possibly needing a stomach transplant afterwards. Will, to his detriment, found out the hard way as his stomach was not as accepting of his delicious meal as he would have liked and this meal, good though it was, would come back to haunt him throughout the rest of the trip, and perhaps until his eventual surgery half a year later. But at this moment, we were both quite content. The meal had been amazing as had been the setting and we had no complaints. We took our time to just soak in the atmosphere and get all retrospective about the trip up to this point as well as our previous experience in Munich. After a while, the time to depart did come and we walked out into the cold, but comfortable night air and walked around for a little bit before eventually meeting back up with everybody back at the Marienplatz. Both of our respective families had enjoyed their American food experience at Hard Rock and Ryan's crew had a funny story to tell about their encounter with a waiter, but you would have to ask them more about it.

I do know that everyone in our group ate quite well at the different locales, and after a long day of travel, we were all about ready to call it a night. We caught the S-bahn back to the main train station and walked back to the hotel from there. Without much fanfare, we retired to our rooms and looked forward to our time in Munich tomorrow. There was no set schedule for the day, so we were allowed a bit of time to sleep in which was most welcome after a couple of early wake-up calls in a row.