“Would Richard and Joanne deMeester from Australia please come to the information desk”
Saturday, October 29th, 200528 Oct – 29 Oct, 2005
“Would Richard and Joanne deMeester from Australia please come to the information desk”. How embarrassing. No, the Munich welcome committee was not wanting to present us with a welcome pack. Rather we had missed Christof on the platform, then muddled a meeting location, and had now spent over an hour hanging around at Munich Hauptbahnhof. What was worse, was coming to the information desk, and not finding Christof there. “There was an announcement asking me to come here”, I explained to the lady at the desk, hoping she would point out where our friend was waiting. “Yes”, she helpfully replied, and continued her work. “Is there someone waiting for us?”, I pressed. “Yes”, she again replied. Hmmm, think the best policy is to just hang here, as it turned out to be. One minute later he appeared.
And finally, we got to off-load that near-kilogram guide book about the Caribbean that we borrowed when in Venezuela. While happy to get his book back, he also expressed surprise that we still had it, expecting that we would have given it to someone else or dumped it by now. Of course not! It was our excuse to make sure we caught up with him when in Munich!
Actually, getting to Munich is one of my proudest moments in money saving. Given a rail price of 60€ each for Cesky Krumlov to Munich, we knew that some lateral thinking would be needed. Options were scanned and various itineries debated, routings off the internet, and timetables pored over. Cesky Krumlov to the German border – bus, train, bus. Border to Munich – 2 trains. Half hour quicker, and a grand total of 34€ for both of us. Total saving – 86€ (that’s over $140 Australian!)
On the Saturday, we joined the thousands of others who were taking advantage of the great Alpine weather to head south. Actually, we were only stuck in traffic for about 15 minutes, but it was looking a little grim for a while as to whether we would even get through! Apfel Strudel with Christof near Garmisch-Parten Kirchen at the Partnach Klamm, a picturesque and deep gorge.
Near Partnach Klamm
Richard and Jo