Washington DC to Frankfurt to Munich
September 16 - September 19, 2006
 

President: Glenn "Wally" Faunce 2923-E Olney-Sandy Spring Road Olney, MD  20832 Phone: 301-774-4646 Fax: 301-774-3610   Return To Germany 2006 Main Page

Send Me An Email To Comment Or Book A Vacation mailto:lynx@lynx-travel.com   http://www.lynx-travel.com

Washintgon, DC to Munich
September 16 & 17 
 

Photo Links

My solo trip to Germany is finally underway.  Craig almost came at the last second but couldn’t get off work.  Dad drove me to the Reagan National and had brain lock and went the old way down Montrose to I-270 instead of Tower Oaks.  I didn’t say anything, just thought his satellite map had shown him that was the quicker way.  It wasn’t he just said he wasn’t thinking.  In the Faunce tradition I was 2.5 hours early but that was alright because Continental put me on the earlier flight to Newark which gave me time to get dinner before the flight leaves.

I had Chinese food at Sarku’s.  It was hard turning down the New York Pizza but I’m still trying to be fairly good on the diet.  Fairly good meaning the 3 item meal including spicy pork, bourbon chicken and sweet and sour chicken over fried rice and 6 chicken wings. 

I had a good laugh looking into the Brooklyn Bar and seeing that Notre Dame is getting killed by Michigan.  I love to see the Notre Dame Faithful (mostly my friends) suffer in defeat.  So much for Notre Dame winning the National Championship and Brady Quinn winning the Heisman Trophy.  Of course I’ve got nothing to brag about with Maryland getting whooped by West Virginia. 

The flight leaves in about an hour.  The Dukes of Hazzard is the movie but I think I’ll watch one of the movies I brought.  I should have taken the Continental offer to be bumped for a $500 voucher but they couldn’t get me an exit row seat.  The plane was a 767-200 and it had the biggest bathroom I’ve ever seen on a plane.  The movie ended up being The DaVinci Code.  It was OK; I had it figured out pretty quickly.  I’ve never read the book or really had any interest in the hoopla around the book.  I tried to sleep but never even got close.  I watched the movie Munich on my laptop.

We had the most incredible sunrise.  The plane was between two layers of clouds and the sun rose between the layers and turned the clouds the most amazing shades of orange and purple.  I wish I could have gotten my camera but the girl next to me was asleep and I didn’t want to bother her. 

The plane arrived and it took forever to get the luggage.  I had to switch terminals to get to the train station.  I got into town and to the Marriott with no problems, except for having problems getting the Star Trek type door to open with my hand wave.  It took about a minute of waving by the sensor to get it to work.  This is where I stayed last year also with Matt.  Then I took a real long nap.

When I woke up I got the computer hooked up and reached dad on Windows Messenger.  It works great.  Better than I can say about the Location Free Player.  It keeps saying I’m not connected to the internet.  We have solved my problem of being able to watch the Redskins – Cowboys game tonight though.  Dad has his camera pointed at the television and I’m going to watch it through the Window Messenger. 

I went downstairs and had a chicken sandwich at Champions and watched the Cowboys –Eagles game then went down towards the train station and had a few beers before heading back.  The game is on in a couple of hours so I’m going to try and get some sleep.  

Frankfurt to Munich
September 18, 2006

I’m on the ICE #1099 Train between Frankfurt and Munich.  We’ve had our one stop in Mannheim and will arrive in Munich at 9:23 AM.  The trains are incredibly efficient and always impeccably clean and always, always on time.  I never really got any sleep and might have well have tried after watching the Redskins play like crap.  And that’s being nice.  The game started about 1:15 AM in Frankfurt.  I went down to the bars near the train station for awhile before heading back to the hotel.  Dad and I watched the game over Windows Messenger with few problems.  Twice the system froze but rebooting fixed the problem.  When I changed from full screen to just a large screen the problems stopped.  There was about 4 minutes in the game and the Redskins were losing 27-10 and it was about 5:10 AM Frankfurt time.  I bailed on the game and headed to the train station to catch this 6:12 AM train. After watching the stupid game, I really wish I would have taken the Continental offer to be bumped.

A few observations of my trip so far, it amazes me how many people still smoke heavily in Europe.  On the train from the airline to Frankfurt Hauptbanhof I was sitting near the food car.  A lady was smoking which didn’t surprise me but so was the guy working the food counter.  Then on this train I’m in a cabin for 5 people by myself.  A guy comes in, rolls his own cigarette, smokes it like he’s trying to inhale it in 3 puffs, THEN GETS UP AND LEAVES.  Was he just trying to annoy an American?  I don’t know.  But if that’s what he was trying to do it worked.

Next, technology is amazing considering where it was just 10 years ago.  I was watching a football game over the internet 4000 miles away from home with my father just like I was in the kitchen at home, and that was a last second backup plan.  I figured out how to make phone calls over Windows Messenger over the internet for 1.9 cents a minute. That’s crazy compared to what the hotel charges.  Granted I paid for the internet connection but it worked beautifully.  As was watching the football game I was checking email and trying to finalize a sale from again, 4000 miles away from home.  I was just laughing with dad about all these things that I would have never thought possible.  When I first went on the internet during the 1994 Atlanta Olympics to check out some things it took forever to download any page.  Now everything is instantaneous.

I’m actually feeling pretty good right now but I’m sure I’m close to crashing pretty soon.  Well, the conductor just came through to check my ticket and since I’m on a direct train I had to pay a 17 Euro supplement.  A guy in the cabin spoke English to translate for the conductor.  I would think as many people that use the train that are English speaking the conductors should be bilingual.  I know I can’t sleep on this train so I’m going to try and watch a movie to pass the time.  Oktoberfest, here I come.

The train ride was fine, although it was the first time a train I’ve been on in Europe was late.  We pulled in about 10 minutes late.  A guy in my cabin translated the “we will be late announcement” for me.  He was traveling to Munich for 2 weeks on business but said he would probably find some time for the Oktoberfest.

The Intercity Munich Hotel is connected to the Munich Haptbanhof (train station).  I walked in and there was a line of about 10 people waiting to check in.  The rooms were not available so I checked my luggage so I could walk around the area.  It was about 10:30 AM so I headed to a pub on Schwanthaler Strasse #88.  The pubs name is Schwanthaler Brauwastl.  This is a pub that I had read that some people from the Eurotrip web page would meet to go to Oktoberfest.  I had 2 mas of beer and by 12:45 PM I had not seen anyone who looked like any description or picture I had seen on the website.  By this time I have had about 3 hours of sleep in the last 59 hours and I was exhausted.  I headed back to the hotel and my room was ready.  I checked in and promptly slept until about 10:30 PM.

One of the nice features of the hotel is they give you a free subway pass for the duration of your stay.  I haven’t used it yet but it will come in handy.  I took a shower and headed back to the Schwanthaler Brauwastl to see if anyone from the Eurotrip page would show up after the Oktoberfest tents closed.  I still didn’t recognize anyone.  The pub was hopping though.  It was funny to walk into a pub at 11:00 PM with people that you know have been drinking since the early parts of the day and you are completely sober. 

Some things I noticed.  First, it’s hilarious to see someone so drunk and still crave a beer have problems finding their mouth.  This really pretty blond girl who was dancing up a storm kept bouncing into me.  She was definitely having problems bringing glass to mouth.  She would bring the glass to close to her mouth then kind of feel its way to the actual mouth area.  Second, Latino’s have the best time of anyone.  The bar was fun, but anyone who was Latin was having way more fun than anyone else.  I’ve noticed this before at the Olympics.  Nobody has more fun than the Brazilians.  Finally, drunken people are relentless.  The girl who was having problems finding her mouth left and came back at least 3 times trying to find a jacket she had left.

I met some people at the bar from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.  They had a sign with the name Bob on it that they were taking pictures with.  Bob was their friend that was supposed to come to Oktoberfest but backed out at the last second.  Good shtick.  The girl they were with was Isabella from Pennsylvania. They were worried about her at the end of the night an wanted to make sure she made it the Underground.  The Underground is right at the train station and my hotel.  I ended up walking Isabella back the U-Bahn station.  She was from Pennsylvania but had spent the last 4 years in the Canary Islands.  She said she loved it but they are so isolated that she’s ready to leave.  She was laughing the Jersey-Carolina guys because when she met them they decided she looked like a Nancy and kept calling her Nancy all night.  I got her safely to the U-Bahn station and headed up to my room where I am now typing this.  My hours are so screwed up; hopefully a good night’s sleep will get me on Germany time.

Munich – Oktoberfest
September 19, 2006

Well today was a complete loss of a day.  I woke up at 9:00 AM and had breakfast here at the hotel which was included in the daily rate.  The hotel is very simple, very clean and high on amenities.  Breakfast is included, a subway card for the duration of your stay is included and they had a couple of Oktoberfest gingerbread hearts in the room for me when I checked in. 

The hotel also has free wifi internet connection in the lobby for registered guests.  The only problem is the connection is very weak and getting the connection was a problem.  Once you logged on it was quite fast but keeping the connection became a problem also.  It cut off on me a few times.  After cutting off I tried to walk around to see if any internet places would allow me to plug their Ethernet cable into my laptop, none would.  I was talking to dad later and told him this is a business opportunity to look into in Washington.  Everyone has internet usage but no one has a way to connect your laptop to the internet via a cable to guarantee connections.  Wifi is great until you have problems connecting.

While walking around I had another observation about Europe.  It’s absolute beautiful temperature wise, 65 to 75 degrees and everyone is dressed like it is below freezing.  Everyone is wearing huge parkas and winter coats while I’m walking around in shorts and a long sleeve t-shirt.

I came back to the hotel and tried to connect again on the hotel wifi and this time it worked perfectly.  I finished checking my email and sent a few emails out then headed up to the room to drop of the laptop.  Before I knew it I was lying down and noticed it was pouring rain outside. 

I needed to call Judge Gesner about her family’s spring break trip so I waited until 6:00 PM which was noon at home.  The wifi worked perfectly again this time after a couple of tries to connect.  She was out of the office and they said I should call back in an hour.  I took a walk around the Oktoberfest grounds to pass the time.  It’s bigger than I remember.  They also seem to have many more places selling alcohol.  Last time the small stands didn’t seem to sell alcohol but now most do.  I stopped and had dinner next door to the hotel at Burger King. I know what, eating at Burger King when I had the whole Oktoberfest grounds to eat something.  I really didn’t trust myself.  If I stopped to get something to eat then I would have wanted a beer and who knows where that would have led to. 

I called Judge Gesner via the Windows Messenger which really works amazing.  Dad saw that I was online and we talked via the Video Call feature.  Of course mom and he are in bed with his laptop.  I told him I was in the middle of a hotel lobby with the web cam.  He didn’t care. 

I finished my calls and again headed up to the room planning on heading out but I just couldn’t get motivated.  The time thing has really screwed me up on this trip. I’m going to go out tomorrow and do some exploring.  I’ve got to call Judge Gesner again later so I’m going to try and get out and see Nyphenburg Palace, the Residenz Museum and maybe the Olympic Park before coming back to make my calls. 

Continue To Munich - Schloss Nymphenburg & Oktoberfest
September 20, 2007