billbauer

Our alarm wakes us at 3AM for we have arranged a taxi pickup at the hotel at 4AM for a ride to the Munich airport.  Thankfully, no pictures from here.  We say goodbye to our guide and head out in the dark and fog.  We made our own travel arrangements.  This is not Road Scholars' fault.  We have intentionally left a three hour layover in Amsterdam to ensure that we have enough transition time even if we are late from Munich.  And we are ... late.  Due to fog in Amsterdam, we are 45 minutes late pushing back in Munich and are thankful for the extra time although others on a later flight also made this connection. Before leaving Munich, we find the KLM flight lounge. On board our Delta flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis and after an earlier "lunch", I couldn't resist photographing our Delta "snack" box. We arrived home early, cleared customs, retrieved our luggage (which also arrived) and were driven home from a very nice friend (thanks Boyd) t

On our last full day of the trip we take the streetcar to the Alte Pinakothek, Munich's most important art museum.  The building was heavily damaged during the war.  Munich has chosen to make the "scars of war" visible by intentionally mis-matching the brick in the restored section.  As Munich was home to the third reich, about 80% of Munich was destroyed in the war.  Most of the debris from the destruction was taken to what is now Olympic Park and forms the hill of the 1972 Olympic games site. Although the building was heavily damaged in the war, most of the artwork had been removed to a safe location.   We have a guided tour through the museum. This is an art museum in which photography its allowed.  This is an entirely "iPhone day" so bear with me on the quality of the pictures. After two hours on our feet in the museum, we take a very appreciated sit down lunch in the cafe located in the museum. After lunch is "free time" so we

After a leisurely breakfast in the hotel, we start the day with a guided bus tour outside of the old town of Munich including the 1972 Olympic grounds and a stop at the Nyphemburg Palace, the summer home of the House of Wittelsbach, the former rulers of Bavaria. The water in the canals leading to the Nymphenburg palace are a little stiff indicative of the cool spell over much of Europe. However, it has been beautiful while we have been in Munich with temperatures in the 50s, bright sunshine and no wind.  It is definitely light jacket, no hat and no gloves weather. After stopping by the Residenz, the winter home of the Wittelsbach family near old town Munich Beverly rubs the lions nose for good luck. We tour the Gothic Church of Our Lady - the Frauenkirche with its two onion-domed towers. As we make our way through Marianplatz on our way to lunch, we resort to using what we have avoided so far on the entire trip, the guide holding up an identification

This is our second, and last, transfer day, as we transition from Salzburg in the morning to Munich in the afternoon.  We are up early to place our luggage in the holding room and then take the public tram into old town Salzburg to visit the Hohensalzburg Fortress, Salzburg's chief landmark that majestically dominates the cityscape.  The 900-year-old fortress was never taken by force. We pass a statue of Mozart on our way to the funicular. The view from up top of Salzburg to the north and the mountains to the south.  Eagle's Nest, Hitler's hideout, is up there in the mountains somewhere (behind Beverly). During electrical rework on the fortress, medieval walls were discovered buried in much later constructed walls. During "free time" following our guided tour, we opt to eat lunch at one of the Christmas market stands in the fortress and, of course, partake in some gluwein (hot mulled, spiced red wine). Our friends posing for thei