Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Liquid Gold

Hi All,

We arrived in Munich mid afternoon on wednesday where we were picking up the car in order to drive north to Rothenburg. Glenn was none to impressed when the BMW he booked was switched to an Audi A4, but we couldn't do much about it so took the car. Got into the car and found it was a manual, also not much of a problem, Glenn likes manuals but I was concerned about the extra concentration required to drive it while also staying on the OTHER side of the road..... Glenn assurred me that it would be fine - and it was. Mostly...=0). The next hurdle was the GPS. We spent 1/2 an hour trying to set the stupid thing up for English and it kept asking for a CD - which we had, but there was no CD player in the car!! A call to the service desk and they too came up confused and with a secondary GPS unit. Finally we were on our way.

The drive was beautiful, well as beautiful as it can be at 240km\ph. Yes that is the speed that Glenn got up to, well downhill at least, as that was as fast as it would go. Glenn was aiming for 280 so was a bit disappointed. He did love the autobahn though. It requires a lot of concentration and looking in the rearview mirror, because if someone is coming up behind you, you better move over quick. The good thing is that all the trucks stay in the right hand lane, unless they decide to pass each other, that means you need good brakes!

We arrived in Rothenburg about 7pm. Narrow cobbled ONE WAY streets of a beautiful medieval city are interesting when trying to find your hotel. But we got there. We both loved Rothenburg, we felt like we were homer in candy land and wanted to skip down the pretty little streets with the pretty window displays. We did the night watchmans tour and that was really good. We even forked out for the DVD of his tour so you will have to ask us to watch it to see this beautiful town and its history. Then next morning was SHOPPING!! There is the most fantastic christmas shop that is great to explore. And yes, we bought christmassy things in September. We couldn't help it. I was even caught humming christmas carols.

And then it was time to leave. We should have spent a couple of days there, but I didn't think we needed it. The drive back was a bit slower as I seemed to have set the GPS to "scenic" route, much to Glenn's displeasure, but I got a great photo of a sunflower field that was well worth it. We made it back to the city, where glenn dropped me and the bags at the hotel and proceeded to drop the car back. It was less than 2kms away and Glenn Spent 4 hours looking for it before returning to the hotel. Yes you read correctly. Glenn was "lost" in Munich for 4hours!! So we decided to keep the car and use it to go and see the castles the next day. BREATHTAKING!! Well worth it if you get the chance. And we managed to drop the car back Ok.

Octoberfest. Or Oktoberfest if you prefer. All I can say is wow. It was great fun catching up and drinking a lot of beer with Andrea and Linda who flew over from the UK. The whole thing is insane. We got there at about 9:30am and by then all of the "tents" (read Temporary buildings that look like permanent buildings) were FULL. We waited inline for about an hour but by then it was obvious that they weren't letting anyone else in so Andrea scouted and outside table for us. We met some interesting people. A lovely german guy who was studying in Munich and a loud and obnoxious French\american (yes a dangerous mix) who was looking for accomodation. Which of course he didn't find with us. I am pleased to announce that even though I don't like beer even I drank 2 1/2 steins, Glenn on the other hand drank 5 and Andrea and Linda both clocked up 4 - which was Andrea's goal. Saw some interesting drunken shenanigans on the way out of octoberfest, which I wont share here..... so you can probably guess. Octoberfest was definitely an experience worth having.

And then we arrived here in hot and sticky singapore. Our last stop before home. Singapore is prettier than I expected - But that might be because the singapore GP finished the day before we arrived. Shopping has been the top of the agenda. We have bought suits that we will get just before we leave and Glenn has been looking for a laptop but has been disappointed that they haven't been much (if at all) cheaper than at home. We went and did the Night safari last night and that was fantastic, we saw a lot of animals and really quite close up.

Anyway, time to run, be home tomorrow!


GNT

No comments:

Post a Comment