Vacation…but so miserably cold and wet out there that it’s tough to clamber out of bed. ‘Clamber’…probably with german origins, but likely only used in the phrase above.

We’re in a tiny little apartment this time. Clean, simple, brand new being only 2 months old. Have a look for 31 Westermuhlstrasse and your little google man you drop on the road will show this vague blurred out area, suggesting the place is currently in transition to a new dimension or the smokers lounge from the bar outside the door is having a little trouble clearing the particulate matter in the air. So new, the guy that owns/manages the place hasn’t even removed the Ikea labels from the bottoms of the dishes.

Brand new apartment also comes with brand new design. A kitchen counter smaller than our dresser at home, no closet space, a two burner cooktop that is thin enough to have the cutlery door underneath. A bathroom with no shower door and long handled squeegee for you to collect the water spray from the floor and push it into a corner to hopefully evaporate by morning. Reminds me of my gas jockey days, when cleaning the shop floor with Varsol, stiff bristle brush and a much larger and equally less effective squeegee.

So, what to say about Munich. First impressions are that the city is relatively new. Almost like home, yet some creepy old elements remain…not to mention the war memorials littering the city. Clean, trains run on time and despite complex naming conventions seem to get their occupants to their destinations on time. We gave it a shot, and seemed to make it back here in one piece…only one correction required. Coffee this morning was at a nice little bakery right around the corner, and armed with no vocabulary for the simple things like ‘coffee’, or even a simple ‘yes/no’, we sucked it up and went inside to try our best. The guy at the counter gave me a bit of a puzzled look when I attempted a ‘no sprechen de deutsch’ (something vaguely conjured up from a road sign I once saw driving through the Interior), and he politely replied in accent-free english…’No problem, you’re looking for a coffee?’.

After a few groceries, pictures, and attempting to explain to an elderly lady that it was OK for her to take a seat on the U-bahn…via hand signals and the occasional ‘thumbs-up’, we made it back for a relaxing evening of trying to figure out just where we’re going next. Surfing for info on what to do seems to be occasionally broken up with giggling over words like ‘Ausfartz’ and ‘Dinkleburg’. We do have a hotel reserved in Salzburg…but what is after that? What tacky tours could we look into that don’t require being exposed to this biting cold…especially when tomorrow’s forecast is for mixed precipitation? We just had 27C weather in Paris, maybe I could trade those shorts for a sweater…or touque!

Pics are up, and in the previous post.