Planes, Trains and Automobiles

I'm home.

And it feels wonderful.

I slept like a rock last night. I think my body was letting go of all the tension of traveling in foreign countries. I soaked in the quietness and calmness of Inverness when I arrived yesterday and breathed in deeply the fresh, invigorating air. Home. It's good.

And to make it even better, Mike surprised me by meeting me at the airport instead of at the train station as planned. Tears flowed.

I thoroughly enjoyed the adventures with the girls to England and Europe and am super glad I had the opportunity and the encouragement from Michael to go. It was truly a gift from him and from my good Father, who enjoys lavishing good gifts on His children, sometimes just for His own pleasure and ours.

It was not without it's challenges, though. Most of you do not know that I sort of have some travel anxieties.  I think I may share about that in another blog at another time.

With that in mind, know that it was a BIG deal for me to travel ALONE to a FOREIGN country.

ALONE.

I do believe God used my travels over the last year, and especially our trip to Venice, to prepare me for this time. But again, I think I will cover that another time.

Traveling in and through England was easy in the company of my friends, Katrina, Leah and Carol. There was unknown stuff, but not so much anxiety.

And once I actually got to Munich, I would be with Bonnie. But there was all that in-between time. The part that was most concerning to me was the time from arrival at the Munich airport to arrival at our hotel. I figured if any part was going to be difficult, it would be that part. And it did not disappoint. It was hard. And a little emotional.

I will try to condense the experience.

I arrived at 8:45 pm. It was dark. Most of the signs were in German and I relied on those universal picture on signs to get me where I needed to go. I had to buy a ticket. From a machine. Written in German. And even after putting in "translate to English," it still was not clear how to do it.
 I asked for help. A line formed behind me. No stress there. When I finally found the train, I did not know that it only was going one direction - from the airport out - so after being on it for several minutes, I began questioning if I was going the right way. All the announcements were in German.

 I finally asked a young lady and she assured me. I had a lovely conversation then (even though I was filled with anxiety the whole time) with her and with the young man sitting across from us. She is an American living in Spain. He is from Pakistan, visiting his girlfriend in Germany. Traveling alone and his first time there. He appeared a lot more relaxed than I felt (and probably looked).

After 40 minutes, I had to get off and change trains, then get off at the 2nd stop. The door did not open on it's own, so by the time someone told me to push a button and I stepped through, the doors closed and my luggage got stuck in the train door!  I hung on with all my strength as the train started to move. My stomach jumped down to my gut and to my throat at the same time. My eyes were wide open and I was envisioning never seeing my luggage again.

The people on the train just looked at me. I gave it a final, desperate yank and out it popped. The anxiety surged.

But I was almost there.

Bonnie would be waiting at the McDonald's across the street when I came up from the subway.

Except she wasn't there.

In truth, I was half an hour later than I thought I should be. Did she wait a long time and then go back to the hotel? I did not know. Did I tell you that I only can communicate by text and FB Messenger - and only when on wifi?

To make a long story shorter, I ended up walking - alone - to the hotel - down a very dark street.  It was dark. I was alone. And I could not use my phone on the street. Honestly, I was sort of petrified.

I arrived at the hotel to a tert German night clerk. He let me in but there was no Bonnie. I tried to message her. I tried to call her. She messaged me and called me, but unknown to us at the time, she was not receiving mine.

 She finally got them and came back to the hotel. I had had some time by then to 'relax.' Ha!

weiner schnitzel with veal - the real deal

The rest of the trip was less anxiety-producing and more of an adventure. We took a tour of Dachau concentration camp. We explored the old town area and found the Hofbrauhaus, where it was loud with lots of people talking and laughter, sticky floors from spilt beer, and music from the 5 piece German band playing that wonderful German polka-style music that makes you want to dance.

3 kinds of sausage, sauerkraut and noodles

We sat down next to a young couple - she was from Boston and he was from Aberdeen, Scotland and learned about their adventures. He recorded on Bonnie's phone, a video description of the great fishing to be had up here in the high country of Scotland, which Bonnie sent on to her husband, Ron. (he enjoys fishing)

We took a tour to Neuschwanstein Castle and met a lot of travelers who shared their stories of travels.  We met a lot of people from the US and from Australia.

sausage on a bun and sausage with ketchup and curry 

I was especially fascinated by two young people on the tour who were traveling alone.

Rohan was 21 and from Pakistan. He had been alone for 11 days. Kristen was 19 from Canada and was there alone for 30 days. I kept telling them how brave I thought they were!

I got to spend a lot of time on the train ride home asking her questions and listening to her experiences and I learned a lot. When we parted ways at the end, I had to hug her and tell her that was from her mom, who I am sure was missing her (and maybe even worrying about her a bit). I know that would have been me.

I had also wanted to hear Rohan's story, but somehow, he got lost on the castle tour and our tour group actually left without him.

We all talked about him on the way back, wondering what had happened to him. He had seemed quite capable and understood the time.

But get this - when we finally got back to the Munich train station and our group was gathered together for last words, who should come up to join us but Rohan!

"Rohan!" we all cried out!  (some of us mothers had to hug him) "What happened to you?"

Here is his story: he had gone to the bridge to see the castle from behind, but instead of going back the way he came, he went across it and kept going. He realized he was going to be late to meet the tour at the stated time, so he thought he could get there faster by climbing down the mountain!
When he realized that was not working, he climbed back up!
When he finally got back to the site, a tour guide from the tour that was an hour behind us, saw him and got him on the train. And because we had some train delays getting back (arriving 2 hours late), we actually were on the same train for the last part of it!! He got off and saw us standing together.

lock bridge - they cut them off every 5 years

Bonnie and I traveled to Salzburg, where we got in on a walking tour right away which helped orient us for the next 2 days. We enjoyed our B&B, where there was a grand piano in every room! We ate well (weiner schnitzel, apple strudel, sausages, chocolate) and enjoyed the atmosphere there.



It was much more intimate and quieter than Munich. We took a Sound of Music tour - with Bob's Tours - which included a luge ride on a mountainside and a stop for apple strudel overlooking a beautiful lake. At the last minute, we got in on a tour to the salt mines. And then we hopped a train back to Munich. But that was not without it's own little adventure.

This is where we learned that all trains are not equal.

When we bought our round trip ticket to Salzburg, we were told we could bring any train back. Great. That left us a lot of freedom. So, about 1:45 we arrived at the train station to find that the train was leaving at 2:15. Perfect. We sat in a cool place for a bit and when we checked the reader board before going up to the platform, we discovered the time had been changed to 2:40. We had experienced some train delays on the Neuschwanstein trip, so it seemed reasonable that the train was delayed.

When we got ready to go to the platform, we saw the departure time was now 3:00.

And that was about the time I realized that I had been looking at two different screens - Departures AND Arrivals! So, we actually missed the 2:15 train)

When the 3:00 train arrived, we got on, sat down and prepared to relax for the next hour and a half.
Except that when the conductor came to collect our tickets about 10 minutes later, he told us we were on the wrong train. Whaaat???
Yep. We were on a 'fast'/direct train from Budapest to Munich. We could  not get off at the next stop because the next stop was Munich. What could we do? The only thing we could do: we had to each pay another $49 Euros, that's what. That hurt.

And that's when Mike's famous words came to mind, "Education, however you get it, is always expensive."
And that is how we learned that all trains are not equal.

We spent one more night in Munich, in the Turkish district. You know, like there is a China Town and a Japan town, etc? This was a nice hotel (a little different from the first one - with people who actually smiled and acted like they wanted us to stay there) and with air conditioning - also unlike the first one and a 5 minute direct walk from the train station, unlike the 20 minute walk from the first one. This was very important for the next morning when I would be leaving - by myself - to catch a 6:15 am train to the airport.

So on that last night, we ate at the Turkish open-air restaurant 2 doors down. It was fabulous. The atmosphere was lively and the food was very flavorful. It would have been fun to eat there every day for 2 weeks just to try different things each time.

I did make it to the airport, but I almost made a bad mistake.  I was standing on the platform, waiting for the S8 train to come (I checked the reader board - it was coming in 8 minutes). Two minutes before its arrival, it suddenly occurred to me that there were TWO sides to the platform. My stomach did that little flip flop. I checked the reader board on the other side to learn that the S8 Munich AIRPORT was on that side!!!

I was thaaat close to having another adventure!

Cheers, Bonnie! Thanks for the adventure!

As I consider the experience of traveling in Europe, I realize it is not too much unlike when I first arrived in Scotland.
There were things I have always taken for granted - or not had to think about for a long time - that I suddenly had to think about. Constantly. And there were lots of those things all piled up. The learning curve was steep.

Traveling in Germany was that way. The learning curve was steep.  I think when we return in December (which is when and where Bryan wants to go), I will be able to apply all those things and it will not be as hard.

I also will not be alone.
And that will make all the difference.

A few fun signs from Germany (and a little potty humor):

at the airport - bet you can guess

I wonder about this one. I only saw it once.