jun

What World Cup?

Munich, Germany
Monday, June 19, 2006

After a much better night sleep in our private room we packed our bags and left them and the bike at the hostel while we explored Salzburg on foot. Most of the city centre is pedestrian only and this makes for nice little alley ways with cute little shops and interesting sculptures on every corner. We have voted Salzburg the town with the most curious sculptures ranging from the old and traditional to the very modern, weird and wonderful.

We stumbled across a VW exhibition in the toy museum and we spent a fascinating hour looking at the exhibits. I have very fond memories of my year spent in the UK and Europe with my mother and my two brothers and our two toned VW kombi van in 1972.

We returned to the hostel and had a quick lunch before loading the bike and heading off to Munich. The temperature had risen to a not so comfortable 29 degrees. Once again we took the smaller roads and only got lost once. However, whilst trying to get back to the main road I was led astray by the BOSS navigating us onto a dirt bicycle track for 10 kms. As bad as it was, it was still preferable to the autobahn.

I had prebooked our Munich accommodation at Motel One and it was some of the cheapest we have come across particularly considering that the world cup is in town. It is nice to arrive late in the afternoon in a new town and know that you don't have to hunt for accommodation. We found the hotel easily and although Putzbrunn is one of the very outer suburbs, it is on the ring road and from there, with the bike, we could get anywhere. The room was lovely and it had wireless internet so we decided to stay an extra two days.

We wandered down to the main street and bought supplies at the local supermarket including a salad for dinner. We had chosen what looked like a dill and mayonnaise salad dressing from the deli although we couldn't be sure because we can't read German. The checkout lady had very limited English so we played charades to indicate that the dressing was for the salad. She laughed and shook her head violently and attempted to explain that it was for bread but we bought it anyway as there seemed to be no other alternatives. We put it on our salad and it was not too bad.