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Monday, June 20, 2011

Traveling Home & Onward

The Easter Sunday plan is to take the train back to Linz with Madeline, spend a little time there, and then travel on to Munich where we have hotel reservations. The first problem we encounter is that the ticket machine at the Westbahnhof won’t take our credit cards for reasons unknown to us. We eventually use most of the cash we have on hand to buy train tickets. I’m a little nervous to be essentially cashless on Easter Sunday, when the banks and practically everything else are closed.

We have a pleasant Sunday train ride back to Linz, then use our last few Euros to buy S-bahn tickets to get to Madeline’s apartment. On the way through the Hauptplatz we note that there are a couple of café’s open, so after Madeline gets unpacked and starts a load of laundry, we go back there for lunch. With anticipation, we ask the waitress if the café will take credit cards, since our cash is now completely depleted. It does not. So we spend the next 45 minutes trekking around the Hauptplatz to locate cash machines. We find a couple. Both are out of order—empty, I would assume. The “no banks or services on Sundays” deal is beginning to seem like a really bad idea to me. Finally, Madeline uses her bank card to enter the lobby of a bank. Within that lobby, secure from the demanding cash cards of the unwashed masses, Kathy is able to get cash successfully from that ATM. Whew! I have no idea how the average tourist, without a daughter living in Linz, is supposed to function on Sundays.

Cash in hand, we go back to the café and have burgers. With mayo, lettuce, tomato, and corn(?). Actually, it is not too bad! I finish with a gelato, and then we all take a little walk along the Danube. It is a beautiful sunny day. Spring has definitely arrived in Austria. There are lots of people out walking, sunbathing, and playing with their dogs and kids. Then we go back to Madeline’s apartment collect our bags, and head back, for the last time to the train station, where we say goodbye to Madeline and board our train to Munich.

The trip back to Munich is about two and a half hours with a short stop in Salzburg. Our hotel in Munich is not far from the Hauptbahnhof. Not the Elephant this time, but a different one: The Hotel Metropol. Kathy and I both like the hotel. It is roomier than the Elephant, and, unlike the Elephant, we actually have a few more pieces of furniture other than beds. It is a small, family-run hotel, it is quiet, clean, not overpriced, near the Hauptbahnhof, and the staff is friendly, so has all the things you would like to find in a hotel.

Kathy wants to skip dinner. All the eating we’ve been doing is catching up with her. I’m never in favor of skipping meals, but since I don’t want to go to a restaurant by myself, and since many restaurants are closed, I finally just go to the Hauptbahnhof, buy a sandwich and bring it back to the hotel room to eat. We’re both ready to just take it easy and chill in our room, so we flip on the TV and end up watching Wallace and Grommit in German. It is great! Grommit, of course, doesn’t talk, and Wallace seems very authentic speaking German. Maybe he’s always been German and nobody knew!

Monday morning, we have a very good breakfast at the Metropol and then follow the expected routine—walk to the Hauptbahnhof, take the S-bahn to the airport, and catch our flight back home. Then unpack, and then go back to work. And finally, I go to the doctor and get the stent removed. I feel about a thousand times better almost immediately.

Once I’m back at work, I announce that I’m going to retire in November. The time has come in my life for the cane, the hearing aid, and the overweight miniature dog named “Mister Cuddles.” Maybe I’m kidding about the dog. Anyway, while I’ll most likely pick up a part time job, I’m looking forward to some free time, and hopefully will use it for more travel. I’ll keep you posted.