October 2, 2008

Needless to say, the Wednesday following Tuesday’s Oktoberfest visit had a slow start and a long finish. Instead of using guns in WWII, Hitler should have held a beer drinking contest. The country with the most soldiers standing at the end of the contest would take home all of the goodies!

By Thursday, things were back to normal, and we continued our exploration of the area around our new home in Murnau. We headed to the little picturesque town of Garmish-Partenkirchen at the base of the Alps which was a short 20 minute drive from home base. The skies were grey but the vibrant colors of the leaves against the backdrop of the Alps created their own sunshine. This apparently is a very popular ski area though too early this time of year for skiing.

We stopped in a little restaurant for lunch and were promptly served. We have found, when the gratuity is included in the bill, food is served instantly but getting a check or “Rechnung” takes forever. The servers, normally only one or two regardless of the size of the restaurant, must get paid based on the orders processed not by the money collected. Even though this restaurant accepted credit cards, when we tried to pay, the server said she didn’t have time to run a credit card and wanted cash only. That wasn’t going to fly! So, we escalated it to management and had our way and paid by credit card. Before the trip, when we opened our new bank account to use in Europe, we received a credit card that for 12 months had no interest on the outstanding balance and only required a minimum monthly payment. When we charge, we pay the current US dollar exchange rate but no premium and no transaction fee. On the other hand, when we withdraw cash from an ATM using our debit card, we pay not only the exchange rate difference but a non-member bank exchange premium and an ATM fee of between 4 and 8 Euros. Needless to say, we want to charge!

When we got back to Murnau, we had dinner and walked to main street to celebrate the unification of East and West Germany with the locals. The highlights of the evening were three hair stylists with very elaborate hair-dos, mini hot-air balloons made of paper, a terrific drum group and a local group singing Jimmy Buffett’s songs, including Margaritaville, in English but with a German accent. In German, “w’s” are pronounced like our v. So “wasting away …” becomes “vasting avay …” and “…woman to blame’’ becomes “…voman to blame." In spite of the accent, they were good and it really made us think of being home.

The little hot air balloons were really cool. When we first noticed the little orange lights in the black night sky, I thought they were a group of paratroopers like we have at our air show. Then I thought they were helicopters and finally, I thought Marnau was being attacked for celebrating the holiday and we were all going to die. When we asked, we were told they were small, paper balloons with a burning tea lite to create the hot air. They really lasted quite a while even with a light rain. We also found out since they had a live flame and were a fire hazard; they were going to be outlawed from use in Germany. But, no fear, they are planning to create a safe one to use. We are going to keep our eye out for them!

America heavily influences Europe. There are a couple of 24 hour TV news channels, “BBC” and “CNN Europe”, with heavy coverage on US topics. At the time, they were very closely following the Presidential Race and even televised the last Obama-McCain debate in its entirety. The analysis following the debate went on for two days. The TV in our apartment received 140 channels. There were only a few entertainment type channels, a lot of news channels (mostly German but a lot from France, Russia, and Iran) and a whole lot more channels advertising ‘900’ telephone numbers (I really did save Ed from those naughty ads – I held the remote at all times! DZ)

On Sunday the 3rd, we took a trip to “Bad Tolz” about an hour away. The city is a SPA Resort town situated on the Isar River. Bad is pronounced Bat and means “bath.” These curative spas are very popular here. We hiked up to Calvary Church to get a view of the river, town and Alps from its high vantage point. The still active Catholic Church dates back to the 1800s and has Stations of the Cross along the path to the Church. The views were breathtaking.

On Monday the 4th, we took off to the SE for a drive through the Lake District to the high mountain lakes and a mountain peak called “Herzogstand.” (It was 3 degrees C and it snowed for a few minutes! Ed was outside the car taking a picture of a marina with sailboats on a lake 2,400 ft. above sea level and had snow on his jacket! What a treat for me since I can count the times I have seen snow on one hand! (DZ). We had lunch at a restaurant on one of the lower lakes that was 54’ deep in the center. En route to the restaurant, we noticed a handbill advertising a mountain race for old cars, from what we saw they had MGs, Porches, Vettes, Bentleys and VW Beetles. The race course was on the mountain we were on with a very narrow, very winding road with slopes of 15-18% between two small towns. The road was closed to traffic for the race, thankfully, while we were having lunch! And our helpful GPS notified us of the road closing! While we drove through the mountainous area during the afternoon, we saw some of the racers returning from the race. Our day trip ended in the quaint Alpine Village of Mittenwald famous for its painted buildings and incredible view of the Alps. We stopped at a little Café on the Village Square and, as is the afternoon custom in the area, had our Cappuccino and Pastry. (Somehow, I am not sure why, we have not gained any weight yet! DZ)

Having a place in Murnau to stop and collect our wits, we did a spot check on how we were doing. Our car, a Renault III Estate Wagon Turbo Diesel, 150 HP, 6-forward speed manual transmission work horse was serving us well. We were averaging 35 miles per gallon and the most we paid for diesel was 1.41 Euro in France and averaging 1.31 Euros per liter (about $5.36 per gallon). The price of oil was dropping and the future looked promising for lower diesel prices. The car is comfortable, easy to drive and incorporates some of the latest technology (proximity warning, tire pressure read out, keyless entry, shift prompts and break control to name a few). (I have to say that Ed has driven the entire time and is doing such a marvelous job, even though when we’re on the mountain roads my knuckles got a little white and I brake often with my imaginary brake! DZ) Budget wise, we are pretty much on track and think we will be able to stay the course and not have to write home to ask you all for money!

Ed and Dorothea