Tuesday, Jun 3: Salzburg - Munich by train: In a way, the beginning of the end - Achtung Baby: Bavaria with a GPS & Some Great Canadian Gear (Tour 13) - 2014 🇩🇪 🇦🇹 🇨🇭

June 3, 2014

Tuesday, Jun 3: Salzburg - Munich by train: In a way, the beginning of the end

WHEN you start the long process of returning to the city of your looming departure, the end is nigh. That was the case today - or at least, that is how it felt.

Once Tom & Kevin had headed out for their day tour, I packed up my things, got my bike from storage (safe and sound as with this entire trip), loaded it up and biked around the corner to the Bahnof. The place was crowded but with the typical European efficiency with their railways, soon my train was listed on the departures screen. A word of warning - I went to get the elevator up to Track 1, but it never came. I was faced with the choice of walking/carrying the bike up the stairs, or sneaking onto the escalator. I was in no mood to carry, so sneak I did. And moments later the elevator was repaired. Oh well.

With the time that a train sits in a European station before departing (ie not long) I was relieved that a conductor pointed me to the front car of the train for the bike car. I just left the bags right on and grabbed a seat right beside it. It was great. GPS in hand, we departed at 10 am with not a second of tardiness. First slow, then once out of the city upwards of 150 km/h, we followed along what had been our cycling route only days earlier. It felt kind of sad not being on the bike.

Right around 11:30 am we arrived to the main Bahnof in Munich. It only took about a minute to get oriented to realize where I was compared to when I had been here a few days earlier with Kevin & Tom. As it turned out, my hotel was about a minute bicycle ride away. I checked in, then set about finding Mike's Bikes - the city bicycling company who had offered to get me a bike box for my return trip. The throngs of tourists through the old centre made it impossible to cycle, so I walked the bike all the way through. Sure enough, as described on their website, there was Mike's Bikes at the rear entrance to the Hofbrau beer hall. They pointed down the street to their repair shop where I would find the box - and, they offered to store the bike til tomorrow when I would head to the airport. What excellent service. Furthermore, the box they had was for a full sized e-bike. All I had to do was remove the pedals and handlebars and drop the whole bike into the box. Said box looked like it would fit a twin mattress it was so large. I just had to strap the Arkel rack bag onto it and I was done for the day. I had checked Air Canada's policy for bike boxes and it seems as long as they are less than 112 inches long, and less than 70 lb, they will take it.

Now free of the bike, I went across the road to the Hofbrau. I figured that if I was in Munich, I HAD to at least step into the place. As Shelley had mentioned, it was very touristy, busy and loud. There was a band playing every now and then and it was nice, so I grabbed a seat, figuring I would have a beer and/or lunch. Alas, it was not to be. I must have waited between fifteen and twenty minutes, and though I indicated I wished service, nobody came. And they were not THAT busy. Though to self: Was it the condition of my feet and shoes after all this cycling that scared away the servers? Hahaha. Could be!

Oh well, I thought, the Augustiner it is. They happily served me a dunkel before I wandered around the centre a while longer. I chose not to eat there, though, and after bringing my bags back to the hostel, I set out to find something to eat. The desk clerk from the hostel (from Quebec City, by the way) suggested a few areas around the station, but it was around the corner that I saw a Turkish/Uyghur restaurant. Nothing particularly fancy, but it was busy, the staff were racing around, and it smelled really good. Convinced.

I chose from the menu listing and ended up with salad, rice, fries and shaved roasted lamb. It was TO DIE FOR. The owner who was scurrying around, serving, cleaning, and greeting, came over to say hello, ask where I was from and to let me know he was from Istanbul. He seemed very pleased when I mentioned that I had been there in 2003. Now pleasantly full, I returned to the hostel where I met the two others from my room - A Hungarian who spoke a tiny bit of French, and a Brazilian who spoke a tiny bit of English. Not much conversation all around! Thus my night ended shortly thereafter.

I was the only one with a bike at first so I just set the bike against the rack. Until a German couple came along with their bikes. The husband waved me back when I got up to move my bike, but the wife said, "No, no, no, we must put them like so." The orderly German woman insisted the bikes be arranged "properly".

This was our hotel during our stay in Salzburg. Great location around the corner from the train station and down the street from the river.

Upon arrival to Munich the train was cleaned up for its next trip.

What would a visit to Munich be without at least a quick stop into the Hofbrau. Though not too busy, it was really touristy and kitchy. Plus, the servers did not get around to serving me, so I got up and left, heading over to the Augustiner for a dunkel.

The main entrance to the Hofbrau, Munich.

Today's ride: 4 km (2 miles)
Total: 623 km (387 miles)

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