Europe 2003 - Part 9: Munchen, Wendlingen and Stuttgart

The train journey from Rome was a goner. Night fell in purple haze and I heard rhythmic, reliable grinds of the railroad earth. My sleeping compartment had 4 and sharing my airspace were 3 others - a Ukrainian student and a Japanese couple, all of whom departed at Innsbruck in the early morning. My brain was aptly phased into railway motion, its ulterior nature subtracted from the whole. When I raised the blind, the view splashed me with splendid alma-mater! There were dreaming Alpine villages, glittering lakes, lands as robustly green as green can get. Snow-capped promontories jutting out of a rolling fairy-tale kingdom. It was a showcase of epic proportions. I sat and made sure I wasn’t still asleep. The train was taking me through a fantastic kingdom.

I arrived in Muchen and immediately liked it. At breakfast, I realised people were drinking beer for breakfast and this first glimpse was to prove a recurring way of life in Munich. Beer is God, cutting off beer would be like cutting off water and electricity at once. Jochen picked me up near the station and we enjoyed a second breakfast (including a white wurst) near the university of Munich. We took a walk around pleasant “Englischgarten” (like their Regent’s Park) and began, yes, drinking beer in a PROPER beer garden. I met Jochen’s friend, also called Jochen and his girlfriend Babs at Marionplatz after we sorted out Jochen’s wasp sting, and they all went to their football match and I diverted to my Hostel Munchen. A damn fine hostel it was too! Totally new, thoroughly clean, totally efficient, there was such German-ness about it! The toilet flush was supremely controlled to provide exactly as much flush volume as one required. In the evening we met again (Jochen, myself and Jochen) promptly deciding to the go to the biggest beergarden of them all for a boys night. The glasses were 1 litre each, the atmosphere and people and families homely and cheerful, I really loved it with the 2 guys. We staggered home late, obviously very worse for wear.

A loudspeaker blaring out German doodles woke me up in the morning in my double bedroom, probably asking me to checkout, so I rolled my life into a single ball, organised laundry and made my way on the metro to Marionplatz where I am having a very pleasant English breakfast while writing this account. Everyboy in the square is watching the doll shows on the cathedral and its exterior facade. At midday we meet again in Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) to drive to swim at the lakes around here. I will be staying with Jochen near Stuttgart tonight. Please raise your 1 litre beer glasses to another sweet day in Bavaria! The Munich policy is to NOT head for the Ausgang (exit) until you are about to puke!

(End transmission, Sunday 11:15 in central square)

(Begin transmission just after midnight from Jochen’s house in Wendlingen)

Today was just fab, a really German Sunday. It turned out starting late at Hauptbahnhof, I had to reserve a Berlin to Lyon overnight ticket then got the S2 to near Dachau to meet Jochen (the other one) in their flat, where we took the mick out of German asses on a pop-idol type show. Babs took her time to come and we got some inflatable lilos and a boat and set off in Jochen’s (my dive buddy now reffered to as Joch) A class Merc, both Jochen’s work at a subsidiary of Daimler-Chrysler and love their Mercedes Benz know-how. We found a lake and it was very busy. The day was spent in the fresh water of the lake, having a fantastic slow time, chicken and beer for lunch, listening to some Elvis impersonator go on all day and it ended in the evening. The blokes there had HUGE bellies, and came with the finest gear like chairs with footrests and holes for beer cans. “Ze Germans go swimming” I thought to myself, their each detail meticulously planned! We drove back and I said my goodbyes to Jochen and Babs. Both are really great people and I hope that they can visit me in England some time. Jochen is a go-getter and a mischevious git (worked in Hong Kong) while lovely Babs is the cool smoocher that keeps things afloat. Joch and I had a fabulous drive back to Stuttgart for a couple of hours in the autobahn, playing Mana really loud with the windows wide open, admiring the hugely powered SL’s and Porsches powering their way through the Swabian Alb. We got to near Stuttgart and decided to go to a proper German restaurant and beergarden for dinner. Having got there just after 9, very few people were dining. One of them was a Richard, a British aviator who gave us an interesting conversation and voiced his food connoisseurship. The cook bought us all schnapps on the house, of the best type, chosen from a variety of different bottles. My meal was excellent, the pork was tender, the potatoes roasted and excellent and the salad delicately presented and flavoured. We goodbyed Richard and the cook and made our way to Joch’s neighbourhood and met his mum and dad. They were lovely!! Jochen laid me a bed, I typed all this up on his PC and now I’m heading for noddyland. Tomorrow I will wake up early with Jochen and go to Stuttgart. I plan to see it during the day, maybe visit Vanessa and Sybren in the afternoon, and then get the overnight train to Berlin.

(End transmission)

(Begin transmission in Stuttgart)

Jochen’s mum gave us a heraty breakfast and I said a fond goodbye to the old man Jochen! I am very pleased he helped me experience what I did. I phoned Sybren and Vanessa and today I’ll spent it with Sybren in Stuttgart and go to the Porsche museum since the Mercedes museum is closed. My overnight train to Berlin is around 8, so I have the whole day to play. I absolutely love Stuttgart. The people even in the city centre are really chilled out and easy going. The whole place is prosperous and happy, one of the nicest German cities, but without many historical monuments. It is of course, home to the three pointed star, Mercedes Benz so you don’t have to walk far to see a top of the range SL AMG. Unfortunately on Monday, the workd famous Mercedes Benz/DaimlerChrysler/Maybach museum is closed. Next time I come to Stuttgart, Jochen has promised me a tour of the factory of DaimlerChrysler, which he could arrange (wow!) since he works for MBTechnology. Hey gotta go meet Sybren at HbF now, will post next in Berlin probably.

[Photo omitted - Caption: The two Jochens and I at a beergarden in Munich, Bavaria]

[Photo omitted - Caption: The first day in Munich from Rome, Italy, where I met Jochen. We went to the Englischgarten first, straight to the beergarden!]

[Photo omitted - Caption: With Jochen (X2) and Babs at a lake near Munich]

[Photo omitted - Caption: Sybren and I at the Porsche museum in Stuttgart]