Day 12

Bucket list day for Cindi and Tavis! Before the trip, Cindi and Tavis had both put riding an alpine roller coaster as a not-to-be-missed item. Owen and I had done it last year in Austria and loved it. There were two options near Munich - one in Bad Tolz and one in Oberammergau. The one in Oberammergau looked more promising even though it was a longer trip out there but we decided it was worth the time.

The four of us plus Christian headed out for the train station via the U1. Sharon elected to remain behind and rest and recover. Our train from Munich was bound for Garmish-Partenkirchen but we would ride only to a town called Murnau, then take a bus to Oberammergau.

Once in Oberammergau, it was a 15 minute walk up to the Kolbensattel. There we purchased our tickets to ride the chairlift up and ride the coaster down. The chairlift was long and slow but relaxing. Owen somehow lost his ticket on the way up so we had to go to the ticket counter at the top to get him a new one. Once that was accomplished we began waiting in line for our turn to ride. The line was long and moving pretty slowly. When Owen and I rode the one in Austria it was much more efficient and faster through the line. Once we made it to the start, we confirmed that Cindi met the height requirement of 1.4 meters. Since she is now the shortest we could all feel comfortable that we were good to go as well. The ride down was great! It was maybe not quite as long as the one in Austria but

just as fun. Our ride completed and another bucket list item crossed off for Tavis and Cindi, we headed back into Oberammergau to see if we could find some lunch and a beer. Unfortunately it was already late in the afternoon and the restaurant near the train station wouldn’t reopen its kitchen until 5 pm. Our bus was already there and it would be an hour or more before the next one, so we decided to go ahead and take it to Murnau am Staffelsee and get lunch there before taking the train back to Munich.

By the time we reached Murnau, we were all quite hungry and ready to stop for a while. The closest places were about 0.8 km away. With Cindi

navigating, we made our way down to the Staffelsee. Here we found a perfect little spot right next to the water with cold beer and good food including currywurst, bratwurst and Wiener schnitzel. We slaked our hunger and quenched out thirst then set out back towards the train station. The train back to Munich was delayed by about 15 minutes, highly unusual for the Deutches Bundes Bahn.

We arrived back in Munich about 6:30 pm. After a stop at the grocery store in the Hauptbahnhof to get some food for Sharon and other sundries then it was back to the hotel to relax. The group was split on whether or not to go back into the Altstadt or call it a night. In the end, Christian, Tavis and I decided to go back out while Cindi, Owen and Sharon

stayed back to relax.

The three of us negotiated the U-Bahn back towards Marienplatz with only one hiccup. According to the Fahrplan we should have been able to take the U-3 or U-6 from Sendlinger Tor to Marienplatz without going through the Hauptbahnhof. Upon getting off to change trains we discovered that the station was under construction and access to the other trains was not accessible. Fortunately we just hopped on the next train to the Hauptbahnhof and then took an S-Bahn to Marienplatz.

We found a nice cafe called Zum Stiftl. The Augustiner umbrellas were like a beacon in stormy weather drawing us in to safe harbor. With half

liters of Augustiner Helles and one of Stille Wasser we toasted to the evening and settled in to watch the masses. Tavis was hungry and ordered Käsespeatzle mit Zwiebeln und Speck. Christian and I shared Leberkäse, translation liver cheese although it contains niether liver or cheese. The closest description would be Bavarian spam, although that does not do it justice. It is a Bavarian specialty that I first had when I visited in 1995 with my dad. We were served it by a lovely couple, Barbara and Werner Mueller, we met at Oktoberfest. They invited us over for a visit before we left town and Barbara cooked a delicious Leberkäse for us. It was delicious! I had not had it since that day and was excited to try it again.

It was as good as I remembered, although Barbara Mueller‘s was better.

Part way through our meal we were entertained by a troop of Spanish flamico musicians. They played a few songs before moving along to the next restaurant. While Christian and I enjoyed a second beer, Tavis took himself to get a Gelato. Our repast finished, we walked around Marienplatz and then towards the Frauenkirche. Along the way Tavis discovered the Munich Lego store. He was amazed to see that it was two stories of legos and like Macarthur vowed to return. We then walked around the Frauenkirche and found a beautiful groto type fountain near the new Augustiner Bierhallen. It was by this time approaching 11:00 pm so we headed back to the hotel to rest before the big day. Tomorrow is Bruce day!