Munich Airport

I am in Munich Airport, waiting for check-in to open so that I can then drop off my bag and wait for my flight. Is waiting the thing to do?

Now, in my life I have been fortunate enough to see a number of different airports. From the run-down airport of Guatemala City, to the airport which was probably too small the day it was opened (El Dorado, Bogota), to a hurrican damaged Miami airport, to the cushy comfort of YVR. Munch airport, however, is something else. Forget all this German efficiency and order, it seems to have gone wrong here.

Things don't seem too bad when you first arrive. There is Terminal 2 for Star Alliance members and Terminal 1 for every other airline. Of course the metro takes you to Terminal 2. Oh well, I disembarked the metro and began following the signs to Terminal 1, easy enough. THere was one sign outside, then a few more inside. After a few minutes of walking, the trouble begins. All of a sudden you are confronted by TWO signs pointing opposite directions. You see, Terminal 1 has five different wings, not gates, wings. Each wing has its own gates, its own arrival area and its own check-in. Is there a sign anywhere telling you which airline leaves from which wing? If only we were so lucky. Better yet, some of the check-in desks are shared, so let's say you are looking for ClickAir (as I was), if their desk isn't open yet there is very little to tell you that you are at the right place. Now, one might think that a simple solution to this would be information desks. The Germans thought of this. They did, however, miss the crucial step of having someone AT the information desks. Anyway, the story ends up with me walking through three wings before finding an open information desk which told me ClickAir was in the fourth wing. I suppose I could have stopped and asked people, but your customer service plan shouldn't hinge on the kindness and knowledge of strangers. A sign would help.

Vienna and Munich

I am now in Munich, the last big touristy stop for me on this trip. On the 12th I will fly out of here for Barcelona where I will visit my cousin (who I haven't seen for nine years) for a whole day before returning to London and flying back to Vancouver.

Our last stop was Vienna. For those who don't know, my Grandmother on my Dad's side was born there. Being a jew, she left on not the greatest terms. I only had two days in the city. We spent the first touring around and seeing just the general sites. It was quite rainy, which compounded with the fact that I lost my rain jacket, made for not the greatest first impression. Despite this though, the city is clearly beautiful. Too many people back home are stuck with the Canadian view os a city and fail to even stop to think of what it would be like to walk down a road that is hundreds of years old. Vienna and Prague are cities that both stand out to me as places where you just look at the buildings, and not just in the old centres, and you can see that they've been there for a very long time. They are still beautiful though.

On the second day I set out to see a few more sites, but also find some sites of significance to my family. With help from my Dad and Great-Aunt Anni I pieced together an address for my Grandmother's old house. I wasn't too sure if it would be right, but once I got there and realized it was a residential building in the old jewish area I knew it probably was right. From there we headed up to Prater Park, an old amusement park dating from the late 1800s. It was good to see but was also a stopover on my next quest. I was out to find the old (and as it turns out current) site of Hakoah, a jewish sports club my Grandmother and her family had been a part of. After a walk which was much too long I did find it. I also found that the club is operational once more and has a brand new facility. After giving my story to the receptionist I was given a tour of the place and was most impressed.

From there it was back to the centre of town to locate an old swimming pool. My Great-Aunt was a swimmer, and if anyone has seen the documentary Watermarks, the pool I was looking for was the one in which they take their reunion swim. I did find it, it was sort of hidden in plain site, but sadly it was closed for the summer. I tried to go in, but there was a lot of scaffolding and construction dust falling on me, so I decided to leave. My last stop was then to the Holocaust Memorial, which is quite plain yet powerful. Once there though I found the ruins of a 14th century synagogue, which for a couple of euros was well worth seeing.

As I said, I am now in Munich. Tomorrow we will have a look around the city. There is a tour of the BMW plant which I may try and do. I'll let you know how it goes, stay tuned...

Berlin's Ghost Stations

I realize I never did much of an update from Berlin, so here goes. I loved the city. I loved seeing the sites of such important world events that happened well within my lifetime. The thing that stood out the most to me was the Ghost Stations (credit given here to Brian from Sanderman's New Europe or I never would have known about them). They are amazing because they are so simple, yet they say so much about the two important era's in Berlin's recent history. For those who don't know, Berlin's metro system is one of the oldest in the world, if not the oldest (I don't remember). As a consequence of this, once it came time to divide the city, these underground tunnels posed a bit of a problem. Some lines were easy. The East - West lines were simply cut in half and run independently. However, there were a handful of lines which run North - South that are primarily in the West, but cross over into the East for a few stops. The solution to this was simple, these became Ghost Stations. Trains wouldn't stop here, and the stations would be patrolled by the police and their dogs to make sure nobody got in or out. It wasn't until after the wall fell that once again these stations came into use. These stations, which stood idle for 30 odd years, still look today as they would have at the end of the war. The Nazi's rennovated them, and so today it is like stepping into the 1940s. The tiling is all browns and yellows and the stations signs are in the very recognizable Nazi script. I will post pictures hopefully later today.

 

Also while in Berlin, a little Euro Cup final game was played between Spain and Germany. As most of you probably know, it wasn't a very good game and Germany lost 1-0. It was still a fun environment to be in and I can only imagine what it would have been like had they won.

Now I'm in Prague

Who would have thought ten years ago, or even less, that Prague would be a must see city on a tour of Europe. The more you here people talk about it, the more it starts to seem like any other Western European country, then you arrive here and any doubt that you are in Eastern Europe is removed. Our train didn't pull into the central station, was we expected, but rather to one on the outskirts of town. My first reaction when stepping into the terminal was, "Am I in Armenia?" (Armenia being a town in the coffee producing region of Colombia). For one it is stinking hot, and secondly the place just looks like it should, a less developed city. We made our way towards our hostel on the metro then a tram. The metro is fun because some of the stations just look communist.

 

Our hostel is very nice. It was strange because we were searching for a place to stay online and this place didn't appear in the search results. We found it on a side bar under recently reviewed hostels. It had three ratings, all 100%, so we figured we could give it a try (especially since it was cheap). Well, turns out the reason it wasn't in the main results was because our first night was opening night, The three reviewers were early arrival guests. We arrived to an unmarked building to find workers still moving furniture in. The building itself seems to have been intended to be new apartments, but after completion it was bought out an made into this hostel. Everything is brand new and looks on par with a new development back home (other than some questionable workmanship here and there). Kitchens with stainless steal appliances, hard wood floors, nice bathrooms, it really doesn't feel like a hostel. If anyone is in the area check out Sant Jordi. They even have private rooms for very low rates.

 

Yesterday we paid a visit to the Communist Museum. If you are into recent history, as I am, it is well worth it. If you are just a casual museum goer, give it a miss. It is heavy on the reading, but I enjoyed learning about what was going on here not too long ago. It was also cool to see actual statues of Lenin and others. We came back for a planned Canada BBQ which the hostel had planned once they heard it was our national day. In the end, trying to buy a grill and all the supplies in one afternoon tuned out to be to difficult, so we are having it tonight. Going to go see more of the city this afternoon, so stay tuned,,,