Venice to Munich, Day 11, Day 12

 Venice to Munich Day 11

Weather: Beautiful; cooler in Venice, even cooler and lovely in Munich

Everything is running  smoothly, easy checkout, water taxi to Marco Polo airport, spend waiting time in lounge (crowded), flight is slightly delayed, the biz class is 2-2 with a seat left empty for each pair of seats, fly over snow covered mountains, pull up at far end of tarmac, deplane, there are two black SUVs waiting and tcouples take them and drive off, meanwhile we board the bus to the terminal...and wait....and wait....bus is full and passengers are standing outside, after about 15-20 minutes go by, no announcement, and finally (THB thinks this is the delay) another bus pulls up, more people get off the plane and, with those standing outside, board the second bus, off we go to the terminal, wait to make a left turn into the terminal unloading zone for 3 minutes, and finally make it to baggage claim where there about 10 people waiting (we surmise everyone else is only in Munich for the transfer to another flight and thus their bags are checked through), our bags come out, and the taxi guy is awaiting us as we exit the terminal (he's easy to find, there only a few transfer guys with signs), and we arrive at the Charles Hotel around 4-ish.

(ed. note: remember when THB used to skip all of the above and just say "now in a very nice hotel").

Dinner at the "fine dining" restaurant (the  casual spot is a bar right across from the restaurant and serves "bar" food). Damn, it is an Italian menu!! Chicken Milanese style - breaded white meat cutlet, no sauce - for THB, salad and hamachi for DB, two glasses of nice soave and one "large" draft brewski, very nice: quiet, nice way to unwind after a travel day (waiting can be very difficult, especially for those that have a tight connection, which of course our stay in Munich made that moot). 

Sunrise in Venice

Dolomites fool of snow

Lobby arrangemeent

Room 303: bathroom is extremely well designed (thank goodness), shower and bath tub exceptional (once you figure out how to work the faucets), the extra ledges next to the sinks well placed, and the art is ... um.... maybe appropriate 

"Fine dining" large brewski

now to find the pin!! 

Pop Quiz: can you figure out what this?

Munich Day 12

Weather: Raining in the morning, clearing before 10, then raining again, hard, while we are eating lunch at Conti (an SMC reco), clearing before we finish up at 1:30.

Answer to Pop Quiz: a phone charging device im the fitness cneter designed so you can charge your phone - locked up - while you work  out

the breakfast and coffee are exceptional...THB needs to go back to the Fitness Cneter or walk 120,00 steps

a version of Dutch Baby, where you make a huge pancake, flip it over and use two forks to pull apart and mis in fruit and cover with powder sugar...Awesome, dude

The Charles Hotel is a reco of SMC's, and it is outshining the Hotel Cipriani by a good margin already and DB and THB have  been here only 16 hours.

The hotel is not perfect: when THB and DB check in  we're told the Fitness Center is open 24/7. THB goes down at 6:30am, chipper and ready to get his 7 minutes out of the way. Supposedly it is on the -1 floor. THB wanders around, no Fitness Center. THB goes up to the reception desk, there's a discussion among the 3 men hanging out, and one comes back with an old fashioned key. Down we go to the Spa, the door is locked (as THB knew), the key gets us in. 

Where is the Fitness Center? We wander down a few more corridors, twists and turns, past changing rooms and there is the first sign (yes, and actual sign): FITNESS. THB is told that the Fitness center is really only open while the Spa staff is on hand, starting at 7:30 (obvious cost-cutting measure). 

The guy makes me swear that THB is fully responsible for his own life, and let's him go at it alone. 

Pics from around town, within 25 minutes of slow walking

On just about every block on the big pedestrian mall there is some construction going on....amazing

maybe abbot 10% are wearing lederhosen...or 35% to 70% of the male locals?

only 1 guy is wearing a swoop over his ears...just 1

ALERT....ALERT....ALERT: The next "pic" is a MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and it probably won't play, and if it does it is only 7-10 seconds long

it is a clock tower, set to start moving on the hour, and we are there at 11am

Lunch at Conti: THB has nice green salad, thin slices of rare cold roast beef, and terrific roasted potatoes; DB has soup with curry and coconut milk, and roasted butternut squash; we share a pumpkin pie with coconut ice cream, with water and a $11 tip, $100. Tip because a) the waiter actually if we wanted to add one - nobody had asked us this on the entire trip - and, b) he had been to AT&T / Pac Bell / Oracle Park (and seen Barry Bons play) and Candlestick Park to see the 49ers. 

a pop-up memorial to Michael Jackson - he lived in the building behind the statue - and locals have kept it fresh, MJ died in 2009 (per our waiter)

the Zabar's of Munich

famous for hot chocolate, THB and DB look at the solid versions

DB goes shopping in the late afternoon, THB catches up the blog and listening to NY'er articles. Basically the entire issue is now available on audio because most of the articles are produced using AI, same male voice and same female voice. 

Dinner in the bar, nothing special