It was a very short 90 minute flight from Paris to Munich and you could really see the big change in the weather as we began our descend into Franz Joseph Strauss’ Flughafen. The thick, dark grey clouds blanketed the reagon and temps were in the upper 50’s. After so many months of unbearably hot weather at home, I found the fresh, crisp air a welcome change. Our bags came right out on the baggage carousel except for Dad’s, which was nearly one of the last ones to come out. But at least all of our luggage made the trip in tact and we easily made our way through the terminal area to the Hertz rental car desk to pick up the very nice, brand new, black MBZ E200 that dad had reserved.
We paused for a moment to allow Mom too run to the restroom and it was a good thing we did. While we were sitting there, dad started to have a bit of a bloody nose and by the time he made it into the rest room himself, it had erupted into a full gusher that just wouldn’t quit. Because of the pressurized flights at those altitudes, lack of moisture and the heat inside the airport, it was clear to me that his capillaries had just burst. So I ran down concourse to a small coffee house and asked the lady at the counter if she could spare a small bag of ice. When I told her there was a man down the way bleeding, she jumped right into action and packed me up a nice little bag immediately. I was able to rush it right back to Dad and get him to apply it to the bridge of his nose and attempt to stop the bleeding.
He didn’t enjoy the intense cold right between his eyes, but the bleeding did stop after a few minutes and we were able to proceed outside to get our bags in the rental car and get on the road. We had Dad laying down in the back seat and in all the confusion, I had somehow misplaced the ticket we needed to exit the rental garage. There was really no way for me to pull over, and people were getting a little irritated with me as I tried to search the car and the trunk for that damn ticket. Turned out that I had placed it on the passenger front seat when I got in and it had fallen to the floor under mom’s purse when she got it.
Trying to find may way out of the airport and to the main highway turned out to be a challenge too. Dad had printed up directions to our resort before he left the house, but in the confusion of trying to get out of the airport, I had missed the exit we needed to take the highway A92 East to Deggendorf and found myself on the A9 North towards towards Hohenhammer. By the time I had pulled over to figure out exactly where I was and realized how far out of the way we had gone, I found a short cut through the forest and the town of Freising to get us back to the A92. I know it was making everyone a little nervous in the car, not knowing where we were (myself included), but once I got my laptop out was and was able to access my GoogleEarth program, I knew exactly where I was and really made up for lost time when I really got to open it up on the Autobahn. It was approximately 75 miles from the airport to Deggendorf, but most of the cars on the road were traveling between 130 and 180 kph. I have to admit I did approach 200 kph and told my parents that up to this point of our journey, it was worth it all just to have the experience of driving a new Mercedes on those roads. I really enjoyed it.
It was raining pretty good and it got a little harder to see once the sun went down and trying to make out the street signs made it a little difficult to make our way through the mountains from Deggendorf to Sankt Englmar. After a few trial and errors, and my memory of viewing the area on Google Earth I found where I thought we were staying. However, there were no lights on anywhere and looked as if they place was either closed or out of business.
So once again, we figured we were mistaken and lost and drove down the street to the next hotel where I went inside to ask. The people behind the desk did speak some English but there was a gentleman standing at the counter who overheard our conversation and offered to show us where to go if we would follow him in his car. He didn’t speak a word of English but I was able to communicate with him just fine and he drove us right back to the dark building we had just left. The sign on the door with the office hours indicated that they had closed at 5pm, but it wasn’t until the third time that we had walked into the lobby that we noticed a small white envelope that had been taped to the door with our name on it. Inside was a letter and keys to our room and a request for us to return to the desk on Monday to complete our registration. I thanked the man for all his help and then drove the car just around the corner to the parking lot outside our room. We were so tired and hungry we couldn’t wait to get our things inside and then see if we could find someplace to eat in town that was still open.
My first thought was to drive back to the hotel where we found that nice German man hat helped us and see if we could get something to eat there. The aroma smelled so good when I walked in the first time, but of course, the kitchen had already closed for the night by the time we returned. The man at the hotel desk was able to recommend a nice Bistro in town that was still open, but I made another wrong turn in the fog and had a hard time finding the location even though he had given me a map of the town to follow. Luckily I found a local pub that was open until 2am about 1 and ½ blocks from our room.
We went in and the waitress didn’t speak a word of English but I was able to communicate with her to find out if they were still serving food and get us a table. I read the menu to mom & dad and ordered the daily special of bratwurst und sauerkraut for dad and I, with a really nice WeiBbier and a glass of wine for mom. The pub had live entertainment singing with a local German man doing an incredible job singing all sorts of American country and contemporary songs. Mom and Dad were really enjoying themselves and wanted to stay longer, but after all the traveling, driving and finally getting a little something to eat, my eyes were getting very heavy and I knew I needed to find a bed soon. I knew we were within walking distance to our room, but since German drinking laws make a .03 blood alcohol level legally drunk, I didn’t want to leave them behind with the car. I think they were glad to finally get to bed too once we were back at the room. I don’t think they realized how close we actually were to the room either after all the driving around in the fog earlier, but it was nice to know that at least one place they enjoyed was very close to where we were staying.
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