Munich with Mom

At first I was supposed to fly to Scotland to stay with my mom for a week. My visa ran out and put a stop to that, if i left Europe now there is a good chance i wouldn't be allowed back in and i need to fly from Madrid to south America in less than a month. So the plans flipped flopped and Mom met me in Munich. We had a fantastic four days.  My mom asked me to find us a hotel and gave me a budget. I found lots and selected one. the hotel selection process is different for every person. each of us has a different set of needs when it comes to hotels. Bar, pool, large bedrooms, room service, downtown location etc. i got us a place flanked by a strip club and kebab shop and across the street from two casinos, in the Muslim section of Munich. I found out later that my Mom, interestingly enough, doesn't care for those amenities in a location. Maybe this place would have been suited better for a trip from Dad. OK, so fine i made a mistake. it was like 93 in the city and we had all of our stuff and no where to go but these are the foundations of great stories, doing it for the stories. i lamented a bit, had we stayed, slept here, we would have some really wild stories that some day I would tell my grand kids about and tell them never to tell their grandma. We did find a place and it ended up being great.  We rented a car and drove up into the alps, visited old castles, drank huge Bavarian beer, and noshed on German grub. We rode Gondolas and visited flea markets, we swam in ice blue rivers and watched the glockenspiel go round. it was a slice of Bavaria complete with lederhosen and dirndl.

 Mom and I went into some old dungeon randomly in a church basement costing one euro and it was the official royal crypt. It was really neat and creepy but if i were them i would have wanted to be hidden away in some underground lake guarded by booby traps and buried with all my gold and only a secrete treasure map would lead to my resting place and plunder. This is more practical. 

After seeing signs for a gondola early one day we chased the scent but the trail went dead. Later however we drove right by one. We took a gondola ride to some amazing views of the German Alps. We took a chance and it was well worth it. good call mom!

Carol liked to have a few before we went out for the day. breakfast beer at the famous Hofbrauhaus house.

 

we saw the devils footstep in one church, i figured the devil for a claw guy. these are like size 9 running shoes. but hey, I'm no detective. 

We aren't sure what we saw but we took a picture of it deep in the woods of the alps.

What a nice thing to see Mom again, it helped me gain a little energy and i feel lighter on my feet, it could have been seeing her or the new shoes she bought me. thanks for everything Mom. I left Mom heading for her train it was sad to see her go but in only four and a half months to go i will see her and you all soon enough.