Attempted Travel Day

 Attempted travel day

It is 9pm Sunday and we are leaving Munich by bus.  Trains should start to run again tomorrow, but we hoped to get to Salzburg today to keep at least somewhat to our itinerary, so we caught the first bus that had seats still available.  It originated in Warsaw, Poland, and is only running an hour late.  Compared to the train (60 euros/pp), the bus is 13 euros/pp.  We should be able to get a refund for our train tickets.

Finding the bus station was something of a challenge.  We took the only S train running to the Hauptbonhof, and on the map the ZOB bus station looks like it’s close.  But the train station was rather confusing with no signs for the bus station, only for local buses.  We took an exit, found a taxi stand, and the taxi driver said, 300m straight down the street.  We dragged our bags along the icy sidewalks the length of a football field, and finally saw the promised bus station.  

As the hotel clerk ( a wonderfully nice young Italian woman) had warned us, there is one small waiting area at the train station and otherwise just a long hallway with food shops.  We were there an hour before our bus was originally supposed to depart, having received no notifications that it would be late via the Flixbus app, and there was no notice of what bay our bus would be departing from.  Finally I noticed on the arrivals  board that the bus was running late.  About a half hour before it departed they finally posted a bay number. In the meantime we sat on our suitcases in the hallway across from a group of immigrants that had a piece of wall lined with large suitcases and bags.  They all seemed to be in their 20s or 20s and they did at least have some money to buy french fries and sandwiches with.  

Prior to this expedition,  Jake decided he would spend the afternooon at the BMW museum and I decided to go to the Botanical Garden.  Unfortunately for me, the tram to the garden wasn’t running and the S train to the closest bus wasn’t running either.  So I abandoned that plan and walked to the old botanical garden instead.  It was abandoned long ago to become an urban park.  The trees remain, but with all the snow I just had to admire their forms rather than attempting to identify any of them.  

Konigsplatz

Old botanical garden

From there I walked past the Konigsplatz which has several Greek style buildings, to the Pinakothek der Moderne museum, a museum of modern art and design.  They had a series of exhibits of furniture and other objects from different eras from Bauhaus, to Art Nouveau, Art Deco and on to modern furniture.  They also had an interesting art exhibit of graphic art/fonts from artist Paula Scher. Another special exhibit was on hospital design and how to make it more healing, often by incorporating big windows, plants, outdoor spaces, and natural lighting.  There was a also an odd exhibit of modern art having to do with “glitches”, technical errors that in some way produce unexpected art.

I'm the one drifting 

Bauhaus desk

By Charles Rennie MacIntire

Walking back to the hotel, I passed another small Christmas market with a medieval theme.  Different products  like wool cloaks and play armor for kids for example and wine and beer served in tankards.  I also passed by the Steiff store, but stores, except bakeries and art galleries, are all closed on Sunday unfortunately.