Ozie

Munich (Ozie, cannot forget you.)
Another short trip and amazing views, I have really enjoyed these rides. Then we had the dreaded looking for the hostel and today it would be snowing.=o( The best hostel search ever! Across from the train station and halfway up the road in a snow falling town was a gift from God. Mandi explained to me the reason why Eskimos have over 100 words for snow because it is not always fluffy and big. Snow can pelt you like sleet, ouch. I prefer Texas snow to pelty super cold snow. We took the evening to relax and had dinner in a great Italian restaurant owned by Italians who immigrated in 1971. The next morning we were ready for our free tour. Ozie was our guide, another tall man, who loves his city and his culture. Bavaria, is one of the sixteen states of Germany but the only state that has not signed the German constitution. A very proud people who love their beer and lederhosen. A lot like Texas proud but we don’t wear lederhosen however, Texans love their beer wear boots and jeans. Bavaria is also the state that Hitler got his start. We learned when the U.S. tried to bomb Munich they accidentally bombed Zurich, oops. Ozie had a lot of good information and a lot of passion for his city. He wanted people to know the truth about both wars (WWI & WWII) and that history does not repeat but remanufactures to look different but is still the same mistakes unless we try to learn. Hitler’s first victims of the “work camps” were those who had put him in prison when he tried to take over the party before the war. If we would remember in WWI Germany was left in chaos and the people are the ones who suffered and when they were offered a better life thru Hitler’s regime they took it. I was not taught that in high school but gratefully my history professor in college did teach more and thanks to Ozie I have learned more. Ozie explained how the sixteen districts in Germany were united in WWI and they (royalty) were all forced to give up their domain when the war was lost. He said you can go 200 miles any direction in Germany and the culture would be different ; however, you can go 200 miles anywhere in the world and it would not be the same. Those in Texas do not talk or act like those who live in Louisiana and those in the south of the U.S. are not the same culture as those in the north. You can tell that by the recent elections. Well, after our great tour Ozie offered to take us to one of the Christmas markets (his favorite), just like the Renaissance fair. The best thing was they had hot wine or “Vien Fiert” but they added rum to the top and set it on fire!! How cools is that? Pretty darn especially since I was freezing again. Now even though the wine was great and the company even better I did drink my wine to fast and got a bit tipsy and my Texas accent came out (my speech teacher would be upset). Ozie thought it was funny and offered to take us for beer to see if the accent would come out more but he does not know me. I cannot stand beer unless it is Rose beer (4% alcohol). Then the inevitable happened…it began to snow again. Mandi and I wanted to have a good Bavarian dinner so Ozie gave us good directions for a cheep place with great food. It was a good long walk from the hostel but it was worth the trip. We had pig knuckle, duck, dumplings and the best of best deserts. Cored apple fried and served with awesome ice cream (yes, ice cream in the cold). Thanks Ozie! The next day as our usual we were to walk around town but we had to reserve our train trip to Spain. Hummm, Christmas travel, this should be easy. No, no never. Mandi and I had looked at the schedule when we were in Berlin and there were openings and a good route to Spain with no extra fees. Not so now. We were to be in Almarox, Spain on December 13^th but it was not going to happen. As it worked out we were forced to arrive on December 14^th with an additional fee of about $400. Now we do have rail passes but they do not include fast trains or night trains. We can get them for a discount but even with that it was $400. We took our tickets and walked around the cold trying to recover our senses. We did not intend on paying quite that much for tickets but as our friend Long would say, “it is what it is.” Well, we enjoyed our last day in Munich and prepared for our long journey to Spain. Very glad Bjorn recommended to visit here it was not as crowded as Vienna but just a beautiful.