Das Boot

Ok, not a submarine.

I woke up this morning stressed about the travel day ahead of me, Not sure why, I have navigated the trains, subways and buses in Japan without issue and now we have the Internet, GPS navigation, phone apps and AI to hold our hand. How did I manage to travel in the dark time before all these conveniences? Turned out fine, I had fun and met some people along the way. Must be finally coming out of my shell.

I picked my hotel because it was right next to Munich 's main train station, five minute walk from hotel to train platform. I got to the platform way early, my timed dry run the evening before helped me walk directly to the right spot. I must have looked like a local who knew what I was doing because a woman came up to me and was asking me a string of frantic questions, in German of course and threw up her hands in despair when she realized by the look on my face I had no clue what she was asking. The train arrived and because it was the end/beginning of the line a steady flow of passengers was like the flood waters after a dam break. I saw a tiny woman, who had to be at least 90, wade into the human flood, bucking the current so I jumped in right behind her as she parted the water like her younger brother, Moses. We finally cleared the arriving throng and I found my car, but was stopped by the closed doors until I saw someone walk up, press a button to open the doors, walk in and sit down. Problem solved, again by tailgating. Two women and another couple followed suit, they were new to this also. The couple was from Canada and the women were from Spain, but one now lives in Florida and regularly visits her son in Boulder! Because of track maintenance the train doesn't go all the way to Passau, so we had to transfer to a bus. I knew about the transfer and that we had only 10 minutes to get from the train to the bus and as the train hit each scheduled stop it was running behind and the app on my phone dutifuly kept me informed, mentioning that at one point I had 3 minutes to make a four minute walk to the bus. Somehow the train gained back it's lost time and we arrived right on time. I made my way to what I thought was the correct bus and was relieved when I presented my ticket to the driver and he waved my onboard. The bus was full but I found a seat up front next to a 20 something young man. Again I must have looked like I was a local and he was asking me, in German of course, if he was on the right bus. I must have given him that same dumb look so he asked me again in english. We both came to the conclusion that we were and had an interest conversation during our 1 hour bus ride. The countryside was beautiful with wheat, corn and cabbage fields racing by. I tried to take pics but everything was a blur. The road finally joined up with the Danube and I got my first look at my river host for the next week.

After a quick lunch across the street from the bus/train station I needed to catch a taxi for the last leg to the boat The driver couldn't understand why I was laughing and saying I didn't think I could ride in his taxi. It was his Raiders jersey. He is from Budapest but apparently the Raiders have a high following there. The ride to the boat was beautiful and reminded me of some roads in Colorado and wished I was in a motorcycle and was jealous of every motorcyclist I saw.

Tomorrow is our first ride with a couple of twists. We'll see if I get lost on the first day.

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