Bavaria and Beyond

By Nancy DiDio - The frequent flier points were burning a hole in my pocket. It was fall, and I desperately wanted to get away. My husband Fred and I had long wanted to visit Umbria, Italy, and I had found a few rentals that looked promising. We happily anticipated a few weeks wandering through the Umbrian hill towns. But, to my chagrin, we were unable to find a flight to Italy for which we could exchange our frequent flier points. Sensing my frustration, one helpful airline employee suggested we go to Munich. I made a snap decision, and soon had reservations to Germany.

Our disappointment was short-lived and we quickly warmed up to the idea of being in Bavaria during Oktoberfest. In mid-October when we were on our way, we learned, however, that we wouldn’t be there for Oktoberfest after all. The celebration is held from mid-September until the first Sunday of October.

We decided to travel by train, but first spent our first two days in Munich acclimating ourselves to German customs before heading out. Our simple hotel was within walking distance of Marienplatz, the main square, and site of the famous Glockenspiel. Exhausted, we first took a nap under a cozy eiderdown quilt.

Also close to our hotel was the celebrated beer hall, Hofbrauhaus. The loud drunken patrons who rolled out onto the streets interrupting our nap earlier should have deterred us, but we stopped for beer anyway. The large, noisy hall was teeming with tourists and smelled of stale beer and worse, so we found a much quieter beer garden, where we ate a teraditional German meal of sauerbraten with spaetzle.

The following day, we arrived at the Marienplatz at noon, just as the Glockenspiel’s colorful carved figures performed their mechanized dance to a chimed tune. We wandered through the nearby Viktualienmarkt, one of Europe's largest food markets, and stopped in a cafeteria-style beer garden for something to eat and drink. While waiting in line I frantically tried to translate the menu with my tourist dictionary, while Fred - more resourceful than I - listened to what others ordered and watched what they received. He repeated what he heard, and we walked away with tasty sausages and cold beers.

The afternoon was spent walking off lunch by strolling and window-shopping along the fashionable streets of the center, open only to pedestrian traffic. We marveled at the grand buildings, then climbed to the top of the bell tower in St. Peterskirche, Munich’s oldest church, for a view of the entire city.

Our next stop was Lindau, a town in a tiny corner of Bavaria on Lake Constance. During the train ride, the weather was foggy and rainy, but as we crossed a causeway onto the island town, the clouds lifted, revealing the snow-capped Alps beyond the lake. After we got a room, we went to the waterfront, with a lighthouse in its colorful harbor.

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