Zagreb/Split, Croatia

We arrived in Zagreb in rain. The road was good. In Slovenia we quite frequently paid tolls. We crossed the border to Croatia and got our passports stamped. Then paid another toll. Croatia has Kuna money but they took 1 eur.

It is hard to drive in Zagreb. Small streets where 3 lines in each direction are also shared with trams. Impatient drivers who beep you on yellow light (in Croatia, the light changes from red to yellow and then to green). We navigated successfully to our hotel, GPS again did not let us down. We parked at hotel's garage.

Sheraton is 5* business hotel in the center of town, good location. After our last night fiasco and bad weather George is a bit let down.
At least this is 5* hotel with all convenience and comfort of Starwood, which we are preferred guests. We got a room at preferred guest floor but I do not know what privileges on this floor...

We walked to the center, Jelacic square. We went to the recommended restaurant Vinodol for lunch. We were not impressed with food. After lunch, we took funicular to Gradec (medieval old town) and walked there. Croatian president works there in Sabor. Not like our president, not that much security.. The buildings were interesting but they are still in process in being restored and there is a lot's of graffiti. Zagreb has great architecture, built by the same architects who built Vienna , in Austro-Hungarian empire. But being under Tito many years and then there was the war so you really need to see beyond a neglected buildings. Cathedral was beautiful but half of it is closed , one tower under renovation.. You can see beautiful church or building and to it next a delapidated one. To me it is an interesting city. To George and maybe to other American travelers, it does not stir his imagination. He likes impressive European cities, which are clean and filled with beautifully dressed people, theaters and good museums. Paris is his favorite. So to sell him Zagreb was hard. He said he liked some parts of Zagreb but overall not that interested. What is bizarre, we like to explore food markets so we had some fun there..
We called a day and went to Sheraton and rested in a pool. After lunch at Vinodol we were not hungry so we ate salad and tea at cafe in Sheraton.

Next day, the sun was shining. We returned the car and afterwards went in the lower part of the city which was developed in 1800 and it has Renaissance and post-renassance building, "Green horseshoe " which is a series of beautiful parks and Zagreb finally started to grow on us. We took a ride in tourist train but mostly were local people with kids there.. The tour is silent. They really need to do a better job to attract and keep tourists. A young Croatian woman with a child sitting next to me on the train explained to me sites! She concurred that restorations are taking too long.

We also witnessed a silent demonstration in the main square. It was a commemoration of victims of Vukovo when Serbs executed people who could not flee the city, mainly bedridden people in hospital. The town was completely destroyed. The Serb's officers were convicted by tribunal in Hague on Sept 27 (yesterday). They were obviously not punished enough (and one even acquitted) as Croatians hoped. So the war is over but nation is still recovering from pshycological wounds..

We had a nice walk and city and it's people gradually grew on us. We bought some fruit at the market and I had not tasted such delicious apples and grapes for any years.

Evening was to do some work in the business center (free Internet connection there), and we had a quick dinner at hotel's restaurant.

Next day we went for breakfast in nearby bakery. The baking goods are delicious and breakfast cost about 3 eur, comparing with 20 eur breakfast at Sheraton.
After breakfast we took a last walk around hotel before our 2pm flight to Split. I found a good store with Sisley and Benetton clothes and did some shopping.
Otherwise, it is not much to shop in either Slovenia or Croatia. Except some delicious jams we could not find much shopping,

We took taxi to airport . The flight was delayed 1 hr without any explanation. I realized that that was a mistake to returning car and fly to Split (45 min flight). The taxi driver told us the highway to Split is in good shape now and ride takes 4 hrs. We would rather drive... But anyway we made to Split around 3:30pm and took taxi to our Le Meridien Lav Hotel about 10km from downtown Split , in Podstrana. It is a stunning new hotel in the form of the ship by the sea, most rooms have wonderful seaviews and nice beach (but gravel), huge pools (indoor and outdoor ), and nice marina for promenade.
The lobbies, restaurants and spa are very stylish. They must have had some problems with acoustics so nice music was overlapping from different sources . Or it could be just place we were sitting at.
We had dinner at hotel's restaurant, it was quite good and lately we've been sticking to local seafood.. The hotel has design so from the sea it looks like a ship, it is quite spectacular .

They have free shuttle to and old town and Diocletian Palace so we will be exploring it tomorrow.

The Split is second largest city after Zagreb located in south, on Dalmatian coast on Adriatic sea. The landscape is sea and Mediterranean although it is Adriatic. Palms remind us our home in Florida..
The interest to the tourist is that the old town is built within bounds of Diocletian Palace. It said to have some Roman ruins on Adriatic. Roman Emperor Diocleatian was born nearby in Salonia and became Emperor. He wanted to build huge palace in Split for his retirement. The palace never been completed although it took 11 years to build and many slaves to die on construction. Therefore since emperor never moved in, the locals used it' bounds to live therein Old town. So Old Town is actually within bounds of the Palace.

Next morning we had a breakfast, which was included in the price and it was general buffet spread.

The weather was very nice and warm, just like Mediterranean in fall. We took hotel's free shuttle to Split. It was sunny, blue sky, and the setup of the palace was spectacular. It has a lot's of nooks and crannies to explore. I was armed with books and maps so I think we did OK. The thing is do not expect Palace, but ruins. The Palace was abandoned and used by common folks. It has a lot's of build-in buildings. I wish they forbade construction. You can see some Venetian elements besides Roman but also so many hodge-podge built-up as people moved in. I've seen many people asked "where are the rooms of the palace?". There are none, just use your imagination how Diocletian must have lived. One area had a round room without coupole (was destroyed in medieval wars) but acoustics was incredible. There was a trio singing dalmatian sngs.

We also walked seafront promenade and sat on the sun. We had nice seafood lunch in the Diocletian Palace. We sampled local gelato on the street, called "sladoled" (in Slavic languages means "sweet ice"). In the afternoon we got a return ride on a shuttle back to hotel.

We liked people watching. Young Croatians are so tall and good looking!
On the way in the shuttle the driver was trying to flirt with a young russian lady. He did not speak Russian and she did not speak English nor Croatian. George offered them to translate and of course he killed the deal. :-)

We rested at hotel and went to cash our complimentary 10 eur gift card at casino. Turned out that with this 10eur card you need also to add your own 10 eur but - they give you one extra chip. Yeah right. We are not gamblers but since they lured us to the casino, George played Blackjack and won 10 eur. So we are ahead 10 eur. Then I promptly lost it in slot machine. We still had 5 eur chip left and wanted to put it on red color roulette. But they told us this is a gift chip (read: cheap chip) and we can ony bet on certain number. We put 13 - the number my husband avoids like plague and of course lost. We must as well throw away that chip but at least we tried that chance.

We had nice walk on the Le Meridien Marina , the weather was warm and sunny and people swam on the beach and in the pool but for us it was too cold to swim. We had Ok dinner but beautifully presented and well served by friendly staff. This is very nice hotel but they still need to iron out some wrinkles in service but they fixed problems promptly with a smile.

We are off tomorrow to Dubrovnik.

Smarjeske Teplice

We left Bled, it was raining. The lake and the castle still looked beautiful even in the rain and mist of clouds. Such a fairy tale setting! The GPS did not have enough info on Slovenia so we navigated to closest large city Novo Mesto where we were about 10km in our next destination – Krka therme – Thermal waters, spa hotel Vittarium.

Without GPS, we have to a bit of backtracking, but finally found this spa. The company through which we booked spa, owns most hotels in that area (there are not too many). The most famous is castle hotel Otocec and hotel Vittarium, both 4*. Slovenia does not have yet 5* hotels. I chose Vittarium since it has mineral water pools on premises and we like to soak in waters.
We checked in and immediately felt out of place. The setting was beautiful however hotel caters to local residents who go to spa for a treatment period. I know this setup in Europe and former Soviet Union – it is called sanatorium. Not in the sense as sanatorium for mental patients :-)
but in Europe most government and insurance companies cover spa treatments as medical insurance. Therefore, you will see people, mostly older who went for about month treatment for mineral waters and medical treatment. Hotel even had a medical floor. The food was like cafeteria food and setup was depressing...

The people stared at us and we stared at them. They were friendly however and tried to communicate in Slovenian but of course we could not do much talking … We went to spa. But the pools were huge and spectacular, newly redone and we enjoyed soaking in the waters. There was even outdoor pool, you go from inside and swim outdoors and temp was 32C so it was terrific. A lots of different massage showers... Very enjoyable. The price included half board, but after lunch which I could not eat L , we did not want to eat dinner there. We drove to castle Otocec but did not see decent places to eat. The area is very rural. We finally found supermarket near hotel and bought our shopping there and ate good “picnic” in our room. In the evening, we used free wi-fi at the lobby areas where we also found some younger people with laptops. We went for a walk in the evening and then to bed determined to leave early as as possible. Next morning we went for buffet breakfast. Good find for us was buckwheat groats which we love from childhood. I am not sure who else likes it! After breakfast we were waiting for rain to stop but it continued. We checked our email in wi-fi area and left for 1hr trip to Zagreb.

What can I say? The area has great potential and natural mineral springs but not ready for Western Visitors yet.. That was one place on this trip we did not enjoy...

Bled

After breakfast, we walked to Ljubljana rail station and picked up our second rental, Skoda from Sixt. It was a small car and George after driving a bit, declared it powerless
We drove to hotel, took our luggage and departed for one night in Bled. The GPS did not cooperate and could not recognize Bled at all on the map. The hotel's ported gave us directions which turned out pretty much simple and in about 1 hr we arrived to Bled in Julian Alps. It was beautiful, mountain lake setting. I do not recall after Switzerland seeing such scenery - lake amidst mountains. Castle in the middle of the lake was unique. There was another castle "grad" on the hill which we explored as well, so the car proved useful.
Our hotel is also on the lake with spectacular setting. I chose Vila Bled for it's historical significance. It used to be owned by Hapsburg Imperial family and later on was summer residence of Yosip Bros Tito (Yugoslavian President). Also some reconstructions was designed by Yoszi Plecnik (the same architect who designed many Ljubljana' buildings). This villa had VIP visitors from over the world, including Khruschev, Indira Gandhi, Madeline Albright, Prince Charles just name a few.. Many were entertained by Tito. Now it is Relais and Chateaux hotel.
We were upgraded to large suite and we just marveled if Tito slept in this room.
It is not much to do in Bled except walk around lake and boat ride. The famous castle ("Otoc" ) is in the middle of the lake and one can get there by boat - special boat "Pletna" - as Venice Gondolas only with more people.
We had a a quick snack pizza in the Bled center and rested at hotel. The air is very invigorating so this probably put us in sleepy mood. Dinner at 6pm at villa Bled and early to the suite to do some work and early to bed. Not much to do here but relax. Dinner was suppolsed to be exquisite and it was good, only few guests in the dining room. But not that spectaclar... Maybe we started to have restaurant fatigue.... :-)
Tomorrow we are leaving for Smarejcki Teplice - spa hotel on the way back to Ljubljana and towards Zagreb.

Ljubljana

We took train from Salzburg to Ljubljana. Bought tickets at train station. We figured out where to board. The ticket said to Ljubljana however train went to Zagreb and Klagenfurt. You need to know direction and geography :-) . We finally found the plan of the train which shows which car is first class, which is second, smoking, non-smoking and direction. We thought we need to take either Klagenfurt or Zagreb, and Ljublana is in between. When train came, we were told to take 2 last cars which was marked as Zagreb. It is good thing we bought 2nd class tickets since looks like only these two cars were disconnected and continued on other direction from Klagenfurt (Austria) to Slovenia. :-) . No first class cars. The train was on the train station in Salzburg only 15 mins so you'd better figure out fast which car to board. But train attendants can direct those who are lost.
The 4.5 trip was uneventful if you do not consider annoying factors that there were no announcements whatever (you are supposed to watch for train stations signs). Also our car had light broken so when train went through tunnels it was complete darkness. In US I would be worried about my luggage in front of the train but here in Austria-Slovenia border obviously people are not that affected by petty crime. Other then that, the Alps scenery was spectacular and there was a lot's of extra space to stretch so it was more pleasant then I would say to fly. Less expensive too.
In Ljubljana we could have walked 10 min to hotel however with luggage, we hailed a taxi and he charge 10 eur for few min drive! Our hotel is Grand Union Business (another hotel next door is Grand Union Executive). Owned by the same company. They should be more creative naming their properties. Both are 4* hotels, no luxurious 5* hotels here yet. But it was comfortable enough, relatively new but style is still very much former communist, Eastern European. Furnishing is new but style is more like Russian. Huge Eastern European style pillows , comfortable. The rooms besides bedroom, also had a small business area kind of living room with comfortable 2 desks and chairs for work and even inviting guests. Many closets. Staff was helpful enough. We forgot cable for our laptop (all other places we had wireless), so they brought us a cable. Toiletries are very plain, Holiday Inn type. Breakfast was very good, extensive.
Dinner yesterday evening was i local restaurant Zlata Rubica (Gold fish). It was good but not spectacular. and were sitting outside which was nice.
Next morning, after breakfast, we explored Ljubljana. They still have to restore buildings but architecture is very much Viennese, Art Nouveau. They were part of Hapsburg Austro- Hungarian empire before they became Yugoslavia and then Slovenia 10 years ago.
The city is influenced by Slovenian architect Yozhe Plecnik who is what is Gaudi to Barcelona. If you know where to look, there are his interesting touches around city.
The city center is very small , river is small, and it is very easy to explore it. We also took funicular to castle on the hill. In pre-medieval times, it was Roman settlement so you see the remnants of archeological digs in many exhibits even in town hall. Town hall (Mestny Trg), had nice Renaissance courtyard and fountains inspired by Romans.
Overall very pleasant city. A lot's of people strolling and sitting in cafes. Who is working there? We saw American Embassy, next to Russian Embassy. American embassy is located in a very characteristic mountain chalet but the glass structure which does not fit architecturally was for some reason added on the side.
We had dinner in an excellent restaurant Gostilna S. There is no menu, they specialize on Adriatic seafood and whatever fresh fish they have, the serve it. It was well prepared and beauitufully presented. 3 course dinner and dessert. They offered to us good local Slovenian sparkling wine..

We did not visit any museums in Ljubljana. The only one visit I would visit would be Yoshi Plecnick house, but unfortunately it was closed 3 days in a week. But the city is small enough and pleasant to stroll and .

Tomorrow off to Bled!

Salzburg

Sept 21.
After breakfast, we drove to Salzburg. It takes about2 hrs with stops and some traffic near Prien. The drive was uneventful. We did not get lost thanks to our GPS.
First I thought to stop at Herren-Chimsee on the way to visit Ludwig's Palace which is larger than Versailles. But there was some traffic before Prien and we decided to go straight to Salzburg. After all, we've seen Versailles. We also have seen day ago Nymphenburg Palace a day ago so at this time we became lazy tourists.
The Mozart's city was waiting for us so we just continued to drive. In Austria when you cross the border you need to buy a decal for the car even for a short distance to Salzburg. But we found it later on in my notes. We were lucky we were not stopped by policemen.

We arrived to our hotel Schloss Monchstein. Hard to find it but GPS did it through some narrow alley in the downtown of Salzburg, got up the mountain and very soon we were at the driveway of the castle. It is exquisite. It is a small castle sitting on the top of Mountain Monchsberg. Modern and immaculately maintained, it deserves accollades and 5* rating it has. It is a member of Relais and Chateaux. I thought restaurant has one Michelin star, however it did not . But nevertheless food was excellent and beautifully served with few compliments f the chef. The setting of hotel is stunning. We've got large room with excellent bathroom suite, and beautiful view of the gardens but I beleive all rooms are different and have nice views. There were some lounge chairs on the lawn for guests to relax.

The staff was very helpful and accommodating. They called Avis and Avis came to get our car so we did not have to drive downtown. That was very nice so we can relax and start our vacation in this magic city.

The weather was perfect Indian Summer. The hotel is located in a midst of Monchsber's park. To get down to old city, you need either walk trails down or take an elevator - 10 min walks to the Modern Museum. Kind of hard to find but once we figured out the elevator, we were OK.

We spent 2 glorious days in Salzburg and it was just beautiful. Did usual tourist sightseeing: visitied Mozart's house where he was born and other Mozart related museums, took a horse buggy ride around town, walked to Mirabel Palace, enjoyed it's gardens. There are beautiful cathedrals and I especially liked Salzburg Cathedral.

I liked oter side of Salzburg later across the river since it is less crowded. Central street had expensive stores and touristy restaurants.

It was nice in the end of the day to take an elevator to the Mochsberg's park ot our "Urban sanctuary". The dinner was excellent and we retired to bed. Second day we wanted to have dinner in town in Stiftskeller St. Peter's circa of 803 where there is dinner is server together with Mozart's concert howewer dissapointing it was sold out for the evening. We ended eating in the restaurant in town but it was not good.

We walked back to elevator and our hotel.

Few notes re: Austrians . They are very helpful and courteous but in my opinion lack the warmth and readiness to help as Germans. Just my opinion.

But still, Austria was the first country we've seen 25 years ago when we escaped Iron Curtain in 1982. We were impressed by it and now when we are coming back , it has special feeling in our heart. It's been a long way from our dilapidated apartment provided by immigrant agency and this castle in Salzburg!

Tomorrow we are leaving by train to our next destination - Ljubljana.

Sept 2007, Jewish Franconia

Today we are meeting with my colleague Michael and his driver Dieter for a day exploration. The driver by the way is also the guide and has the title "Dr". He is retired chemist and guiding is his second career.
We are working on a new itinerary for the jewish travelers. Instead of regular Jewish, war, holocaust sites in Munich and Nurnberg, this time we will be exploring Jewish Franconia.

Just like in Eastern Europe, during medieval times, the Jews in Germany were only allowed to live in certain areas. Beacuse of this, you will see a concentration of Jews in certain villages of Franconia.

First we went to Gosswenstein and saw the castle where the Jewish settelement was and how they lived. There were 15 small, houses within the castle. They all lived in the same area, and shared bread baking stove and mikweh. Jewish children however happily coexisted with gentiles. One man wrote in his stories how he was invited by the priest to ring the bell (since he was not alllowed to be an altar boy). Jews could not own land in 1600 and only can do trading.

After visting this this settlement, we went to a small town which was developed by Jewish industrialist and philantropist Ignatz Bing. He employed villagers and provided water and electricity in late 1800. It was a rarity at that time. In addition to his toy business (mechanical train toys), he also discovered a natural cave and developed it for tourism. He was one of the first tourism organizers in Germany. The cave is now a natural attraction and many people come to visit.
That part of Franconia along with nearby Bamberg and Wurtzburg is very beautiful. It is a great place to spend even a week there. We inspected a nice 4* hotels owned by the same man , and he assured us he will take care best care of our future clients. Besides hotels, the owner has a great restaurant at a hotel where local people come to eat. We had lunch there and it was very good.

Next stop was a small town of Buttenheim which is the birth place of Levy Strauss. He was born to a large family in poverty and the rest is history. Strauss lived in small house which is now a fascinating museum. The audio guide in English is included. The lady who worked there, was very enthusiastic especially when she found out we were from the USA. She said the museum was created on private donations. Interesting enough that Levy Strauss Corp did not participate in the creation of this museum. (It looks like the company is not interested in associating authentic american product like jeans with a Jew from Germany).
The lady in the museum showed us statistics of visitors and most visitors come from the US and China.

Next we went to a small town of Ermreuth where there is a newly restored synagogue. Their small Jewish community lived here in the 18th and 19th century. It was destroyed during the rystallnacht in 1938 and the Jews left. After the war, there was an effort to restore the synagogues and Jewish cemeteries. At the time of restoration in the 1990's, the 16th-19th century artifacts were discovered hidden in the attic. Now the museum is a part of the synagogue. The Jews do not live in Emreuth anymore, but the synagogue is used for music, religious and cultural events to promote peace and interfaith cooperation. The woman who takes taking care of the synagogue, Dr. Rajaa Nadelr, is a Christian from Syria. She is married to a German and lives nearby. Nadler is very well versed in the Judaism and the history of the synagogue. She said it is her project to bring peace between different faiths. She explained symbols of the restoration and architecture, based on Kabbala. Very interesting. Sometimes the schools bring students to study the war and holocaust at te museum. Jewish communities conduct events. There are also art exhibits, many of them by Jewish artists.
For more information, see http://www.neunkirchen-am-brand.de/index.php?page=906

Last year at this time, we visited Berlin. The city and it's people amazed us. This year, in a small village of Franconia, we see a synagogue meticulously restored by the German government and donations throughout the world, lovingly and enthusiastically maintained by a Syrian woman. It is just incredible.

Most travelers concentrate on the tragic past of German Jews and visit cemeteries and concentration camps. This is a must to do. However, sites like this which tell the story of Jewish communities who lived here for centuries before the holocaust are often missed. I beleive we must celebrate Jewish life in Germany. You see that nazis are gone (well almost) but Jewish life flourishes once again , monuments and synagogues are restored and vibrant Jewish communities with immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Israel are continue to practice theoir religion.

I've heard many Jews say they are not comfortable coming back but I strongly recommend that they come and see what real contemporary Germany is all about.

It was really an eye opening day for us and we are forever grateful to Michael for bringing us there.
He said it was encouraging to say a prayer in the synagogue to breath life into it since services are not often provided there. He thoughtfully brought a prayer book with him and beautifully sang 2 prayers. Here we are sitting in German synagogue listening to familiar prayer songs . We taped it on a video.
It was a great day for us. I am hoping to bring my clients who are looking for their German roots and hertiage. We were told they would be happy to open the synagogue for bar- and bat- mitzvahs, or weddings, or just for a service, and it is possible to find a rabbi to lead the service.

Michael and Dieter dropped us off at hotel. It was already late, so we had a light dinner again at the Yugoslav restaurant next to our hotel. We were once again the only Americans there and the Croatian owner this time met us like we were family. We still had some trouble communicating so other guests translated and it was a very satisfying day.

Tomorrow we are leaving Munich for Salzburg.

Sept 2007 Munich

Sept 19.
After breakfast, we took a tram 15 min ride to Munich Old town. The weather was a bit cool (jacket) and sunny. We walked to Marienplatz - where Old Munich is. We were on time to watch Glockenspiel - 11am the clock is playing Bavarian wedding and the figures move . Kind of lame seems to me however we've seen these clock performances in many European cities :-)
Nevertheless I am always trying not to miss it.
The Marienplatz is pedestrian plaza with some nice churches around it, two town halls (Rathaus) - Old and New. We walked to Frauenkirchen (Our Lady Church). From there, we took elevator (3e ticket each person) to see Munich from the top. We thought elevator is from the ground floor. Well it turned out to be there are 86 steps to the elevator! We made it. The view was nice but from the tower it was not that convenient to take picture.
We also walked to Marienhof which used to be a Jewish quarter and now a small park. Relaxed there and toured the rest. We had lunch in famous Hofbrauhous, it is 400 year old Beer house.It is huge with music and tourist atmosphere. We've shared table with a nice couple from Holland and had a good time. For some reason the waiter was brusque and did not seem understand that we want together beer and food. First he brought beer. Then food. Beer is served the smallest portion is .5l. Light beer is called Helles and dark is Dunkel. When I asked for light - the waiter thought no alcohol beer and it really turned him off although nearby Japanese tourist drank water. We finally with a help of dutch couple and also pointing at other tables explained what we want. We shared one plate of sausage and kraut. In Germany, looks like we can have 1/2 of the portion - their portions are huge.
After lunch, we took tram to Nymphenburg Palace which is near our hotel. It took few changes of the trams since we took different tram but eventually we managed to get where we wanted. The Nymphenburg Palace was great and we loved gardens the most. They remind us Tulleries gardens in Paris. Beautiful. Our hotel's owner, Sebastian had 2 extra tickets to the palace in the morning and gave them to us so we got them for free.
We took English audio guides inside. It is large palace but only 15 rooms or so are available for touring. It is Baroque Italian style . The bavarian ruler Ferdinand Maria of Wittelsbach family gave it as a gift to his wife Henriette Adelaide of Savoy for giving him son Max Emanuel. The family still lives in this huge estate. In addition to Wing of king and queen wings there alsoRoyal Stables Museum and Amalienburg Palace. It was very nice and the weather cooperated for enjoying lakes and gardens, beautiful swans and ducks.
Afterwards we walked ot our hotel , refreshed and went for dinner. Dinner was at nearby Italian restaurant Osteria di Golfo, small local place with local clientele. It was completely filled in. Small menu.. We had pasta and caprese salad and tartufo and tea for dessert. We enjoyed dinner very much and came back to hotel.
Sebastian said that our collegaue who is taking us tomorrow to explore Jewish Franconia, called and said will arrive at 8am tomorrow instead of 9. So tomorrow we are for early start. Some work in the evening including this blog and going to bed...

2007 Trip to Munich, Salzburg, Slovenia, Croatia and more..

Munich, Sept 18.
We flew from Tampa, FL yesterday. We had 2 connections - in Chicago (1 hr short connection) , 2.5 hrs in LHR and finally arrived to Munich.
This is first time we flew from Florida, our new home. While from JFK we most time flew nonstop, however JFK is very unfriendly airport (this is my humble opinion). Tampa airport is small and we live nearby. So I would rather take one connection but fly from Tampa.
We were lucky with all flights so far and they arrived on time. In Chicago, we had gate in the same terminal so it was close and 1 hr connection was OK at this time since we arrived on time.
In London as usual, large airport, long distance between terminals . But we had enough time there to decompress. We could not use laptop there because of special UK plugs. We only had European plug. UK is different. We decided will not buy it although they were available in the store at terminal waiting area.
LHR shopping made me depressed since the stores I liked and usually buy there one thing or two, were terribly expensive for us Americans. Harrod's had 50% on seasonal merchandise however it was still expensive. Anyway we found our favorite sandwich chain Pret A Manger and had nice lunch. Turned out that we also had sandwiches on BA flight to Munich. So I skipped BA sandwich later on even though it was good.

We arrived Munich on time. All three flights were good, not that crowded. On flight to London and to Munich, we had extra seat. I still do not sleep well on the planes. Our luggage also made it fine.

We picked up car at Avis and soon were on our way to Munich. Airport was about 30 miles from the city. I am not sure how much taxi would cost.. Plus we will need the car to go to Austria. As for hotel, It was fair period and also Oktoberfest. All hotels were booked however I got a space at small family hotel in a "schloss" (castle) - small renaissance villa near Nymphenburg Palace 3 km from old town "Alstadt". The hotel's name is Laimerhof. It has free parking on the street and located in a lovely residential area near Nymphenburg Palace. When I booked it, I noticed it had rating #1 on trip advisor!
It is owned by a nice young couple Sebastian and Alexandra. Sebastian and his assistant Simon brought our luggage and Sebastian showed me two rooms. When I booked, I told him we will need to work, so he offered to us larger room. It was nice, decorated in Bavarian style. Not too much space for clothes, however we travel light and it was enough for us.

He also offered to use public space where breakfast room is if we need to use wireless laptop (24 eur for 48 hrs). Rooms have wi-fi as well. He has public computer for free which is connected to printer in case we need something to print.
This lovely young man showed us around, gave us info on local restaurants and ran home to put to bed his 2 yr old twins. His wife Alexandra showed later on and asked if everything is fine. It was very nice family atmosphere!

We planned to go to beerhaus restaurant Sebastian's assistant Simon recommended but it started to rain and we ended in restaurant nearby which was also mentioned to us at hotel. It was Yugoslavian restaurant. It had good beer and German fare and was well priced and attended by locals. The owner did not speak English but we found out they are from Split, Croatia and this is where we are going later on on this trip!
We understand Slavic languages so we ended up talking in Russian and they replied in Croatian and we managed just fine. Desert was typical Eastern European - Palacinkas (crepes) with jam, it was delicious.
I am sure we will enjoy Slovenia and Croatia! Looking forward to their food as well

We came back to hotel and George stayed at reception using computer and talking to Simon and I went upstairs to do some work.

Speaking about driving... This time we brought our GPS with us. We especially upgraded our Garmin for European trip and it turned out to be very handy. We only had one problem since we rushed to turn it on in garage and "she" could not acquire satellite. I prepared for that and printed directions to hotel in advance. As you know, German autobahns have speed up to 130 km per hour and it is a new country to drive for us.. So we I can say successfully navigated for about 20 miles, and we kept turning GPS on, finally "she" acquired satellite and took over my job. Thanks!! So George followed her directions quite well, I do admire his calm and ability to adjust to different car with different position of a stick shift (a bit different then in US - rear gear is in pushed ahead, not back like in US).
We found parking and made it fine to hotel.

Tomorrow, we will take a tram (3km) to Old Town and explore Marienplatz and surroundings..