Travelling to Munich – which isnt in Lichtenstein.
When we drew Lichtenstein away, it sounded exciting and exotic. I’ve never been there before. Very quickly people started posting details of trips staying in other countries and travelling in for the game. Not for us, we like to try and stay wherever the game is. If possible. Then we looked at hotel prices in Valduz, they were all in the £400 a night territory. We started looking at staying outside the country.
Lichtenstein is only 25 miles long, and the population of the entire country is less than the population of Cardiff. Despite this, it’s only the fourth smallest country in Europe. The Vatican being the smallest, followed by Monaco and San Marino. It’s one of only a handful of countries in the world that has no debt and has the highest GDP of any country in the world. It’s basically a tax-haven, although they are doing their best to shed that image. No wonder hotels are so expensive.
Quite a few fans are staying in Zurich- which I’m sure is lovely, but still sounds expensive to me. When we saw that ‘the man, the myth, the legend’, Dibbs Anderson, was running a bus from Munich on the day of the game, we decided to make that our base for this trip. Even booking into the hotel outside which the bus is picking up. Sorted. Easy.
Then things got complicated. First we booked a trip with Wonky Sheep to Krakow, the weekend before. No problem, we would be home a few days. Then we accidentally bought a new house, and we would have to spend the four days between Krakow and Munich moving. Whilst this trip is undoubtedly going to be fun, being exited about it in the run up was not going to be on the agenda.
Germany was the first foreign country I visited. When I was in the Army Cadets, at the ripe old age of 14, I spent a memorable fortnight in Spandau Baracks, West Berlin. Yep, this was at the height of the cold war and the country was split in two. We even went on a day trip through Check Point Charlie into East Berlin.
Spandau Barracks was the HQ of the Welsh Guards and overlooked Spandau Prison. A massive old prison, built in 1876, that was due for demolition but was kept open just to house one prisoner. Adolf’s top man, Rudolf Hess. When he eventually died in 1987 the prison was demolished.
I visited Munich itself in 1987 (ish) whilst doing the old Interail around Europe. We timed our visit to coincide with Oktoberfest, a huge drinking session that takes place the last two weeks in September. Yes, thats right, September. You would think they would call it Septemberfest. But hey, that’s how they roll in Europe. Fun fact, the Russian October Revolution of 1917, took place in November.
The Oktoberfest is a massive drinking session. So far, so good. Right up my street back then. No, it is a MASSIVE drinking session. We walked into a beer hall the size of an aircraft hanger full of thousands of pissed up Germans singing oompah songs and swaying back and fore with litre size stiens of German lager spilling everywhere.
We walked out and got a train to Amsterdam and it’s chilled coffee shops.
That was then. This is now. With our new house looking like something out of Storage Wars, unable to find our bucket hats, we headed for Heathrow. You never know what might happen on the M4, so we left six hours before our flight.
Then there were unspecified animals on the M4. The diversion through the Berkshire countryside was pretty, but nail biting.
We arrived at Heathrow three minutes after check-in had closed.
We sat with a very patient gentleman who looked into how he could help. He could book us onto the 16:40 (three hours later than planned) for a mere £670 for the two of us. I burst into tears. He decided to waive the extra cost and let us transfer for nothing. I could have kissed him.
I burst into tears for a second time when i saw the price of cider in Wagamamas. Six quids for a can the size of a can of coke. We were dealing with stress and relief though, so rolled with it. And whilst Wagamamas anywhere is expensive, for a chain restaurant their food is the dogs bollocks – although we obviously went for the vegetarian option, rather than actual canine testicles.
We were pleased to discover there was no scrum to get on the plane and soon we were 36,000 feet above sea level crying at the price of mohitos.
A mere 80 minutes later we were touching down in Munich International Airport. Opened in 1992 it is the second busiest airport in Germany and eleventh busiest in the world, handling almost forty-six million passengers a day. Actually, I think that’s for a full year. Anyway, it’s big.
Sat around 18km from the city centre a taxi is around £90, whilst an Uber is around £60. We opted for the rather efficient bus service (the Germans do like efficiency) which is around £11 per person. Forty minutes later we were getting off at the central station, a mere twelve minutes from our hotel.
Hotel Munchen City Centre is a rather plush, but reasonably priced place to lay down your head. The dudenzie at reception was very friendly and gave us a voucher for a free drink (singular) at the bar.
Quicker than you can say something which is very quick to say, we were at the bar redeeming the aforementioned vouchers.
The Germans do have a reputation for making good beer. Personally I prefer Belgian or Czech beer (or better still Hereford Cider), but yeah, the local tipple aint bad.
Accordong to Google Maps (other mapping services are available) all the eateries in the hood were about to close so we enquired at reception as to whether the hotel restaurant was open. It was not, but he told us we were more than welcome to order in from Uber Eats (other delivery services are available). Within ten minutes we were chomping down on a guacamole burger with garlic fries, washed down with more local neck oil.
As I type these last words, my proof reader is bouncing zzzzzzzs off the bedroom walls. So if you are reading the unproofed beta version of this post, blame her for any mistakes. You just can’t get the staff these days.
Next episode might be more interesting as it’s a full day in Munich, but it might just be about having a lie in and going to thd pub. Tune in tomorrow to find out.