2016 Highlights and Lowlights

As the sun sets on 2016, we look back.

Not our busiest travel year but we still managed to hit the travel trail a bit last year, including to major international destinations. Gotta get our money's worth for those passports, you know...

HOTELS - One of the best hotels we've ever had the pleasure of staying in...and we've stayed in many...was the absolutely wonderful Hilton Prague. From the moment we stepped in the door, to the duty manager showing us a selection of rooms we could choose from, accessible bathing equipment we could choose from, very comfortable beds, quiet room with good view, great location, top-notch service from beginning to end, this was the best hotel we stayed in last year. (NOTE: This is not to be confused with the Hilton Old Town Prague a few blocks away)

Another nod to the great RIU Palace Hotel in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. The RIU's comfort, service, and amenities are top-notch. Stay in one if you ever get a chance.

We didn't stay in any really bad hotels this year but the Oxford Suites in Redding did not live up to expecations, especially as we've stayed in some very nice examples of the chain in Chico and Pismo Beach, California.  The Novotel Schwabing in Munich, Germany was also not as nice as we'd hoped it to be.

AIRLINES - Two this year, Alaska Airlines to Costa Rica provided outstanding service, comfort, on-time service, and...best of all...price.  American (with a leg by British Airways) provided us with very good service over some very long hauls across the Atlantic. Again, no bad flight hassles due to airlines, which can be pretty rare.  On the other hand...

AIRPORTS - Munich and Liberia, Costa Rica airports let us down this year.  From waiting hours with no seating and no air conditioning tropical Daniel Odubor Quiros Airport to the lack of amenities in the older part of Franz Josef Strauss Airport (especially compared to the really excellent new terminal) was a huge letdown. Berlin's Tegel Airport wasn't much better.

RENTAL CAR - A huge raspberry for Alamo Rent-A-Car in Costa Rica for blatantly trying to rip off every customer to the tune of an extra $600 for insurance and making the check-in process as miserable and long as can be. Even when you showed written proof of extensive car insurance, valid in Costa Rica, that could cover everything imaginable, you are called a liar to your face and told no American insurance is valid there (which we found is not true). On top of that, you're stuck at their depot in the middle of nowhere with a two-mile walk back to the airport...unless you want to pay $35 per person to take their shuttle bus back. A true den of vipers there, taxis are much more honest, affordable, and even wheelchair accessible there. Skip the rental car in Costa Rica, it will truly ruin your trip.

On the other hand, Hertz in Berlin and Munich were very professional, friendly, and efficient in the handling of our vehicle there.

FOOD - We had some outstanding meals this year starting with a very memorable meal of pork knuckle and pirogies at Zajasd Lesny, a 24-hour truck stop diner in the southwest corner of Poland.

The Alte Heide biergarten had the best food in Munich with its pork Cordon Bleu, German meatloaf, and steak.

Again, Taste in the Motherlode town of Plymouth in California produced a wonderful dinner.

DESTINATIONS - We've cast our shadows on the beaches and jungles of Costa Rica; the remains of the Berlin Wall; the cobblestones of Prague; the truck stops of Poland; the biergartens of Munich; the waters and trees of Redding, California, along with the state's Motherlode country.

Costa Rica is much more accessible than I thought it would be and there are some great adventures to be had. Still, the beaches left something to be desired and I really felt I had to keep a good grip on my wallet for the next rip-off that could be around the next corner.  It was nice but not as nice as I'd imagined it would be.

Redding, and the area around it, is beautiful but a little on the quiet side.

Prague was too crowded and full of tourists to be really enjoyable but the residents of that old city are very friendly and accomodating to visitors like us.

Munich has been, and will always be, one of our favorite cities in the world to visit. Wouldn't even mind living there.

But this year's most enjoyable destination was the slightly grungy, sometimes dangerous feeling, always lively, at times drop-dead-gorgeous, and extremely drenched with history, Berlin. I cannot wait to come here again.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved

The Cocktail Hour: Biergartens of Germany

Beer is a way of life in Germany and the neighborhood biergarten is a way of life in the warmer months when all the people want to do is go outside and enjoy the fresh air.

You can find them almost anywhere, especially in Munich where over 400 biergartens call the city home and are almost on every corner.  They are more numerous there than Starbucks is in the states.

Here are some of the outdoor brewpubs we visited while we were in country, in the order we encountered them...

Luftgarten (German for Air Garden) sits on the perimeter of the former Tempelhof Airport. It's relaxing, sunny spot. You can even sit in their beach chairs.  Shade is a bit of a premium here because most of the area is open field without too many trees. A barbecue trailer cooks up specialties such as currywurst and there's a nice selection of Berlin brews to choose from.

It's also quite a walk from the nearest U Bahn station.

Berlin Zoo has a biergarten in the center, next to the kid's playground.  As in most, there's a nice, shady outdoor area to relax with your brew and a snack from the adjacent cafeteria.

Nice, but maybe just a step up from your average zoo snack bar.

Café am Neuen See is the 'biergarten in the tiergarten.' It shows up on many 'best of Berlin' lists including this 7 Best Places to Eat in Berlin from Wanderlust. I can't vouch for the food...we just had dessert and beer there...but it is an amazingly relaxing place with tables set around a small lake under a forest of nice, shady trees. One of the few biergartens we found in Berlin that serve beer in liter glasses.

Moving on to Munich, the biergartens multiply exponentially here. Literally, we'd find one around every corner.

We had two in the immediate vicinity of our hotel, one of which we made our local while we were there, the Alte Heide.  I did pretty much an entire post extolling the virtues of this tiny neighborhood biergarten that serves the best food we've ever had in Munich.

The Aumeister Biergarten sits at the north end of the massive Englischer Garten. Dating from 1810, it's big but not as big as some of the other biergartens in town. Very traditional space with plenty of outdoor tables and snack stands along the beer line. One of the places you can get the very delicious Auszogne (also called a Bavarian donut), though here they use regular sugar instead of powdered sugar to coat it. My wife really likes the dough they use here best, however.

It's at the top of the very forested north end of the park where there are dozens of trails for hiking and biking. It's very popular with both of those groups as a place to take a break in their activities.

(Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed) The Chinesischer Turm is a massive biergarten towards the south end of the park. The name means 'Chinese Tower' and is overshadowed by a 25 meter tall pagoda. Thousands of drinkers can fit here, sometimes listening to musicians playing up in the tower.

Several food stalls surround the beer stand with all kinds of goodies to eat. Know that your price for beer includes a deposit for the glass. Return it to the counter around the back to get your fee back.

After passing the south end of the park, past the surfers on the Eisbach, eventually you'll reach the city's main plaza, Marienplatz. Just another block or so beyond that is a destination that every traveler to Munich needs to visit, the Viktulienmarkt.

This 2-block long market is where you can find just about any food or drink you can imagine from individual vendor stalls.  The New York Times said is was worth flying across the Atlantic just to visit this market and I have to agree, it's a wonderful place full of fascinating smells and tastes.

The biergarten in the middle of the market is where you can indulge in all those goodies you're going to buy from those vendors, along with food you can buy at several surrounding snack stands and, of course, the beer counter.

This is one of the best places to make friends with locals over a bier and a wurst.

Across from the Haupbahnhof (the main train station) is the expansive Augustiner Keller biergarten. One of our very favorites, this is the place to come for massive schweinhocken (pork shanks with very crispy and tasty skin) and a fluffy, pillowy Auszogne.

One of Munich's oldest breweries, Augustiner (not available in the U.S.) pours from old-fashioned wooden kegs into giant liter glasses.

Help yourself to a giant pretzel in the baskets near the cashier.

Eagle's Nest has a notorious past. This small, mountain top spot south of Munich on the border of Austria used to be Adolph Hitler's personal getaway. He was painfully afraid of heights so he only made the trip up here a few times.

Today, it's open to everybody and commands a spectacular view to go with your brew.

Back in the Schwabing neighborhood of Munich, there's another market that is as yet untouched by tourists. It's much smaller than Viktulienmarkt but Elisabethplatz still has everything you'll need or want, including a beer garden in the corner.

This is Wintergarten and serves some of the best sausages we had here, along with more great Augustiner beer.

There are hundreds more but the three of us can only make so much of a dent. The biergarten culture in Germany is alive and well, I only wish they'd export it over to us in the states.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved

A Day in the Garten - Navigating Munich's Englischer Garten from End to End

(NOTE: We're trying to see different things on this trip to Munich than we did on our last trip. You might want to check out our previous trip to Bavaria to see some of the big sites we won't be covering on this trip as well)


(Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed) 

New York has Central Park; London has Hyde Park; Vancouver has Stanley Park; Berlin has the Tiergarten.  It seems that every big city has a grand park in it for the residents to enjoy and escape the urban life for awhile. In Munich, this would be the Englisher Garten...a huge city park that stretches over five miles along the Isar River.

It is our destination for today.

Watch the Video!

One or two stops on the U-Bahn from our Schwabing district hotel puts us within walking distance of the park's northern boundary. We make our way along the Frankfurter Ring until we get to the parking lot of Munich Tennis club which allows us to get off of the busy highway and enter the park through a quiet entrance in the back of the lot.

For a few minutes, I'm lost in the woods until I see a sign in the bushes for our first destination, the Aumeister Biergarten.

A left up the path and eventually the garden's large seating area opens up in front of us.  We're here to fortify ourselves with some dessert...including a very good auzignone...and some beer before tackling the rest of the park.

This end of the park is much more forested and quiet than the lower half. You can easily get lost in the woods.

The meadows are not mowed, in fact, shepherds still use the area to graze their flocks.

Streams gurgle under low pedestrian bridges.

As we make our way through, we encounter many bikers, hikers, dog walkers, parents with kids...all just out to enjoy the natural surroundings of the area.

A dam looms up ahead. There's a bumpy, rocky, but somewhat accessible path up to the top of the dam that allows us to cross the river. One side is a lake, the other a stream.

Swans glide across the water in the deeper areas.

Tim's chair is starting to give us problems, so we exit the park here to search for a tram to take us to the middle of the park. 

After strolling through a residential area, we come across another park where dogs cool off in the clear stream.  One of the dogs owners strikes up a little conversation with us and tells us which direction to go in to catch a tram.

Much walking later, we finally find a tram that takes us to the middle of the park.

Here, we come across the massive Chinischer Turm biergarten. In Munich, biergartens are situated at strategic points, in the Englischer Garten, there are a few to help you rejuvinate after a long walk.

This one, with it's large Chinese Pagoda, is a very popular stop.

A brass band plays in the tower while we get a little food and beer before continuing on. I do need to remember before moving on that the price of beer at this particular spot includes a deposit on the stein. I'll turn it in to get it back before I leave.

There's a handy map at the exit of the biergarten where we can figure out a) where we are and b) how to get were we want to go.

We decide to walk along the Eisbach Canal for the rest of our park adventure.
It's a hot, summer day in Munich and the canal is almost irresistible. In fact, it is too irresistible for some as park frolickers jump in and float in the cool, clear water.

Families play, dogs yap, and a few naturists tan.

It's a beautiful day in the park.

Finally, we come to the south end of the park where the rushing Eisbach enters into it's course. This spot with it's permanent wave has become one of the city's biggest, modern tourist attractions where a line of surfers patiently wait their turn on each side to have a minute to ride it.

A block away is another park in this city filled with them, the Hofgarten where we end our day listening to a lone violinist under the park's kiosk dome.

This was originally supposed to be a laid back, easy going day but a final check on Letty's fitness app shows that we walked 26,341 steps or just under 12 miles.

We'll rest up and hit the streets again tomorrow.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved

The Local...Finding a Comfy Neighborhood Biergarten Upon Arrival in Munich

(NOTE: We're trying to see different things on this trip to Munich than we did on our last trip. You might want to check out our previous trip to Bavaria to see some of the big sites we won't be covering on this trip as well)


(Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed) One of the down sides to traveling is laundry. Not finding anywhere to wash our clothes in Prague, we're in desperate need of a laundromat. Our last purchase at the Hilton Prague was a couple of cheap t-shirts to hold us over till we could find one.

Video Tour of our Accessible Room in Munich

We've arrived at our hotel in Munich, the Novotel Suites in Schwabing. It's located in a very quiet business park. and the room is very basic.  Hard to call it a suite but I guess there's a sliding panel in the wall that can be deployed as a barrier between the bed on one side of the room and the twin-sized day bed on the other side.

The bathroom is fully accessible with a roll-in shower but the pocket door has several ventilation holes in it, which compromises your privacy in it.

In the shower, the hot water is very hot and strong. Scalding, in fact, and the handle is in a precarious position so we have to be extremely careful when bathing not to hit it or receive burns if we do.

After checkin, we put our dirty clothes in a suitcase, find a nearby laundry (about 5 blocks away), and start walking over.

It's a Saturday and the laundry is closed today so we walk back to the hotel. On the way over, I saw a sign for a biergarten among the dozens of apartment blocks.  I wonder if they're open and if they serve food.  It's dinner time and we're hungry.

In Munich, each apartment building is separated by a green strip. Residents use this area to grow gardens and to have a little outdoor space.

One of these plots in this neighborhood is given over to the Alte Heide restaurant, which uses the space for a small biergarten.

A little manhandling is required to get Tim's chair over the 1 inch lip into the gravel covered garden (his heavy duty chair, back at home, would handle it easily) where a lovely round table awaits us.  The locals already at some of the other tables raise their glass and greet us as we come in.]

This isn't one of the massive biergartens the city is famous four. Just a quiet, neighborhood joint with about a dozen tables under the shady trees.

Although I've been taking DIY German lessons for the three months leading up to this trip, my supposed "25% fluency" is not getting my point across. The server says she doesn't know any English but her English is better than my German. She does provide us an English translation of the menu, which is a great help.

While we ponder our food choices, three litres of their special Oktoberfest beer...tonight's special... are set before us. Yes, it was delicious, refreshing, and much appreciated on this warm day.

Letty gets a steak; Tim, some pork Cordon Bleu; and I get some German meatloaf with potato salad. The food is simple and outstanding. All first-rate dishes, with Tim getting the best of it.

For dessert, a little apple strusel a la mode.

Before we leave, the server gives us a special treat, shots of Bavarian schnapps. It was very good.

The others at the tables are welcoming, smiling, relaxed. While we have to swat away a bee now and again, it's just the perfect way to relax. Over four hundred of these little (some bigger...some huge) relaxing beer parks dot the city of Munich. Literally, every block.

It's kind of like the pub culture in England...the social living room everybody comes to for relaxing and hanging out with others. Except, here in Munich, it's more like a patio.

For our next week, we've found our local. The Alte Heide biergarten in the Schwabing district, a happy accident while searching for a place to wash our clothes.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved

Riding Public Transit in Berlin and Munich, Germany With or Without a Wheelchair

(Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed) Transit in Berlin and Munich, at least, is very accessible. More so than in many U.S. ADA-covered cities like New York or Chicago even.

We like to use trains (such as the U-Bahn subway system) as much as we can but also know that the buses are accessible, too. While we'll get to the trains and trams below but first, the bus. 

Watch the Video!

Wave to flag the bus driver that you'll want to board the bus. You'll most likely enter via the rear door where a ramp can be deployed.  A wheelchair section will be at mid bus, the correct position is to sit rear-facing against the bracing board. Many buses also have a strap that you can request the driver put across you for added security.

You can tell the driver where you want to exit or press the button with the wheelchair symbol next to the wheelchair section. This will let the driver know that a wheelchair needs to exit at the next stop.

On buses, as with trams, you will most likely purchase your fare ticket on board (there are a few spots, like the airport or larger train stations where you can buy the ticket ahead of time). Please note that just purchasing the ticket does not make it valid...you must validate it on the bus or tram (or ahead of time, if you have access to a validator) with the machine that stamps it with the time and date.

This ticket must be shown to fare inspectors upon demand, who will check the time and date to see if it is expired or not (fare is good for two hours on a basic single ride ticket).

In larger German cities, the U-Bahn and S-Bahn are the backbone of the system. It's equivalent to the subways and commuter trains of larger American Cities.

For the U-Bahn and S-Bahn, you must buy and validate a ticket before getting on the train.  For all trains, buses, and trams, you can also buy multi-day passes.

Before riding on the U-Bahn or S-Bahn, it would be very helpful to check a subway system map to make sure the station you want to go to is wheelchair accessible. The system maps don't always show wheelchair symbols but they do have either an elevator icon, or a ramp icon indicating which type of access is available.

Berlin System Map
Munich System Map

If neither icon is showing, the station is not accessible to wheelchairs.

Most trams in both cities have either ramps or lifts into the vehicles. For any means of transit, the best place to wait is where the front of the train, tram, or bus will be so the driver can see you and deploy any ramps or lifts necessary.

All barrier-free (barrierefrie in German) stations have a folding ramp, so if you get a train with a gap that you cannot manage, the driver or station attendant is supposed to deploy that ramp for you.

For more information, please visit the respective websites below.

Berlin Public Transit
Munich Public Transit

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved


Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved

A Palatial Adventure in Munich

(NOTE: We're trying to see different things on this trip to Munich than we did on our last trip. You might want to check out our previous trip to Bavaria to see some of the big sites we won't be covering on this trip as well)


(Please read our Covid 19 Statement first - Ed) My wife said she had two requirements on this year's European adventure, neither of which I have met yet. First, she wants to go to a German yarn shop. Second, she wants to see a palace.

We were able to meet the first goal when I found a few yarn shops near Marienplatz in Munich. The second goal requires that we go to a different platz...this time Odeonplatz, just a few blocks away from Mary's Plaza.

The trains of the Munich U-Bahn are a bit lusher than Berlin's. The newer trains even have sexy, curved, blond wood seats to stretch out on. Seems a shame to only take it a couple of stops away from our hotel to the Odeonplatz station.

Watch the Video!

A big memorial to King Ludwig dominates the plaza when we exit. Before World War II but after the Nazi's rise to power, a memorial to fallen Nazi soldiers was here and guards were there to enforce everybody walking by would have to give the Nazi salute.

Not everybody was inclined to do this.

Behind the memorial is an alley where those who found it repugnant would walk through to avoid the guards in Odeonplatz. A strip of gold cobblestones down the middle of the pavement pays tribute to those avoiders.

One more block and around the corner we arrive at the wheelchair accessible entrance to the Residenz Munich, the city palace of the royal family. There is a lot of construction going on here. In fact, we'd see a lot of construction work taking place in this area during this trip.

While we can get into the palace courtyard, there is about a half dozen steps into the gift shop that also serves as the ticket counter for tours.  Tim and Letty wait outside while I go in.

We're told that a guide will meet us outside to escort us in. Soon, a gentleman appears and takes us inside. He asks me something in German that I don't understand. I ask in German if he speaks English and get a negative answer but through some back and forth with my limited German skills and his non-existent English skills, I get that he's asking if Tim can walk a little bit.

"Nein," I answer.

I can see why he asks when we have to shoehorn Tim and his chair into a very tiny elevator. It was quite a feat to get him in and I was concerned we'd never get him back out. We managed, though.

We follow our leader through several halls where we finally find ourselves in a large room that holds part of the royal silverware collection.

A lady meets us and starts to tell us what to do in German. I explain that, while I can speak a little German, I can't follow everything she's telling us.

"In Germany, we speak German," she tells me in perfect but a bit arrogant English.

"Guten morgen dann. Ist das deustch genung für dich?" I reply, a bit annoyed (translation: "Good morning then. Is that German enough for you?"

"Ja."

I explain to her I'm trying to learn German as much as I can but as a non-native, English speaker I'm not up to her level yet. Finally, she relents a little bit and tells us which way we can go to navigate the palace.

On our own, now, we wander through, finding the king's outstanding collection of clocks.

Room after room, filled with priceless antiques and artworks open up to us as we go along.

Some of the artworks, especially in the ceilings, were destroyed in the war with only a blank spot to replace them.

We see several rooms where the kings, queens, and other royals would meet with subjects.

There are a few music rooms.

Bedrooms for every occasion, royal, or visitor abound.

Finally, we see the giant ballroom where the king would sit on his own balcony to survey the proceedings.

Tim sits up there today as stairs prevent him from going onto the ballroom floor itself.

Dozens of busts and statues from ancient Rome and Greece line the walls.  The king was a bit of a collector.

Tour done, we go to exit the way we came in but it is now blocked by construction work. The man working the ticket counter is not empathetic to our plight.

"Go that way."

"There's loose gravel and two steps at the end."

"You will manage it. That is your only way out," he says and walks away.

Yeah, I'm not loving the attitude of some of these palace workers.

We do get out and manage to work our way over to the Augustiner Keller biergarten where the friendly faces, giant beers, and great food do wonders to put us back in the mood again.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved

Photos by Letty Musick
Copyright 2016 - All Rights Reserved