Well, getting out of Vilnius wasn't very difficult, but it wasn't quite optimal. My flight didn't leave until 3 in the afternoon, so that meant checking out of the hotel at noon, and then getting to the airport to wait for the flight.
You can't really do anything in the morning before checking out of your hotel, so I decided to stay in and catch up on all the things I'd been putting off. When I did finally check out, I remember to tell the people at reception how nice the ladies who served/made breakfast were, and how much I appreciated their communicating with me in English and their wonderful smiles. Today I received an e-mail from the hotel, and apparently they are involved in some contest and they want me to write them a nice review. Gladly!
Okay, so I had plenty of time to get out of town. I was packed and ready to go. This time I would take the train from Vilnius to the Airport and then fly AirBaltic from Vilnius to Riga to Munich. So many things could go wrong, but they didn't - WHEW!
First, the train runs on a very strict schedule, so if you one, it takes another hour for the next one to come along. Needless to say, I wanted to get there early to make sure nothing went wrong. Trudging my luggage through the streets of Vilnius for 10-15 minutes, wasn't a big deal, but I could understand why some people would rather take the taxi or a bus to the train station. I've been there and done that, and now I am well seasoned, so it wasn't an issue.
Once I got to the station, I went to the ticket office and asked for one ticket to the Airport. Well, it turns out you buy the ticket on the train (I did not know that nor had I read it anywhere). The ticket seller also told me the train was leaving in 5 minutes.
So, here I go running, with luggage, to the platform to catch the train (I don't know why I rushed, I still had plenty of time, and I could have waited an hour for the next one - go figure). So, I was able to get to the train with just a couple of minutes to spare.
When the ticket-taking person came up to me, and I asked how much, and she said, "72." Alright, can you believe it? It only costs .72 E to ride the train from the city to the airport - less than 1 Euro??? What a bargain. I gave her some change, she gave me change, and we were on our way.
Seven minutes later, we were at the Vilnius Airport. Word of warning to anyone who will ever do this. The train does not leave you at the airport front door. You actually have to climb stairs or take an elevator (too busy) to the top "ground" level, and then walk a little distance to go to the "departure" terminal. You could go to the arrival terminal and take the elevator up to the level of the departure terminal (but I didn't discover that until after I had trudged all the way there with my luggage and done some exploring). So, again, be forewarned.
Now the airport is not a big airport by any standards, and I was kind of disappointed they didn't have more places to buy something to eat. Since it was well after noon, I settled on a coffee shop and bought a cup of coffee and a sandwich - which turned out to be quite enough.
Once again, you don't just go to the ticket counter for the airline you are using and do stuff.
1. In this case, AirBaltic will charge you a fee for not checking in on line.
2. AirBaltic will charge you a fee if you don't check your bag in on line.
3. AirBaltic will charge you a fee if the bag you check in is oversized or overweight.
4. AirBaltic will charge you for anything you say, do, eat, or drink while you are on one of their planes.
Enough said, I had the fear of God set in me, and I planned to be good.
When you get to the airport, you check the board, and find your flight. A notice will the appear on the board telling you when to go to the appropriate "check in desk," so you have to stay on top of that. Once the board says you can check in, you all rush to the desk and "check in" - basically they review your on line check in status, and they weigh and tag your bag (if you plan to carry something on board the plane, be prepared to show it to them and/or have it weighed because they will charge you extra - I think you got that though).
Once you check in, they "approve you" tell you where the secret gate is, and you are ready to go through security. I've been pretty lucky with security over here. Mostly I leave everything on (my belt is fabric with a plastic buckle, and my shoes are un-terrorist looking (I guess)), so they breeze me through. Thank God!
Now, I'm on the other side and discover that there are way more feeding options than I had before. Oh, well, I enjoyed my coffee and sandwich.
So, my flight goes without a hitch. But now the scary part. I am staying in an "apartment" and the e-mail I got from the people who run the place says that if I am going to be checking in later than 10 pm, I need to call and let them know, because they close up at 10 pm. YIKES. My flight from Vilnius leaves at 3:15 pm and my connecting flight from Riga leaves at 5:20 pm. I'm supposed to arrive in Munich at about 7:00 pm (Munich Time). I have a checked in bag, am not familiar with public transportation, and I am beginning to worry that I might have to sleep on the streets until the next day!!!!! YIKES
Well, the plane makes excellent time, and we arrive in Munich at 7 pm. (The connection in Riga was smooth and without a hitch - just followed the signs to find the appropriate gate for boarding my plane - no problems whatsoever.)
Step 1 - no passport check as explained before, so I go directly to pick up my bag.
Step 2 - I read about a train that goes from the airport to the center of the city where I can catch subway to the hotel - find train, buy ticket(s)?
Step 3 - Found train, found ticket machine (YIKES), realize it "speaks" English, can do transaction on machine - what kind of ticket to buy????? (YIKES) - machine says, press "Help" - I press "Help" - it tells me to buy 3-day ticket to use from airport and for kinds of stuff in Munich.
Step 4 - I buy three-day ticket
Step 5 - Find out how to validate ticket - not necessary when you buy from machine! WHEW - that's written somewhere - I forget
Step 6 - Find platform for train Only two trains going from airport to central station - no-brainer - take either train.
Step 7 - Train arrives, get on train, refer to directions on how to get to hotel on subway once train drops you off.
Step 8 - Train arrives at central station, you find appropriate subway going in right direction, board (just like in NYC)
Step 9 - Get off subway train at appropriate place to take another train on another route - find, YEAH!
Step 10 - Get on next train and head for stop near hotel.
Step 11 - Get off at stop near hotel, go to hotel, register.
Plenty of places to panic and get stressed out before and during Steps 1-11. Fortunately, I got here around 9 pm (an hour to spare), and everything went smooth as silk after that. I checked in and went out to hunt something to eat
The "apartment" is situated in a suburb area, but there are plenty of markets and restaurants around. I happened on one that billed itself as "authentic Bavarian cuisine" - so I walked in, introduced myself as ignorant of the German language, and found a very friendly waiter who took me by the hand and taught me how to eat in German.
It was a great meal with great beer, and everyone there seemed very happy and enjoying themselves. The waiters did actually wear lederhosen, and there were antlers on the wall, and the restaurant was filled with German men of all ages/sizes and they were all having very animated conversations (I'm thinking the beer had something to do with that). At first I thought I had stumbled into some kind of club get together, but then I noticed some women there as well - WHEW. My waiter was really nice and he helped me navigate through the beer and meal options - which turned out to be excellent and quite reasonably priced.
By the time I got back to my room, I was exhausted, so I called it a night.
Well, there are so many things to do in Munich, but I decided to stick with what worked for me. I researched and there are to major botanical gardens, the main one (Botanical Garden) and another one called the Englischer Garden. The Botanical Garden opened at 9 and the weather forecast was for cloudy, so I decided to do that first.
I found out how to get there on line, and quickly mastered the subway/tram system, to find the appropriate tram that took me directly to the front door of the Botanical Gardens. Since I am not doing breakfast in my "apartment," I had to find breakfast first and then head out on my days adventure. Coffee and pastry are everywhere you go, so it's not hard to get a cappuccino and pastry at any time of the day or night. WHEW!
So, first stop today is the Botanic Gardens, but before I go there, here is a wake up call on Munich:
It's also a major tourist location and shopping center - lots of people out shopping today.
Back to the garden - http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Botanischer_Garten_M%C3%BCnchen-Nymphenburg
It's everything you would expect in a botanical garden in a big city. Not as big as most, but very well thought out. A lot of plants were just sprouting and you could tell that the season was just getting started. A few weeks, and this place will be in full bloom. Here are some pics I took today.
The grounds were huge, but mostly a formal park with lakes. The palace itself was under repair - like many monuments in Munich including the Cathedral.
I paused here for lunch at a local restaurant. It turned out to be Pakistani food which was very very good. There was a gentleman sitting on the doorway to the restaurant, and when he saw me he invited me in. I guess he assumed I was American (not a long shot), and said, "I'll help you with the menu if you have any questions." Fortunately, there were words like curry, and other things I recognized from eating similar food, and I was able to distinguish between fish, meet, and chicken, but he insisted on going down the list. I settled for a hot chicken curry with rice - delicious!
I knew I had a long afternoon of walking ahead of me. There were two museums right in front of me, the Alte and Neue Pinakothek - http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Alte_Pinakothek
& http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Neue_Pinakothek
The two art museums were side by side, but each had its own fee. The Alte was undergoing major construction, but they still had a significant exhibit - mostly older works and primarily German and religious. I saved those pics for the last. Here are the ones that interested me:
It was a very interesting day, but I realized that Munich is way too big for the time I allowed. There is still way too much to see. So I am off this morning to see what kind of trouble I can get into.
Hope you enjoy the pics.
Steve
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