Let’s lob in a couple of stereotypes here. Stereotype number one: Germans love their cars, and they love to make them go “vroom.” Stereotype number two: taxi drivers are aggressive drivers. So, I probably need to have my head examined for having us get into a German cab Sunday morning to go to the airport.

I can now officially report that I have gone as fast in a car as I ever have in my life. I felt as if the driver was going extremely fast on the highway, so I leaned over to see the speedometer and it had just hit 200 kph, which, for those keeping score, is 120 mph. Keep in mind this was on a highway with a speed limit of 78 mph. It was terrifying, but what was I going to say? It was by far the riskiest thing we did all vacation, and I was glad to get to the airport. To firm up my notion of avoiding German cabs, the fare was 70 euros ($78), and the driver tried to sell me a $50 Canadian bill for 25 euros (it is worth 35 euros), even through he was at the airport, where he could have exchanged it for the going rate.

To add insult to irony, the world’s fastest cab got us to the airport at 8:00 am, which is what I was aiming for. Our flight was at 11:50, and we had missed a flight in Italy a few years ago because of oversleeping, and it took us three full hours to get to the plane in Toronto two weeks ago. So, I was being cautious. After wandering around the airport for a few minutes and asking a couple of people where Air Canada was, we found the desk. Which was closed. Until 9:00 am. We were gently chastised for getting there so early by another airport official, saying we needed to be there three hours early. This went over well with me, as you can imagine, and Meredith was only smug for a couple of seconds before becoming supportive (she tends to favor getting to the airport three hours ahead).

We did manage to get to the gate about two hours ahead of the flight because security checks were efficient. Then, I set off in search of water for Meredith, who gets super dehydrated on planes. I searched most of the wing of the airport we were in, and there were no drinking fountains anywhere. So, I shelled out $5 each for two water bottles and returned to Meredith.

Then, I set off in search for breakfast. I searched most of the wing of the airport we were in, and I found only four restaurants, two of which were serving lunch foods already, and one of the other ones was a sit-down place only. I have not come across such a huge expanse of airport without food places in my travels — the wing of the airport we were in had over eighty gates. I suppose they could not fit food in between the 80% of retail space devoted to duty-free shopping. Really, who decides to buy jewelry or watches at the airport? Someone must, because the shops were everywhere.

I walked up to the counter of the one remaining food place and looked at the list of foods. I asked for a ham and cheese croissant. They did not have those. Sigh. I’ll have scrambled eggs to go. There is a ten minute wait for those. Sigh. I’ll have the ham and cheese pretzel. Please sign this mortgage agreement. At least I had breakfast finally.

The rest of the trip home went well. The flight was very calm except for the last ten minutes of coming in to land in Toronto, when we hit some turbulence, which made Mer feel ill to her stomach. It did take us ninety minutes to get off the plane, get our luggage, get through customs, and get back to our car, but I had expected that. From Toronto, it is a four-and-a-half hour drive home, although it usually takes us a little more than five hours since we stop a couple of times to stretch and get gas. So, we got home around 10:00 pm (4:00 am in Germany) to kitties who seemed happy to see us, judging by the frantic need for petting they required. The hotel-to-home stage took about twenty-one hours, but I can’t lay any blame for delays on the taxi ride.

One of the reasons to travel is the surprises, which are more often than not quite good things. We got to Munich today in the late afternoon, after a four-plus-hour train ride, which had been preceded by a mad dash for the train despite our being there over an hour and a half early (who knew the same train could be split to different destinations during the trip?). Since it was late, we knew we only had a few hours to see anything, and that included getting supper.

I decided we should take the metro/underground down to the old section of Munich to soak up the local ambiance and to get supper. As we came out of the metro station, we came upon a good-sized group of people listening to a speaker and carrying signs with crosses and the name “Jesus” on them, as well as other German words. That was somewhat surprising, as I was not expecting any organized event in the square, let alone a Christian one. We noted it with interest, and then headed off toward a huge church that Meredith though was famous.

The main street between squares was mobbed with people, so I veered us off to a side street, where we came upon the church we were looking for, in a surprisingly small front square with a pretty fountain in it. Gathered to one side of the fountain was a group of about twenty-five young people, singing. After a few seconds, we realized they were singing Christian songs. In English. We went over to check it out, and to sing along. In between songs, various people said things in German that we did not understand, but some of them had balloons with a cross, an equals sign, and a heart. We stuck around for about twenty minutes until the group broke up, but in the course of it, we learned that tonight was Munich’s “Holy Spirit Night,” a night when youth groups from all over Munich took to the main square to tell people about God. It was very impressive to see the joy they had, and how much fun they were having together. It was a grand surprise, and not something we would have ever been able to plan. Keep on traveling!

We found a Slovenian/Croatian restaurant off of another square, and so we were able to blend this summer’s trip with last summer’s trip. After supper, we headed back to the underground, where the Holy Spirit Night was just about to get going officially. It was drizzling a bit, but there seemed to be a good crowd milling about. We took the underground home to the hotel, with a minor detour for some Milka candy bars for the plane. We will get up at 6:00 am tomorrow to start the twenty-hour process of finding our own beds Sunday evening. It has been a great tour of Austria and a little bit of Germany. Many thanks to Meredith for getting us to Europe again!

Sometimes, when I travel for longer periods, I start to miss the familiarity of home. Compound that with a language barrier, unfamiliar food made of every part of the pig, confusion while driving or trying to follow maps, countries where air conditioning is equated with weakness, church bells cheerfully tolling the hours all night long, coins worth $2.50, $3.50 bottles of Sprite and Coke, and the complex mystery of figuring out plumbing, and you can end up with a boy who misses home somewhat. So, when I saw, like a vision, a Fridays restaurant on the corner tonight, be kind and do not judge to know we ate there for supper. I knew exactly what “sizzling chicken” meant and was pleased to get it.

We started today off by going back to St. Stephen’s to visit the couple of sights on our all-inclusive ticket that we did not get to yesterday. Since it was relatively cool out and we were still fresh in the morning, we tackled the complete and thus taller south tower of the cathedral. It had over three hundred steps going up a tight spiral staircase, and even that only got us about halfway up. We made the long tromp up there, and I have to say from an objective point of view that it was a little disappointing. The stairs led to a fairly large room that I assume used to hold bells, but now held a souvenir shop, with eight small windows that looked out over the city. Granted, it was nice for me since I am scared of heights, but I felt it must be a little bit of a let-down for people who climbed so far up. Mer was content — she loves views, so she looked out over the city in all four directions with me looking over her shoulder from a few feet back. Then we headed back down to the street. Down was much easier.

We headed back into the main church to take our last tour — the treasures tour. One of the city’s museums is being renovated, so the religious artifacts have been returned to the church for display. As an added bonus, the display area is up with the old organ in the back of the church, so it affords great views of the cathedral itself. The artifacts were interesting to us since we like religious art, and they dated from around 1300 to around 1800. The tour finishes off in the reliquary room, which was packed with holy objects containing a holy artifact, usually a piece of a bone of a saint. There were several full skulls and even one entire decorated skeleton. The gold, silver, and jewelry work in these objects was very impressive.

That finished up St. Stephen’s for us, and so I took us northeast by the metro system, to go ride a giant Ferris wheel that is over one hundred years old. It still has the huge enclosed cars that resemble railroad cars. What I had not remembered was that the Ferris wheel was in the middle of a good-sized amusement park. It offered a chance to see Austrians at play with their families, and that looked fun. So, we rode the Ferris wheel (called Riesenrad, or “giant wheel”), which went high enough to make me leery, but not so high that I panicked. It took about fifteen minutes to go around.

After that, we rode a small roller coaster. Meredith nailed it when she pointed out that the amusement park was more or less a fairground-style park that was bigger and permanent. So, we rode the little coaster, which was kicky. As always, the Austrians seemed to care little about liability, and we were allowed to ride with our water bottles and our guidebook (it was all fine). The coaster was a steel coaster, but not fully smooth. The stop was especially rough on both Meredith’s and my shins, which barked up against the footwell in our car.

That was enough for rides for the day, but we did spend a pleasant time roaming the park and watching the rides. Oddly, there were many duplicate attractions. There were at least four “houses of horror,” at least three “fun houses,” two swing rides, and at least three swinging-arm rides that inverted the riders (made them spin around overhead). I’m not sure why the park is set up like that, but it seems to work. The rides are pay-per-ride, which worked great for us, but seemed like a costly afternoon if you went there with a family of four, for whom shelling out about $20-$25 per ride would add up pretty quickly. On the plus side, there was no wait for any ride that I saw.

After lunch at the park, we headed back into the main old city, where we jumped on the Ringstrasse tram cars. The Ringstrasse is a huge circular street that follows the route of the old medieval walls. There are streetcars that circle this road too, and we had a transit pass, so we jumped on the trams to circle the entire old city. It is a fast and cheap way to see, very briefly, many sites.

We finished out our official touring of the day with a visit to Haus der Musik (“Music House”), an excellent museum dedicated to sound and music. They have fun interactive displays, like a musical keyboard staircase, an entire floor given over to the science of sound, and a chance to virtually conduct the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (I got a standing ovation on my first try, as did Meredith; her second attempt at conducting a waltz ended with insults from the players). They also had some of the displays from the dismantled opera museum, and an entire floor dedicated to composers like Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. Even though I am not into classical music and opera so much, the museum was excellent, with lots of things to actually try and do.

Then came supper at Fridays. Try to keep the scorn to a dull roar. I know all about how dull roars get to my brain now, so watch it.