And I Think I Had Problems!
I had now not eaten anything, except for the fruit salad and an EatNakd bar since lunchtime on Wednesday, over twenty four hours ago. It hadn’t been helped on the train from Nuremberg, as the well-upholstered fraulein, ate a supersize baguette stuffed with sausage. So I booked into the Excelsior Hotel by the station and got connected to the wi-fi. I knew that usually good hotels can do a good gluten-free meal, if pushed. But this one probably couldn’t tonight, as they had a function on and cooking was limited.
But no matter, as I found this WordPress blog called Gluten Free In Munich. And with a bit of help from one of the receptionists in traditional Bavarian costume, with her frontage in full sail, I was able to get directions to a gluten free restaurant.
But my problems were really quite small compared to those of this guy here.
Starbucks Don’t Do Gluten-Free In Germany
One of my standbys in the UK is Starbucks, where at a pinch, you can usually get something that is gluten-free.
But not in Germany! The manager of this Starbucks in Munich, said they might be getting something later in the year.
Water At A Price
Or not as the case may be!
Water At A Price
It says €1.85 on the display, but they added twenty-five cents for recycling.
Why can’t the price be displayed as €2.10?
A Disastrous Attempt At A Meal
I tried to eat in Nuremberg and found it difficult. Eventually, I was served a meal, but as you can see it was cooked in flour.
A Disastrous Attempt At A Meal
I’ll say this though, they didn’t charge me.
What seemed lacking in all my searching was a restaurant that was serving something like a salad Nicoise.
Eventually, I bought a good fruit salad from a stall.
it Salad From Nuremberg
At least I got a fork with it.
German Rail Ticket Machines
These were excellent and worked in most common languages.
German Rail Ticket Machines
There were also lots of them and the queues were fairly minimal.
A Quick Look At Nuremberg
When I got to Nuremberg, it started to rain and I quickly found that the city was booked solid because of a massive exhibition.
I had particularly wanted to go to Nuremberg, as one of my customers years ago, had been an observer at the War Crimes Trials in the city. He was an Austrian Jew, who escaped before the war and had then spent the war years in the Royal Engineers. He had some amazing tales.
But because of the lack of a decent hotel, I decided to move on to Munich. Next time, I’ll book the Victoria Hotel, which is right by the station.
From Vienna To Nuremberg By ICE Train
The trip was four and three-quarter hours in the ICE train.
In some ways it reminded me of parts of the East Coast Main Line in the UK, where you travel for miles through flat and green countryside. But as you can see, you do have the Danube appearing at times.
Lokking at the route now, it would have been better to perhaps split the journey into two, with a stop at somewhere like Regensburg, which definitely seems a place worth visiting. So perhaps a sensible rule on a trip like this, is to check where your train stops between your overnight stops. Bear in mind, that the three German cities I explored, all had their stations in the centre.
It wasn’t all German efficiency though, as there was no coffee on the first part of the journey, as the buffet had no hot water.
But otherwise it was a trip that went smoothly.
Would I Go Back To Vienna?
Probably not deliberately, although it is a good transport interchange.
The reason is that I have lots of happy memories there with C, which were partly ruined by the hotel.
I’ve now also seen most of the parts that interest me.
Leaving Vienna
On Thursday, the 11th, I took the train out of Vienna for Nuremberg.
As you can see I got up early and caught one of the German ICE trains at 06:52.
One of the strange things was that the free magazine was hung up on a string in the carriage. But that was also done on Metro trains in Vienna.
Gasometers Don’t Exist
The title of this post is borrowed from an old copy of the Meccano Magazine.
But type gasometer into Wikipedia and you get redirected to gas holder. The origin of the name is given here in Wikipedia. It was supposedly coined by the Scot; William Murdoch.
But they do exist in Vienna and even have their own Metro station called Gasometer.
They are really one of the best examples of converting a redundant structure into something useful. There’s more about them here.
The last time I saw these structures, was when C and I came to a christening in Vienna. We wondered what the virtually derelict brick structures were as we took the train to the airport.
The Anonymous Widower 