Saturday, 3 October
After a good night’s sleep, I woke up and had a hot shower. Yesterday’s shower was at room temperature since I could not figure out the controls. As you know, every hotel bathroom has different shower controls, add that to European unfamiliarity. Yesterday Frank gave me an idea about the controls that worked perfectly and I had a hot shower. I owe him a beer,
The hotel and campground are much busier this morning with the holiday weekend. Many children are here. There are at least a couple hundred campsites, some with permanent camper set ups, other drive-ins. I am sure it is really busy here in the summer. During my walk through the campground this morning I viewed many pieces of eclectic art. One little section had a bunch of quotes (in German of course, thank you Google Translate) from Native Americans about respect for the land. There are lots of cow art pieces. Bavaria is known for its cows, milk and cheese.
A little building with vending machines included a popcorn machine that pops the popcorn fresh for you along with a cotton candy machine that you can watch making your cotton candy. I have never seen 25 pound propane tanks in a vending machine before.
I met Nicole at nine at the hotel brunch. We drank too much coffee and I enjoyed German bread with jam as well as cheeses and eggs. It got warm after sitting outside for awhile in the sun. We moved to my room balcony where I lost another backgammon match. I again blamed it on jet lag but Nicole was not falling for that story. There is an oak tree outside my balcony where we watched an eichelhaeher, Eurasian jay, make trips back and forth gathering acorns, which it buries for use during winter. There were also black squirrels climbing on the trees.
Nicole headed back with plans to meet again at 5:30 to head to dinner with Frank and his mother. Nicole and Frank showed up at 5:30 and they helped me check out of the hotel since I need to leave early tomorrow morning to head to the airport. Next stop was to pick up Frank’s 91 year old mother, Waltraud. Dinner was at the Klosterbraugasthof, The brewery and restaurant are in an old cloister. I had Braumeisters-Leibgericht; Brewmaster’s Favorite Dish- Breaded schnitzel with malt crumbs, bacon and cranberries, baked potato filled with herb sour cream. Waltraud impressed me with her few words of English that she remembered from the soldiers at the end of the war. The food was very good. Food always seems to be an important part of my travels/
We dropped Waltraud off before getting me back to the hotel. A video call with Dolora and the to update my journal and try to get to sleep early. Nicole is picking me up at 6:00 am for the ride to the airport and my flight to Naples. I am looking forward to seeing Anzi. I will have about a 2 1/2 hour drive from the Naples airport in a rental, Fiat 500. Should be an adventure!