GERMAN EFFICIENCY......NOT

Beautiful day yesterday, rained all day today. Planned for it with a comprehensive 3 route HoHo bus tour.

Visited all the major sites in Munich, which I have to say is a very nice place. BMW world & offices are impressive, you must be paying too much for those wagens. Perhaps DT has a point. Went for lighter grub today, not sure we succeeded with an Asian bowl for lunch followed by coffee & cakes German style at 4pm. Our last HoHo was a Swabian trip that was scheduled every 2hours from 10:30. We were wandering near the HoHo terminal at 13:30 & up pops an unscheduled bus. We hopped on, as you do, & off we went. Not many people on it, being unscheduled - German efficiency1.

Got back to hotel this evening to pack & sort out trip to airport on Sunday, don't wanna mess up, what with clock changes to discover that rail trip planned now has bus replacement service due to leaves on line or some other stupid excuse - German efficiency2. Re-plan now going ahead.

That walking man's a big boy, BayernFC supporters pretty happy in town today, top of league by 6 points, HK to get his first trophy?

EIS ZWEI G'SUFFA

 Here we are in Munich, journey had it's ups & downs. The train journey & everything leading up to the flight were all great, not so good the rest of it. Boarded early, started to push back and the dopey man operating the tug turned it at too great an angle & got it jammed on the nose wheel. Finally got it released but now the Captain wouldn't go any further until it was checked by an engineer to confirm it hadn't over rotated. Half hour later we started to taxi again & flew off to Germany wondering if the nose wheel would collapse on landing. It didn't! At Munich we got lost on the way to passport & had to re-trace our, so instead of being first in the queue we were last.

This is the town hall, it has an animated mechanical clock where knights joust & beer barrel makers dance.

Beautiful little baroque church that was once a private chapel for the Asam brothers

Hofbrauhaus beer Keller holds about 4000 people. Apparently there's a sign inside that says Gooners not allowed 

These are the clock characters in the town hall

Had a nice meal in the Pschorr beer Keller. Lovely place that brews it's own beer and only sources produce locally around Munich. Had traditional German fare, sauerbraten and pigs hock with pickled veg. Amazing I got the beer to balance on the food like that.

CAN WE GO?

Off to Munich this morning, not sure if we going when we run into a red light at the exit from the apartment. It was OK it went green soon after. Public transport to Heathrow but weaver train late so we would miss our connection on to the Elizabeth line. Driver saved the day & cut out all the scheduled stops between Seven Sisters & Liverpool Street. Good for us but other passengers not impressed. Otherwise perfect trip & now lounging in business class room at Heathrow.

Other good news pension increase of 1.7% & postcode win - woohoo.

Can't decide to do Nazi walk or HoHo, let's see what the weather brings.

DONE &....

 dusted in Zeebrugge. Last leg across the North Sea, home tomorrow with any luck. No too lucky so far, what with Hamburg strike we now have train strikes in Belgium. So we decided not to go to Bruges & instead took a tram ride down to Knokke. A really nice seaside resort town about 20mins on the tram. Tap in system again €2.5 for one hours travel. Nice sunny day & warm if you kept out of the wind. Didn't go on the sandy beach but did don cossies to get in the hot tub overlooking the port and it's fleet of minesweepers. Tonight we have a nice curry coming up & packing to complete.

HAMBURG, BEST LAID PLANS...

 go awry. Planned to have nice breakfast, go ashore at midday, meet up with the family, quality time & go back on board in the evening as ship didn't sail until 5am next day. About 8:15am Captain comes on in the cabin - Germans on strike, have to leave port early at 3:30pm. Panic in the cabin to try and re-arrange meeting, got people out of bed, but still Aunty Ruth & family had to cancel. Public transport now not quick enough to make the time so good old Uber steps up & does the job. 

The Steinwerder Cruise Terminal in Hamburg is a mess, it has no decent transport links at all, you probably have to walk close to a mile to the bus stop. Next stop Zeebrugge, which we here is also on strike, let's see.

NORIONA

Should be the P&O Iona of course, but we are in the throws of the Noro virus. My hands have withered away because of the constant sanitiser & hand washing. So far so good!

Nice cabin with conservatory and then a balcony, not so good is the position on the promenade deck, people can look in & see me tending to my piles. See the picture of the hot tub taken from the cabin.

Rotterdam is nice, been here several times, not so good is that on Monday most things you would like to see are closed. No museums, art galleries or similar. Wanted to do a trip to the Art Deco factory, but no joy.

Weather mixed, warm & yesterday sunny but today raining & grey. Undaunted took to shank's pony and the public transport to go to see the street Art in China Town and partake of some poffertjes. All great despite rain. Poffertjes & coffee in Didi's, a tiny cafe where everything is made while you wait. The trams are excellent with active stops time screen & good on board spoken & screen info so you can find your way OK. Debit card touch in-out, great.

Had a nice cabaret show with Ray Quinn, (X factor & dancing on ice) Good singer & meal was good too. See the smoked salmon starter.

Now on our way to Hamburg, Germany.

Xmas Walk in London

 Decided to take in the Xmas illuminations in London. Hadn't been for many years so all new for us. We took the train and tube down to Green Park on a grey and damp day. The walk was around 3.5 miles through Mayfair and ending up at Covent Garden. Knees hurt today, as Baz says - look after them, you'll miss them when they're gone. The Mayfair an Soho areas were very busy, load of tourists, pedal Tuk Tuks blasting out Christmas tunes. I wonder what they cost a Christmas. Mayfair is very swanky and the bit we were walking had lots of high end motor salesrooms, Rollers, Lambos, Tesla - the lot. Interesting when you can't drive too easily in London what with Comrade Khan's taxes and tolls.

 This Annabel's night club, venue for the rich and famous, never been there. Don't qualify, I guess.

Next stop was New Bond Street, home to all the high end jewellers - just so you can load up with bling to drive your high end motors.

Off to Picadilly, Regent Street, Hamleys toy shop (which was heaving) then Carnaby Street and Leicester Square. Burlington Arcade and Fortnum & Masons advent calendar, followed by Regent St flying angels.

Final leg took us down Haymarket to Trafalgar Square where there was a a Christmas Market and the tree donated to us by Norway ever since the end of WW2. Bit underwhelming. Then up through Theatre land and over to Covent Garden. Nice and buzzy there with street singers and acts taking place..