Long Train Runnin'

In about a dozen trips to Europe or Asia since 2009, we've never rented a car: too expensive and frankly, too much trouble. Except for an occasional cab, traveling by train is the best way to go. This year, we travelled by train from Germany (Munich in Bavaria) to Italy (Bolzano in South Tyrol and Genoa on the Italian Riviera), about 300 miles.

Based on previous experiences, I have concluded that the most prompt and timely train service is in Switzerland and Germany. Italy and Spain? Not so much. Leaving Bolzano, we immediately fell behind schedule, missing our connections, first in Verona, then Milan and finally Turin. We eventually arrived in Genoa after 11 hours on trainsand terminals, tired but relieved.

Messner's Mountain Museum

In planning our European junket, we chose two destinations on either side of the Alps as beginning and end points: Bavaria and the Italian Riviera. We would land in Munich and spend a week exploring the area and touring the castles of King Ludwig II. From Munich, we hopped a train to Bolzano in South Tyrol to witness the splendor of the Dolomites and visit one of Reinhold Messner's renowned mountain museums.

Messner, of course, is the first to climb the fourteen 8,000-meter peaks in the world, all without the use of supplemental oxygen or high-altitude porters. In addition to his climbing exploits and extreme expeditions, he is the best selling author of 60 books and the founder of the Messner Mountain Museums, a collection of six mountain-themed exhibitions.

Since we were in Bolzano, we hopped in a cab to Firmian, the ancient castle with fortifications dating to 945 AD where Reinhold Messner established the centerpiece of his six mountain museums in South Tyrol. The menagerie, located on the hills immediately west of Bozano, explores the relationship between humans and mountains from a variety of spiritual, economic, philosophical and cultural perspectives.

The self-guided exhibition leads visitors a journey through walls, towers and plains, beginning in the depths, examining formation, rock and exploitation, then moves on to explore myths and religions before focusing on tourism and alpinism. Architecture, art and nature combine to weave a compelling narrative. The tour is not predetermined and participants may explore on their own and at their own pace.

The centerpiece of the six mountain museums, Firmian features a treasure trove of Tibetan art and exhibits on Tibetan life and culture, including shrine rooms, altars and deity statues.

The museum focuses on man's connection with the mountains.

Duolingo Dilemma

After a week in Munich, we initiated preparations for the next leg of our journey to Bolzano on July 29. Having already purchased our train tickets, we retired early. In the middle of the night, our phones buzzed with reckless abandon. We ignored tham at first, thinking it was another fraud alert on a credit card, but now awake, we started the process of preparing for a train trip through Austria to our destination in Italy.

Our phones were flooded with texts from family members asking if we were okay. Apparently, national news outlets had reported a fatal train crash in Munich. We responded that we were just fine, and that we would board our train to Bolzano shortly. We were only a few blocks away from the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) in downtown Munich, but we hailed a cab anyway because of our heavy bags. 

The five-hour trip from Munich to Balzano was picturesque farm land then mountains as we transitioned from Germany to Austria. The Tirol is one of those unique regions that began as part of the Holy Roman Empire, and eventually Austria-Hungary, until the conclusion of WW I, when the Kingdom of Italy seized the southern part of the region. For centuries, the region has been known for its heavy transit trade over Brenner Pass.

Arriving in Bolzano ("Bozen" in German), we waited for a cab and watched as numerous customers boarded taxis they apparently had ordered. Calling our hotel for assistance, they were unable to help and instructed us to call the cab company. Contacting the cab company, the recording noted: dial "1" for Italian and "2" for German. No English. Eventually, we commandeered a cab intended for someone else.

Munich Miscellany

Tooling around the city center of Munich is quite the rush. The city's core, closed to motorized vehicles, pulses with vibrancy and prosperity. Yet, despite its urbane sophistication, Munich maintains  a certain provincialism that visitors find charming. Locals insist that their metropolis, which tops out at more than two million residents, is little more than a world village. During Octoberfest, the city welcomes six million more to hoist a glass to the conclusion of harvest season.

Munich prospered as a salt-trading center but was slammed by the bubonic plague in 1349. The epidemic subsided only after 150 years, when locals initiated a ritualistic dances as a reminder of their good fortune. The dance is reenacted daily by the little figures on the city's "glockenspiel" in the Marienplatz. By the nineteenth century, Munich witnessed an explosion of monument building, providing the city with its compelling architecture and wide Italian-style avenues.

The situation reached the point of excess when King Ludwig II assumed the Bavarian throne in 1864 as his grandiose projects, such as tlie Neuschwansten Castle, bankrupted the royal household and threatened the governmental collapse. Ironically, today the castles are major money generators of Bavaria's tourism industry. Munich experienced more back luck in the 20th century, nearly starving to death during WW I and suffering relentless Allied bombimg raids during WW II.

As anyone who travels to Europe will tell you, a big part of the experience is enjoying local cuisine. While Munich is a veritable world food court, our focus was on German comestibles. We dined at the some of the finest establishments Munich has to offer, including the Augustiner, where we had the best of the wurst (a variety of brats and dogs), and the Schitzelwirt, where the wienerschnitzel and jägerschnitzel were simply divine.

Another of Munich's "must see" features is the Englischer Garten, one of the world's largest urban public parks. Named after a form of informal landscaping popular in England from the mid-18th to the early 19th century. At the southern tip of the Englischer Garten is an articifical "permanent wave" in a frigid arm of the Isar River, where crowds gather on weekends to watch neoprene-clad surfers practice their moves. Residents of Munich also love their soccer team: FC Bayern.