In transitThe first leg of our journey. This time we did not hit a car.
We woke up on our last morning in Mayrhofen, looking forward to doing laundry and spending the rest of the day traveling. Everyone says they love to travel, but in reality they like being new places. The traveling part is unexciting and a lot like work. But you don’t get to see the new places without the travel part.
We had breakfast and headed out to the laundromat with a big bag full of dirty clothes. Our hosts were so wonderful and let us leave our luggage in our room while doing laundry. We really love the folks that own Gausthaus Ahornblick and if we’re in Mayrhofen again, that is where we will stay. Romance novels in the rack at the train station. I think the translation may be just a little bit off. Lost in translation it is.
We walk through town in the rain lugging our big bag ‘o laundry. We arrive at the laundromat and the sign on the door says it is open. We go in and a lady is doing dry cleaning stuff. We ask where the laundromat is and she says they are closed. We say “the door says it is open” and we are told it is closed until January 7. While the rest of Austria runs with incredible precision, the laundromat in Mayrhofen didn’t get the memo.
We still have our big bag ‘o dirty clothes and nowhere to wash them. We go back to the guest house and I get out the laptop and start looking. These small mountain towns often have only one laundromat and they aren’t always easy to find on the internet. I find one about 3 blocks from the Munich train station and this is on the way to the airport. We decide we will go there. Laurie with our new roller bags. So far, they have done well.
We take the Zillertalbahn (Zillertal is the name of the valley and bahn means train) from Mayrhofen to Jenbach. This is a narrow gauge railroad that only runs up and down the valley. It is also the same one that hit a car on the way to Mayrhofen when we were on board. We have an uneventful ride down the valley to Jenbach, hitting no cars along the way.
In Jenbach we board an OBB (Austrian National Railroad) train from Jenbach to Munich. It arrives on time to the minute and leaves the same. It arrives in Munich the same way. When we get to Munich, we head out of the train station and walk to the nearby laundry to do our clothes. Munich Laundry. We do laundry about every 5 days.
We find that this laundromat is NOT closed, and is even open until 11 p.m. We wade in amongst the locals, pick out our machine, and get ready to wash! It is the same as many laundromats (waschsalons) we have been to in Europe. You put your clothes in a machine, buy soap powder from a machine at the front, and put money in a central pay station and push the number of your machine.
It costs 4 euros (around $4.40) to do a load and 1 euro/ten minutes to dry. Soap costs .50 euros per load. You can buy fabric softner for .50 a load too. We burn about 90 minutes doing laundry and take turns going to the Kebap stand across the street while our wash runs. The pay station at the laundromat. This is a fairly common setup in Europe.
Kebap places are all over Europe. They have the trademark spinning cone of meat that is constantly cooking. The meat is put on a plate (or in a takeout box), on a bun, or in a wrap. It is served with a yogurt sauce pretty much like the Greek tzatziki sauce, salat (lettuce), tomatoes, and onions. It is quite tasty and pretty cheap. A large sandwich and a soda is usually around 6 euros.
We finish our laundry and pack it into our bags. We return to the train station and board an S-bahn (local train) from Munich Ost Bahn (Munich East Station) to the Flughaven (airport). We arrive at the airport to a Christmas market right at the terminals, and it includes an ice skating rink. We don’t have time to stop but I do grab a quick photo or two. We sort out ticketing issues, clear security, and have some dinner. Christmas market right in the middle of the Munich airport
Right now I’m sitting in the departure area and we are waiting to board. Hopefully Lufthansa will get us to Frankfurt, where we’ll do an overnight stay at an airport hotel (more on this later) and board a morning flight for our destination, Porto Portugal. There are a couple more photos below so don't miss them.
We hope that everyone is having a great holiday season and is enjoying this time of year as much as we are. Christmas in Europe is so festive! Goodnight everyone! |
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