V/S Giants In Germany

[Fletch59]

 Schedule releases aren't interesting to me at all.   This one though?  Kinda interesting: November 10, Carolina plays the Giants in Munich.  It's Carolina's second off-continent regular season game. I haven't done Oktoberfest and I may never, but I've been to Munich and tasted a bit of Bavaria and loved it, wished I had more time.  Munich is a lot more than just beer halls, it's a fantastic piece of central eastern Europe and it's worth doing a lot more than just the game, if you're going.Some thoughts for those that haven't really been: *Take the S-Bahn in from the airport.  It's easy once you get your bearings on the ticket.  Basically, a bunch of heavy rail lines come from outside of the city and then interline with each other in the city center, and then go back out the other side in same fashion. *Get a hotel that's on the S-Bahn line. Lots of freedom that way to get into the heart of the city.  That said, it's all walkable. *There are bike paths.  Do not walk in the bike paths.  You will learn new, angry words. Probably my biggest mistake getting in town.*Do more than the game, if you're going for the game.   I don't personally love guided tours but there are plenty, there are trams, trains, and high speed rail in all sorts of directions, go to a second location.   See some world. *I like the beer halls but it blends in after a while, I went to the Munich after I'd been the Hofbrauhaus in Asia and a rather touristy one up North, and it's cool, but not life-changing if your intent is to do it a bunch of times. Do it, it's cool.  But there's so much more there. *I took college level German classes and studied on Duolingo for years, though a minimum most days for the streak.  I found basic grasp of the language helpful but at no point was there really a language barrier even in the countryside.  Looking like you're trying, using the Translate visual settings on your phone so you don't have to ask, it all was easier than it seemed like it should have been.     As an added bonus, in a lot of places there was public address in several languages.  In Brussels, I remember there being at least four on the trams. 
    I'll say this, for a while I was also trying French (through German, because sadism) and couldn't speak a lick of it, but struggling with even just the thoughts left me, in a postal store in Clichy, France (outside of Paris, let me also tell you that if you're going to get stuck outside the city center, do it where there's nearby transit, not 1/4 mile, I mean near, it took forever to get anywhere), that the attendant spoke great English so I could ship things home.   And yeah, ship some shit home.  It's cheaper than an extra carry-on and I didn't want to do without. 
*Plenty of nice people, I'm sure, do not speak English, but also plenty of not-nice people I'm sure act as if they do not speak English.   Just move on. Wait-staff knew a lot better English than I did German.   A sub-plot is, I find the study of foreign language fascinating and yet after my last european trip I found it frustrating how easy it was to not know anything. *I always find jetlag harder going east than west. I have no idea why.   For me, 6 hours jetlag was not that hard compared to the 12 I often get in the other direction, but I find jetlag harder coming home from Asia than going to; I found it easier to acclimate going back west/home from Europe.   

    So that said, I would schedule an easy day on day one. You may feel like hell, you'll be tired, I absolutely recommend getting up on a somewhat normal schedule to the local time, but be prepared that whatever your Day 1 is, it's not going to be immediately productive.  Or, be flexible at least.  I was raring to go - we only have a few days in Germany - and the Mrs and child were, to say the least, wiped. 
*A lot of stuff is closed on a Sunday, be prepared.   Stores are usually closed.  Restaurants, your mileage may vary, but I remember wanting to go to the grocery store and walking to an empty lot. *Get your cell phone coverage taken care of before you're too tired to think about it.  I have a legacy plan from a carrier that no longer exists, but it's cheap, and I found the upgrade to a reasonable daily charge for Wi-Fi (in German, WLAN is the acronym, and the cell phone is a Handy, shut up, stop snickering, I didn't name it) a little more difficult than it needed to be.   See if you can gain a plan that turns on and off as you need it, or buy a SIM. 

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