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Amazing Race in
Tokyo, Japan
Underground
River Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines
Island Hopping, Puerto Princesa, Palawan,
Philippines
Manila, Philippines
Munich, Germany
Mercedes, BMW
and Nazis
October 19 and 38 years into the world, I
wanted to celebrate another memorable birthday. Amit and I rented a
cool BMW at Europcar's and the car
rental garage was just behind
Winter's Hotel. Another convenience of our hotel's location as we
had easy accessibility to our Germany-Austria trip.
Good thing the BMW had a built-in GPS and had
the option of speaking English! Did not have any difficulties of going
through the sidestreets of Munich en route to Salzburg via the
autobahn A8. The
German autobahn was famous for having no speed restrictions in some areas.
We saw some speed limit signs where 120 km was slashed out which indicated
that a driver can go as fast as he can.
On the way to Salzburg, I was driving about
160-180 kms/hour most of the time and when the opportunity came, I was able
to hit 220 kms/hour which was recorded by Amit and can be seen at first 15
min movie icon on this page.
When we reached Salzburg, I parked the car in
one of the numerous tiny parking lots and we strolled along the tiny streets
of Salzburg's Old Town. There, we passed by the
birthplace of Mozart but Amit and I did not go inside the museum since
Amit did not have any idea who Mozart was. Secondly and most importantly, we
had to pay for the entrance! From there we passed by
Salzburg Cathedral
which was at the center of the old town.
Then we went to the Old Fortress (Festung
Hohensalzburg) which was a castle built on top of a hill. Entry price
was EUR10.50 which included the cable car ride from the base to the hilltop,
castle entry itself and the audio tour to the topmost part of the castle.
Amit and I took lots of pictures while we were at the castle as it gave as a
good overview of Salzburg which became famous also for the movie
Sound of Music where "it took
the world by storm, earning five Oscars. For millions of people, the film is
that rare combination of a powerful and moving story, first rate music, and
breathtaking scenery of Salzburg."
Since Salzburg was a very famous tourist
spot, food was quite expensive. We just had authentic Austrian/German
pretzel and a bottle of soda. On our way back from Salzburg to Munich,
Amit tried to drive the BMW unfortunately he did not know how to drive a
manual transmission. He attempted for about 1 km but when we were on a
hill and cars were lined-up behind us, he decided to turn over the car to me
rather than having a dent on the BMW.
Back at the autobahn, I was not able to hit
220 kms as there was a bit of traffic instead I was just at the 200 km/hour
mark (2nd 15 sec movie icon).
Halfway back to Munich, another BMW flashed
its grill lights and when I slowed down, it showed an "Achtung Polizei"
placard. I was not worried at all since I was holding a Canadian
passport and when I pulled over, the undercover German cops told us that
they were doing a passport control check. All the while we thought
that we were flagged down for driving too fast. Amit and I for a while
have wondered why us? Two (2) colored guys on a black BMW? Who knows?
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