Monday, June 9 – Munich to Tata

First, a correction. Apparently the church steeple in Ulm is the tallest in the world. I will try to remember to go back and make that correction in the original text, but, no promises.

We began our day at 9 with a visit to the Haus der Donauschwaben in Bayern. It has several rooms full of artifacts arranged to represent the lifestyle of our ancestors in Banat. There is also a large exhibit about the post-war internment camps and the sad fate of their residents. At the end of our visit we were treated to refreshments, including schnapps! Our hosts were Paul Beiwinkler and his wife Gerda. We were also joined by a relative of Ray’s, Helmut Birg, his wife Heidi, and their granddaughter Nomi. We learned that Helmut was unable to meet us last night, so that reassured us that we had not missed him. Here are Heidi, Nomi, Paul, Gerda, and Helmut.

We got away about a half hour late and time kept slipping away on us for the rest of the day. The roads were pretty clear though. Trucks are required to stop where they are from 10 PM Saturday until 10 PM Sunday. Since today was a holiday, their hold is extended until 10 PM Monday. So there were no trucks on the road yesterday or today. But the truck stops are sure full.

We picked up another tour participant. We picked up Barbara at 6 PM near Vienna, about 1.5 hours late. We had another half hour delay because we had to make a rest stop for Johannes according to the rules of the road here. We finally rolled into Tata, Hungary about 9:30 and, after a challenging search for our hotel, were settled in by 10.