confusing signs in munich

munich was overall the most pleasant stay during this eurotrip except for its confusing signs.

story 1: airport train

munich airport was awarded the best airport in europe in 2007. it was indeed very impressive, in particular comparing to the paris airport. we have used munich airport twice before. this time our plane landed at terminal 2. the train to the city is at terminal 1, so we were looking for the sign of the train after the customs. the sign of terminal 1 was very clear, but no mention of the train. to be safe, we asked the information desk and was told to proceed to terminal 1.

there were ticket machines on T1 train platform, but only in german. and there were more than 10 different types of fares, classified according to zones and groups. we only found out later that the zone map and explanation were on a different board next to the ticket machines. mama decided that a more efficient way was to go to the ticket office upstairs, although we still don't understand why there was no ticket office at terminal 2.

story 2: bayerstrasse

the train took about 45 minutes to the main station (hauptbahnhof). our hotel was located near the station on bayerstrasse, and on the map it was just one turn from an exit. it looked so easy that mama didn't check googlemap, and was just looking for the street sign after we got off the train. what we didn't expect is that at a particular exit, signs only show immediately adjacent streets. we had no way to tell which direction led to bayerstrasse. we took a nearest exist, and hoped to find a direction board on the ground. but nothing was there. and it was getting dark. so we walked towards what we thought could be the main exit. still no map, and all street names looked unfamiliar. mama had to go down inside the station again to look for maps and she finally found one. it showed that our street was just around the corner of where we stood. unfortunately, we walked away from our hotel. only later when we had a city map we found that bayerstrasse became neustrasse after the intersection, and we actually turned to neustrasse and reached karlstadt. we had to take a train back to hauptbahnhof. this time we directly looked for the main exit (still no sign says bayerstrasse) and the information desk, and were told to go upstairs. when we went up to the ground level, we immediately saw the sign of bayerstrasse. when we walked out, we saw our hotel just 20 meters away on the left. The lesson: always bring a detailed city map with you in munich.

story 3: hertie's department store.

we online booked a tour to the royal castles. the website told us that the tour departed at hertie's department store at 8.30am. so we decided to find hertie's the night before. hotel staff told us that hertie's was just opposite the main station. but as we walked across the station, we only found karlstadt opposite the street. maybe the department store was inside, so we walked in. but no hertie's. maybe it was on the other side of the station, so walked a full round of the station, but still couldn't find the department store. it was raining and cold, and we felt quite miserable. we went for help at the information desk inside the station. a lady told us exactly what the hotel staff told us. we thought we might have missed it, so went on searching again. no veil. we were getting increasingly frustrated. then papa saw another tourist office and went to have a last try. when we mentioned hertie's, an old man smiled and told us that hertie's was taken over, so the name was no longer there. but it was exactly where karlstadt is now. we decided to ask grey line (the travel company) to update the meeting point so that no more tourist would have to go round and round to find a place that no longer exists.

story 4: xmas tram

the ad on the train told us that the xmas train was at soderlinger tor. so we took a train there. after we got off the train, we saw a sign of the xmas tram. we followed the sign until we saw several exits. we looked for the xmas tram sign, but this time it was not there. we took an arbitrary one and went up. it was wrong. so we went back to where the first sign was. it had a street name. well, it was unfair to say that they didn't put a sign at the critical point. we just have to remember the street name. after we took the right exit and walked ten meters, we saw the xmas tram sign again, as if confirming that we were on the right track which we already knew. anyways, we didn't miss the xmas tram.