journey

 The alarm works well, and that is all that functions as expected. The old body has got used to retirement from the rigours of early rising to go to work and is simply not prepared to get up to go for a trivial visit to friend in Munich.

It is of no matter. Get up and go anyway, shower, dress and drink hot coffee until ten minutes before the leaving time of the bus.

Then rush downstairs, take the bus to the railway station, and sit in the train until Munich. The train is fast, and it is easier to use the train than to drive by car. Also, due to the subvention by the German government, it is cheaper. All train fares cost the same for one month. A flat rate for local travel.

Leave Munich railway station and walk through the streets of Munich to the Maxvorstadt, passing the university buildings and the huge Pinakothek public art galleries. Also pass the Karolinenplatz with its monolith in the centre of the roundabout. In no time at all reach the junction of the Shellingstraße and Barerstrasse where the Shellingsalon is to be found. It is a restaurant and pool hall, and has a long tradition. Ask the waitress whether or not the friend is there and she says that he is not yet there. He is well known in the place.

Watch the pool players coax the coloured balls into the various pockets. Wonder why the white ball finds a pocket so often, even when that is not the object of the game.

The friend arrives, he has arrived to reminisce. Have a plate of Wurstl and potato salad each, and then take a walk in the nearby Nordfriedhof, an old graveyard which has been disused since the forties of the last century. It is used as a park now, many of the gravestones have been removed, many of the graves have been given up.

On the way back to the friends car there is a box of records at the roadside with a note saying that they are all to be given away. At the direction of the friend pick up the whole box. It is unclear what he wants to do with all the old romantic singles, but he wants to take them home and maybe play them. He is too infirm to  bend over and take up the box himself.

Say goodbye, and walk to the centre of Munich. There is the Leica store, a brightly lit store with discreet displays of wildly espensive cameras. There is also a gallery.

Admire the very beautiful pictures on display there.

Think of the pictures on the way home.

Due to the low cost of the tickets, the train to Landshut is full.

Still, it is a pleasant journey.