BIKE & BARGE, RIVER CRUISE - 2019

To wind down before having to endure the flight home, I scheduled a night in Regensburg and one near the airport after the cruise ended. My brother was particularly interested in seeing Regensburg.

I booked the Ibis Regensburg City which is very near the Regensburg train station. To reach it from the station, you simply took the walk way away from the station building and thru a shopping mall (closed on Sunday), out the door and across the street. Surprisingly that close to the station we could not find a restaurant near the hotel. Our choices were McD and Subway, both part of the mall and open on Sunday. We selected Subway.

To get to the B&B Hotel near the Munich airport we had to take a regional express to the airport, an S1 suburban train 2 stops to Hallbergmoos, and finally a bus. The bus was supposed to stop right outside the hotel; but a sign at the Hallbergmoos bus stop said we had to take a different bus because of a schienererserzverkers. Schienererserzverkers usually refers to a bus substituting for train service because of construction. But here a bus was substituting for another us. In any event it put us out several blocks from the hotel.

When you look for hotels in Europe, you can spend a lot of time searching for something with AC, private bath, not above a night club, easily accessible by public transportation, etc. and with "flair" at a reasonable price. Or you can go with Ibis. I can now add B&B Hotels. I had never heard of them; but noticed them where ever I went in Germany this trip.

Although we had a 2:15 layover at London's Heathrow, the connection was made not without a lot of stress. The Munich-London plane was late; and we got trapped in the reject line at Heathrow security. Jeanine had put her liquids bag in my computer bag and forgot to remove it when going thru security. We got behind about 10 other unfortunate souls, one of which must have been a cosmetic dealer. It took about 20 minutes to drag her cosmetics out of her bags and the official to shrink wrap them. When it was finally our turn, it took only about 5 seconds to get through. We got to the gate as they were beginning to board.

We arrived more or less on time at O'hare and spent the usual time at passport control.

To get the Candlewood shuttle, go to the Door 1 of the Bus/Shuttle Center on Level 1 of the Main Parking Garage near the Hilton Hotel. Unless you arrive at Terminal 2, you have to take the O'hare shuttle bus (or elevated train when it gets back in operation) to Terminal 2. Take the underground passage towards the Hilton and follow the signs for the Bus/Shuttle Center. Call the Candlewood a few minutes before you get there; they take about 15 minutes unless they are already on the way to pickup someone else.

This time, after spending the night, we took the shuttle back to Terminal 2 where we caught the Blue Line subway into the Clinton station, 2 blocks from Union Station. The Southwest Chief to Fort Madison and the drive home was uneventful.