Our aim with these My Favorite: posts is to give our well-traveled Explorica employees a chance to share some of their favorite travel experiences with all of you.
We’ll be doing two My Favorites this week, and first up is Tom O’Grady. Take it away, Tom…
My favorite store in all of Germany is…The Kaufhof!
A few years back, I had the chance to go to Germany to see the US play in the World Cup. I spent three weeks traveling through Germany, following the team and the sport that I love. I spent a lot of time in Munich and became a regular in the Marienplatz .
In the three weeks I was there, I saw just about every part of Munich, and many days I had some time to kill before the games would start at night. Also, I discovered that due to the heightened number of tourists, many restaurants and shops were inflating their prices to take advantage of the World Cup traffic. I was not going to fall victim!
That’s when I discovered the Kaufhof. Its kind of a one stop super-department store. Picture a Macy’s with a cafeteria/restaurant on the top floor and a supermarket in the basement.
I literally found everything I needed right there–and due to the fact that locals shop there, the prices weren’t affected as much. To escape the sun, I wandered through the multiple floors, checking out everything European, from clothes, to music, to electronics, to the different kinds of snack foods they eat. I also got many of my World Cup souvenirs there as well. They have great prices on many of the things you’d find on the streets.
If that weren’t enough, when I’d get hungry I could go up to the cafeteria and get a great serving of wiener schnitzel and french fries, washed down with a cool orange Fanta (the European version). You can eat at a fraction of the cost of a restaurant, and you’ll be sitting in a bright, air conditioned room where you can sit for as long as you’d like.
And the best point of all about the Kaufhof……free restrooms!
Sure… they do ask you for a small donation to the cleaner, which is normal in Europe, but you get to use a perfectly clean bathroom that is not known by many tourist. Plus, you’ll get to impress your fellow travelers with your behind the scenes knowledge.
Buon viaggio!
I was in Italy for two weeks during World Cup 06 so I got to see the semi final and final matches and how SWEET it was to see MY TEAM WIN!!!!! It was an experience I will NEVER forget, as I too am a huge fan of the beautiful game! Is South Africa 2010 on your travel itinerary???
Sadly, I will not be in SA in 2010…..I’ve already got a schedule that is filling up and I doubt I’ll ever be able to top a World Cup halb-finale….ok, maybe there is a way.
Thanks to the great people at Kaufhof I’m now the proud owner of a WC2006 soccer ball, numerous shirts, and too many scarves to mention.
And if you’ve never hada soft pretzel sliced in half with a slab of unsalted butter wedged between it, don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.
Allez….Portugal allez…..Portugal allez…Portugal allez…Portugal allez…………………….
Hi Tom
Have you ever been in Germany during Oktoberfest? I’m thinking that might be pretty fun!
Hey everyone, I’m making my first post on our new forum site and wanted to know if you might take a look. I’m off to Prague and looking for advice!
http://community.explorica.com/explorica/board/message?board.id=preparing&thread.id=8
I hope you see this post Tom. I was just going through some old boxes that I’ve carried around for years. In doing so, I came across a couple of books that you gave me when I worked at Hampden-Sydney. One is “Establishing A Vineyard”, signed 21/50. The other is “Selected Poems”. I remember when you gave them to me you told me to hold on to them because one day you were going to be famous. I see you’ve continued to write poetry, and just about anything else you can think of. Just thought I would let you know that someone from your past remembers you and did indeed hold on to those poems. I was Judy Flowers at the time and worked in College Affairs.