Arrival

Pretzels as big as your head!

Our flight from Atlanta to Munich was about 9 hours. M was very taken with the touch screen entertainment system on which you could play games and watch movies. My one complaint is that Delta has done a poor job of selecting "kids" shows which are appropriate for anyone under 12. However, they did at least have Monsters vs. Aliens, so that was good. And, a cool feature where you can watch/track your flight as it goes across the map from start to destination. M only slept about 2 hours and we adults, not at all. I guess the entertainment was TOO entertaining! Upon landing in Munich, M looked at me and said "Can you believe that we flew across that entire ocean in just one night?!?"

After waiting forever for our luggage, we took the S-bahn and then U-bahn to our hotel. It was a LONG ride and in hindsight, a taxi would have been totally worth it! Upon arrival at the hotel, our rooms were not yet available, so we went into the city center to Marienplatz. It was raining and chilly and we were tired, so it wasn't our best day in Munich... While down there we decided to go to the Hofbrauhaus for a beer and some lunch. Saw lots of "Stammtisches" (reserved tables for locals), lots of lederhosen and dirndls and LOTS of beer. A traditional Bavarian brass band was playing polka music and it was very atmospheric. M got a soft pretzel which was actually bigger than his head. We had some delicious (and filling) pork schnitzel over spatzle (noodles) with gravy. Yum! For those of you interested in history, this is the location where Hitler launched his "Beer Hall Putsch". As B pointed out, it was a little weird to sit there at these old wooden table and imagine that in this very spot, a whole bunch of Nazis (or future Nazis) once sat and ate and drank just like we were doing.

We had pretty much exhausted all of our energy and politeness by this point, so we made our way back to the hotel on the U-bahn. There was a lovely little Saturday market in the "platz" near the hotel. It was fun to wander through it and see the cheese, meats, and produce. Looked delicious!! After napping in the lobby for a while, our rooms were finally ready! Hooray. We all fell into bed at about 5:00 pm (Munich time). Which was great while it lasted, but M was wide awake from 1-3 am. He was actually pretty funny. While going to the bathroom (at 2am), he yelled to me "Mom, can you believe that we are actually in Germany? When we get home, let's speak German all the time." It is going to be a fun trip!