Munich Recap

It is now my final day in Germany, and we have officially proven to ourselves that we can get along just fine in a foreign city. After our long first day on Friday, we quickly decided to give up on eating dinner and spent a relaxing few hours at the hotel bar. We enjoyed our beverages, which were served with a side dish of “How do you say – gum?” also known as gummy worms. I still haven’t quite figured that one out, but it made me giggle and I ate a yellow one to please our waitress. She said “You like?” and I enthusiastically told her how much I enjoyed my worm.

We were only able to sleep until about 7:30 on Saturday morning, so we got up and ready and headed to a restaurant that our Friday tour guide had recommended for breakfast. The S Bahn (train) is how you get around town in these parts, and once we figured out how to get over to the right plaza, Ryan got on the train. Yes, RYAN got on the train. As in – I did not. I was literally a step behind him, and as I had my foot in the door, I sensed it beginning to close, and I sensed that it was not sensing me and was going to continue to close whether only half of my body was in or not. So I stepped back and the door closed. This all happened in very slow motion, and Ryan turned around to face me. I hit the button for the door to open and it didn’t. So I hit it again and again and again, and through the window on the door, I can see Ryan’s wide eyes as he is frantically motioning and mouthing for me to hit the button. And I am! I am hitting it and hitting it and hitting it. And he mouths “Stay here!” and points to the ground like he means business. And the train speeds away - with Ryan inside and me still on the platform. A German man saw the whole thing go down and he is giggling to himself. Stupid Americans. So I wait. And I didn’t move. And then I see Ryan! And he asks me if I moved. And I didn’t. But I guess I was hidden behind a pillar, so he couldn’t see me and he probably thought I got stolen or wondered off to visit with a wolf or something. Did you know you can take your wolf on the train here? You can. It makes me laugh. Anyhow, the train that he got on was heading in the wrong direction that we needed to go, so even if I had gotten on it with him, we would have had to get off and get on the one going in the right direction, so it really wasn’t the end of the world. But it could have been. I was a little scared, but thought it was mostly just funny.

After the train incident, we made our way to Marienplatz and found that the place our tourguide had recommended for breakfast was in fact not open for breakfast, so we walked around until we found something edible. Instead, we found a men’s clothing store called Wormworld (appropriate due to our gummy worm encounter the night before) and he purchased a pair of jeans, a jacket, and two pairs of socks. By this point, we hadn’t eaten in over 24 hours but we found a café that we had peed in on Friday and decided to try that out. The menu was only in German and being the picky eaters that we are, ordering was quite a risk. I ended up with a tomato and slices of fresh mozzarella with ciabatta bread on the side and a chai tea latte. Ryan had a meat and egg concoction that was what he thought he had ordered, so we were pretty pleased.

After breakfast, we found our own way to Dauchau – a 20 minute train ride and 10 minute bus ride from Munich. I’m not sure what I had expected, but what we experienced wasn’t quite what I thought it would be. The concentration camp was still intact, and memorial plaques and other informative stations had been erected. There was also a 22 minute film that we watched, but there was a lot of reading and self teaching that went on.

After this, we napped a delicious nap and headed to Hard Rock for dinner. We ended up eating at the bar because the restaurant was so packed, but it worked out to be a good people watching experience. Lots of German was spoken, and a man tried to give me his red hat. I declined the hat and we headed to a beer hall across the street.

Yesterday we visited the Hofbrauhaus, the famous beer hall in the center of the city, and again we enthusiastically drank yummy, not-so-cold beer from mugs that I had to lift with two hands. I decided that today I would treat myself to some items so that I could say, “Oh, this – this is my _____ from Munich!” Well, apparently no shopping is done on Sundays here, as all of the stores were closed. And tomorrow we head to the airport too early to get any last minute purchases in, so I guess I miss out on owning my German _____. (I’m not sure what I was going to buy. A scarf, a necklace, a wooden pig…)

Right now I am at the airport. We had an interesting situation where Ryan’s early flight to Amsterdam got cancelled – along with dozens of other flights – and then I decided to come sit at my gate while he stood in a long line in attempts to reschedule. Three passport checks and a bag search later, I’m realizing that I should have said a much better goodbye – fully equipped with a big hug and loves. Only three days though still his European adventure comes to a close. We had a lovely time, and we bid Germany adieu.