2/4 – Travel day #1 – off to Munich

Early day, but an easy one, except our driver almost didn’t make it. The poor guy was stuck in traffic coming back from an airport run to pick us up. He was almost 15 minutes late, and while he had called to tell us, we were minutes away from pushing the Uber button when he appeared. And we are so glad we waited. He was wonderful! Chatted the entire way, talked about his driving – he had already made 2 trips to the airport this morning! He picked us up at 7am – his first trip was at 4:30! Yikes! And then at the airport, he even parked in the garage and walked us up to the departure terminal. Could not have been happier with him – service to the nines!

Checked in, through security and passport control easily, then onto the lounge for a quick breakfast before heading to the gate where the plane was about 20 minutes late – but no worries, we are overnight tonight in Munich, so we have no rush. Boarding was actually pretty easy, considering we were in the last group (but we sidled our way up the line to be in the beginning of the last group!) We have great emergency row seats, right by the door – no under seat storage, but 6 feet of free space in front of us. Very comfy for our 11-hour ride to the North.

Not so peaceful though as we have 2, count them, 2 very rambunctious and screaming babies next to us. Even the earplugs aren’t enough. Thank God it’s a daytime flight!

We spend the time watching movies – Springsteen’s Deliver Me From Nowhere (really interesting deep drive on his psyche)…I blog, Ed watches 2 more movies…I read…we eat….we drink…..we eat more. And so it goes. Not too bad a flight, except for the children! And then we are in Munich – easy as that.

We have to change terminals to get to the hotel, which is just a long walk and train ride, then out into the cold to access the Hilton – which is a wild hotel made of glass and iron with a huge atrium lobby and bar/restaurant area. Tonight invaded by some group conference at the hotel, but fortunately the bar/restaurant is still open. So, after checking into our totally huge, comfortable and modern room….