Day 27: Oops, wrong airport!

You know the drill by now: wake up early, get ready, finish packing up, check out, get coffee, head to train station. We took the train to the Munich airport and went to the checkin counter for our flight. We were there about 2.5 hours before our flight, and there was no line. As we were checking in, here was my interaction with the stern German guy (GG): 

GG: You have no baggage. 

Me: Well, thanks, I think my wife would disagree, but I try to keep my problems internalized as much as possible.

GG: No, you have no baggage on your ticket

Me: Sorry?

GG: <looking at me like I’m an idiot> You did not put baggage on your ticket, and now you want to check bags

Me: Oh, yeah, well….I booked the tickets months ago, and at the time we had no idea how much luggage we would need to check. So, since the overhead bins on these planes are so small, we need to check five bags. 

GG: Cost is 75 euros

Me: That’s ok

GG: Per bag! 

Me: That’s not ok! Will these fit in the overhead?

GG: No! 

Me: Well, then there is not much I can do…we have to check these

As he started printing out bag tags, Sherri and I watched as he put them on. We learned from a past ski trip, where one of our bags ended up in Chicago due to the wrong tag being put on it by the airlines, to check all bag tags to make sure they have the proper destination on them. The first tag had “LCY” on it. We both caught this and…

Me: Hey, what’s LCY? That’s not London Gatwick.

GG: It’s London City airport

Me: But we’re going to London Gatwick airport

GG: <looking at me like I’m really an idiot>Then why did you book a ticket to London City airport

Me: I didn’t. I booked it to Gatwick

GG: Do you have any correspondence on this?

Me: <patting self on back for being super organized and having emails filed in different folders> Yes, see, right here it says we’re flying to…..London City airport. Oh sh….. 

GG: <looking at Sherri sympathetically because she married an idiot>

So, basically, I booked the wrong airport, the airport I was supposed to book is where our hotel is, and GG says I owe him a cool 375€ for baggage for this flight to the wrong airport. But, neither Sherri or I get flustered. We quickly regroup, I google to see it’s about an hour via public transit from one airport to the other, and we determine that it probably works out fine because checkin isn’t until 3pm anyway. So, we tell GG that all is good in the world, and that we don’t like the baggage fee but it is what it is. GG, maybe sensing that we could’ve been a lot less calm about all of this, says, “I could charge you this baggage fee on the spot right now, but I am going to put these bags on for no charge.”  What a break! GG now = Great Guy. We thank him profusely and get on our flight to the wrong airport. 

The trains to the right airport were pretty easy, and we walked into reception at the Hilton just at 3pm. We checked into our room (another “family room”, but this time with really good (but unnecessary now) A/C). We took a couple more trains to the city and I started looking for dinner places. No schnitzel, of course, but I also decided to part ways with the Italian food as well and settled on a nice steak dinner. I found a restaurant on TripAdvisor that looked pretty good - Steak and Co. One of the reviews sold me: “This is the best meal I’ve ever had in my life….I almost cried.”  This restaurant definitely deserves its high rating! They bring steaks out on a 700° stone, and the steaks are rare. You move the steak to a plate. You then put butter and seasoning on the stone, cut pieces of steak, and then cook them to your desired temp (medium rare, of course). It was out of this world. Their sides are ‘meh’, but the steak more than makes up for it. We all *loved* it. 

I'll have a side of beer, please

After dinner we got the girls some Boba/Cuppa/Whatever Tea and then headed over to the theatre. All I can say about The Lion King is…WOW! The performers are fantastic, and the ability to convey a story about animals through human actors is awesome. It was one of our favorite shows that we’ve ever seen!

After the show, we took the train back to our hotel….and let it sink in that today was our official last day of our European trip. Tomorrow we head back to the US. It’s been a ton of fun, and we will miss all of the adventures!

Day 26: Royal flex - a castle to retreat from your castle

How is it possible that the end of our European vacation is almost here?! It went so fast! 

Once again, we had an early morning, as we needed to catch a train, ride an hour, switch trains, ride another hour, and then catch a bus to make it to a ticket office by 11:55am. So, we did our usual get-ready routine, grabbed our morning coffee, and then headed to the train station. It was pouring rain when we arrived in Füssen (southern Bavaria). Luckily, we have been carrying our trusty umbrellas with us every day for the extreme sun and for the rain! We could see one of the castles covered in fog in the distance. Cool!

Not Disneyland

We got our tickets to the two castle tours and then stopped at a restaurant for a quick bite. We had schnitzel (which only Sherri ordered, since the rest of us are sick of it), sausage, and pretzels. Again. Did I mention that we’re missing pizza? I can see why some Germans are cranky….

The best German cuisine so far...

Contrary to Julie Andrews' song, they don't serve schnitzel with noodles!

After lunch we walked up a big hill to our first castle: Hohenschwangau. King Maximilian II of Bavaria built the castle.  It was his official summer and hunting residence. Can you imagine having a massive castle as your 'summer home'?? It’s a really cool place with hidden doors and passageways (Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures in this castle or the next castle). 

Anyway, When Maximilian died, Ludwig II, his son, succeeded him as king. Ludwig thought, "Hey, this summer castle is not quite big enough....I should build another castle as a retreat from this castle!" And thus was born Neuschwanstein Castle, our next stop. We got on a bus to go up another big hill to see Neuschwanstein. At the top of the hill, there were two paths: one to the castle and one to a bridge. We almost ditched the bridge path, as our tour was starting soon, but we stopped another tourist and asked him how far the bridge was and he said it was only two minutes away. We asked him if it was worth going to and he said it was. So, we trekked over there. Man are we glad we did! Such amazing views, and there was an awesome fog surrounding the castle. It was quite surreal!  

First Order of the Colored Hummel Umbrellas

After the bridge, we headed over to the castle. Our girls rightfully exclaimed, “What a flex!” when we got inside. Intricate carvings, massive hallways, and lots of gold. The castle was under construction for about 19 years when Ludwig died. He only slept 11 nights in the castle! He never married, so this castle was essentially his bachelor pad. Weird, I could not find a futon or a neon beer sign anywhere. Each room in the unfinished castle paid homage to a different opera by Richard Wagner. Construction continues on the castle a full 150 years later!

We happened upon a balcony as we were leaving, and found some of the most amazing views of the day. Crazy that Ludwig wanted this as a retreat all for himself (and his dozens of servants, of course). As we walked the halls of the great castle, I could hear the ghost of Ludwig saying, ”Sometimes I just need to get away from my super flex castle….and retreat to my other super flex castle.” 

"Aw, how cute, look at my other castle and all of my peasants!" - Ludwig II (unverified)

After the tour, we took a horse carriage ride down the hill. Our excuse - "we shouldn't walk downhill on the slippery asphalt, we might fall!"  Real reason? Maybe we're tired of walking? 

We then caught the bus (then train, then next train) back to Munich. As we were on our last train for the day, Sherri and I started talking about the next day. It was really supposed to be a travel day to London, chill out in the airport hotel, and then fly back to the US the next day. But, come on….after this trip it seemed impossible to just sit around for several hours, so we got online and started looking for theatre tickets for the next night. We saw that Lion King had tickets - 8 left in the entire theatre, and five of them were together. It was meant to be! So, we booked the tickets as we were winding down our last train ride for the day. 

For dinner, we all agreed we were schnitzeled out, so I found an Italian restaurant near the train station, and it turned out to be a great choice, as the food was fantastic! Sorry Germany. 

Fine German-ish cuisine.

We walked the mile back to our hotel, packed up, played some Monopoly Deal, and then turned in for the night. 

Day 25: Dachau

Slept in this morning, which was very welcome after our long day yesterday. Walked to the train station and caught a 12pm train to Dachau. Had (more) schnitzel for lunch, and let’s just say that the girls are not taking to schnitzel the way they took to pizza. In fact, all of us miss the amazing food from Italy. 

After lunch we walked around the Dachau Concentration Camp. This concentration camp was opened in 1933 and was the first of the Nazi concentration camps. It was built to hold 2,000 prisoners but eventually held around 30,000 (in the same amount of space). The camp was liberated by US forces on April 29th, 1945.  It was very sad to see the way they treated the prisoners here, as well as the conditions of the camp and the way they crammed the prisoners in the camp over the years.

It was a very overcast and rainy day, which was appropriate given the location. We took a somber tour of the place, and although pictures are permitted there, we didn't feel right about taking any. It was heart wrenching to see the atrocities that occurred here, and although it was hard to read about the torture and abuse, the girls were glad that we took them to learn about this ugly part of history.  We spent about two hours viewing all of the different areas of the camp and then we left.

We took the train back to Munich, had some dinner, and then the girls and I played Monopoly Deal before heading to bed. 

Day 24: The Sound of Music and the Sounds of Mozart

Here’s pretty much how the discussion between Sherri and me goes when we’re figuring out the schedule for the day:

Me: Ok, train leaves at 6:55am. It takes 10 minutes to get to the train station. But, we don’t know what platform, so we should leave at 6:35.

Sherri: Yeah, but we don’t want to cut it too close, so let’s leave at 6:25.

Me: And we need coffee, so let’s leave at 6:15

Sherri: And, we don’t want to cut it too close, so let’s leave at 6:05.

Needless to say, usually aren’t late for anything (“First ones here, first ones here!”). And, this proved to be useful today. After an uncomfortably warm night in the hotel, we got ready, got out the door at 6:05, and stopped by the local coffee shop. We got in our train in plenty of time, but the train schedule had changed over the past few weeks, and left at 6:50 instead of the originally planned 6:55. Good thing we were there early!

We arrived in Salzburg and headed straight to the Hohensalzburg Fortress. Wow, we could definitely get used to these views!  The fortress is the highest point in Salzburg and the scenery from it is breathtaking! 

  

Miniature Town - Salzburg!

This chair is only good for one knight

We then spent some time wandering around the downtown area. We saw Salzburg Cathedral, Residence Square, and walked around the vibrant market. We also spent some time in the building in which Mozart was born. He lived there until he was 17, and there were many artifacts and great information in the museum there (unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos in the museum). I never knew that he only lived to be 35. And yet, in that short time, he composed over 600 works! What had I done by age 35? Zero pieces of music, unless you count the song “Cool Cats”, which I penned at the ripe young age of 10. 

Mozart's birthplace!

Legwarmers are coming back

Next up was lunch. Today marked Day Two of our pizza detox. The kids still have the shakes (and will even wake up frantically in the middle of the night screaming, “calzones….we’re out of calzones!”) but they are subsiding somewhat. We still haven’t broken it to them that there’s no gelato in Munich. Baby steps. Anyway, back to lunch - we had a great meal of schnitzel, lobster soup, roasted pork belly, and truffle pasta. We typically share bites of everything so all of us can try different things. It was a great lunch, and I was also happy to see that Germany is living up to its reputation when it comes to the beer. 

A tall, cool one for a tall, cool one please

After lunch we took a leisurely stroll through beautiful Mirabell Gardens (prominently featured in Sound of Music). There was a school choir group singing there and it was really nice. 

We then made our way to the bus that would be taking us on a Sound of Music Tour. The bus took us to several different locations from the movie:

• The gazebo where Leisl sings “Sixteen going on seventeen”
• Lake where the kids fell out of the boat
• Church where the Captain and Maria got married

And in between stops, the tour guide led us in singing Sound of Music songs! I didn’t sing any, of course (as far as you know).  We couldn’t have asked for a better day for the tour, too, as the heat has subsided and the weather was amazing and the scenery was gorgeous. 

High on a hill was a lonely goatherd, Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo!

After the tour, we walked about a mile to Barocksaal, St. Peter, which is a ballroom next to St. Peter’s Cathedral in Salzburg. We took our nice clothes out of our backpacks, changed into them, and then went to pick up our tickets for a Mozart Dinner that we booked several months ago. This is another case where being early pays off. We got there at 6:28pm and they started seating at 6:30. So, we got the best seats in the house (aside from the VIP seats, which we did not want to pay triple for) since we were first in line. All I can say is….WOW! The setting was gorgeous. We let the girls have an aperitif (sparkling white wine) before dinner. They all tried it and it wasn’t their thing, so let’s just say I drank an additional aperthreef.  The dinner was three courses and was food based on old recipes from Mozart’s time. Everything was delicious! Musicians and opera singers performed between each course. It was a really neat experience, and we highly recommend it if you are ever in Salzburg. 

Hey, I looked it up....the drinking age in Germany is 14 if accompanied by an adult!

Grapefruit beer. I usually don't like fruit beers but this one was AMAZING!

This tasted way, way, (way, way, way) better than it looked.

After the concert, we changed back into our walking clothes and then walked the 1.3 miles to the train station. It was an absolutely beautiful night and we enjoyed the walk. We got the train station 40 minutes before our scheduled train and saw that there was another train to Munich still on the platform so we ran to it and hopped on. That was a huge win, as we got back to Munich at 12:15am instead of the planned 1am. We walked back to the hotel (which was now at a good temperature since the day was not scorching hot) and crashed after another adventurous day!