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.
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| 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!
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