Too Jet-lagged to Come Up with a Snappy Title

The captain of our first flight said, "If it's any consolation, that was the bumpiest ride I've had in at least a year." But we were two minutes early, which is pretty fantastic for us.

After leaving said flight, getting what I suppose is technically dinner at this point, eating it, and heading to our next gate, Drew realized that he didn't have his coat. We returned to the original gate and they had it.

We're waiting for the other shoe to drop while sitting among Germans and blending in far better than we did on our flight to Madrid. Hopefully no one will try to talk to us.

Many hours later...

For reasons unknown to us, United put us in Economy Plus without our having to pay for it. We didn't object and enjoyed our Chicago to Munich flight more because of it. Unfortunately, neither of us managed to sleep at all. I mistakenly watched Seven Pounds and ended up exacerbating my already sniffly state, but watching Transporter 3 (again) without the sound but with its wonderfully unlikely action-packed scenes helped balance that out. We'd be happy to get an Audi like Frank's, but hope to avoid his shenanigans, particularly the part in the river, having to suck air out of the tires to avoid drowning.

We made it through passport control without having to speak, which was good because by then we were slap-happy and pretty much everything in German sounded hilarious. Walking through customs, one officer sneezed and we heard our first authentic "Gesundheit!" "Danke!" exchange. We joked that we'd be OK if we were only following people sneezing, but otherwise we're lost with the language.

I'd researched how to take the train from the airport into Munich and thanks to Rick Steves knew about the multi-zone, all-day pass for families (5 people and a dog for 9 Euros!), which we managed to procure, but we forgot the most important part, which I'd helpfully noted on a sticky note that I neglected to read, which was validating the ticket before getting on the train. We took it as far as the next stop, got off, validated, and hung out at the nearly empty stop for 20 minutes waiting for the next one. That gave me time to get properly organized with The Binder and for Drew to take what I'm assuming were artistic subway photos. In doing so I realized that if we went to our hotel immediately as planned we'd miss the second of two daily glockenspiel "shows" at the New Town Hall in Marienplatz, so we decided to stop there en route, luggage and all.

Rick Steves said something about how you'd get your first beautiful glimpse of the real Munich upon riding up the escalator from the subway into the square, but he didn't mention which exit to use to avoid first seeing the Apple Store upon arising from the depths. I suppose that's better than a McDonald's. Anyway, Marienplatz is quintessentially German-looking (or at least it fit my mental image of Germany) and it was overflowing with Germans, locals and tourists alike. We really do blend here. I was remarking on that, I think, as we donned our sunglasses in the midst of a throroughly overcast day and realized we were the two out of several hundred people who thought it was bright. Between that and the luggage we were getting a big FAIL for blending, so we opted to squint, feeling much as we did in NYC, where the sun doesn't seem to bother people either.


We only had to wait 15 minutes for the glockenspiel extravaganza, during which time we soaked up the atmosphere, looking forward to returning later sans baggage. The hour began to strike noon at one of the many churches surrounding the square, and the others followed suit, creating a cacophony of bells. The New Town Hall was the last to go and the glockenspiel began before the figurines mounted in the tower began moving, so I took and discarded several videos on your behalf before (hopefully) capturing the excitement, which I'll share when I can figure out how. Basically the figures go in a circle and the same poor guy gets shoved off his horse twice daily, as it has for 100 years or so.

We ducked back into the subway as it began to rain. I took note of the food stalls with the mouth-watering array of pretzels and decadent pastries for future reference. We were only two stops away from Hauptbahnhof, the train station, which is the closest stop to our hotel, Hotel Uhland. We opted to walk 10 minutes to get there instead of taking the bus, which we might try to figure out later if we get more motivated. Right now it's time to nap before we locate what I suppose will be late lunch/early dinner in the Viktualienmarkt.