After the activity of the previous days, everyone was looking forward to a relaxed, slow morning. Even those of us who aren’t usually big on sleeping in late outdid ourselves - the darkened hotel rooms surely helped. We did manage to rouse ourselves in time to catch the tail end of the excellent hotel breakfast buffet, though, so no worries about our priorities.
From there, we set out to catch some of Munich’s sights that had gone unseen so far. We ambled our way to the exterior of the Residenz and the surrounding gardens, but frankly we all felt that we had seen enough palaces for the week. So, we walked onward toward the English Garden area. We ultimately stumbled upon a group surfing on the River Eisbach, which was SO cool. We were mesmerized! This is a manmade river that features waves that natural flow over rock formations - and the waves stay in place, similar to a simulated wave maker.
Eventually, we decided we needed some lunch, and made our way to a big biergarten in the English Garden. Feasting on pretzels, chicken, and salad under a giant tree, we formulated a plan for the afternoon. The guys set off to check out the Bayern Munich stadium, and we girls to find the churro shop Laura had requested, and Clare also found a bookstore to visit. We ladies also made another trip to the hotel’s cool pool!
We all met up in time for dinner at a chic steak restaurant, where we once again dined in an outdoor spot set up on the sidewalk - so classically European. We also made our way to a gelato restaurant on our way back to the hotel, and Clare made each one of us order ours in German. What a delightful end to the week…or so we thought!
We woke up early on Thursday and made our way to the airport via the U-Bahn (around a 45-minute trip). We successfully checked in, made our way through security and grabbed some breakfast, then settled in to eat and chill, did some duty-free shopping, etc. Our flight was delayed by a couple of hours, so we were glad to have found some room to hang out. Around 90 minutes prior to the flight, we heard an announcement: our flight was canceled, please go get our bags. Uh, what??
The next 30 minutes were chaotic, because Tim got on the phone with Delta who at that point were unaware the flight had been canceled. Eventually everyone was on the same page, the flight was, in fact, canceled, and we needed a plan. The thought trekking back to the city, then doing the same thing all over again even earlier in the morning (by this point we had been booked on an 8:30 a.m. flight the following day) wasn’t overly appealing. We were tired and cranky. So we found an “airport” hotel that in reality was a 15-minute shuttle drive away. But they had rooms! To Freising we went.
Freising turned out to be a quaint little town. After depositing our bags at the hotel, we found some lunch, then made our way back to relax/shower/go for a walk, depending on who you were. We reconvened for dinner at a traditional German restaurant that was actually quite delicious, and so we had yet another farewell meal. All’s well that ends well, especially since the next day our flight really did leave, and we finally made our way home to Atlanta.
This was a spectacular trip, even if it felt short, and one we will remember for a very long time!
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