traveldiary.stracke.us

It takes us 25 hours to get from Biberach back to Clifton Park.
We leave the Parkhotel Jordanbad at 7 AM, and for a change, there is no fog this morning. We see a beautiful sunrise over Bavaria, driving back to Munich Airport. There, we are informed that our United Triple 7 is “kaputt”. After a 2 hour repair, we are off to Washington. This is our fourth trip to Europe this year, and we almost can count already on flight delays and missed connections. We end up sleeping for 5 hours in contorted body positions on the hard chairs in Washington Dulles, and finally get back to Albany around midnight.
Travel is getting harder, but for me, seeing friends in Biberach and München was worth the journey!

Gabi and I enjoy the thermal pools and saunas for 3 days. This is very relaxing, good for the body and soul. I am feeling closer to nature, soaking naked in the outdoor pool, getting massaged by powerful jets shooting water at me at different levels of my body, and gazing at the stars above me.
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Today is Nikolaus-Day (St.Nick) in Germany.
Last night we took the U6 subway from Nordfriedhof (next to our Ibis Hotel) to Odeonsplatz and U5 to Theresienwiese (site of the Oktoberfest), now Tollwood Christmas-Festival. We spent a great evening with Maria, Nicole and Rolf, strolling through the market and taking in the Christmas atmosphere. This was an international bazaar, with merchandise and spicy food, primarily from Asia, not my favorite. Instead of eating there, Nicole took us to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner. It was counter service, as we have come to know it from Australia. We ordered our food at the cooking counter and a pager went off when they was ready for pick-up. We went to bed around midnight, exhausted, but happy to be here!
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We are cruising the “Friendly Skies” again, on United 932 from Washington to Frankfurt, Germany. At 38000 feet, our 777 gets pushed by a 100 MPH tailwind and we have a bumpy ride across the Atlantic. I wake up as we fly over Cork and Limerick, Ireland. Time for another nap until Frankfurt. We arrive ahead of schedule and have no problem catching our Lufthansa flight to Munich. I see the snow-covered Alps, before we descend through the clouds into Munich’s Franz-Josef-Strauss Airport. The Airport is nicely decorated for Advent and Christmas, and nobody challenges the Christian symbols as unconstitutional.
It is December 5th and everything looks very festive for the Advent season. As we walk through the courtyard between Terminal 1 and 2, we already see our first Christmas Market. Wooden booths selling food, beer, Gluehwein (hot mulled wine) and hand-made Christmas decorations are surrounding an ice skating rink, complete with skate rental. The music and smells put us in a Christmas mood. We are too tired to dare going on the ice. Instead we head straight for our favorite restaurant in Terminal 2, the “Erdinger Sportsbar”.
Gabi and I share “Leberkaes,” “Weisswurst,” “Brezen” and “Erdinger Weissbier.”
We have arrived!