We got up and packed up and everyone swept the house to make sure we didn’t leave anything. We packed the remaining meat and cheeses and bread for the car in case we got hungry, as well as the leftover chips and other snacks. The car was packed and we got the road for Munich.

Once we left Austria and entered Germany, we were on the Autobahn, so there was no speed limit. Traffic was pretty steady, we didn’t drive too fast.

We stopped at a gas station/convenience store on the road. There was a 0.70 euro charge to use the bathroom, but you got a 0.50 euro voucher for the store. Ryan and I checked out the store and on one rack, they had in the following items adjacent to one another- kid toys, maps, porn magazines and videos and then sugar and cream for coffee.

The car we rented has some very nice features- shows the speed limit on the dashboard and lane correct. Unfortunately in the work zones where there are the original white lines and orange construction lanes, it keeps trying to pull us to the wrong lane lines – where other cars are.

We arrived in Munich around noon, parked and made our way to the Marienplatz, home of the Glockenspiel. The square also had several nice fountains and was jammed! We made our way to the famous Hofbrauhaus for lunch. We actually approached it from a side street in the back and it looked like it was closed. But we found the front door (thanks to Heather) and went in.

What a fun place! Large place, both indoor and outdoor tables – eight seats to a table, and the rule is find your own table and lounge join other people if necessary. There was a six piece band playing and people were singing and clapping. We found a table and figured out what to order – which became easier once we figured out that the kids had menus in English while Holly and I wrestled with the German one. We ordered pork with dumplings, sausages with sauerkraut and schnitzel with potato salad (of course) and two half liters of beer, original and dark. We enjoyed lunch while listening to the band. After lunch, hit the souvenir shop and headed out.

We then took the food tour of central Munich. We visited Dallmayr, a gourmet food store that opened around 1700. Despite all the fancy and expensive food there, they were showcasing “Bone Sucking Sauce”, a BBQ sauce from Raleigh. We then went to a a really nice outdoor market.

We then visited St. Peter’s, which was rebuilt after WW2. Most of the items in the interior of the church worked original, so we assumed that they were taken down and saved in a safe place, and then return to their original locations when the churches rebuild after the war. One thing that this church had that others did not is several collections of human bones. One display had bones in a case generally organized by type, while another display case had a full skeleton in a repose position decorated with several articles of clothing.

After Saint peters Cathedral, we found a quiet street which had a quiet café and enjoyed coffee and ice cream. It turned out that the café was part of a shop in Galleria, so we walked around a little bit. When we looked at our watches, it was 4:40 PM and we realized that we had 20 minutes to walk back to the main plaza to see the glockenspiel at 5 o’clock. We found a terrific place to stand right in front where no one could block us and we enjoyed the Clock-in spiel show at five. Needless to say, the plaza was packed.

Since we had a 3 1/2 hour drive back to Zürich that evening, we decided it was time to drive Ryan to his hospital to say goodbye. We found the hospital without too much trouble and said our goodbyes. On the way to the hospital, among other things we saw the one euro store, sounds similar to our Ddollar stores in the US. Too bad we didn’t have time to go in and shop.

We got in the car and hit the road. We drove about two hours, and took a break to fill up with gas and buy dinner. We are hoping to find a Burger King, but the only one we found was still under construction so we ended up having dinner at McDonald’s one more time. We arrived at the hotel about 930, and checked into our rooms.

We are staying at the nicest holiday in express that we have ever seen. For starters it has a full bar in the lobby, even though we won’t be taking advantage of it. The rooms are a little smaller than in the US but very very nice. Each headboard has places to plug-in both 110 and 220, and USB ports. Tthere is another set of electrical hook ups on the wall near a small desk and table. When we first got to the room we couldn’t turn any of the lights on and we thought there was a problem. First we checked Holly’s in my room and then we checked Heather’s room and had the same problem. Heather was about to call the front desk and ask them why our lights didn’t work when she noticed a slot near the door that fits the room key. When she inserted the room key, magically, all the lights came on. Apparently this is a way to make sure that you never lose your room key, by having a safe place for it that you have to keep it in an order for the lights to when we first got to the room we couldn’t turn any of the lights on and we thought there was a problem. First we checked Holly’s in my room and then we checked Heather‘s room and had the same problem. Heather was about to call the front desk and ask them why our lights didn’t work when she noticed a slot near the door that fits the room key. When she inserted the room key, magically, all the lights came on. Apparently this is a way to make sure that you never lose your room key, by having a safe place for it that you have to keep it in order for the lights to work.

We spent about an hour and a half re-packing our bags, texted Ryan, called all the grandparents, and went to bed.