Munich Bound!

Before everything with the evacuation happened, the plan was for Karen, Mike and I to return to Izmir.  Then, everything got shaken up with the evacuation and we had to change things up.  Mike's flight was different from ours originally and he coincidentally had a layover in Munich. When we started researching return flights for Karen and I, we realized it would be easiest for us to fly to Munich and then take a train to Ramstein.  We also realized that it was Fruhlingsfest (the spring version of Oktoberfest) in Munich that weekend!  If you've been reading the blog since last fall, you'll remember our Oktoberfest experience.  It was truly an experience.  We were excited that Karen would have the opportunity to experience it, as well as check another international city off her list!

Because we didn't book all of our flights together, Mike had an early morning flight and Karen and I had a mid-morning flight.  Mike left the hotel around 4:00am and Karen and I continued to sleep until about 6:00.  We both woke up to a banging sound down the hall, but soon someone was banging on our door, as well.  I looked through the peephole and saw the  Italian police outside of our door!!  I opened it and they immediately asked for our passports.  When we checked in the night before, we left our passports downstairs at the front desk so they could put in the information (pretty common), so when the officer asked for our passports, I explained that they were downstairs.  He didn't speak a lot of English and I don't speak any Italian, so I don't think he quite understood.  Then, he asked where we were from and when we replied "United States," he moved along.  It pays to be from the States!  I heard a guy down the hall ask why they were doing this and the officer just moved on to the next room.  I have no idea what they were doing, but I'm guessing it has something to do with illegal immigrants.  Regardless, it was not the most fun surprise, but luckily everything was fine in the end.

Karen and I both fell back asleep for a few hours before we had to go to the airport, which was really nice. We arrived in Munich without a hitch and found our AirBnB pretty easily.   Karen had to go back to work (she took off for the days we were in Italy).  It's tough going back to work after vacation, but it's especially tough when you're in a city like Munich!  Mike and I left her alone for a few hours and went out to explore.  We both had been to Munich, but we both love it.  I hadn't seen the astronomical clock in action before and we just happened to be there around five, so it was fun to watch that (and all of the people who stand in the square staring up for ten minutes waiting for the clock).

We spent the rest of the evening just hanging out, walking around and grabbing a drink, which was so nice. I missed Mike and it was nice to have an evening of just the two of us (we love you Kare bear!) amidst all of the crazy travel.   We knew we'd be busy in the coming weekend, so it was nice to have a quiet, early night in preparation for the weekend.