December 14, 2012 –
Today is the day we leave for Austria! YAHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! We've been patiently waiting for what feels like forever for this day to come. We're flying out of Beijing and we've asked our driver, Mr. Li, to come pick us up at 0600 (6:00am). Our flight isn't scheduled to leave until noon so we'll have PLENTY of time to get there and check in.
Oh. My. Goodness! Have you looked outside????????? IT SNOWED OVERNIGHT!!!!!!! And it's more than a dusting of snow (maybe about 3" of snow). Here's hoping we make it to the airport on time. Now I'm feeling extra glad we decided to gave ourselves a huge buffer.
Whew. Mr. Li made it and is right on time! Holy schmoly! I am s-o-o-o-o glad that I'm not the one driving on these snowy and icy roads. I might whine and complain about the routes Li takes to Beijing on most days BUT today I'm keeping my mouth shut. He's doing an excellent job especially considering that most of the roads haven't been cleared yet. Fortunately there are few other vehicles braving these nasty roads and everyone is driving very slowly.
Three hours later of nail-biting driving – we made it to the airport! At one point on the drive we thought we were going to have to get out of the car and push the car up!!! Although I'm always prepared to do that I'm soooooo very glad we didn't have to!
Check-in and passport control couldn't have gone better. Now we've got a few hours to kill in the airport. Blessedly, they have Starbucks inside this terminal. Ooooooo!!!! We just heard from one of Mark's co-workers that they closed the roads between Tianjin and Beijing. We got out just in the nick of time!!!
Of course the snow is causing delays with most of the flights. I don't care- just as long we get to leave!!!
{sigh of relief}
They're boarding our flight to Amsterdam! See you in a few hours. Okay….okay…see you in about ten hours. :-P
Made it to Amsterdam…no hiccups on the flight. I got to sit next to Ava who watched movies the entire trip. Ugh. That girl needs to read BOOKS and quit watching movies! She also kept bugging me every thirty minutes to get more m&ms (I bought a big bag of peanut butter m&ms in the Beijing airport). Dear child, please go to sleep! Had an uneventful lay-over in Amsterdam…picked up a small package of Mozartkugerl because we just couldn't resist our favorite candy in the Whole Wide World!!!
And now we've made it to Munich, Germany. That was just too darn easy. I slept the ENTIRE length of the trip. Now we've got a little bit of a rodeo to work out. We've got to 1) pick up our luggage, 2) store our luggage in the airport luggage storage facility, 3) buy tickets and 4) ride the train to the Munich central train station (hauptbahnhof), 5) struggle to find our hotel and finally 6) check in and crash at our hotel- Drei Loewen. Sounds like a lot, doesn't it???? Well, thank goodness this ISN'T our first time doing this exact same thing. Why go through all that trouble knowing that we'll have to go back to the airport the following day to get our rental car and scoot across Germany and Austria???? Well, it's getting late, we're very tired AND we want a chance to poke our noses into the Christmas market here in Munich. I can't get enough of these markets!
GOOOOOOOOOOD night! Excuse us while we crash on the bed.
December 15, 2012-
Was that all just a dream? Did we really fly to Germany???? Yep. We sure did! Time for breakfast and time to check out the Christmas market! We only have a few hours before we have to check out of the hotel. Oh no. Guess what??? It's RAINING!!!! We didn't come prepared for rain….we came prepared for snow. Oh well. That's not going to stop us! At least the hotel has umbrellas we can borrow. Hmmm….the rain seems to have slowed down.
Time to go for our walk:
We got to the market just as it was opening. We got the girls some lovely Honigmilch (hot milk with honey. Yum!) and we got some heisse maroni (roasted chestnuts) to munch on while we browse the stalls.
And yes…we MUST get some Gluehwein (hot mulled wine)!!! I wonder if the people thought we were crazy drinking gluehwein….at ten o'clock in the morning! LOL! I don't care! I wasn't going to leave this market without first having some gluehwein!!!!
We browsed all the stalls. I picked up a few things but we mostly went to window shop- enjoy the sights and the smells.
We quickly ducked into Frauenkirche (big cathedral in Munich). It always feels nice to visit these beautiful churches around Christmas-time as they're usually decked out in all their Christmas glory.
Time to head back to our hotel and check out but the girls have decided what they want as their souvenir (Annika collects snow globes and Ava wants a tiny music box). We passed a shop that sells those so we're heading there now and then it's definitely time that we skidaddle back to the hotel. We still have to pick up our rental car from the airport, get our luggage and zoom across Germany and part of Austria. Luckily for us, picking up our luggage and getting our rental car went smoothly….and Mark is so excited because he gets to drive a BMW for the week!!! I'm glad he's excited because he's the one that will get to do all the driving! Lucky him! Well, he DOES love to go for drives so this is a good thing!
As it usually is- leaving Munich and heading over to Austria ends up being amazingly easy. Funny how we get stressed out….and then it all turns out just fine in the end! Now we do have to remember to pick up …what was that thing called?????? Oh yes, a VIGNETTE at the border that will allow us to legally drive in Austria. We always remember that we need to get something but we ALWAYS forget the name of it…vignette. Maybe I'll remember that word for next time?!?
We're breezing through Germany and we've crossed into Austria. Wilkommen!!!
Oh. No. It's getting dark out and guess what? The weather has taken a nasty turn….it's raining like crazy, the temperature is hovering a tiny bit above 0degrees Celsius and the glare on the roads is making driving nearly impossible. Blech. Plus, the Austrians drive like they're freaking nuts!!! I guess it doesn't help that we're also jet-lagged. Must.Stay.Awake!!!!
Huge sigh of relief!!!
We made it to Turnau (in Steiermark)!!! We're staying at completely charming and fairytale place here in Turnau called Kirchleit'n. We're renting a cottage for the week while we visit Uropa in Veitsch (about a 10-15 minute drive across a small mountain pass).
Sorry folks! We're ready to crash!!!! We'll show you this place tomorrow. Good night!!!!!!
Comments
One response to “Munich :: Christmas Market”
What a beautiful place – the market and where you stayed. So happy for you to return to your “homeland”!