Munich - Day 1

Bob had a conference in Munich and invited me to join him for the weekend prior to the conference. Of course, I couldn't resist going. We lined up the nanny to stay at our place and take care of the kids and off we went! It was a short trip for me, leave Thursday afternoon, get into Munich Friday morning and get back on a plane Sunday morning. But I made the most of the trip and had a great time. Didn't get a chance to shop and replace the coat from the Netherlands that was retired during the San Diego trip. Too many beers to try!

So Day 1 begins with the plane landing at 8am or so in the morning. Check-in at the hotel, and we decided to take a little nap. Didn't really feel like it, but we figured it was better to do it then and be rested for the remainder of the day. Bob talked to the conceirge who recommended going to Kloster Andechs, a monastery brewery.

It was an hour train ride to Kloster Andechs, but was definitely worth it. Kloster Andechs is a monastery that sits atop a high hill. The church was beautiful and the beer was delicious. Unfortunately I forgot the camera so I'm stole this picture from Kloster Andechs' website. My favorite beer at Kloster Andechs was an apfelwiesse beer (apple wheat beer), and Bob's favorite was the winterbrew.


Dinner was at the klostergasthof where Bob and I watched two little girls that reminded us of our little guys. They must have been 4 1/2 years and 2 1/2 years old, same spacing as Colin and Nathan just 6 months older. Made us miss our guys, but then when they started getting restless, we were glad we didn't have to worry about that. We just smiled and nodded to let them know we understood.

While waiting for the bus back, we started talking to a family from Australia. At first they assumed we were German and started talking to us in German. Communication went much better when they spoke English! They were the coolest people, and we talked to them the whole way back to Munich. It was a family vacation for them with their daughters who were 26 and 24 (or something like that). They were so close and got along so well. They are the model of what I hope our family will be like when the kids grow up. You know, still taking family vacations when the boys are in their 20's with everyone laughing and joking and having a great time together. It takes a really special bond to be able to do that.

For dinner, Bob and I went to this little German pub that was the coziest little place. It had a table for the regulars where everyone ate together and all knew each other. I forget the name of the place, but it was probably "Cheers" in German!

Tomorrow we hit the pubs. So stay tuned for more.