Logan to Munich

9/14/17 Thursday
​It’s time for our honeymoon! We have spent this whirlwind of a week unpacking from the wedding, working, getting as much snuggle time with Loki, and packing for the next trip. It feels like we’ve hardly been home. I took today off. I had to work a half day, and left at 11am. I got in some final puppy snuggles before forcing myself out of bed at 5am one last time. Mandy had everything set to go, including dropping Loki off at his friends’ house down the street. He gave one casual glance back and then plodded inside to, presumably, rouse the troops. He likes to get everyone fired up. We met at home around 11:30 to do a final checklist and pack ultra last minute items before the car from Boston Limousine picked us up at about 11:50. We (we in this scenario = Rob) had a lovely chat with our driver, Joe about work for the uneventful ride into the city. Traffic was very light and we made quick time getting to Logan International Airport.

Traffic inside the airport was even lighter, which was amazing! We printed our boarding tickets because the text message version we had requested never came through, and then we headed to security. There were just two people in front of us, and we were through the checkpoint in a matter of minutes. It was unbelievable. Making such excellent time all the way to the gate left us with way too much time and nothing to do with it. So we waited. Eventually, it was time. We boarded with just our carry on backpacks and found convenient overhead storage right at our seats. How rare is that?! We took off from the north end of 22R at Logan at 3:05pm and headed west.
We landed in Toronto, Canada at 4:45pm after an altogether uneventful flight. We were anxious because we had a flight to catch which began boarding just 25 minutes later. We tried to get up as soon as we were allowed, but the flight attendant notified us that they were unable to open the door due to an adjacent plane that was currently boarding. We stood by impatiently. When the doors finally opened, we raced at a brisk power walk through what seemed like miles and miles of airport. We caught a ride on an express, high-speed moving sidewalk which helped immensely. Mandy was struggling to keep up due to wearing her adorable new heels. I had purchased waterproof booties with a slight heel to wear at Oktoberfest to hopefully protect my feet from spilled beer yet still look cute. I decided to wear them as my other shoes would pack down smaller in my backpack.
We arrived to the gate, sweating and trying to catch our breath, to find that the flight was delayed by 15 minutes. Suddenly, we had all the time in the world. So we got a sandwich. Grilled chicken, cheddar and pesto. It was decent as far as airport fast food goes. We loaded up with zone 4 and made our way all the way back to the ultra-poor section in the rear of the A330. This is the biggest plane we’ve ever been on; 8 rows across! We are happy to have 2 seats alone with no third person to step over, under, or around. Note: when checking in for this flight, we looked at upgrading to business class so we would be able to lay down. The fee to upgrade was about $1900USD. Each. Though this is much better than the price Mandy got on the phone a few months back which was about $3200 each.
We took off from Toronto at 6:10pm. Up in the air, we watched some movies to pass the time. I watched Zodiac and I wish I could have heard it better. I think it was really good. I watched Keeping up with the Joneses and Miss Peregrin’s Home for Peculiar Children. We watched the sun set over the east coast of the US and then gazed into the blackness north out of the driver’s side of the plane, hoping to glimpse the Northern Lights. No such luck. We tried to force sleep that just wouldn’t come but in short bursts. Later, we watched the sun rise somewhere over the eastern Atlantic. We touched down in Munich at 2:01am “our” time, which is 8:01am local time.

​9/15/17 Friday
From the airport, we made our way to Englischer Garten (English Garden) and more specifically, the Chinesischer Turm (Chinese Tower). It took us about an hour to get out of the airport. A combination of being in awe at the architecture, lost, and making it up as we went. Eventually, we found the train station that would get us where we needed to go. We took a train from the airport to Marienplatz, where we transferred to another train that took us to . Once there, we walked about a half hour, thinking we could find the English park on our own. Finally, we broke down and asked for help from a biker. It was about a 5 minute walk from the park if we had done it right from the beginning. Oh well. We grabbed a table outside and spread out all our gear. Finally, we had made it!

​It was fantastic to sit for a few and fully relax. After a bit, I got up to explore the area around the tower, and came back with a pair of beers and some cookies. All of it was great, or maybe we were just starving. I don’t know. We reorganized our gear within our packs a bit to better suit us for exploration within Europe. After a little while of relaxing, drinking, and people watching, we caught sight of Dan and Chelsea, friends of ours from home. Not long after their arrival, Kerri (HEY!) and Theo arrived, too! We chatted with everyone over a couple rounds of beers about our respective journies to the park, and what our hopes were for the days ahead. The lemonade and weissbier was best. Eventually we all felt it was time to head out of the park and make our way to our house for stay in Munich.
But first we had to stop into the clothes shop just up the street from the park. The girls all tried on dirndls, but none found any they liked enough to buy. I tried on a few sizes of lederhosen, because I had no idea where to start. Size numbers are in the 40s and 50s. Eventually, I found some and made my purchase. Then, we were able to go to our house. We had to hop back on the train and head in the direction we came, and continue on toward Forestenreider Allee. From there, it was about a 5 minute walk and we were home. A man, presumably the owner, showed us where to go and how to get in. We all picked rooms and dumped our stuff before regrouping to get some dinner. We were so hungry!

​We agreed to check out an Italian restaurant recommended by a random woman on the sidewalk. It was called de Gina. The hostess/waitress was very patient with us, and the food was fantastic. I got a dish with spaghetti and bacon. I got penne arrabiatta. By the end of dinner, we were all getting over-exhausted, and we agreed it was a good idea to go home and get some rest, early as it was. We were asleep before 8pm.