Easy travel to Lupburg and Munich

Our travel to Europe was exacly the way we like: uneventful. Leslie took us to DFW Airport. Short security lines, especially for Phillip and me. We had TSA Pre-check, but Ryan did not. He's 14, so it was fine for him to go thru his security line without us. Although we had the documentation to allow him to travel with us, the only time we were questioned was at the initial check-in kiosk. It required a human attendant to come over to us. She simply asked Ryan who he was traveling with, he pointed to us and said "them" at the same time we said "us," and she punched in a code and that was it. He really enjoyed his business class flight (we used frequent flyer miles) to Munich and we all three were able to get a nap on the flight.

Ryan's mother, Becky, and his sister, Reese, picked us up from the Munich Airport on Monday morning and we head for "Casa Becky" in Lupburg, about an hour north of Munich. The weather was quite a change from Texas, cool and cloudy with intermittent rain. A high of 68 degrees! It wasn't too cool, however, for a visit Monday evening to one of our favorite nearby locations... the ice cream parlor, Prima Vera Eiscafe.

"spaghetti eis"

Becky's husband, David, was quite busy at work (US Army), but he was able to join us Tuesday evening for dinner. The Hale family was happy to be back together.

Wednesday morning, Becky took us to the train station in Parsburg and we headed for downtown Munich. I hadn't gottten that train ticket ahead of time, but I knew this one would be easy as Parsburg is a small station and the trains either go north to Nuremburg or south to Munich. The ticket agent spoke English, so it was wonderfully easy! 

After the two hour train ride, we arrived in Munich, easily found our hotel, and were very pleased with it and our room. This hotel, Schiller 5, is a Rick Steeves recommended hotel and we totally agree with him. Friendly, helpful staff; large room with great desk arrangement and comfortable bed; complimentary coffee any time we want it from the front desk; happy hour at 5 pm with free wine. Once checked in, we walked around a bit, heading for Marienplatz (Mary's Square) where we will meet a tour guide Thursday afternoon. Fairly crowded on the streets, street art like many other European cities.

boar statue near Marienplatz

We walked around the Marienplatz and nearby market, then headed back to the hotel. We had dinner at a nearby restaurant, good German food and a dunkel (dark beer) for me. 

We have 5 days in Munich, so we will have plenty of opportunities for more wurst and dunkel!