Munchen on whatever we can find

We took a flight today that looked something like this, all other travelling was via the S bahn to our hotel Sheraton Westpark and U bahn to see some of the Munich sights. What a great day ...


Just to set the scene ...

We chased the music today ... and found it, and accompanying refreshments.  We watched the sun rise over Heathrow airport and saw the sun set over the Fraunkirche Dome in Munich.

Limited sleep and the caught the hopper to Heathrow Terminal 5.  Early starts synonymous with the holiday feeling.  With the check ins just stirring into life we got in the business class queue by mistake.  They still checked us in fortunately but ignored my cheeky upgrade request.

you don't look business class

So we were straight into the Wetherspoons rather than the business class lounge, but the bloody mary and bacon buttie much more in keeping with our chavtastic take on life. 

usual routine

All ready for take off so took 40 winks near boarding gate. Woke up in a dream like state to see the last people going through the gate and the rest of my family hypnotised by their devices.   For a moment I thought they had left me there, but quick smart we ducked under the last call and boarded last but not least. Flight pretty much on its way pretty quickly and made a jerky and sharp ascent hitting all sorts of weather patterns as the recent hot air mixed up with all sorts to assure some bumpy moments.  What I didn't do was press the air steward service button and ask if we were about to crash like some clown a couple of rows in front.  Although I might have thought it :)

all in one piece

nice to get off

On landing in Munich we strolled through the various checks and baggage pick up, and sorted ourselves with a tidy little family day travel card.  This got us on the S bahn to the city, where we picked up the U bahn to the hotel.  Felt like a little sleep, but fearful that might have meant we might continue into Austria quicker than we planned, I held it together.

one day pass

riding the S bahn

Sheraton Westpark, which we stayed in last November was brilliant again.  Checked us straight into our bit of luxury, adjoining club rooms. And with the extra hour that meant it was lunchtime so a snack and a beer in the club lounge.  Perfect way to set ourselves up for an afternoon of sightseeing and activity.

a whole bryn

Caught the U bahn to Karlz platz so that Bryn could feel like it was home from home and spend an hour looking at all the sports casual stuff in the various shops.  You can take the boy our of Newport ...

bayern shop

Gave us chance to revisit some of the old town highlights, and show the kids a few of the places we visited last November.

calm down, calm down

We then caught the train up to a stop near the Englishgarten so we could have a really good stroll in the mid afternoon sun, it's what you do isn't it? To be fair, the gardens were beautiful, and the haunting sounds of a brass oomp pah pah band drew us to the centre and what turned out to be the popular beer garden Chinesischertuem, playing out of the 1790 originally built Chinese Tower.  Trestle tables and steins, what's not to like? Carys went for apple juice but the rest of us had a beer and plenty of banter in a pretty busy place. Best chat we have had with Bryn for a while, a legal pint with his parents, and hear more about his life than perhaps we have done in months.  Be a shame of this is our last full family holiday.

upper body training

cheers 

bryns hand, job done

all muck and brass

Strolling through the park after that felt like a min glastonbury in the sun, with most of the local university out on the grass and in the associated river, which has quite a current.  Both the surfing at the top end and then a rapid (un)lazy river for a few hundred yards that people were throwing themselves into. I was tempted, but was a young persons game, so encouraged the kids to have a go, which they duly did!

festival atmos

surfy dudes

responsible parenting

Made our way back to our little piece of luxury, a planned launch point for the trip which may not be emulated in terms of quality from here on in, although between the 4 of us, eating all the food they had on offer in the exec lounger, along with ample liquid refreshment, I think we've had our moneys worth!



-Carys-

I have a lot more to write about today since we had a day full of adventures and fun, but I'll keep it a moderate length.

Early start, of course - around 3:30pm we started to wake up and crawl from our beds. We didn't have too much to pack up, but what we did was stowed in the suitcases and we got ourselves ready for the day ahead. Following a short shuttle bus journey to Terminal 5, we had a smooth ride through customs and baggage dropoff and we were in a Wetherspoons having breakfast before we knew it.

grubs up

Feeling tired, but full from a vegetarian traditional breakfast, I went for a wander around a couple of the shops, as I always do at the airport, and then it was time to board the flight. We had a little incident where we went to sit down in the seats for a different gate to the one we were boarding because the seats in our gate were quite full. We all felt quite dozy so we didn't realise that the sign was saying 'now closing' for our flight. We hopped up after realising, and had a laugh about it afterwards, but that could have been a disaster if we'd missed the plane.

funny, not funny

The flight was simple - I felt a bit queasy  but that's normal for me when flying. WE were on the ground very quickly and it was lovely to be having such a short flight - it was only an 1 and a half or so. We picked up our bags and jumped onto a train. Hopping on and off a few trains, we made our way to the hotel.

wide awake club

I was delighted to find out that following a booking mishap we'd been given two adjoining rooms so the parents and the children could have their own rooms each. We sat in the club lounge for a while, enjoying ourselves in the gorgeous hotel and indulging in some bread and cheese snacks that had been left for guests.

so cheesy

Then we went out adventuring, looking around the shops, stunning architecture of Munich city and using the train station system again. Dad and I went inside a huge church, with beautiful arches and a long aisle.

shop til u drop

for historical purposes only

Once we found it, we sat in a large beer garden, listening to live played music and drinking - beer for the others, sparkling apple juice for me, which was very tasty. Beer is too bitter anyway. We had a laugh together and the lovely weather made the time even more enjoyable. I chose to buy a huge pretzel too, just because its quite a classic german delicacy, and IT actually tasted really good.

the sensible one

the ... well, you know ///

We went to see the surfers ride the difficult waves which were carried y a strong current on the waves of the river. They looked really cool. Bryn and I turned into a pair of adrenaline junkies then and went for a 'swim' in the 'lazy river'. The current sort of takes you along, and you can see that from the many people diving into the river and riding along the river. It was so much, and really exciting, though it took a lot of strength to pull ourselves up onto the side of the river when we needed to get out - we didn't want to be taken too far down the river...

swim little fishies

happy endings

Once we'd dried off and calmed down from our 'extreme water sports' we got the train back to the hotel and spent the evening winding down after our exciting day.