Munich

Day 1 – Travel Day

The flight to Munich – MSP to ATL 2h 31m; ATL to MUC 9h 13m.  It’s always a long travel day to Europe from Minnesota.  Our 46m layover in ATL was barely sufficient.  Thankfully our flight from MSP landed at the same concourse that our flight to MUC was departing from; albeit at the opposite ends of the concourse, we arrived at the gate as the departing flight began to board – yay!

Leaving MSP

Flying over Ireland

Arriving MUC

MUC Airport S train

The gates at the MUC airport were like island in a sea of asphalt.  After deplaning you congregate in a “holding area” of sorts and wait for a bus to bring you to the terminal.  This felt a bit cattle-esque.  It was warm and humid with no AC.  Thankfully dragging our luggage around and waiting in line to clear customs didn’t take too long.  The excitement of landing and finally arriving in Germany carried us through the exhaustion for the plane ride.  We only had a 45 minute train ride to our hotel near the city center.  Thankfully we could check in early and crash for awhile.

Day 2 – Augustiner-Keller

After waking up from a post-flight-power-nap, we went in search of some local fare.  Augustiner-Keller is one of Munich’s oldest beer gardens.  It’s close proximity to our hotel made this an easy choice.

The delicious Bavarian food, tasty beer and a great atmosphere make this a wonderful place have dinner.  The Augustiner-Keller beer garden is quite large.  It seats 5,000!  This is quite a bit different that what we are used to in the USA at fairs, town celebrations, etc.  This beer garden is under the canopy of 100 Chestnut trees instead of tents.  This was the first of many beer garden experiences.  Our first exposure to the beer garden culture in Germany was fantastic.  We ate at the actual restaurant and where there is a larger menu.  We sat outside which is slight elevated from, but directly adjacent to the beer garden seating.   There is a limited menu available  from kitchens around the perimeter of the beer garden as well.

A perfect end to a very long day 2 of travel and first day in country.  Stay tuned for more post on our Germany trip.