Leaving on a Jet Plane

On Sunday, October 2nd, the DH and I left for the vacation of a lifetime. Our flight was at 1:00, so we had a friend pick us up at 10:00 and then she got our friends Bop and Beep and we headed to the airport. I was so happy that we had a flight a little later in the day (after way too many 6:00 a.m. flights) and I had time to finish up the last minute details that morning.

What I forgot:

• Travel guide books -- I meant to bring the two books that covered the areas of Bavaria, Switzerland, and the Tyrolean alps.
• Conditioner for my hair -- but instead, I did have three tubes of toothpaste.
• Laundry detergent -- Bop and Beep came to the rescue once and the apartment in Salzburg had a bottle of detergent there. Plus, you can always buy it there.

What I took that I should have left behind:

• My swimsuit -- did I really think I would swim laps at some point on this trip? That was ludicrous thinking
• Dansko clogs -- whoever says they're good walking shoes must have never walked all day in them.
  
• Magazines -- they just weighed a lot and I had plenty of other entertainment.

The flight from Seattle to Amsterdam left on time and actually arrived a few minutes early. Everything went without a hitch. We then connected to our flight to Munich and that was quick and easy as well.

Once we got to Munich, it was Monday, and we needed to get the car rental and head to the apartment we would be staying in for the next few days. This was my first practice in-country with speaking German. The attendant at the car rental desk didn't speak English. We made it through OK, with me mostly understanding everything she said. We had ordered a mid-size car that claimed it would be large enough for five adults and four suitcases. I'm not sure what size they expected the people or the suitcases to be, but we'll just say it was a bit of a tight fit all the way around. The Mercedes 5 series is just not that big. We appreciated, once again, the DH's prowess in figuring out how to load big things into small places.

We had pre-ordered GPS for the car, so all we had was the physical address of the apartment, but no maps or directions. When we got in the car, we didn't see any GPS and couldn't figure out how it might be there or how it would work if it were there. I went to find one of the rental workers and two of them came over to show us how the "Navi" worked. It was fully built in and worked like a charm. We nick-named our Navi hostess Gert and she never failed us (even when we thought she was heading us in the wrong direction). She took us straight to the apartment with no issues at all.

We met the owner there and got instructions on what to do, how to get to the U-Bahn station, and what to do before checkout. The first level of the apartment was for the owners. The second level had a bedroom for Bop and Beep, the third level was the kitchen, living room, and bathroom, and the DH and I were in the attic. Except for carrying the bags up the stairs, it was a great setup. The apartment was big and had all the amenities we needed and was very close to a grocery store and public transportation. This trip was starting out spectacularly!