Happy New Year from Europe! And Happy Birthday Papa! I love you!

This morning began with a delicious breakfast at our hotel before we grabbed our luggage and walked across the street to the metro. From the metro we got to the train station where we boarded the train to Munich. There were six of us squished into a little train compartment, which was the same size as our couchette (tiny) but with seats instead of benches. After sorting out a seating debacle, we stored our luggage and settled in for the trip. We amused ourselves by playing 20 questions, Family Feud, and various games on our iPads. This ride was much more enjoyable than the last, but we were still very excited to arrive in Munich.

Upon arrival we walked three blocks to our hotel, the Hotel Jedermann. It is a small hotel but is very clean and the people are very nice. They are extremely full tonight with New Years travelers so Caitlin, Aaron, and I are stuck in an apartment that is separated from the hotel by two huge locked doors. There are some mysterious rooms around the corner and the whole area smells horrible. Needless to say we feel very cut off from the rest of the group and are really creeped out. Luckily they will be able to move us to a room within the hotel tomorrow so we can be closer to the rest of the group.

After dropping off our luggage we took a long stroll down to Marienplatz, the city center. It is Munich’s main road and is lined with beautiful architecture, restaurants, and shops. The whole place was still decorated beautifully from Christmas and was amazing! A lot of things are closed because of the New Year so it wasn’t as exciting as it could have been. Luckily we have lots more free time in Munich so we can come back and explore when it is in full swing!

We ate dinner at the Augustiner restaurant, which was really nice and had great food! I ordered spaetzle, which is small flour dumplings covered in cheese and cream. It tasted like fancy mac and cheese and was delicious! After dinner we spent some time exploring around our hotel and in the train station, which is full of shops and little food carts. There are way less people here than there were in the other cities we’ve been to, and it isn’t nearly as lively. I’m hoping that that is due to the holiday and that it will pick up soon!

The train ride and exploring have wiped us all out and we are back in our hotel room now relaxing. It gets dark here around 4:30, which also throws us off and makes it seem like it is much later than it actually is. Tomorrow we head out to Dachau concentration camp, which will be very sad but interesting. It’s crazy to think that we have already completed two stops in our journey! There are so many more adventures to have! Talk to you soon 🙂