OUR LAST LUNCH IN MUNICH WITH GERMAN RELATIVES!

John and I woke up after another great night’s sleep in our BARELY BASIC hotel room, (with no midnight serenade, unfortunately), and walked across the street to another adorable breakfast cafe, this one featuring pancakes!  (August and Jonah, you would have LOVED it!)

This sign made us laugh!  (We aren’t crabby, but we will be returning to the beach SOON!!!)  John and I loved the Key West decor and their coffee was out-of-this-world delicious!

We walked around the neighborhood a bit, savoring everything about a Saturday morning in Munich!  It wasn’t long before it was time to get back, packed, and checked out of our BARELY BASIC hotel where we stored our bags for the rest of the day!  Our German cousins, Irmgard Diedam and her daughter, Vivika, met us in front of the hotel!  It was wonderful to finally meet them both!

We walked to another fabulous area that John and I had not yet discovered!  It was bustling with people everywhere and we LOVED IT!  The vibe was delightful!

We stopped at what Irmgard called a “proper Beer Garden” where we jockeyed for a table and it wasn’t long before we all had drinks and a proper German lunch!

John brought his laptop with the family tree and Irmgard brought family photos and after lunch they went to work, filling in some of the blanks!  Both Irmgard and Vivika were absolutely delightful!  Oh, the stories that were shared!  We laughed so hard and drank way too much!

Vivika’s dad, Miro, joined us for drinks (and more laughs) and 

pickles!  Apparently, pickles are a thing on Instagram in Germany and Vivika wanted us all to try them!  They were good (not to mention, very, very BIG) and came in multiple flavors!  Miro, who didn’t speak much English, was delightful as well!  The entire afternoon reminded me of long lost friends getting together after not seeing one another for many years!  We certainly enjoyed the afternoon with them!

It was nearly dinner time when we bid farewell and split up to go our separate ways!  John and I continued to browse through the area, savoring our last moments out and about Munich!  (Have I mentioned we LOVE this city?) if only we had more time here!

Regretfully, we retrieved our luggage and bid good riddance (just kidding) to our BARELY BASIC hotel and trekked through the crowds to the train station.  It was a bit complicated finagling our train tickets, as the route to the airport was disrupted by rail construction (or something like that)!  We finally made it (with a bit of help by some friendly Germans) on the correct train and, finally and at long last, we arrived at the airport. We settled for a taxi, (when we missed the bus), and were so happy when we got checked in at the Moxy by Marriott, our hotel for the night.  After the BARELY BASIC hotel we last stayed in, the Moxy looked like the Taj Mahal!  We were soooo exhausted from our wild and crazy day (of drinking with relatives), that we grabbed a quick dinner, went back to the room, and lights out!

Good night all!  We fly back to the States tomorrow afternoon!  (We missed you, Joe, Scho, Mary and Steve!)