Family Visit - Part I - Munich
A nice part of the year long travel is knowing we will stop and see family/friends along the way and Munich was just that, a nice welcome after traveling around since last seeing our friends Elaine and Sharon.
It’s been 7 years since the last time we visited our family in Munich, and upon returning it’s like it was yesterday. An added bonus is that Mario, having grown up in New York City speaks English. As well his wife Eva and family speak English, so there was no stress of trying to speak German (to come later) and being Mark’s interpreter.
Arriving later in the day, the first night was reminiscing of the past over a lovely home cooked meal. It was great catching up on everyone’s lives and spending some time just to relax.
The following day we drove about an hour from Munich to Spitzingzee, a beautiful lake with great for hikes and picnics, or in the winter a ski resort. Apparently one of the top 5 ski resorts in Germany.
This being a beautiful fall day of temperatures hovering around 19C we opted to take advantage of the lovely weather. Instead of just walking around the lake we opted to do one of the hikes which would take us up about 300 meters, through the woods to our destination. The end result was a nice restaurant with some beautiful views.
As we knew we would spend one day in Munich, having been there a few times, it was nice to be out of the city, and see something different. This is an area where we wouldn’t have thought to travel and a very pleasant surprise.
After our walk, we had a bit of time to refresh and as we had a box we had sent to Mario and Eva back in February, with our clothing from the Olympics. It was like Christmas we had forgotten what we sent. It made our life so much easier to offload clothing as we traveled through the heat of S.E. Asia.
Not only did Mario and Eva hold onto our package, they also had to go to customs to get it. We didn’t realize when we originally shipped the package there would be an issue of getting the box, so a big shout out to you for doing this, and for anyone who is traveling and would like to ship things to foreign countries, take note.
Later in the evening, dinner was at a local restaurant in Munich and here we were able to visit the kids, catching up on their lives followed by a pub to continue conversations.
Today the agenda was to visit Munich Residence, which holds about 125 rooms where Kings resided. Well worth seeing is the Treasury which holds all the jewels and crowns.
As the weather gods were shining on us, we found an outdoor restaurant across from the Opera. Enjoyed the fine weather before meandering through Marienplatz where one can see the beautiful gothic City Hall. From there we did some window shopping before heading back home for dinner at a Greek restaurant.
It was so nice to visit the family and although we had a short visit, we made the most of our time. We hope to be back in the next couple of years with the rest of my family members.