We woke early today — okay, early for me anyway, since it wasn’t all that early (7:00 AM). But we had to finish our packing, have a bit of breakfast, and take the street car to the train station. Then we caught a fast train. We were in a small room on the train where only six people could sit. When we arrived what I assume was a father and son were already in. As we got settled at least one of them went out to smoke. When they came back the entire room reeked. BUT … hooray! … thankfully they hadn’t reserved those seats and the (quiet, non-smoking) couple that had purchased those specific seats could tell them they had to move. Whew!

The train only had three stops (IIRC) before ours, but it was a longer, 3+ hour trip.

And now … hello München! (Or Madrid Munich: you choose.)

I was grateful that Greg and Jan knew where to go to catch the local train which took us very close to our hotel. We checked in early, but our rooms were ready so to our rooms we went.

Shortly after settling in we all met downstairs and went to an area that might have a Christmas market. Well, that’s what some of us thought. But nope. Not a Christmas market. We decided eating outside wasn’t something we wanted to do anyway: it was cold and windy, and rain was threatening. So nearby was a beer hall and we got a light meal there.

From there we walked some more. And more. In the cold and rain and sometimes tons of wind. But it was great to get out and about and we did eventually find an actual Christmas market.

So we wandered. With tons of people. We went past what I think Greg said was city hall. We walked more, ending up at a high end store Greg wanted to visit. I saw some gorgeous Bavarian jackets that I loved, but I can’t justify spending the money on one. (Jan had loaned me one of hers for our nice dinner in Riquewihr. I guess that will have to suffice.)

We ended back at the city hall because we thought we would hear the famous carillon and see the characters go around and all. But no, that doesn’t happen at 5:00 PM in December. By that time the Christmas market was so full it seemed unsafe. Greg mentioned that as well. I was happy to go down to the subway (or whatever they call it here) and escape.

Back in our rooms, I took a less than 10 minute nap and then it was time for dinner

Greg and Jan had been at Maison Massard before and Greg made reservations for tonight for the four of us. Oh my was it ever good! I suspect this is our last “fancy” meal with them, so I was glad it was amazingly delicious, and the servers were so excellent.

Then it was a slightly sprinkly walk back to our hotel and it was suddenly 10:15 PM. (We were at the restaurant for over three hours!)

Tomorrow we have a concert at 7:00 PM, but other than that I don’t know what we’ll end up doing.