I lucked out, I had been searching for weeks for a flight to Munich for us to start our travels. It was looking like we'd have to get a train/coach to London before getting a flight from Stansted or Luton to Munich. Then I had a brainwave Nuremburg, I checked it out a flight would cost us £17 each from Manchester. Then we could get a train from their to Munich. According to my various apps the whole journey would take just over an hour and would cost €60 each. Then I discovered The BVG (Bavarian Railway) it took 46mins longer but cost us €26 altogether.
We arrived in Manchester to be greeted by a long snake (queue) practically the length of the terminal, we had checked in online but had to drop off our bag. You need to weigh your bags and attach the label before dropping off on the conveyor belt, where there is someone checking tickets and baggage tags. Seems like a great waste of time as we'd already been told we had to check in online and print out our boarding passes, or face a fine.
Once through security, GO hasn't travelled on a plane for so long he hasn't seen the rise in the busy traveller. Particularly in Manchester airport, there is an expectation that you will be ready to drop your items into the security trays the second you get to the conveyor belt. Any hold up will be met with eye rolling and lots of huffs and puffs. As we get closer to the trays I have my belt off, iPhone and Kindle out and have thrown away out water. While he saunters along. I know he isn't ready but he won't listen to me. So I let him fuss and falter with the security officer, who is slightly distracted by an elderly couple who have managed to encroach into everyone's space. I line up for the X-Ray machine and watch as my hand bag still hasn't been sent through. There is now a back log of bags and belonging due to Mr and Mrs Shufflealong. I pass through and beep (always do) I'm wearing jean and the rivets have set off the alarms.
After finally making it through security, with all of our belongings, after I'd tidied up a bit, putting all of the trays back where they belonged, we set about finding somewhere to sit and wait. What I really want is something to eat, but the choice in this terminal has always (as far as I'm aware) been quite limited. Either a ridiculously expensive restaurant chain or a high street coffee shop. Maybe it's because it was new or because I usually fly at five in the morning and it isn't open but we notice a lot of fast food boxes balanced precariously on bins. While we were exploring we found a KFC. I couldn't believe actual cheap and greasy food. I headed straight for it.
The guy behind the toll was new and it was all very confusing, eventually after much to and froing to the supervisor we ordered our meal and it came to £12.98. I handed over the money and was very surprised when the till said I was due change of £129813.00 I looked shocked the guy at the till looked petrified, his boss couldn't stop laughing.
Finally it was time to board, I made GO's day by telling him that he wouldn't be sat next to me but two seats in front. He was so happy, apparently I'm and fidgety flyer (I'm not). In a strange quirk, Ryanair's idea of a joke I presume I ended sat with an Asian lady and GO say with her daughter. I suggested a swap he declined, sod.
On arrival in Nuremburg I stated to worry that we wouldn't find the train station, I had researched everything about this journey and knew that the train to Munich would cost €50 each on the ICE, we/I decided to travel on local trains which took an hour longer but cost €26 for the pair of us, bargain.
The train was so plush and clean we were convinced we had sat in First Class by mistake. We have Papichen a quick Skype and sat back relaxed, the journey was stress free and so clean. Just as the train was about to depart the conductor came in the PA system and said that due to a passenger on the inbound service emptying themselves (he was never more specific than that) the first carriage would be out of order, fifteen minutes laters he said that it had all been cleaned up and the carriage was back in use, welcome to Germany.
After an hour and a half, we'd eaten our first and tastiest brezeln, downed the coffee and had a snooze, we had passed from blazing heat to dark ominous rain clouds and had arrived in Munich, form here to be know as Muenchen.
Our next big job was to get to the hotel, every review I had read and the email I had received from the hotel itself all seemed to claim it was easy to get to the hotel on the 3 from the HBF (Haupt Bahnhof). it wasn't hard, but it wasn't as easy as it appeared. First job was finding the UBahn stop. It was underground, obviously U = Underground. We purchased a ticket from the ticket office and she said that we would need to one tram and then change to another. It took us twenty minutes to find our tube stop, we followed signs that would then stop, leaving us completely lost. Eventually we just decided to choose a tunnel and walk down it. Joy of joys, some how we found ourselves exactly where we needed to be, I love it when that happens.
We hopped on a very old and tired looking tram (I am use to new and swishy Manchester Metro/TFL), I didn't like it, GO thought it was great and probably loved by most tourists. we made our connection and then jumped on the next train heading for the Olympia Park, this was our stop, or so I thought.
We got off at our stop and I consulted my map app, we had a twenty minute walk to the hotel. Seemed reasonable, I thought, not exactly what I would call a convenient stop Trip Advisor, but hey ho off we go. I decided not to follow the map exactly but to go the "scenic" route, so our twenty minute walk took about an hour, oops. On the bright side we walked through what must have been the competitors village in the 1972 Olympics and was now a very seventies looking housing estate painted all sorts of garish colours and was like a scene out of an old German film. After what felt like forever and included walking past the UBahn stop for Oberwiesenfeld (our actual stop) we made it the hotel.
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