I arrived at the Munich airport with plenty of time to spare before my flight. Since I was flying business class I planned on taking full advantage of the lounge and my wifi access to slowly reacclimatize. When I arrived at the ticket desk, I found out that an earlier flight to the US had been cancelled due to labor action and they were offering to bump me to the same flight the next day for pretty hefty ticket vouchers, a night at the five star hotel at the airport and meals. Hmm, let me thi… YES!
It was another rare beautiful summer day in Munich and after letting the folks back at the office know that I’d be a day later, I dropped my stuff off at the hotel and headed into town. I hit the usual tourist spots and then decided to chill at the Englischer Garten along with what seemed like most of the rest of the city.
There were people surfing in the man-made currents of the Isar river near the park entrance. You take what you can get when you’re an urban surfer in Munich.
Nothing beats drinking a gigantic beer along the river on a warm Munich afternoon. Life was truly good to me that day and I returned later that evening to my hotel where I had my last dinner in Germany and later had a swim and sauna. The next day I replayed my fly home routine, still hoping my trip could be extended yet again. It was tough coming back and I think the glow of this vacation could be seen on me for weeks . . . only to be tarnished by the pile of work that had collected and the seemingly endless wait for my car to arrive back home.
After taking far too long to get the new car and do a big vacation, I had finally done both and am now thinking that I’ll have to find a way to do this again in a few years when I hopefully buy my next car — probably an electric or hyrdogen version. I spent about $1500 on gas during the trip so that’s another reason to jump to an alternative fuel vehicle next time around! If anyone needs a volunteer to take their car for BMW ED and make sure it runs properly over there, I’m game. 🙂
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