Wow. It was a weekend plus, but here I am, home again. I've been in Munich. And Nuremberg. And Salzburg. And let's not forget the almost full day I spent in Terminal 5 at London Heathrow. Let's just say England's transport system is easily overwhelmed by snow.
I had plans to fly to Munich to meet up with six friends for a weekend of talking, laughing, and shopping at the German Christmas markets and we definitely hit the ground running. Once I got there anyway. I flew out Wednesday night and was supposed to make a connection in London at noon on Thursday but sadly all flights to Munich, including mine, were cancelled. All but one which was going out early evening and thankfully I happened to be standing in the right place at the right time and got a seat on that flight. Many thousands were not so lucky.
So I arrived in Munich (finally!) and in spite of having shopped in Harrods twiddled my thumbs in Heathrow for some 7 hours my bag did not make it. Hey, that's what friends are for, right? We were all staying with my friend A.M. at her lovely home in a suburb of Munich and everyone contributed to my wardrobe on Thursday...long johns and a hat from one friend, warm socks from another, a turtleneck from another and deodorant from another. I'd been in my same clothes for a couple of days so these things matter people. And take note, I had almost no makeup so those pics from Day 1 are a little sad. We had plans to go to Nuremberg for the day on Friday so A.M. said we could leave a note on her door for British Airways to please deposit my bag with a neighbor. I'm sure she could have worked out the wording herself but in the end we felt it was best to ask her German neighbor to compose the note for us so there would be no miscommunication. My bag was there when we got home that night so yay!
We rode the train from Munich to Nuremberg which is an old walled city filled with history and a fabulous Christmas market.
Course you can't ride a German train for two hours without a pretzel so AW bought this for us to share...
The markets consist of a couple hundred stalls full of German crafts and Christmas decorations and lebkuchen and of course gluwhein because baby it's cold outside!
Gluwhein is essentially mulled red wine and it warms you up right down to your tippy toes.
Did I mention the food? Because there are lots and lots of food stalls with all sorts of delicious treats to try and resist...
Or not...
One of my favorite sites in Nuremberg is the huge Gothic pyramid that sits in the cathedral square. It is stunning...
Nearly every European city has a beautiful cathedral and Nuremberg is no exception...I never get tired of seeing these amazing old churches.
This is getting long so I think I'll save Salzburg for part zwei tomorrow. Before catching the train back to Munich we had a fun dinner out in a little Italian restaurant where we raised our glasses to friendship...
Friendship born while living far from home...
And now-two continents, five countries, seven separate cities.
To friendship that remains.
