As I write this evening, I am sitting at home after my second day back at work since my trip to Germany.
I had most of the day in Munich before my flight back to Heathrow in the evening.
I checked out of the hotel after breakfast and headed towards Marienplatz, stumbling almost accidentally upon the Viktualienmarkt – a daily food market which takes place in the city.
With over 140 stalls, the market is open 6 days a week from 8am to 6pm.
With the weather on Monday morning sunny and really rather pleasant outside, I spent quite a lot of time wandering the market, looking at all the stalls more than once, and buying a couple of things…
The smell of the fresh produce – fruit and veg, various meats, and cheeses – was amazing!
Above: One of the many fruit & veg stalls at the market.
Above: One of the cheese stalls.
Above: Mediterane Spezialitäten – From here I bought some ‘Bohnensalat aus Griechenland’ (aka Gigantes).
Above: Flower stand.
After wandering around the market, buying an alcoholic gift for Dad in the process (Honigwein – looked interesting) – I went to buy some postcards of Munich in Marienplatz, and I also bought a present for my sister…
ATTENTION:
Teenage Explosion Hazard
Do not speak to them!!!
Let them sleep!!!
Breakfast in bed!!!
Sums up my sister perfectly!
From this point, I headed to the Deutsches Museum – the world’s largest Science and technology museum – located just one stop away on the U-Bahn.
There’s a lot to see in the museum – I just stuck to the bits I was interested in. (Textiles… no thanks, and I know nothing about machinery. I looked at the bits about the planes, the music stuff, and all the printing suff).
Above: The Boeing 747… Fascinating stuff!!
Above: The Airbus A300. Thankfully my plane home was more complete than this one!
Above: The Printing Press.
Above: All about printing.
Above: How about this for a printer!?!
Above: This recording studio looks like something out of Doctor Who…
After a few hours in the museum it was time to head back to the hotel to collect my luggage, then head for the Airport.
From my hotel in the Sendlinger Tor area, I got the U6 to Marienplatz, then the S1 from Marienplatz to the Airport – the journey took just over an hour in total.
Above: Outside Munich Airport, between Terminal 1 (behind me) and Terminal 2 (in the image).
Terminal 2 is where Lufthansa and all Star Alliance members are based in Munich’s Airport – and having checked-in online and received my boarding pass (it was texted to my phone), I just had to drop my bag off.
In the Airport I had time for a quick drink and something to eat – but not before my belt, glasses, watch and shoes all set off the scanners at security.
My keys apparently also looked suspicious when they went through the X-Ray… I was asked to open my bag… the big fat policeman took one look at my keys, then let me take my bag.
Once given the all clear, I found an area where I was able to plug in my laptop and phone, and did my e-mails for a bit.
Above: Plugged in and doing my e-mails in the airport. It’s nice having an EU power cable for my laptop: no adaptors needed.
For the flight back, we took off at about 18:45 (German time), and landed in Heathrow at about 90 minutes later.
We had some excellent views of London from the plane. We got the ‘Central London by Night’ scenic route in to runway 27L. I saw Big Ben, the London Eye, and the Houses of Parliament.
Iin the picture below you can also see the clearly O2 and Canary Whaf – the photo was taken just as we turned 180 degrees around the O2 in to our final approach in to Heathrow.
After landing at Heathrow, it was literally a case of get through passport control, grab my bag from the reclaim belt, then RUN. I made it to the coach with 5 minutes to spare.
I got home in record home – less than 3 hours after landing, and I was already at home, unpacking and telling my family about the trip.
Where will my next trip take me to?
- Berlin is fairly high up the list…
- Itzehoe as well – I’ll take my digital recorder and make a radio programme all about Cirencester’s twin town and the state of Schleswig-Holstein in general.
- Cologne in December, to see the Christmas market.
- Summer holiday to Greece – Athens/Syros maybe.
I’ll decide where to go next in about a month.
FH.