Thursday, October 21, 2010
Thursday morning we rose around 6:00. We needed to be ready by about 8:00, as our ride was picking us up to take us to the Catania airport. Without much ado, we piled into two cars and were on our way. We got to the airport early and got checked into our flight without much fuss. The only hiccup came when we neglected to hand our passports to D, and had to check in separately, causing us to sit several rows back from our travelling companions.
Sam, in his usual manner, pulled out his DS as soon as electronics were allowed. I rested my head on his shoulder and dozed off. I awoke a little while later, being presented with food. Yes, our 2 hour, 15 minute flight to Munich served a meal. We were given the ingredients for a sandwich (roll, lunch meat, fresh mozzarella, fresh tomatoes), some sort of zucchini side dish, and some King's cake. We were also hot and cold beverages. I had some water and hot tea, for which fresh lemon slices were provided. Sam had some Kinnie, a local bitter orange soda. He was not exactly in love with that choice. After the unexpected and tasty meal, Sam went back to video games and I began on journaling about the trip. While this did not affect us, we saw that the flight attendants started moving people who had to catch a connecting flight to the front of the plane. Having just experienced a connection nightmare, I thought it was great that they did this. The moral of this story is that Air Malta rocks!
I forgot to mention that before we boarded our flight in Catania, we had some time to kill. Sam wanted a snack, and ended up getting a prosiutto pannini with a porcini mushroom spread. I had a couple of bites and was quite impressed. He had also tried to talk me into getting a Nutella Snack & Drink. While my love of Nutella is great, I refrained and Sam was disappointed.
Anyhow, back to the story. We landed in Munich and made our way through the vast indoor/outdoor complex that is the Munich airport. I accompanied B to the Avis counter, while Sam and D took G to find a snack. They soon caught up with us at the rental car counter, and Sam whisked me away to find delicious-looking pastries. This time, I told my will power to go away, and bought a vanilla Danish type treat that was very tasty indeed.
There were some difficulties with the rental car, as D had requested a baby seat and GPS when she made the reservation. The baby seat wasn't a problem, but they didn't have a GPS. They gave us a Ford Focus with built-in navigation instead. Things seemed under control, so we went along on our merry way, and piled everything into the car. D turned on the navigation system and was prompted to enter a PIN. PIN? What PIN?? We looked through the rental paperwork, the handbook and anything else we could find. When we came up empty handed, B entered a number that made logical sense. "The PIN you entered is invalid. You have two more tries before the system is locked for one hour." Great. D got on the phone with the Avis people, while the rest of us tried again to find this mystery PIN, and entertain G, who was getting mighty cranky. We were told to go see the attendant, who would be able to help us with the navigation. He told us we could wait 1-2 hours while they got the number from Ford. Um, no thank you. So we asked for a map and started charting our course toward Edelweiss.
The original plan had been to stay in Munich for a few hours and explore. Without the navigation system, and with a grumpy baby on our hands, this no longer seemed like a good idea. D called the lodge for directions, which were only borderline helpful. We got somewhat lost before finally finding the correct road. Sam did some fine map-reading to help us get on the right track. It's a shame he nodded off shortly afterwards, because the scenery was simply stunning. Lush green meadows, snowy mountains, forests, and old cottages. Again, exactly what I'd imagined it would look like.
Finally, we entered Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and started seeing signs for Edelweiss, the lodge/resort where we were staying. It's a strict, secure location where we had to show our IDs/passports every time we entered. I started taking pictures before we even made it in the door. It was beautiful, with gorgeous scenery and snow on the ground. After checking in, we went to our respective rooms. Sam and I had a standard (very lovely) room, with a fantastic view of the mountains and a small balcony. The R's had a slightly bigger room, with a living room area, to give the baby space to explore, but they were not as lucky in the view department.
After a short period of rest, we reconvened and headed out to dinner at a traditional German restaurant, recommended to D by the staff at the front desk. On the way there, we tried to follow the directions that were provided to us, and pronounce all the German street names. We failed at the latter part, sounding ridiculous and laughing heartily. We found the restaurant without too many difficulties. As in Taoromina, we had a very nice waitress. Sam asked for a recommendation for a good local non-alcoholic beverage. She responded by saying, "Beer is the local beverage." We were amused.
After perusing the menu, we made our selections. Much delicious food was had. I had some roast pork, dumpling and warm sour cabbage. Yum. Sam had the Farmer's Plate, which included several meats and the same sides as my meal. As Sam delighted in pointing out, B had a wiener plate, and D and the baby had potato pancakes. Not surprisingly, everything was very tasty. Just writing about all this great food is making me a little hungry.
The baby's bedtime was pretty early, so we headed back to the lodge. The R's headed to their room, while Sam and I did some minor wandering around. Not long after, we too, headed to our room. Even though there was no bubble bath to be found, I took a nice long, relaxing bath. Then, we turned in for the night.
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