Munich - Day 1

Last week Thursday, we all woke up early except for Carsten, who we had to wake up at 7:00 am so we could leave on the 7:30 am train into Zurich. We made it out the door with a happy baby and headed out to our train. We made it with extra time and had plenty of time to make our connection to Munich at the main Zurich train station. This was the first time any of us had taken a train across a border, which meant that it was in some ways, a different experience. You have seat reservations, which means that you have a seat, but it could be next to a screaming baby. Don't worry, our baby rarely screams :). We had a great trip to Munich, and Carsten even got in two short naps, which helped make the time go nicely for the rest of us. When he wasn't sleeping, he was playing with toys and even looking out the window at the beautiful scenery. One really nice thing was that there was no one in the seat next to me, so we got some extra room for the diaper bag and toys. Here's a couple of photos of Carsten playing on the train (who needs a TV when you have Carsten to entertain you?):

Once we got to Munich, we took a short train to our hotel, and then promptly left the hotel to go to the Deutsches Museum, which was only one stop away by train. Carsten fell asleep on the way into the museum, which meant that I could spent the entire time watching Andy wander around like a little boy who's in his favorite spot. I did not know this, but apparently as a boy Andy loved planes, and his parents took him to many museums so he could see them. Well, the Deutsches museum was listed as a 'science' museum, and it had a lot of planes (among other things like electricity demos, mining demos, and the first U-boat which makes it a child's and parent's delight :) ) that Andy had not seen before. So for example, at one point he and I went over to a plane and I started talking about it and when I looked over at Andy, who had not responded, I found that he was gone. And I mean gone. In the minute I had been talking he had made it all the way across the other side of the plane display and was inspecting other things. I think this was one of my favorite things of the trip because I got to see Andy delight in something that I never knew he liked. What fun! Here's a photo of one of the planes:

After the museum, we went back to our train stop, which had some shopping in the same complex. We all decided that Subway (yes Subway) sounded delicious to us. Andy and I haven't had any 'American' food since we got here, so honestly, Subway sounded amazing. One nice thing we discovered about Munich was that the food was reasonably priced, which was a nice break from Swiss prices. And our sandwich actually had more than a tiny slice of meat on it - woot! :) We took our sandwiches back up to the hotel and proceeded to eat and feed Carsten. At this point I'd like to mention one of our 'travel' finds for Carsten that has worked out great. Feeding him solid foods in the stroller is a common thing, but it's nice to have another option too, so I got a cloth 'high chair' where you simply strap the cloth to a regular chair. It's nice because it actually works great and it's really small and light-weight. Here's a photo:

Well, that's the end of Day 1 in Munich. Next up: Nymphenburg Palace!