I am profoundly sorry for how bloody long this has taken me to get out there. I've got loads of blog posts left to do still so I'm really trying my best to get them done as quickly as I can, so on with the show!
------
I'm sure a couple of you were wondering if I'd really gone to the continent or if I'd just plucked images off of Google! Well I can assure you that yes, we really did visit Europe proper and yes, it was absolutely fantastic.
Let's set the scene. Every year I ponder what we can do for my birthday. Yes, you read that correctly. In my own mind my birthday is just as much a holiday as Easter and Christmas. In fact we do more for my birthday than we do for all the holidays put together. This year was no exception.
Previously for my birthday we'd gone to Skegness and Llandudno and this year we wanted to switch it up a bit but we didn't know how. Then one day I was walking down the stairs, for no real reason whatsoever, I sang the birthday song. "Happy birthday to me, we're in Germany." And it stuck. We both looked at one another and asked "Could we?"
Well, it started out as a question of could and morphed in to a question of should. We weren't utterly destitute but we're definitely not out of the woods yet with regards to debt with over 99% of it from just me. Still, as we're prone to doing, the idea wormed it's way in to our brains and over weeks of tossing the idea back and forth and justifying the cost, we finally took the plunge and booked our trip.
So, here in all it's multi-part glory is our trip to Germany, Austria and Italy!
 |
| Say hello to Moosey the travelling mini Moose! |
We started out little journey fairly early on a Thursday morning in June. We had a full day of transfers and transportation ahead of us. I brought along little Moosey here because I had been inspired by that travelling gnome I've seen on the internet and wanted to give it a try myself. Moosey is definitely small enough but it head pops off in my pocket so I might need an all-in-one Moosey if I can locate one. So we started our adventure train hopping.
 |
| Moosey loves Cheez-its. |
The trains were long as usual but all together boring. We got in to London just before midday. We had a special sort of train/tube ticket that got us from St. Pancras to Heathrow without having to use our Oyster cards. It's pretty simple but man what a long tube ride.
We had just enough time before our flight to settle down and have a nice meal. We'd taken a look before leaving what restaurants were available in Heathrow in our particular terminal and we decided to go with a place called Giraffe. I wouldn't say it was a star affair- the service was godawful slow and it was a bit crowded and cramped but it definitely was not the worst place we've eaten. We sat behind the nearly ten foot orange and yellow giraffe which was a lovely addition. Above you can see the traditional fish and chips dinner that my husband, C, decided on.
Myself, I went with the Caesar salad which was nice albeit dry. Honestly, had we gone with any other restaurant in the airport we probably would have been broke the remainder of the trip.
This wasn't where our gate was but I found it kinda fun nonetheless. This is right after the security check.
The view out our window. My best guess is we're somewhere over France at this point. The airplane ride was short and uneventful.
 |
| A sign of things things to come. |
We were paired up with a beautiful 2016 Hyundai i30, a beast of a car with a big giant booty. It took well over an hour to get this car as our reservation had been messed up and I was given a manual to drive. Considering I was still learning how to drive a manual transmission I campaigned very heavily to have it switched to an automatic. We paid well out the nose for the rental but in the end, complete with full insurance coverage, we were finally on our way. Only to get stuck in a roundabout just outside the airport because we couldn't figure out how to operate the sat nav. We had brought our own sat nav....only to not be able to find the port it plugs in to. So we opted to use the onboard sat nav instead, leading to the circus on the roundabout. Good times.
We drove about twenty minutes in the dark to our hotel for the next few days,
Hotel Ampervilla. When we reached it we realised that there were two car parks, one larger than the next, and they were both full. Street parking was forbidden according to the signage and no where else was parking available so back and forth we went between car parks until we sized up one space and went for it. You know that scene in Austin Powers where he gets stuck in a hallway in a golf cart? Yeah, picture that in a giant silver car in a space only a foot total wider than the car. When I finally got it parked and within a reasonable distance between the other cars I nearly cried. In fact I probably did cry--that was incredibly stressful!
 |
| The front entrance of Hotel Ampervilla. |
Getting checked in was easy enough. The young lady spoke very good English and we went up to our room, only to not know how to open the door properly. There was a trick to it and we had to ask the young lady again to help us out. Finally we got in to our room and collapsed. What a long day!
 |
I loved using this soap and lotion set. There was an identical bath wash set in the shower and it smelled heavenly.
|
The room was very comfortable and the bathroom positively huge. I had found the booking on
hotels.co.uk and whilst it wasn't in the city centre, the countryside around it was very beautiful and the hotel was very big and luxurious. I couldn't believe we had spent so little on our stay! The next morning we went down to breakfast and were absolutely blown away. The breakfast buffet was incredible. Meats and cheeses galore and beautiful fresh-baked pastries and breads. There were piles of fruit and yoghurt and the lovely waitress knew it was my birthday that day, so she came back from the kitchen with sumptuous chocolate muffins and champagne. We had barely been in Munich a full day and I was already in love.
 |
| What an incredible selection! They even had full-sized soft pretzels! I may have "stolen" one before we left. |
So, since it was my birthday, we had planned to go in to Munich and visit the Star Wars: Identities exhibition being held at
Olympiapark.
 |
| I just love that warning sign. |
I just have to tell you all just how amazingly beautiful Olympiapark is. It was amazingly clean and fresh despite being just on the outskirts of a very large city and the weather was so balmy and pleasant. There were attractions and food vendors all around and just walking around the park was utterly relaxing and fun. Normally being around loads of people gives me incredible anxiety, especially if there are screaming children, but everyone was respectful and kept to themselves and it was the safest and calmest I'd ever felt in a city park. Truly remarkable.
 |
| Olympiasee aka Lake Olympia |
 |
| There were no crowds to speak of so you never felt rushed or pushed out of the way. It was so lovely. |
 |
| The impressive cylindrical towers of BMW Welt. |
 |
| The Olympiaturm AKA the Olympic Tower, built for the 1972 Summer Olympics. |
 |
| Deutchland bunnies! Do they understand German?? |
We wandered around a bit as we still had time before our scheduled "tour" of
Star Wars: Identities. If you were wondering what Identities was all about, basically it was a semi-guided tour through the films, looking at not only concept art and sketches but models, builds, garments, props and armour used by actors in the films. As you walk around the exhibition halls, you are introduced to themes and ideas in the movies and how they make and shape the characters. You are then asked to decide for yourself through interactive puzzles, games and challenges, who you would be ultimately in the Star Wars Universe. It's a really fun concept and at the end of the tour you provide your email address to have the character you make sent to you.
 |
| BB-8 and his astromech buddy, R2-D2. |
All in all it didn't take long to traverse the wonders of the exhibition hall. Periodically I would just stop and take it all in. Imagine being in a dimly lit room filled with your absolute favourite things with one of your favourite people in arguably one of the loveliest countries in the world on the best day ever. Sometimes it's good to savour.
 |
| Front and centre we have Boba Fett's armour and to the right, Stormtrooper armour from the First Order. |
 |
| Han Solo frozen in carbonite. |
 |
| A model replica of the 900-year old Jedi Master Yoda. |
 |
| Models of many of the starships used in the Original Trilogy and costumes in the background. |
 |
| Anakin's desert speeder bike and his Jedi Padawan costume from Attack of the Clones. |
 |
| An example of one of the rooms in the exhibition hall. |
 |
| Here we have the costumes of the Emperor, Sheev Palpatine of Naboo and to the right, Kit Fisto. |
 |
| Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker from Return of the Jedi. |
 |
| Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith. |
 |
| Side-by-side comparison of the traditional Stormtroooper armour versus the First Order armour from The Force Awakens. |
 |
| The exhibition hall from the outside. Isn't the architecture magnificent? |
 |
| We weren't quite sure what was in this particular hall, but that Bratwurst vendor you can see to the left was wundebar! |
 |
| Moosey enjoyed his nibble of the bratwurst! You'd think he'd be a vegetarian but when in Germany! |
Initially I had wanted to spend the entire day out and about in Munich, but being that I was the only one capable of driving, I made the executive decision to head back before the evening traffic rush to secure a good parking space in the hotel car park and boy did I! A top notch space indeed! We had considered coming back the next day, Saturday, and doing some of the top-of-the-bus tour groups, but fate had other ideas! Needless to say we rounded off my birthday with a very nice meal at the hotel,
Wiener schnitzel and roasted potatoes!
 |
| The cranberry sauce was bitter-sweet and really complimented the pork. |
After dinner we went exploring around the hotel. While Google Maps indicated there was a bakery within walking distance, alas, the cake was a lie. But what we did find was a grocery store that had all manner of delectables at very reasonable prices.
 |
| I hope you like cabbage. I know I like cabbage. |
After our shopping spree we continued walking around the neighbourhood behind the hotel and were in absolute wonder over how beautiful the houses and streets were. It was definitely getting late but we came across this quaint church and I just had to snap a photo.
That's about it for our first full day in Munich. We spent the next day exploring the city-centre with a very special guest so stay tuned for the next instalment, coming soon* to a computer screen near you!
*Sometime before the end of days
