Munich - 22 March (Sun)

We all slept very well. Even Marc's back felt a lot better on this morning. Marc unfortunately (for him) had a little bit of work to finish in the morning - only about 45 minutes. Later that night he and Lena would be preparing for an early start to their work week. Marc would have to get up at 4:30am on Monday morning to head to the airport. We arranged with Alex in Stuttgart for us to leave Munich for Stuttgart on Sunday night instead of Monday morning. That turned out to be the easiest possible trip anyway. Marc was able to drive us to the train station and help us buy our tickets and get loaded onto the train. Since we traveled on Sunday instead of Monday, we could buy the Schoeneswochenende Karte (beautiful weekend card). This allows up to five people to travel anywhere for $28 Euro. We also found a train that travels direct without any changes. Beautiful!

So, Sunday morning, Penny and I left the boys watching cartoons at Marc's place. We walked around the corner to the bakery to buy bread and treats for breakfast. I could really get used to this routine. We had some breakfast and then left Marc at the apartment to get some work done. The weather was incredible, so we walked around the neighborhood a little and looked in the shop windows. Eventually we ended up at a coffee shop (San Fransisco Coffee Shop) for another cup of coffee (and more people watching). We went back to get Marc and then we all left together for the English Garden (Englischer Garten).

This place, especially on such a beautiful day, is incredible. This is the Central Park of Munich. It's tucked right in between several hot neighborhoods and it's HUGE. There are lakes and pathways, several beer gardens, stages, large fields, playgrounds and more. We could only cover a portion of it, but it was a perfect place to be to walk, talk with Marc, people watch and unwind.





We made it around the lake to one of the popular beergardens. We had a light lunch and some drinks. Our table was right on the lake, which made it cold and windy, but we really enjoyed the view.





Lena had been having a girls weekend with some of her best college friends. They had stayed at the apartment on Friday night, but then moved to another place last night. Finally in the afternoon, the other girls headed home. Lena met up with us at the English Garden. I had met Lena when she visited Marc in Auburn. Her English is also incredible from her time living in South Africa. Now that we're back home, I realized that we don't have a single picture of Lena!

So, we walked back to the apartment slowly. We stopped by a Conditorei - which is more like a pastry shop than a bakery. There wasn't enough room to sit down (since it was such a gorgeous Sunday afternoon there were tons of people everywhere). But that was ok. We got our treats "to go" and went back to the apartment to have coffee together. Visiting the Conditorei was always one of my favorite afternoon treats in Germany, so this was perfect! The boys got to try several things. They inherited my sweet tooth. This is what the cakes looked like in the conditorei....



After that, we packed up our bags, Marc went to get the car and then he drove us to the train station. It was great that he walked us in and made sure we got on the right train. It was a quick visit, but it was so great to see him and Lena again. It was another wonderful visit - where our hosts took excellent care of us and we didn't have to worry about anything. We can't wait to come back to see more of Munich in the future.