Everybody has one spot they go to when times get hard, whether it be figuratively or literally. It’s always there, just behind your eyelids if you need it. We are lucky because every year since we’ve been together (minus 1), Donnie and I have been to our happy place. People chuckle at us when we say we’re going to Munich, they say, Again? And we say YES, AGAIN! Someday maybe we’ll get to live in our little piece of heaven, but for now, we take every chance to visit. Even if it meant leaving our cocoon of relaxation in Spain to the cool weather of Munich at the start of our vacation.

Our mini-vacation didn’t exactly start smoothly though. Paul had a fever the night before we were supposed to leave, so it was up in the air whether or not it would happen. We all got up ridiculously early to drive for our early flight, and Paul promptly threw up. We made the deal that if he was still sick when we got to the airport, we’d just come back to the house. But he slept the whole way there, and was in pretty good spirits when we arrived at the airport.

It was the easiest airport trip ever. We had boarding passes and just walked through security to grab a snack and play on this super cool interactive display before boarding. Paul slept most of the way and we got to Munich around 9:30am.

We went straight to the Marienplatz with the intention of buying Paul some warmer clothes (it was 20 degrees cooler in Munich). We checked the Kaufhof, with no luck, but made our purchases at H&M with no problem. We followed that up with lunch at the Augustiner, but Paul was falling asleep and wasn’t feeling too hot, so we decided to hit up an Apotheke and then go check into our hotel. After finding some ibprofen for Paul, we caught the train out to our hotel and settled in for some rest. We had intended to go watch Germany play soccer somewhere fun, but the rain was on and off and we didn’t want to push Paul too much. So we settled for a yummy dinner in our hotel and watch the game from there. It was a pretty good first day, considering we’d traveled and had a sick kiddo.

The next day Paul was back to his usual self. I got up early and ran as far as I could (I accidentally ended up right in front of the apartment we had stayed in for the summer of 2012). And then we sought out breakfast. After a good start, we made a plan for the day that included shopping, the Deutsches Museum, and the Hofbrau Keller Biergarten. It was a lot of walking, but it was successful day.  We started with shopping. I got new shoes, Donnie got a new belt, and Paul got some new legos to put together at the garden later. Then we made our way to the Museum.

Paul has been super interested in astronomy lately, and the Deutsches Museum has some really excellent exhibits that I remembered from the times I’ve been there before. I was very angry to find out (after climbing 6 flights of stairs) that all the astronomy sections were closed that day! UGH! It’s ok though because the rest of the museum is still really interesting, and we spent about 3 hours exploring physics, chemistry and all other things science related. Paul was literally leading us from room to room. I was exhausted and very hungry, so we ended our visit for the day and made the walk to the Hofbrau Keller.

The Hofbrau Keller is one of our favorite spots in Munich. It’s so kid friendly and in the summer is such a nice place for a break and a beer. We frequent this place every time we are in Munich and I think Paul has memories of it, but I’m not sure he puts it together. He’s been going since he was 1.5. We settled in for some food and beer and Paul made a friend who he got busy playing with. We recalled all our good times there including watching Germany kick butt in the last world cup, and Paul’s adventures on that playground. It was a great end to the day, but I was beat and needed to get home to sleep. We had planned to rally and go back out after a nap, but it didn’t happen. We chilled at the hotel and planned our next day.

I got up and ran down to the Isar the next morning, which was my only goal for the whole trip. I swear I could run for days along the Isar, but it was two miles to get there, so I didn’t go to far before running back to the hotel. Donnie really wanted breakfast at the Kaufhof, so we packed up and took the train to the Hauptbahnhof to drop our stuff off in a locker, before heading to the Kaufhof. It was a delicious meal, and we savored every bite. We couldn’t really decide what to do with ourselves, so after a stroll through downtown, we made our way back to get our stuff, then out to the airport hotel we were staying at that night.

If you’ve never been to the Munich Airport, you’re missing an awesome experience. It has grocery stores, breweries and gardens, and a really nice Hilton. They upgraded us to a suite and after waiting for an hour we final got to our room. We hung out for a while, then made our way out for dinner before heading to bed to catch some ZZZ’s before our 6am flight back to Barcelona.

Munich will always be our happy place, and it makes my heart happy to know it’s always there to refresh our spirits and cheer our hearts. I’m glad we went even though it meant missing a few days at our place in Spain. It was definitely worth it. See you next year, Munich!

It was another easy travel home, and we were back in the car in Barcelona at 8:30am. The sky was sunny and the possibilities were endless. All we needed was coffee….

More in another post…love to all, j.