Check out time for our Munich apartment is 11:00am. Showers, breakfast, packing and general cleaning is the morning push. We leave right at 11:00 just as the cleaning lady shows up. Next we are faced with a dilemma - do we take public transport to the main train station without buying a new ticket. Our tickets expired last night so we decide to take the risk for our last ride in Munich and go ticketless. No one has checked our tickets the entire time we have been in Munich. We make it one last time unchecked - whew - it’s a stiff fine if you get caught. I’m sure karma will get some money from us at some point to make up the difference - in fact, it probably already has - I know we have over-paid on tickets due to sheer ignorance. Our train doesn’t leave until 12:55 so we have time to kill. It isn’t even posted on the main board yet. We buy a couple of t-shirts and stand in front of the board to wait for the track number. Finally the train number and time shows up. It leaves from track 26. Monique finds a person on the train and they tell us what cars to settle into. We later find out this train goes to one place and unhooks cars and then leaves them. You don’t want to be on the wrong car.
Tony and Monique find a nice place for the four of us to settle in - it’s a nice open spot in one of the cars with 6 seats and a table. Meanwhile, Dave and Dave are still on the platform talking to two woman from Philadelphia - “Mary and Lori” - they are headed to Prague as well. Eventually the Dave’s board the train. Some people sit at some seats next to us and we find out they are from Boston. The Philadelphia girls put their bags in a small section not far away and they come down to talk. Then a young guy “Cody” from Texas comes in looking for a seat. We invite him in. Before you know it this becomes the American car with everyone talking. We have six beers with us and chocolates so we share. The party grows. Before you know it people are going to the dining car to purchase beers. It’s not long before others hear our loud party and join in. A guy who is eighteen and traveling on his own shows up. Another couple shows up and the whole car is full. We convince Dave M to pull out his mandolin and play some tunes. Now it is a party. Monique even makes our toy pig “Jambone” into an instrument with his “Wrok” noise. The place is rockin’ and the table was full of empty bottles and all of the chocolates were eaten. The six hour ride goes fast and as we are getting closer to Prague, Dave D takes handfuls of bottles to the dining car and the guy is upset about how many, but he takes them.
The train arrives at the station, everyone says goodbye and emails are exchanged. We all disappear into the night to find our sleeping arrangements. It takes a bit of wandering and asking people, but eventually we find our apartment and figure out the code to unlock the keys. We enter and realize the pictures are better that the reality. We all agree we can stay here but it is a little on the dumpy side. We are tired, decide on rooms and get to sleep. The original apartment we booked was amazing, but airbnb cancelled our reservation not long ago - the place got sold - so we had to scramble to find a replacement and the options were not great. Oh well, we are in Prague.
Monique and Tony outside of our wonderful Munich apartment - time to move on to Prague.
Just your everyday sight in Germany - 3 guys and a baby waiting for a train at Munich Hauptbahnhof.
Dave M provides outstanding entertainment for our journey to Prague.
Dave M on mandolin, Monique providing base notes via Jambone.
The "American" party car on the train to Prague