Day 8: Planes, trains, and no automobiles

Why is it that every single bag and stuff receptacle is so much heavier on the trip back home? Yes, we bought stuff, but not an obscene amount of stuff, and surely the European dirt on my clothes doesn't weigh that much. Sigh. At any rate, time to haul those bags down three flights of stairs one last time and wave goodbye to Munich.

We rode the S-Bahn out to Freising to have breakfast with Steven and Megan, then hopped on a bus to continue our journey to the...flughafen! Flughafen = airport. That, along with spargel, are my two new favorite German words. Not that I had any favorite German words before this trip...but I'm going to remember those two. Airports and asparagus, baby.

A few interesting observations/comments on the München flughafen:

1. Sleep cubes - you could buy yourself time in a sleep box. Shut the door, pull down the shade, and snooze during your layover or unexpected overnight airport stay. Fascinating.


2. Smoking lounges - gross.


3. Porn shop - ok, maybe not that explicit, but next to cutesy souvenirs was a shop that did not admit minors and only had who knows what hiding in there. Gross again.

Many, many hours, movies, TV shows, airplane meals (we had a surprisingly delicious turkey sandwich!), magazines, and books later, we made it across the ocean back to Philadelphia. After making our way through a slow-ish customs process, we book-ended the trip with another stop at the Lego Liberty Bell. After hugs and waving goodbye to the Vaughns, I climbed aboard one last plane to head home to DC. Thank goodness this is such a short flight, because I was getting very, very close to full on my flight-time threshold for the day. One quick Metro ride home from the airport...and vacation is over. So sad. I did have a fabulous time with my friends, though, and I'm so glad we made this trip happen. Auf Wiedersehen!