Eichstätt: Part I

I am now halfway through Day 3 of my European adventure, and it has been exciting and exhausting. My feet are not going to be happy with me when this trip is over!

I couldn't sleep very much at all on the chairs in Heathrow, so I woke up around 04:30 and decided not to go back to sleep. There was a sweet Nokia ad on 3 giant screens, so that was fun to watch. Eventually I was able to go pick up my bag from left luggage, where the guy working asked me why on earth I hadn't gone to the clubs the night before. If only the Underground didn't stop running at 00:30...

Security was easier than it is in the US, and I didn't even have to take off my shoes to get through it. They don't post gates until 45 minutes before the flight departs, so I just sat in a large sitting area and read Watchmen for a few hours. All of the shops in Terminal 5 were nice but high end, so I didn't spend much time wandering those. They had a Starbucks though! I had seen about 3 more on my failed journey to find Buckingham palace.

Finally they posted the gate for BA 950, and I moved to the other side of the sitting area to where the seats for Gate A11 were. They announced that they would be boarding by row number, but about ten minutes later they just posted a notice saying that all rows were now boarding, so the line got very long very quickly. The ramp wasn't working either, so we had to go down the emergency exit stairs and then climb more stairs to the plane itself. It was a smaller plane this time, but very much full, so I basically just slept for 2 hours until I arrived in Munich. They did have a vegetarian option for the snack though!

Customs was once again uneventful, and I have even more pretty stamps in my passport. Brendan didn't see me come out, but he eventually found me, and we went out to the train to get into the city. German trains are sweet: you press a button to open the door if you want to get in or out, and the seating areas are very comfortable. We took a 45 minute train into the central station, dropped my bags in a locker, and then wandered out into Munich.

It was raining pretty hard the entire day, so we mostly just walked around and went in churches to stay dry. I saw some gorgeous churches and one extremely gaudy church, in addition to a German McDonald's, an amazing outdoor market, and the Englischer Garten, which was wet but pretty. We were pretty soaked by the end of the day, but I saw a lot of Munich, so it was worth it.

We went to a place called Augustiner for dinner, and basically ate a little and drank a lot. We each had 2 Maß, which is a ton of beer but so good. We each got another liter in a grocery store in the train station later, before we grabbed my bags and got on the train to Eichstaett. Germany is a pretty awesome place; you can drink anywhere you want, as early as you want. We drank for the hour and a half that we were headed back to Brendan's school, which made the trek up the gigantic and steep hill to the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt that much better.

Today we woke up late and walked around Eichstaett. We got lunch at this place called Trompete, which had trumpets connected to the lights hanging from the ceiling. It rained at random points throughout the day, but we were inside for most of it, so it was fine. Eichstaett is pretty small, but we saw Brendan's university and walked near the slowest river in Germany, which apparently runs into the Danube eventually. We saw one of Brendan's friends from school who also goes to BC, and apparently Matt Hartwell and another BC kid are here, which is funny. Then there was another hike up the hill, and now my legs are definitely sore.

We're eating in tonight and I have no idea what the plan is for tomorrow, but tomorrow night I get on the train to Paris! I'm super excited to see Maureen and for our trip to Italy together. Let's just hope I don't run out of money first!

Brendan and I might watch a movie I guess. Germany is pretty slow on Sundays. More tomorrow, or on Tuesday from Paris!

Love,
Sam