My latest trip to Germany started as a warm fuzzy thought of spending Christmas with my family. I wasn’t going to for a variety of reasons, but changed my mind. A quick conversation with my brothers and next thing you know, we were planning a surprise visit to my parents. The trip developed into a week at my brother and sister-in-law’s in Munich, including a visit from former roommate/dear old friend/geeky Scotsman, before we headed north where my parents were expecting everybody but me to show up for the holidays.
Munich was awesome. Besides the obvious excitement about seeing family and friends, the highlights were:
- A Christmas market at every corner, where mulled wine, roasted chestnuts, endless amounts of sweets, crafts and quite a bit of kitsch is sold
- Swimming in one of the oldest indoor pools in Europe - a beautiful pool inside and out
- The Verkehrszentrum of the Deutsche Museum
- Running along the Isar river
- Organic bread and pretzels (real Laugenbrezel!)
- A functioning transit system
The day before Christmas Eve we drove up to our hometown. We turned into our street and, sure enough, there was Dad talking to the neighbor at the corner. I ducked in the back of the car while my brother and his wife greeted him, then casually got out of the car and walked up to him. The look on my father’s face was priceless. Up until that point we weren’t sure that they really didn’t even have a hint of suspicion, but apparently we had managed to keep the secret. We then repeated the surprise when my mother came home a few minutes later - it was such a blast to see their initial surprise and the ensuing joy (thankfully they’re both in good health!). As expected it only took my mother a few short moments to compose herself and turn to practical matters. “Do you like duck?” were the first words she said referring to the planned Christmas menu.
The surprises kept going as we walked around town and more than one of my parents’ neighbors exclaimed that I wasn’t supposed to be there! Had my parents withheld information from them? The nerve of some people!
The holidays were wonderful, lots of excellent food, long walks and a few runs through the woods and meadows around my hometown, visits with friends and games of rummy and trivial pursuit. Time flew by and on 12/30 I was back on an InterCity Express on my way to Frankfurt airport.
New Year’s Eve was spent in New York City with old and new friends. We partied till early in the morning and then decided it was silly to go to sleep before catching an 11am bus and instead stayed up and made reservations for the 7am bus. At that point the good transportation karma I’d had on my Europe trip left me for a brief period: The A train got stuck in a tunnel for at least 20 minutes due to “mumble, mumble, emergency, mumble” (and you thought the T was bad!). When we finally made it to Port Authority hoards of people were sleeping on their luggage waiting for the 7am Greyhound bus to Boston and at that point, we were slightly tired and just a wee bit cranky. There was no way we’d all fit into one bus, which in the end turned out to be completely irrelevant as both the 7am and 8am buses arrived at the same time (at 8am, as you may have guessed). Fortunately transportation luck returned and we made it to Boston in 3 1/2 hours despite pretty lousy weather conditions - complete with a story to tell, a new friend and enough time to spend the afternoon and evening recovering from our New Year’s adventures. Not a bad way to start the year!
Flight to Germany: $610
Train tickets: $120
Christmas presents: $100
Look on parents’ face when unexpectedly showing up on doorstep: Priceless
