Europe White Christmas Adventures - Day 1 - Munich

We arrived into Munich at 915am and after navigating the transport system we arrived at our hotel at around 11am which wasn't too bad!

Since our hotel room wouldn't be available until 3pm we dropped our bags in the luggage room and decided to go for a stroll around Munich. We were all pretty exhausted, but there was nothing to be done, so we just pushed on!! Our hotel is a 2km walk from Marienplatz (the main square where the Glockenspiel and Christmas Markets are), and a really easy walk down a main road.

Dinner Day 1 was at the J.W. Augustiner Beerhalle which is directly across from our hotel. We were all pretty much running on fumes, so ate quickly and were back to the hotel and in bed by 7pm. It was quite good - schnitzels all round. It was pretty noisy - being a beer hall - and also being Christmas holidays so lots of people who obviously didn't have to go to work the next day! Funnily enough I asked the waitress if there was hot chocolate and was scolded as it is a beer hall so no hot chocolate available.

Europe White Christmas Adventures - Flying to Munich

After planning this holiday for nearly 9 months the day has finally arrived!! We organised a taxi to pick us up at our apartment to drive us to Penang airport. Then we have a flight from Penang - Singapore, Singapore - Frankfurt, and Frankfurt - Munich. All up about 18 hours of travel.

The flights were great. Lufthansa from Singapore - Frankfurt was fantastic. They had their Skynet Wifi which cost 14 Euro for 24 hours but so worth it. I had Declan sleeping on me and I had hardly any sleep so I just surfed the net and chatted to friends on Facebook, so was worth it!

Our only hiccup was that it took us forever to get through security at Frankfurt and then immigration so we missed our connecting flight to Munich. Lufthansa were great though and put us on the next flight which left 20 mins later which was great. Frankfurt - Munich is only a 30 mins flight, so it was great. We had no way of contacting our driver who was collecting us from Munich Airport so he wasn't waiting for us, so we ended up catching the train from the airport to our accommodation. It was actually quite easy and only a 300 metre walk from the train station to the hotel - so nice and easy!

The hostel / hotel we are staying in is Meininger City Center Hostel and we are staying in a family room - which is 2 rooms joined. One has a double bed, and the other has 2 sets of bunks. It also has an ensuite. It is quite good for the price and quite roomy. Very quiet considering it is a hostel. We are on the 6th floor which is great, except for yesterday when the lift was broken!! The staff are lovely and it has a baby play area down stairs in the lobby with a 24 hour cafe which is very handy! It also has a "guest kitchen" which is handy for storing food. I will do a separate post on the hostel later on!

Declan - 10 months old!

Our little man is 10 months old!!!! It's crazy how fast this year is going..

Declan - Cheeky boy!

Our entire family is 100% in love with Declan. I wanted to share this gorgeous video clip we took of Declan the other day playing with his Daddy.

Penang Bridge International Marathon - Half Marathon

I did it!!

Super happy after a month away that I managed to finish the half marathon, and beat my previous time by a fair bit!! It was a 3.15am start which was a bit nuts, but that mean't I was home by 7am. It was very lucky I was back by 7am as Declan decided to wake up for BJ at 3:45am and stay awake until I got home. He was NOT happy and didn't want to settle for anyone except Mumma. As soon as I had a quick shower I fed him and we all went back to bed until 11.30! So that is a winning situation there! LOL

The run was pretty good - the course was boring though - mainly on the main road - so lots of cement, and since it was the early morning no light - so all dark and boring. The bridge was only the last 8km or so which was not really what I expected.