As I mentioned a few other places, my brother, AN, visited after KW. And by that I mean I went with KW to the Vienna airport, went with her to Departures to make sure all was well and said our farewells. Then I went downstairs to Arrivals, and my brother showed up about 10 minutes later. Convenient, that.

Aside: Getting to and from the Vienna airport is ridiculously easy, by the way. There are a plethora of options, but my favorite is the S7 train that picks up at many stations throughout the city, including mine. It’s only €4.40 as well. I love it almost as much as the 5A bus from Rosslyn to Dulles in DC. Almost. /aside

While AN visited, we did a fair amount of gallivanting in the area, including trips to Munich and Prague. We were actually in Munich watching the Germany-France game when the attacks in Paris happened. The next series of posts will cover those adventures.

We took the Westbahn train from Vienna to Salzburg and then switched to a Meridian train to go into Germany. The Meridian service had been discontinued for a couple months until very recently due to the refugee crisis. Germany had closed train services between Austria and its own border at Salzburg. And indeed, when we got on the Meridian train going into Germany, they checked our passports, a first for me on a train. But we didn’t have any issues.

We arrived in Munich and dropped our bags at the hotel. Then we wandered around in the city centre. Munich always strikes me as a cheerful place – maybe it’s the Bavarian whimsy. I visited for the first time in 2009 and was happy to be back and show AN some of the city.

As you’ve probably already surmised from the pictures, one of our first stops was the Neues Rathaus or New Town Hall in Marienplatz. The Rathaus, though it looks medieval, was actually finished in the 20th century, but the Marienplatz is medieval as the old (and current) center of Munich.

The Neues Rathaus is probably most famous for its glockenspiel. Once a day (in winter, 3 in summer), its 32 life-size figures provide a 15-minute story to the waiting onlookers: the marriage of Duke Wilhelm V & a medieval joust (Bavaria wins!) and the coopers’ dance. We actually missed seeing the story — we were not in the Marienplatz at 11 AM any of the days we were in Munich. But I hear it’s neat.

Check back tomorrow for our surfing adventures. Really. Sort of.

Title quote:  Daphne on Frasier