Day 12: Trains are better than planes, part two

Today, we caught three trains. Bruges to Brussels. Brussels to Frankfurt. Frankfurt to Munich. It took around seven hours, and was still far better than taking a plane.

We got up early, checked out of our hotel, and headed off to Bruges train station for our 9.10am train to Brussels. As usual, we were very early. We bought some croissants and coffee for breakfast, and some sandwiches for later. There's not too much to say about our various train journeys. We didn't figure out that we had reserved seats until the final leg (though the first train was just an inter-city and didn't have assigned seats), but once we did, it was easy. We settled in. There were power ports next to your chair and plenty of leg room. Nice views out of the window to boot.

Our intercity train to frankfurt

Our train to Munich

We topped out at 300kmph

We pulled into Munich at around 5pm. The light had pretty much faded, and we made our way north towards our hotel. The street was a little dodgy, but there was a laundromat across the road! Our main mission for the evening: laundry.

A nice lady helped us use the machine, and we did a couple of loads. While we waited for our washing, we went and had a kebab down the road. Chicken for Dylan, falafal for me, big chips for both.

Our clothes now clean, we headed into town to see the mega Christmas markets. They were centred around Marianplatz and spread to the surrounding streets. It exceeded any level of Christmas-ness that we had previously thought to be ridiculous. Even the police station was up in lights. I got a hot wine (always a good choice) and Dylan got a Jaeger tea (not the best choice) to help warm us up. It was about 5 degrees out, not that that deterred any of the tourists. We headed further in and saw some amazing Christmas decorations for sale. Unfortunately the ones I really liked would have been too delicate to take home. There were some gorgeous gothic buildings around the square, and a pretty magnificent Christmas tree.

Dylan had a bread snack - cheese and bacon on top - but we didn't find any pretzels, which was a bit disappointing. On the way back through the markets I found a man playing some amazing classical pieces on an accordion. It was beyond words - I thought at first it was a recording. Dylan took a short video, but it doesn't really do him justice. We also found another big market-bar that had another ice skating rink. Now that we're super pros, we can go again!

By this point it was getting late, and it had been a long day. We headed back to the hotel, the city to be explored more the next day.

Tchuss!
A+D