A southern girl moves to London: Munich

Our first flight of the day brought us to Munich, Germany. We landed and then climbed down a short flight of stairs (not so gracefully with the girls wearing parkas, backpacks, and dragging suitcases that weigh as much as they do!) and then boarded a bus that took us to a terminal. We entered the terminal and then studied a departures screen that told us to proceed to our gate. We looked up and followed the arrows that directed us around in a circle to an elevator that was just to the left of the departures screen we had been studying. After giggling about that, we boarded the elevator and hiked to our gate. We had a little time to kill so we stopped at a cafe for an adult beverage and some fruit for the girls.

Our departure time grew closer so we proceeded to the gate, stood in line, scanned our boarding passes and then stood, bewildered, at the top of a flight of stairs (four flights down to be exact). Chris and I were trying to figure out how to get the five suitcases and two booster seats down when other passengers just shrugged, picked up a bag from a kid, and started humping the suitcases all the way down the stairs for us. We thanked them profusely at the bottom and they just smiled and walked away - it was just no big deal for them, but a very big help to us!

We boarded another bus to the aircraft, and we're standing next to a large group of tourists from Arkansas! I loved listening to that group of ladies exclaim "well, I declare!" Every time we saw the baggage handlers toss another suitcase in the general direction of the small regional commuter airplane we were about to board.

During the flight, we were served a snack - yep, European airlines still serve food with no additional charges - it was a half a sandwich - turkey salami with a tasty spread of mayonnaise with green peppers and pimentos. And, they don't charge for alcoholic beverages either.