Day 1 Hanfeld, Bavaria, Germany

The next series of blog posts will be from our family holiday to Europe...

We made it! It was a loooooong way to the other side of the world.

There were 3 legs to our 30 hour journey – Auckland, Brisbane, Dubai, Munich – with the middle leg from Brisbane to Dubai (a 14 hour flight) being a real killer, as it was the trip of the eternal night time! None of us slept particularly well on the whole flight, so we were more than a bit shattered by the time we arrived in Munich. Picked up our rental car without hassle, then had to remember how to drive on the wrong side of the road (including driver’s seat on wrong side, indicators on wrong side, AND different give way rules). Straight out of the airport onto a 120km/hr minimum motorway, so there was little room for mistakes. The GPS made a huge difference to us, and we easily managed to find the tiny village in Bavaria where we will be staying for the next 3 days.

The house we are staying in is a house only a Debbie could find – it is very quaint, but also quirky, and arty/crafty - and surrounded with horse paddocks! Four stories high, we found when we arrived that we had been promoted from the basement we booked, to the attic!

We were met at the door of the car by Ralph, our host, who had been busy across the road, shaping a giant new Maypole for the village. Most appreciated of all was the fact it was quiet! A quick trip into Stanberg to get some groceries (where we discovered that both wine and cheese were very cheap – well who are we to let bargains like that go???) Coupled with some german sausage and some sauerkraut, we had an excellent dinner in our new home away from home, then off to bed.

As usual, I am up early, it is 5.20 am and I have just heard the first rooster crow!

So here we are... today we intend on driving to two of King Ludwig’s castles – Neuschwanstein and Linderhoff – we visited these last time we were in Bavaria, and I cant wait to see them again AND to see the children’s reaction to them.