Munich Dec 14

December 14, 2008 Munich, Germany (the airport)

Although our flight was quite late leaving Chicago, we got into Munich pretty much on time. Now we have a couple of hours before our flight for Basel takes off. Surprisingly we didn't have to go through customs or passport control.

Right now the strange thing is that our phones won't switch to local time. I don't know what that is all about. My phone battery is going down faster than I expected too.

I tried to watch a movie on the flight but the sound was bad and I had trouble concentrating. So I listened to music and slept a little. We got dinner, which was surprising on such a late flight.

This part of the airport is pretty boring. The shops are on the level above us but since we have already gone through security, there isn't much point in looking around. I may walk a bit since I haven't moved much in hours. I am getting an excessive number of hot flashes, which is very unpleasant.

The water at the airport is €3 for a small bottle but you get free coffee, tea, and newspapers. It is true that almost all the papers are in German, but they do have a weekly edition of The Financial Times that has some interesting articles.

The flight from Munich to Basel was pretty bumpy at the end. There was a lot of snow in the mountains, which was pretty but I would guess that the winds were pretty strong. We landed with quite a bump, something we hadn't experienced in quite a while.

We are now on the ship. Our room is small but very nice and we have room for everything. The windows are small but we can sit on the observation deck when we aren't out and about.

Tonight we have an introduction to the cruise, dinner, and music afterwards. We are tired and will probably go to bed early.

We met up with Judy and John. We all seem to be getting along well. We had dinner together. I had the rösti, which was pretty good. It would have been better with the vegetables on the side so that it stayed crisp. Still, the meal was very good.

Generally, once we get over the tiredness of traveling, I think we will enjoy the relaxing nature of this trip.