I sat in the first row of coach and the girls were one row behind me in the middle section. None of us slept all that great, dozing off and on. I would look back at Kristen and Misha every so often to see Kristen laying on Misha's lap and Misha flopped over on Kristen' back. It didn't look very comfy.
Our arrival in Munich was pretty standard going though Immigration, Baggage Claim, and Customs. We found the Hertz rental area, picked up our mini van, and were quickly on our way after grabbing a pretzel, some fruit, and Coke Zero.
If you are driving in Austria, be sure to stop and pick up a toll pass. You will be fined if you don’t...and they check. Misha set a goal to not eat at McDonald’s at all this year. We kind of made her break her streak but told her it was okay to have a short hiatus while on vacation. We don’t normally eat at McDonald’s, but on vacation, it is often a great convenience.
Welcome to Europe and having to pay to pee.
Since we were too early to check-in at the Airbnb, we drove directly to Konigsee. One of the reasons we had picked Austria in the first place was to visit the Eagle’s Nest close to Konigsee. The Eagle's Nest was Hitler's retreat during the war. Unfortunately in the research Chris did before leaving, the site itself was not so much a historical site any longer and had been cleansed of any World War II significance.
We chose not to go after all and instead spent a lovely day taking a ferry, hiking, and enjoying the mountains, lake, and waterfall nearby. We hiked around Lake Konigsee, though we didn’t enjoy so much the incline section of the hike. We figured that we would follow the path around the lake and avoid the steps on the return trip. Unfortunately the path didn’t continue around the entirety of the lake, so back we went up and down the stairs again.
We didn’t have enough time to stop at St. Bartholomew as well, but it had a cool church that we could have toured. The scenery along the ferry ride was beautiful.
Here's a fun picture of everyone taking a picture
We drove to Mondsee and our Airbnb to check in, drop off our luggage and figure out where to go for dinner. We arrived late enough that all of the grocery stores were closed for the evening and only a few restaurants were open. It wasn’t really that late. Chris also noted that only one grocery store was open on Sunday morning from 9 am to 11 am.
The view from the AirBNB
We had dinner at Vini & Panini, ordering caprese salad, white asparagus soup, and pizza. The mozzarella cheese was fresh and delicious. Chris sent us off to check out a bakery while he paid the bill. We found two close by each other but neither would be open on a Sunday morning.
With the help of Unisom, we all fell asleep quickly and and slept soundly.