Crossroads to the Adriatic - First to Cham 

Mesa to Munich - 5 April 2023 & on to Cham - 8 Apr 2023

Gorgeous day to travel, but started our with a major issue!  We were supposed to leave for Munich on United about noon with a connection in Denver an hour later.  As soon as we got up, we found a message saying our flight out of Phoenix was delayed for 2 hours.  Oops!  Caused a flurry of phone calls & checks on the flight apps.  Final decision was for us to stay here & use the same flight out whenever it left & we would now connect with a different flight out of Denver at 8:30pm.  That worked okay & we arrived in Munich tired, but functional!  

Randy & Marie were there to pick us up & off we went to our hotel.  I had somehow managed to choose a hotel that was about 30 minutes away from the airport, but they didn't complain & we did find the rooms nice with a interesting city view.  We got unpacked & rested up a little.

Then it was time to leave for a dance at the local Munich club.  It felt good to visit & dance with so many of our German friends.  It had been too long since we've been with them!!!

The next morning Martin, Birgit, & Alphonse came to meet us at the hotel to get our luggage for tomorrow's transfer to Cham & then we all took off for Nymphenburg Palace.  It was a summer palace built in 1664 for one of the Royal families & high officials.  It's frontal width surpasses the size of Versailles Palace.  It's now an extensive garden with beautiful falls & walking paths.  Of course it was too early in the Spring for much to be growing, but it was a lovely day & we enjoyed walking around in the sunshine.

European Coot

Muted Swan

Mallards

Tufted Duck

Graylag Goose

I saw several birds that were easy to identify.  I heard several more but Merlin didn't identify them for me.  The weather was certainly in our favor!

Next stop was lunch at Augustiner Keller.  It is a beautiful beer garden, but it was too cold to stay outside.  The huge hall inside would be a wonderful place to dance if the we could clear away the tables!!  The food was very good as was the beer!

We spent the remainder of the daylight hours wandering around downtown Munich.  It was a nice way to relax after the long flight here & the weather remained mostly sunny & cool for us.  Stopped once for a coffee but managed to skip the yummy looking pastries the Germans are so very good at!!

The next day we rode with Martin & Birgit to Cham and got settled in our hotel room.  That evening we had a trail end dance in the hotel to start off Cham week.  Had a glorious after party that ended in our room until about 2:30am!!  Way too old for this, but it's gonna be great trying!!