Sept 9 and 10 - Day 1 and 2

 Of course, every international trip begins with the plane ride that tries the body. This one was nice because it was nonstop to Munich and the flight left at 1:30 so there was no early morning wake up call.

Erika and I both parked at the same cheap spot by SFO and met each other there. We luckily got the shuttle within a few minutes of arriving because we found out they only ran every 45 min. Our check in process was seamless and we found ourselves at our international gate with plenty of time to spare. We met Joanne there. She had flown from Phoenix to SFO earlier We were going to fly over the ocean together. We all got a little something to eat in the airport and boarded the plane. Erika and I were lucky because we got a row with just two seats and had nobody to contend with during the flight.

The flight was smooth and we had a strong tailwind, arriving in Munich about 45 minutes early. Laurie had flown in a couple hours ahead of us and we met her there. Customs was lightning quick. We had a few snafus figuring out the train tickets at the ticket machine. But my take charge daughter took the lead and got it done. She also led the brigade to the train station. Joanne and I quickly realized that our brains were not going to be needed for this trip. Our daughters are willing and capable to tell us what to do. 

The train ride was about 2.5 hours long but uneventful. We arrived in the town of Vilshofen where the ship as docked. It was about a 15 min walk from the train to the boat with lots of stairs and cobble stone streets. Dragging our suitcases was a little bit strange but we got it done. Of course, we stopped at a cafe so Erika could have a German beer. Nothing was open for food and we were all hungry but decided eating on the boat would have to be the choice for food. Erika enjoyed her beer. They couldn't take a credit card so Laurie dug deep to come up with a few Euros to pay. Nobody speaks a word of English in this town and we are realizing conversational German would have been helpful!

We got to the boat and checked in. The boat is beautiful and clean and our rooms are nice. Lunch was buffett but really tasty. It was nice to have a landing place. None of us slept more than a few minutes on the plane and we are starting to feel pretty rummy. We left the boat and wandered through town for a couple of hours, trying to keep ourselves awake. The minutes felt like hours. But the afternoon finally ended. We had a mandatory safety briefing at 6 pm for the ship. This proved to be very challenging. My eyes didn't want to stay open and it went on forever. 

After our mandatory safety briefing, we had dinner in the dining room. This proved to be rather hellish. We were exhausted and it was so unbelievably loud that we couldn't even carry on a conversation. Getting dinner took almost two hours and it wasn't that great. At one point, I totally lost it. Just never wanted to repeat that experience. But it finally ended and we went to bed! Hallelujah. Almost 30 hours without sleep. I took the requisite Ativan and I was gone.