So, today was another wonderful day. We left Rothenburg and rode a little over an hour to the Steiff Museum. Our group did the tour first and then made the bear. The museum tour is very cute, as you are taken through a series of vignettes looking for some lost bears. The bear making was also fun, although all we really did was stuff the head. We were allowed to choose from a bear, cat, bunny, pig, lamb, and frog. No one in our grounp chose the bear (it is kind of funny-looking). After we stuffed it (it already had eyes), the workers at the museum sewed them up, and then another worker airbrushed the face to your specifications. Depending on what animal you selected, you could get eyelashes, rosy cheeks, whiskers, etc. They all came out very cute.
We ate an early lunch at the museum cafe. It was buffet style, with a selection of salads, chicken (grilled and something similar to a cordon blue), sausages, fried mushrooms, and cheesy noodles. It was actually very good. They had various desserts, but most of chose an ice cream from the cart. I had a chocolate/vanilla swirl soft serve that was also very good.
We got back on the bus around noon and had about a two hour drive to Munich. The Kempinski hotel is fabulous! It is by far the fanciest hotel I've ever stayed in. Marius, our guide, even spotted a German celebrity in the lobby!
We had just enough time to get to our rooms before meeting in the lobby at 3 for our walking tour with Michael. He was fantastic! The kids followed him around just like the pied piper, and he was full of energy and enthusiasm. We walked to a garden, to the Residenz, to a church, through an outdoor shopping mall, and to the Glockenspiel, just in time for the 5 pm show. Along the way, Michael told us the condensed version of Munich/Bavarian history. At the end of the tour, we received another pin.
I didn't think I was hungry, but JT insisted he was starving, so a group walked back to an Italian place that Marius pointed out and recommended during the walking tour. It is called Vapiano, and it's a semi-self serve pizza/pasta/salad cafe. The food was fantastic (always listen to Marius when he recommends or doesn't recommend certain places). The Italian fare was welcome, since we were all a little burned out on schnitzels and sausage (and will get our fill again for lunch AND dinner tomorrow).
We walked around the shops just a little on the way back to the hotel. It rained pretty much all day (the hotel provided umbrellas), and it was chilly. We also have an early morning tomorrow, as we must leave by 715 AM order to make our appointment at Neuschwanstein. Hofbräuhaus is right around the corner from our hotel, but we were all too tired to go.
As a side note, when we arrived at the hotel, I asked the front desk about where to go to find some stain remover (I wanted to make one last effort to clean my jeans and jacket). Come to find out, Lexie and Marius made arrangements for the hotel to test and see if they could get the red wine stains out and launder the items. My clothes were in my room when we got back from dinner and they are SPOTLESS! There isn't one trace of the stains, and I am so thankful that I didn't have to spend the evening in the bathroom scrubbing at them! This is just another example of how the guides go above and beyond to make sure your vacation is as relaxing and stress-free as possible - even when the stress and inconvenience is self-inflicted!
Another note about the hotel...kids are only allowed to swim in the pool between 10 am and 4 pm. We weren't planning on swimming, but there was no time today and won't be any time tomorrow, either. So, unless you stay an extra day, you likely won't be able to enjoy the pool here with kids. I believe the hotel in Heidelberg had a similar restriction.
Also, The Kempinski requires that you present a credit card upon check in. None of the other hotels on this trip required that. They will automatically charge 200 euro to your card, but if you don't charge anything back to the room, you will get a full refund at check out. The Lowe's Royal Pacific at Universal Studios in FL did this same thing when we stayed there last fall, so it wasn't a shock.
As a funny, the
ABD reservation is in my name, but my son's last name is different from mine. The Kempinski seems to think he is an adult (and I guess my husband), as everything is in his name...I had to log into the Internet using his name, the in-room iPad (used for information and ordering room service) shows his name, and my laundry came back addressed to "Herr (his last name)".