The first couple days

The flight was great. We had been working so hard to clean out the house the week leading up to the flight that we both slept for 8 hours! (Plus, the departure was delayed. We ended up taking off at about 12:30 a.m. Saturday the 21st.) Touched down in Munich around 7 p.m. Saturday the 21st.

So we went grocery shopping in the airport before hauling everything to the rental car; grocery
stores are still closed all day Sunday here. All 5 suitcases, 2 laptop cases, 1 tote bag & 1 grocery bag and us fit in the car, thank goodness.

Sunday was a low-key day. We mostly unpacked the suitcases. Bruce & Barbara Birdsall stopped by around 1:30, invited us to dinner at their place that night. Thank goodness, all I had been able to score at the grocery in the airport was a jar of tomato sauce & some pasta.

So the afternoon was partly cloudy, we went out for a walk to help clear the jet lag. Then we got cleaned up & went over to Bruce & Barbaras. They are staying in a small house, half of a duplex actually, but with a nice yard. We sat out on the deck while Bruce grilled dinner. The birds here are amazing, there are quite a few varieties and they all sing. Barbara said that when her daughter Lisa was visiting, she commented “Mom, those aren’t just birds, they’re Disney birds!”


May 23, Monday. Logan went off to work. Reality hit as the construction started up at about 7 a.m., even though it was raining off & on. I dragged myself out of bed eventually. I walked to the local Tenglemans grocery store to get provisions and bought as much as I could carry. I got back to the apartment & made some spaghetti sauce for dinner. I love cooking, and it was good to make something familiar and comfort-foodish. That evening, after dinner, we drove to Isar center in the town of Ottobrun, to stock up the kitchen. Ottobrun is just 3 or 4 kilometers from Unterhaching, and it’s where Logan works. The Edeka market there is much bigger than the market in Unterhaching.

Two important things about grocery shopping here:
1) Make sure to have on your person at all times a 1 Euro coin. The shopping carts (aka trolleys) are all chained together; to get one you insert a coin into the slot & it comes free, much like luggage carts in airports. When you leave the store, return your cart, chain it back up and recover your coin.
2) Bring your own bags! You have to pay for them in the market. They don’t seem to care at all that I walk into Tenglemans with Edeka bags. I have started carrying an empty bag in my purse.