Departing Deutschland

We awoke on the Danube still in Austria (despite last night’s shipboard farewell to Austria festivities of weiner schnitzel, grüner veltliner, and a Sound of Music singalong) and 25km downriver of Passau, Germany, our intended disembarkation point. So we had a little longer bus ride to the Munich airport (by just about 20 mins or so) and earlier departure than originally planned.

But the countryside was scenic, the ride swift, and the Munich airport pleasant and a good spot to pick up a few Rhine valley dry rieslings duty free in the Euro-zone. An uneventful flight from Munich fed us into the madness of customs and baggage rechecking in Chicago, and the further madness of a snaking, Space Mountain opening at Disneyland-type line for the shuttle from Terminal 5 to Terminal 1. But we survived that nearly 2-hr total ordeal and are now chillaxing in the United Club for the rest of our 5-hour layover before the final 4-hour hop from Chi-town to Boise.Read more