Day 361, Munich, Germany
In keeping with our farm-themed hotel, we woke to a hearty breakfast buffet. We appreciate buffets, especially when we don’t have a kitchen. Paul and I go down when the doors open for coffee, the girls join us when they are up. Everyone was rested and ready to head out for a full day. There are mornings when we set alarms, but prefer to launch the day at a relaxed pace. It’s also a more sustainable way to travel for extended periods of time. Too many early mornings and the younger girls start to feel like travel is a structured obligation rather than something we choose to do for fun. We learned when the girls were young that ample sleep is key to travel-related happiness. Now they are all in their teens and twenties, and I still believe it to be true. If everyone is well rested, there’s nothing we can’t do, their stamina and tolerance levels are high. It’s worth letting them sleep a little longer, so no one is dragging themselves through the day.
Look at these serious sugar choices for your coffee.
The hotel was crawling with engineers. Seems we’re in the midst of a conference. Funny how no matter what country you’re in, you can always spot an engineer. One of those cross-cultural similarities.
We drove into Munich and walked through the beautiful streets to the largest city castle in Germany. The Residenz was home to the House of Wittelsbach Bavarian monarchs. There are 130 rooms open to the public. I think they could host a marathon in there. By the end of the day, sure felt like we ran one.
The most impressive room was the Hall of Antiquities, the largest Renaissance hall north of the Alps. Cali was determined to get those animated dog ears and licking tongues on the statues. She did finally get Snapchat to recognize the marble faces as faces. Yes, it’s come to this. 
There were also rooms of jewels, coins, dishes, a stupid amount of opulence on display.
Around 3pm, we were all hungry and also needed to rest our feet. There was no place to eat at the museum so we went off site. We found a little ramen restaurant in the basement corner of a large gourmet food store, which was close by. We had the place to ourselves, it was so nice. We ate under a wall mural of Sakurajima, the volcano next to Kagoshima where my dad grew up. The setting was really perfect. The girls noted that both our German and Japanese heritage were being represented. So true.
After we felt recharged, we went back to the museum to see the theatre. In keeping with the over the top ornate decor style, it was mostly gold with gold accents. We’ve been to many, many castles, and I’ve never seen a theater like this one. Wow and wow.
After the museum, we went shopping, but got caught in a serious downpour. We ran from one HM to the other, because there are that many. We waited out the storm by going back to the mother of all gourmet stores and shopped for supper. The braunschweiger was sold in balls, something I’d never seen before. You tell them how many you want and they snip them off the chain. What a store though. There was a huge chocolate section.
We chose our goodies, and headed back to the hotel. We ended the day with a hotel room picnic of salami, braunschweiger, potato salad, buns, hummus, pita, baguette, wine, and chocolate. Doesn’t get any better than that.
Even though it had been a long tiring day, the girls were in top form, and having so much fun together. I love to watch them interact. Each has a quick sense of humor and they play off of each other in a hilarious way. After supper we squished onto the cloud bed and watched a movie. From gold theater to cloud cinema, another amazing day.