Walsh's Winter in Europe 2018: Making magical memories

Up up and away. I'm writing this part whilst waiting for our plane to depart Heathrow airport.

This morning we had a fond farewell to our hosts. It was such an honour to participate in their family Christmas traditions over the last week.

There are just a few differences I have noticed that I would
like to mention. Christmas Bon Bon's are

called Christmas Crackers. These are also cracked all at once whilst each person is crossing arms and making a circle around the table.

Christmas morning presents are handed out and opened one by one, where with my family we hand them out and collect a pile each and then open in a bulk lot.

We sampled Brandy Butter for the first time, a mixture of butter, sugar and brandy. This is put on top of plum pudding along with whipped cream and vanilla custard.

Breakfast on Christmas morning consisted of bacon sandwiches and Bux Fiz. The bacon was sliced much thinner, almost shaved, then (as there was so much to be cooked) placed in the oven where it was cooked and become crispy. Jamie performed this task and then each was left to own to build each sandwich. Bux Fiz is a commercially produced and bottled mix of champagne and orange juice. Very nice.

We have now landed at Munich, passed customs and collected baggage. It is now that Katie and I are on the train to Munich city centre, a 45-minute journey.

As the plane came into the airport, we were greeted with blue skies and a warming sun that was illuminating the snow-covered fields and villages. Now we are passing through these fields on a new and modern electric train. There are many conversations around, few in English many in German and others, well who knows.

W have now returned to our accommodation, but we have done much since the last photo and paragraph. Katie and I disembarked the train at Marienplatz, the centre square of Munich and after a short walk over the icy streets found our Pension (German for B&B). It is very clean, we have our own bathroom, TV with all German-speaking channels and good WiFi.

As we were in awe of Munich's nighttime beauty whilst walking to our accommodation we immediately dropped the bags after check-in and were out in to the icy streets to explore. The inner city is so pretty at night with may Christmas lights in place.

After walking around for about 1 1/2 hours we went to our pre-booked dinner at Donisl. This family-friendly beer hall was lovely and provided Katie and I some relaxation and a good chance to sample some Barvarian delicacies.