After such a great night sleep the night before, last night was the total opposite. We were both awake most of the night and unfortunately had to be up and moving by 8am to be at the airport for our 2p flight. I stumbled out of bed first and found my left eye almost swollen shut. I looked a lot like Quasimodo, which is NOT a good thing. It was either an infection or allergic reaction, but either way, it wasn't good. I did some intense makeup and tried to get my hair to stylishly fall over the left part of my face, which helped a little.  

After another nice breakfast, we packed up, retrieved the car and set the GPS for the Lisbon airport, about 1.5 hours away. The drive was quite pretty, going through rolling green hills, lakes and cork trees in various forms of regrowth. The Evora area is one of the worlds largest producers of cork and once the bark is harvested it takes 9 years to regrow for another harvest. While we would think that using less cork is a good thing, the belief its that the less cork that is used, the more likelihood the trees will be cut down to make way for buildings. So, using more cork is the preference.  

After dropping the car, we easily get through security and relaxed in the Lounge for the hour before our boarding time. Our Lufthansa flight was very full, but we ended up having a seat in between us, which is always nice. The 3 hour flight to Munich took the route over the Alps, and with the sun-setting, the mountains were really beautiful. It was cool to see lights from ski slopes and small villages among towering mountains.  

As many times as we have connected or left from Munich, we had always only been at the airport and never in town. However, this time, since we were arriving by 6p I decided we were going into town for something different So, I reserved the Le Meridian Hotel across the from the City Center train station. When we landed, we found the train right at the airport and took the 45 minute ride into town. After exiting the train station, it took a couple of wrong turns and a stop at another hotel for directions, to find our hotel. Yes, it was right across from the train station, but only if you exited the right doors (which we didn't).  

The hotel was extremely busy, but we finally got checked into our upgraded suite (thanks SPG) and received some guidance from the Concierge on a nice place for dinner. He suggested Augustiner-Keller a Bavarian restaurant just a 10 minute walk away.  While we had been prepared for the mild weather of Portugal, we weren't as prepared for the 30 degrees of Munich. But, we braved the cold and headed to the restaurant.   

Walking up we saw twinkle lights, bonfires and a very bavarian style building that was bustling both inside and out. We entered into a traditional beer hall with patrons hoisting large steins of beer in a very festive atmosphere. The host said that our reservations were downstairs and showed us to a small set of winding stairs. So, we went down, down, down until we entered a vaulted type room with planked tables and again, lots of beer. But, this time there was food!   We ordered some traditional German food of pork roast and schnitzel, both were quite good as was the beer and wine! The walk back to the hotel was at an even fast pace, as it had gotten colder.   

The info above was from last night and It is now December 31. We took the 615am train back to airport and am now waiting to board our 11 hour flight back to Houston. Not sure the trip into town was worth it, but it certainly was better than hanging at the airport hotel! This ends another fun trip. We are happy to be home to ring in the New Year later today. Thanks for joining us on our journey and we wish for all of you a wonderful 2016!!