We left the Ibis at 9:15 am for our 10:30 train to Munich. Neither of us slept well, thinking about our train trip and the angst that always creates. We maneuvered through the lift business to the track okay and waited for 45 minutes along with everyone else. We worked our way down to track 8 from which our train was scheduled to depart, and after much pacing up and down the track we determined where the bike car would stop. These trains can be quite long. Sometimes the bike car is at the front of the train, sometimes at the rear. If you guess wrong, you're doomed to sprint from one end of the track to the other in order to board. Typically you only have a couple of minutes to load up, so if you picked them wrong end to wait for the train's arrival, you have precious little time to correct the mistake.

At 10:20 however, there was an announcement that or tain was now coming in on track 5, necessitating a mad scramble back up through the lifts and down another lift which just generally accentuated our stress levels. We have learned that the most difficult bike loading situations happen when a train arrived late. Typically the conductor is in hurry to get going wanting to spend as little time as possible at the station. The train arrived a little late. The good news was that the cyclists sharing our bike compartment were a group of five young adults at the end of an eight day fast ride across Germany from  Austria. They were bike packing on road bikes, and looked like they maybe had one off bike change of clothes,  but no extra shoes or tablets etc.  And we, with our loaded panniers, we're very impressed. One of the guys helped Dave with loading the bikes which turned out to be very much appreciated. Our big e-bikes just do not fit neatly and there was the usual messing around in order to make things work. But after shifting around the bikes they managed to get everything sorted out and the six and a half hour train ride went surprisingly fast. They were an interesting bunch and were quite curious about our trip too.

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On the disembarking end in Munich they helped Dave again with unloading so it was pain free. We rode our 5 km or so from the Munich train station to the Novotel. FYI, the Munich train station is very accommodating for bikes. The tracks are all on one level so it’s not necessary to take a lift or stairs to get to your assigned track. They are remodeling the train station right now; hopefully that won't change.

We went out for a pizza and tried a new place fairly near to our hotel. We need some good neighborhood places for dinner and we liked this one. 

We are in Munich for a few days before we head back to the US.