Up... Up... and Away! Germany... Here We Comeeeeeeeeeee!

When I woke up on Sunday morning, I don’t quite think it sank in that I was actually going to Europe… let alone that I was going on vacation with my family and to do an 8 day trail running race with my friend and running partner, Sarah. 

We departed Kelowna at 12pm and arrived in Toronto after a pleasant 4hr flight.  We meet up with Sarah at the Tim Horton’s line up outside our connecting gate 15min before boarding our flight to Munich, Germany.  It was great to see her!  She had been in PEI the week prior to us leaving, so we chatted on the phone a few times and mostly tried to organize ourselves via text/emails with the time change and hectic schedules.

We were delayed in the airplane for 1.5hrs, as some dude wasn’t on the plane but his luggage was.  Sarah and I basically chatted and got caught up.  It was great!  Carter had the window seat and Trent was happy in the middle seat.  I normally don’t sleep on airplane or public areas very well, for that matter, so I took some gravol this flight as I was so afraid of starting the race still jet-lagged.  I ended up sleeping for 3hrs which wasn’t a lot by any stretch, but it was more than I was counting on. 

When we arrived in Munich is was approx. 2:30am Kelowna time and 11:30am Germany time.  We got our rental car ( volkswagon touran)  and Trent fired up the GPS!  We were on our way to Fuessen Germany which was approx. a 2hr drive from Munich.

It was now finally starting to sink in… the views were beautiful and with each mile we drove we saw more and more beauty.  We ended up going through a little town and ate at an Italian pizzeria.  It was unreal!  Sarah, Carter and I ordered pizza and Trent had spaghetti.

We pulled over a few more times to sight see and stretch the legs and let’s be honest here people – to wake up!  If it wasn’t for the scenery we all might still be in the Munich airport, sleeping in our Volkswagen!

When we arrived at the youth hostel, there was a sign that said no check in until 5pm.  The weather was overcast and kinda cool.  We changed into pants and drove into downtown Fuessen where we walked around for a few hours.  It is such a cool little town!

 We returned to the hostel at 5pm, checked in, made our beds, had a shower and then had dinner.  They were serving potato dumplings (the kind my Auntie Theresa makes – yum!), curry soup and salad bar for $5 euro each.  We were all starting to bonk at the table and the jet leg was at its peak.  So we kept busy and decided we would try to make it until 8-9pm.  Listening to all the families and Dutch speaking people made it easier and fun.

We are all sharing one room.  (Poor Sarah)  And we have 2 bunk beds in tiny roomJ  it’s cute but tight.  Trent and Carter got the top bunks and Sarah and I are taking the bottom.  Tomorrow it’s time to be a tourist and check out a local castle and go for a hike.  It’s time to get our legs moving before the race.  Both Sarah and I had a rough week as far as how we felt and our training in general last week… so we’re both feeling pretty stale and need to get the blood flowing!

Sarah knitting in our hostel room & Carter reading on the top bunk