Getting to Nuremberg

 We had to get from the B&B to the airport in the early morning; the owner lady couldn’t take us then; she arranged a ride from another woman. In the dark at 6 she showed up in a small car, making it a challenge, and she had her own charge of 5 euros per person. We got to the terminal and had our check-in and security. We had a long way to go to gate A80, a bus gate. It was odd to see them call priority passengers and have them crowd into the same bus.  We climbed the stairs to our Lufthansa flight to Munich. It had a slight delay in departure. In flight they passed out water bottles, and then even coffee had to be paid for. The flight attendant explained to Margaret the particularities of their coffee, how the lid needed to be pressed. I paid by card and put my card wallet on my lap as I handed Margaret the cup. After that I wasn’t finding the wallet out or in any of my several pockets. Margaret was convinced it had to be in a pocket and was talking happily while I worried about where it was. Margaret and Barbara both wanted window seats so B. was seated behind us, and on landing I was ready to ask her to look under my seat, when I found the wallet wedged between the seat cushion and the armrest. What a relief. 

We disembarked via jetway at Munich; I remembered transferring there on my first trip with Margaret ten years ago and it was simple.  This time getting to baggage claim was very involved, with multiple ups and downs and a train ride.  When we got to baggage claim we had a long wait; added to the small flight delay, the two hours we had between flight and bus were waning.  I’d looked at the airport map for the bus stop when I booked the trip, but hadn’t looked again recently.  I made the mistake of not following Barbara’s call of where the stop might be, so we used up some more minutes before finding the stop and having a little time to buy sandwiches before boarding.

We loaded bags onto the bus ourselves and boarded the Lufthansa Express Bus to Nuremberg airport.  It had essentially no increased fare over just the flight to Munich.  When we boarded, we didn’t see evidence of a lavatory, but there was one going down the stairs of the middle exit.  I liked the chance to experience the Autobahn: a lot of traffic, including some standstill time, didn’t see much fast traffic.  

We were at Nuremberg airport, and took a taxi to our hotel.  We had an annual free night from Marriott Bonvoy to use at the historic Meridien Grand, while Barbara had another hotel around the corner.  We checked in to this historic hotel, nice even if the room was a bit small.  While we were exhausted from the travel day, I did a stroll, seeing the busy pedestrian streets and some of the old town, including the market square.

View from the hotel room to the train station 

Once I was back, we were wanting to eat early, and to keep it simple we ate in the touristy medieval village across the street from the hotel, and had a sampling of local dishes.  Getting back to the room, we had a bit of TV news and I was exhausted enough to go to sleep at 9.  The bed was comfortable and we slept well through the night.

At check-in we’d taken the offer that these hotels often have, of taking their breakfast buffet at a lower price than it would be on the spot.  We went at a busy time and took a table that hadn’t been cleared, with some confusion about how to serve ourselves, but we eventually had a nice meal.

It was raining and I worked on this blog rather than going out.  We were thinking of taking advantage of the hotel’s late checkout, but Barbara, with experience with these cruises, suggested we go at noontime and have the cruise’s lunch even if the stateroom wasn’t ready.  We did that, the hotel called a taxi that was a minivan, and even with several cruise ships along the quai, we found the right one first (the hotel lobby was full of Viking passengers waiting for a transfer).

We were onboard the Uniworld River Princess, where they handled our luggage before we noticed, took our information, and we settled for drinks and a buffet lunch.  Before long our stateroom was ready; we’d successfully bid to get upgraded to a room with a picture window rather than a basement-type window, but the room space is still rather tight.  We’ll see how this goes.