October 26, 2025

Flight: Munich –> Kos, Greece

Yesterday Jordan and I had a brief stopover in Munich before heading on our climbing trip to Kalymnos, Greece. I’m feeling thankful for the “Timeshifter” app which helped us prepare/negate jet lag by advising when to get/avoid light, have caffeine, go to sleep, and take melatonin. It really makes the first day in Europe doable. We flew out of SFO Friday afternoon (slept all 10 hours!) and got to Germany the next morning. After a confusing journey around the airport to find our uber, we settled into our beautiful hotel, the Andaz in Schwabing near the English Garden (we booked with points and MUST return!!!).

Jordan and I walked through the charming neighborhood to the underground, bought our paper tickets, and arrived to Marienplatz, where we saw the glockenspiel, the Rathaus, viktualmarket (got a pretzel and J a ham sandwich) and generally took in the atmosphere – which was rainy.

Next, we endeavored to find an 80 meter climbing rope at 3 different sporting good stores. These places had *everything*, even a library for guidebooks from the Alpenverein! It was fun to just look at all the clothes and equipment. The rope was finally bought at a tiny homegrown climbing shop a bit of a rainy walk away, but for a decent price. It is our 70 meter rope’s twin, just a bit longer. Creatures of habit, I guess. Rope in hand, we went to Hofbrauhaus for a liter beer and a radler and some salty pumpkin soup. Our server was acceptable – incredible for this place – and it was cozy and warm, with plenty of live polka music. After, we walked around town, taking in the perfect post-rain lighting.

We went back to the hotel to enjoy the fancy hotel spa: saunas, steam room, ice, cool showers, quiet and silent rooms, an outdoor terrace, and an indoor elegant swimming pool. It was hilarious to enjoy all the co-ed saunas totally naked but to put a bathing suit on to swim in the pool with all of the same people. To force ourselves to stay awake until our Timeshifter designated bedtime, we had a late dinner at Weinbauer, an authentic German tavern where J got his schnitzel, which was “worth trying but not worth returning for,” we shared some of the best spatzle, and I had mushroom soup with dumplings. We passed out immediately upon lights out.

This morning we had espresso in bed and walked to a nearby bakery called Familienbackerei Kistenpfennig (we got a kick out of this name) for a pretzel and croissant after a lackluster room service egg breakfast in bed while watching Buffy. We were delighted to see a small German boy ordering and paying all by himself with a hand-drawn picture shopping list. This town is full of dads riding their tiny kids around on bikes. With our pastries we walked in the drizzle through the fall leaves and cute houses to the lake at the Englishgarten. We’ve returned to this spot every trip to Munich. We enjoyed looking at the runners, ducks, dogs, and various European style playgrounds. This city is very walkable, bikeable, and likable, until you realize how expensive the houses are. Apparently royal descendents are competing with average folks for real estate. After a quick warm up in the hotel, we walked to get Turkitch, a doner kebab spot recommended by our hotel and had homemade ayran with our boxes. All of it was very good.

Now, we are preparing for takeoff to Kos! Our flight seems to be full of people in approach shoes, which bodes well. 🙂