My bike and I actually made it to München, both remarkably in one piece. We had some adventures along the way though so read on to see what fate befell us this year. 

My flight left the US early afternoon. I ended up arriving 3 hours early for the flight and even with checking a bike and all the new hassles of TSA security I still was at the gate 2 hours early. The security procedures are even more extensive than before including a very intimidating guy wandering around with an AK47. However, despite all that neither they nor I noticed that I had left my container of laundry soup in my bag. No one pulled me aside over it so I can still wash my 3 shirts and 3 pairs of shorts (the Austrian populace no doubts celebrates that fact.)

I have always requested to be present when my bike goes through security. US security doesn't have the large scanners that European airports have so they open the box and do their little bomb sweep test. This time the TSA people were adament that I didn't need to stay. It'll be just fine they said. Sure we'll tape the box up real good afterwards. See below for how much "tape" the TSA used. 

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Thankfully everything was in the box and in working order. 

Getting the bike to the hotel where I'm storing the box was also an adventure. München Flughafen has done an impressive job of hiding the elevator to the S-Bahn. I finally asked someone at an info desk where it was and I assure you, it was not anywhere I would have guessed based on the signage. 

Getting the bike on the S-Bahn once I'd found the elevator turned out to be quite easy. Not so much at the other end. 

Last year I bought a small little 3 wheel trolley to set one end of my bike box on. Hauling a 55lb box by hand is fairly tiring. I discovered on my 1/2 mile or so walk from the S-Bahn to the hotel that holding up one box while trying to maneuver an unwieldy and heavy box is also not that much fun (spoiler I'll be making adjustments to the wheel set-up next year.)

Bike assembly went rather well for once until I got to the stage of pumping up my tires. Instead of pumping them up, I fully deflated the rear tire. Something was definitely not right with my pump. The hotel I left the box at didn't have a bicycle pump so that option was out. I decided to consult YouTube for a usage video on my small hand pump. Based on the video it was clear I was missing a small part of the assembly that goes over the valve (I'm tired enough that I had to translate that word from German to English.) I said a little prayer and dug through my rack top bag and amazingly, the piece was there! Properly assembled, the pump filled my tire right back up and I was good to go. 

The last couple years I've ended up meeting up with friends at some point. This year a former long-time student of mine is over here and joining me for the hike up to the top of the Krimml falls tomorrow. We met at the München Bahnhof and took the lengthy train ride on no less than 4 different trains to arrive in Krimml. That gave us plenty of time to cover a few basics of speaking German, including the ever present 'Z' which he's working to master so he can buy his ticket back to München tomorrow. We also covered the ever important Milka and RitterSport chocolate bars, Almdüdler, and a few key words to know when navigating a menu in German. He's been wanting to experience more of the countryside culture after rhaving spent several days in large cities. By the end of his time here he should have a pretty good feel for country life. 

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We had an excellent supper at the Hotel zur Post.  The dish I ordered of a Semmelknödel in a cream sauce with mushrooms was exceptional and then some. Hopefully the breakfast buffet will be as good as the supper so that we will have the energy to do the 600m climb up the falls, and by up I mean REALLY up. My last time here I bailed at the top of the middle falls. We are determined this time to get all the way to the top!

Stop in tomorrow to see if we survive the hike, if he makes it back to München, and, oh yeah, this is a bike trip so I'll probably do some of that as well.