We got back to Munich early that afternoon after our final drive which lasted a couple of hours. We stopped at the hotel first, & checked in. We were staying at the Le Meridian, which was directly across the street from the ALoft that we stayed at when we first arrived. (As a Christmas present, my mom had booked this one with her Starwood account points. She got us a beautiful suite, that really was too big, but it was really relaxing for our final night.) Since we got there early we left our bags at the front desk and headed to Budget to drop off the car which was quick and easy, unlike when we picked it up.

While we waited on our room, we decided to grab some food for the time being. We planned on using the rest of our Euro coins, so we hopped over the sandwich shop in the train station. We couldn't afford much with our coins, so we opted for a single sandwich and a single pastry, just enough to hold us over until an early dinner.

We spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging out around town. There wasn't much to do because the majority of stores are closed on Sundays. The hot spot that day was the Christmas Market. There were so many people there that it was almost too difficult to maneuver down the aisles of vendors. In light of all the global events that had been occurring with ISIS, I was unusually nervous. I tried my best to remind myself that continually thinking of them possibly attacking is allowing them to win. I was able to settle my nerves with a delicious Nutella crepe. Of all the crepes I had on this trip, and I had way too many, the Munich crepes were hands down the best!

When we were momentarily burnt out the market we head back to The Hofbrauhaus for our very early dinner. The place was packed and so noisy. It seemed that we were lucky to even got a table. Once we were seated we ordered different things than last time, but didn't enjoy it much . We may have been burnt out on the local cuisine. We ate as much as we could, which included a German pretzel, and got the check. It was time to move on again, like it always is for us.

We wandered all over the city that night. We weaved in an out of all the Christmas markets and down small quiet streets; but, eventually, we did end up back at the big market in Marienplatz. I still hadn't found my perfect German souvenir... I had loved the concept of the German smokers, but was hesitant because I was afraid they would be too German in style. I also debated between some of the more crafty holiday items, or even a nutcracker... I wanted something that suited our home and/or suited us. Finally, after hours and days of searching, I found it! There, at one of the large booths, was it, my German smoker. A plump German man in a sitting position smoking his pipe with a dog on his lap, a rifle over his shoulder, and a fox on his back. He was perfect. He had a feather in his hat and big bushy mustache that pulled it all together. We were short on cash, so thankfully, the man there was willing to bargain with us. Brad saved us close to 20 Euros, and I got my smoker. I named him Gustav & his little dog is Edelweiss. The perfect German pair that adorn my home every Christmas.

We decided we should eat once more before we headed to bed. We had early flights the next morning, but still had lots to do to prepare. After we dropped off anything that wasn't mandatory to carry, we headed back out for Indian food. We scouted a few options. One option was underground, and kind of sketched us out, so we moved on to the next option. It was quaint but looked welcoming, so we headed in for this trip's second round of Chicken Korma. It was scrumptious, and we were finally satisfied.

Within a couple hours, I had everything packed up (I'm a slow, but very strategic packer). We had to be up early, as we both had morning flights, but we also wanted to try to find a grocery store to try to get Pecans for Brad's colleagues because they wanted the chef at their "camp" to make a Pecan pie. So, painstakingly early the next morning, we did just that. With complimentary tea & coffee in hand, we scouted the closest grocery store and searched high and low for pecans. 4 small bags, and about 20 Euro later, we had the goods, and Brad's work friends eventually had their delicious, homemade-in-the-Congo Pecan Pie.

ISSUE 16: Munich, Germany 2015 (Part 2)