We woke up early on Day 8 of our European Extravaganza to pack everything and leave Munich. We checked our bags at the hotel, paid for our rooms, got ripped off with paying extra for our “included breakfasts,” and met Susi at a bookstore. We went to the Alte Pinakothek Museum, which Steven would like to note was very similar to the painting museum in Berlin. We met up with Susi’s friend who is also an English teacher and did a brief tour of Munich. We had a wonderful lunch, chatted about all of the differences between the US and Germany, and exchanged English and German lessons. We said our good byes and Steven and I headed to the subway to catch our train to the airport. It was a perfect way to spend our last day in Germany.
We got through security at the airport but found out right before scanning our bags that we needed to drink our liter bottle of water and jug of fruit juice before moving any further. We already had our passports checked, so we could not go out to the bathrooms and there were no places to dump the liquid. With the security guard standing over us we managed to gulp it down. So how long does it take to drink two liters of fluids? Not long with the proper motivation. We made it through security with Steven’s bag full of electronics lighting up like a Christmas tree on the scanner (it did get checked), and headed immediately for the water closets. With the remaining euros in our pockets we headed over to the souvenir shop to spend our money on the German-English dictionary we could have used seven days ago, and (of course) candy to tide Steven over. After an uneventful two-hour flight we landed in rainy London. Heathrow had been completely redone since my last time there is preparation for the 2012 Olympics. It also turns out that the subway system is being redone, which caused some headaches. We did get to finally return the favor for all those Germans who had taken pity on us in the train station. Our underground train was running late, so halfway through the ride it was announced that the train would end and we would have to catch the next train. We dutifully hopped off, but noticed that a small Japanese family hadn’t been able to understand the instructions and were still sitting happily in the train. We got back on, and explained they had to catch the next train. Hopefully Karma from our similar experience in Berlin was satisfied. Once in central London, we decided against trying to navigate the buses late at night, and hailed a famous black cab to made our way to the hostel. By the time we made it there it was late and the only food we could get was at a Tesco store (15 minutes away) that was closing in 25 minutes. Which leads us to our traveling question of the day: What can 15 pounds in 10 minutes buy?
Dinner for Two,
Clean towels for the hostel,
And most importantly: Fresh boxers.

Signing off,
Lady Libby and Sir Steven