München express

---

Good Lord, I'm way behind on these blogs.

Today Laura & I took the weekend-only direct train from Nördlingen to München (Munich) to take the Munich Walks English-language guided tour of the Dachau concentration camp.

When we arrived at the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), hungry for breakfast, Laura almost instantly spotted a Starbucks and demanded we go there! No argument from Auntie on that one. She doesn't even like Starbucks, but she knows home when she sees it.

After buying our Dachau tour tickets, we had about 45 minutes to wait. Hmm. Sit around the Hbf, or live on the edge? No contest. We raced downstairs to the S-Bahn (local subway) station. After a silly race around looking for subway tickets (confusing fare machine, even in English), we snagged a train to Marienplatz (Mary's Square) in the historic center of town, just two stops away.

I wanted to show Laura the relic of the skeleton of Saint Mundita, but couldn't remember which church had it. We wasted a frustrating amount of time in the tourist information center inside the Rathaus (town hall), but got the right answer and a few gorgeous postcards. Unfortunately, once I knew it was in Peterskirche (Church of St. Peter), I failed to pay attention to the directions for getting to the Peterskirche, figuring I'd been in it before and how hard could it be to find again?

Yeah, OK, went to the wrong church, wandered around, it was lovely, no relic.

15 minutes left, still need to ride the train back. Time to abandon poor Saint Mundita.

We headed back to the S-Bahn station and there, on the left, I finally spotted the Peterskirche. Hurry!! At least I know exactly where inside the church this particular relic is located. We slip in a side door and there is a Mass going on. No sightseeing! Saint Mundita is tantalizingly a few short meters from where we are standing. I instruct Laura to make no noise and take no photos, and we sidle down the wall to get a look at the skeleton. Laura is suitably wowed by it, but perhaps even more so by the beautiful organ music and the full choir with orchestra which begin bellowing sacred music from the balcony. Peterskirche is one of the most beautiful places to have that kind of experience.

We slip out, race back to the S-Bahn station, and I promptly board us onto a train going in the wrong direction. It's a good thing I know how to read a subway map. We hop off at Isertor, hop on a more appropriate train, run run run through the München Hbf, and make it to our tour with even a bit of time to spare.

Off to more serious business....

---