Isaac@Bayern&Salzburg (2026)
爾德@巴伐利亞和薩爾斯堡 (2026)

Bayern, with München as its current capital, has a long history as an independent state with culture and culinary being distinctive from the rest of Germany.

It is interesting to find out that there is a Chinese Tower (Chinesischer Turm) inside the English Garden (Englischer Garten) in München. At least it was easier to articulate than "Rue du 8 Mai 1945" in many cities/town of France.

Schloss Neuschwanstein was the inspiration of the Disney castles, but unfortunately it was not so inspirational to Isaac 🤣. He was more interested in walking up and down the trail and watching the horse carriages passed by.

Apparently Isaac is most interested in Legoland than any other places of historical or cultural interests.

There was a competition which 8 teams will compete on hand-pumping the truck forward, then hand-pumping the water against targets then hand-pumping the truck back (the same found also in Windsor Legoland and Nagoya Legoland but there was no competition and no prize). The prize? one Lego block, thrilled Isaac and parents with fatigued arms!

The food served on the Deutsche Bahn was better than anticipated and way better than those on the Eurostar or the BA.

The birthplace of Mozart and the Sound of Music - none of these interest Isaac though 🤣.

Instead, Isaac enjoyed taking photos with his camera, from the Mönchsberg and the Festung Hohensalzburg and other locations.

We learnt a lesson on the way back as the local taunted the reliability of the rail service. The train was delayed by 77 minutes on departure point and the journey was terminated early at München Ostbahnhof instead of München Hauptbahnhof.

At the last night in München, the fire alarm went off at 00:18 and we evacuated from the 6th floor - Isaac was on foot while some other parents had to hold their children during evacuation. The fire brigade arrived within 10 mins and it was declared as false alarm within 30 mins from the alarm. German Efficiency!

There had been major rail works suffering unplanned delays which effectively severed the S-bahn service for days and the alternative route information is available in German only.

While all experts advised to arrive airport 3-hour ahead to allow for the delays arising from EU EES, can they also advise the British Airways to timely open their counter too? The highly profitable BA only opened its understaffed counter 2-hour ahead - despite having completed check-in online it still took us 1-hour just to queue for bag drop. It took 40 mins to go through border control and the EU EES, leaving us arriving the gate right before the planned gate closing time. Not surprising for the BA, they made us 1-hour ahead again by delaying the flight for 1-hour. We could even enjoy watching the arrival of the aircraft and passengers disembarking the aircraft.

Another joy of the day - there was a waterpipe burst which flooded and severed Elizabeth Line and Heathrow Express from Heathrow. With the Piccadilly Line under planned suspension, all travellers were left with no rail connection and limited bus service. The rail service resumed right before our landing (as our flight was delayed) - blessing in disguise.