Day 17 was set to be our latest wakeup of the trip, with no alarms set and a flexible start time. Of course, Emmie climbed out of her portable crib and began tickling Amanda’s feet a shade after 6 a.m. Everyone was up within the next few minutes, though we still were a bit sluggish getting ready for the day ahead.
Breakfast was far less rushed than the previous day, and we were able to compliment our meals of cereal, croissants, cheese, and meat with freshly-scrambled eggs. After copious amounts of apple juice and patiently waiting for Emmie to take “one last bite” of her cocoa crisp cereal, we were able to finish packing and head to our first destination of the day, the IKEA in northern Munich.
After some nasty traffic leaving Salzburg, we made it to the autobahn for a reasonably efficient trip to IKEA, arriving at nearly the exact same time as Heidi, Willi, Sophia, and Olivia. Our first stop of the visit was the IKEA restaurant; while our friends are semi-regulars to the place, it was our first IKEA food experience.
Willi uses a vending machine to buy spare parts plus a free drink coupon, for the same price as a free drink. He’s not one to miss out on a deal.
No brand names in the soda fountain. The Cola was at least quite cold.
I opted for the classic plate of IKEA’s Swedish meatballs (which presumably no longer contain horse meat) and Amanda tried the restaurant’s steak dinner. Emmie ate a few bites of her meatball kids meal while Noah was focused on his elderflower juice. After the meal, Sophia and Noah went downstairs to play in Smäland.
Sophia and Noah enjoyed their time in Smäland.
Willi watched Emmie and Olivia in the upstairs kids area, giving Amanda, Heidi, and I a chance to quickly run through the store. Our only purchase was a few new IKEA rats; one each for Emmie and Noah, plus ones to give to Sophia and Olivia. We struck out in our quest to find brightly-colored toilet paper, which we had spotted (but didn’t purchase) at the Innsbruck IKEA. Bummer.
The soft-serve ice cream machine was pretty fascinating.
When shopping was complete and the older kids were gathered from the play area, we made one final stop in the food area near the IKEA exit. Emmie helped me select a variety of gummy treats (and managed to steal and start to eat a ROLO-like candy) while Willi introduced me to the IKEA shake machine. The blueberry shake proved to be a decent, if artificial-tasting, treat.
Emmie loved her bag of assorted dummies.
After a good time at IKEA, we were less than an hour from our friends’ home in Eichstätt, where we are staying the final three nights of our trip. Not surprising to readers of this blog, my first objective after we moved our stuff into the guest room was to stake out the local grocery scene.
Willi and I made the rounds to each of the four local grocery stores, including Edeka, Rewe, Aldi (Süd), and Lidl. We walked away with a nice selection of flavored milks, chocolates, potato chips, plus a variety of meats for the grill.
The conveyer belt of purchases at Edeka.
Meats for dinner included bratwurst schnecken, fackeln, grillkaese, nackensteak, nuernburger haenchenbrust, putenspiese, wiener wuerstchen, and wuerstchen. I personally sampled all of the sausages and enjoyed them all. Along with dinner, we tried Almdudler, Austria’s national soft drink sweetened with apple and grape juice concentrates and herbs. In an upset, the girls were the biggest fans of the odd drink, with Emmie drinking two full glasses.
Grillmaster Willi prepared a variety of meats for dinner.
After dinner was over, we quickly reset the table for our highly-anticipated flavored milk test. Ever since my first grocery store visit near Bacharach, Germany, I’ve had my eye on the variety of flavored Müllermilch bottles in individual services. Between the four stores, we purchased 10 varieties of milk from basic vanilla to more sophisticated white chocolate macadamia nut.
The selection of milks plus 100 testing cups.
Cheers to new types of milks!
Sophia gave a thumbs up to 7 of the 8 milks we tried. The lone exception was banana. (We decided to call it a night after 8 and try the final 2 flavors in the morning.)
After a long day, the kids wound down quickly for bed while the adults regrouped for some late-night conversation, games, and of course, a quick run to the nearby McDonald’s to try the latest McFlurry varieties, made with Leibniz crackers.