December 14, 2006, 3PM....the CAC campus is abandoned as everyone heads out of Cairo in search of clean non-polluted air, colder or hotter weather, hopes of snow or sun, and the joy of seeing family again. The exit gates could not handle the volume as we all dashed with excitement to our destinations.

Mike and I headed to Munich for, yes, cold and snow. Cairo in Winter is still warm for me and I was looking forward to wearing a sweater shirt and jeans and maybe even a turtle neck. Our flight was leaving on December 15 flying Malev (Hungarian) Air early in the morning. So after a "kiss the floor goodbye" party at Liz Wolden's house (she got new hardwood floors over the winter break) we went to bed for a bit, got up and had Sameh drive us to the airport.

This is a new experience for us to fly out of a third world country. You enter the airport hoping it is the correct terminal. Your checked and carry-on bags go through security before you enter the check-in counter. You check-in and they print the boarding passes. We have no luggage to check so we pass into security again and have the bags scanned one more time. 3 or 4 people walk through the security gate at one time so they cannot tell who is setting it off. Different but we are starting to become familiar with the Egyptian ways.

We head to our gate to find we are too early to actually get into the seating area, the flight is leaving in 30 minutes. We stand for a bit with all the other passengers in the hallway starring at the chairs longing to sit and relax for a bit. 20 minutes later they allow us to enter the seated area...you guessed it scan those bags one more time. We then wait for 10 or so minutes and see people boarding the plane. No announcement, no warning, just the waiting room slowly emptying. We board the plane which is not full by any means, there are only 35 passengers but we are all squished into 6 rows...we ask to move to the exit row. People look at us like we are crazy...you want to move?...we squeeze by the lady sharing our row and stretch out in the exit seats. I believe I was asleep before take off and Mike shortly there after.

We arrive in Budapest and switch planes and land in Munich at about 9AM. I was looking out my window, something I never do on a flight (motion sick), and was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the landscape. The fields were divide meticulously by trees and walls. There was no trash, half built buildings, abandon cars, or smog that covers Cairo. The beauty of the countryside was incredible.

Munich was very easy to maneuver. We landed and made our way to an information counter were we arranged our rail pass throughout Germany. We bought a 5 use pass which allowed us to use the train system any 5 days we wanted in a month period. We could use the train as much as we wanted on 5 different days so you could travel from major city to major city and not need another ticket. You could use the inter-country trains, inner city trains, and the subway with the same pass. Very nice system. After purchasing the tickets in the airport we went downstairs into the subway station to get to the train station. The trains are prompt and run every 11 or 16 minutes depending on if you go east-west or west-east. We spent the next 45 minutes watching the countryside go by and planning our time in Germany. We arrived at the train station about 11:30 for a 12:15 train to Koln. The weather was chilly and we got hot coco and waited for the train to arrive. This was the first of many easy, clean, and enjoyable trips within Germany.