Baylor Family Croatia, Slovenia and Trieste 2019, Chapter 21: The capricious gods of travel complicate our lives, but we make it safely home anyway.

Food and drink led the way during our last day in Trieste.

From the very moment in October when we rejigged our trip to accommodate the bankruptcy of Adria Airways (Slovenia) by round-tripping flights via Zagreb, there was one small problem.

Our flight from the Croatian capital was scheduled to depart on Thursday, December 5 at 1:00 p.m., and we'd be starting the day in Trieste, in Italy, from whence the prevailing rail schedules simply did not offer a way to Zagreb during the required window.

Buses were an option, to be sure, but the most efficient way (although not the cheapest) was to hire a transfer -- a driver and a car for a trip that takes roughly 2.5 hours on the autobahn.

This we did, via Daytrip, Uber-like web site in Europe that connects travelers with drivers who speak their language, with options to add sightseeing stops. We winced, paid the fee for a straight transfer (circa $200) and were rewarded with the delightful wit, humor and professionalism of Davor, a native of Croatia who owns his own travel agency (Adria Private Tours) as well as Lupo, a small bar and cafe near his neighborhood in Zagreb's southern suburbs.

As Davor explained to us, Daytrip merely makes the connection and takes a finder's fee. For him it's a good way to odd-job the off-season and keep his own contacts constant. I feel fortunate that we made his acquaintance, and there'll be no hesitation contacting him should we ever tackle Croatia in greater detail.

Diana and I exited the Hotel Roma in Trieste at just before 7:00 a.m. after breakfast, and within minutes Davor materialized. Quickly the ride began, with Davor cutting against incoming morning drive-time traffic by means of back alleys and short cuts, up the escarpment to Villa Opicina and the gateway to the Karst plateau, through the cursory border checkpoint with Slovenia and merging onto the four-lane for a trouble-free passage past Ljubljana to Zagreb.

Tram in Villa Opicina.

Davor was a font of information and I peppered him with questions about the life and times of Croatia. It was fascinating. As we approached Zagreb he asked if we might be interested in a brief detour to his cafe for a coffee, and this respite reminded me a great deal of olden times in the (now former) socialist burbs.

Lupo is located in the patchwork residency quilt where tiny old villages were surrounded first with a sprinkling of Yugoslav-era housing blocks, then newer private homes and condos dating from Croatia's post-1991 independence. Davor's bar, agency and home all are situated close to the airport, and only two miles from Zagreb's city center. He has it figured out.

The ride was a great start for our journey home, and once we arrived at the airport, checked in, cleared security and relaxed with our books and coffees, everything went to straight to shit and stayed that way for 30 hours.

Foggy weather in Munich meant the arriving plane was late to Zagreb, which made us late to Munich, where we had only an hour and 45 minutes to make our transatlantic flight to Chicago. By the time we were in the Munich terminal, the Chicago plane was gone, but thankfully Lufthansa rebooked us to Washington DC, the last plane of the day to depart for America.

There was only one difficulty: No one told us. No personnel were at the gate, and the only official in sight waved us to the rebooking desk, where we waited for more than an hour, only to be told by the horrified woman at the desk that we'd missed the rebooked flight, too.

Now there was no choice except spending the night and catching the first flight back on Friday, and this was accomplished with Lufthansa's assistance: taxi, hotel and meal vouchers, and be back Friday at 6:00 a.m.

Welcome to the ultimate in good news/bad news paradigms.

• The bad news is you can't make it home.
• The good news is there'll be a night in Munich! 
• The bad news is your free hotel is at the airport, too far away to make anything of a public transit jaunt into the city center when it's already 7:00 p.m. 
• The good news is your hotel has Bavarian food and beer. 
• The bad news is they're serving only a Rotary Club-style buffet which isn't Bavarian at all.
• The good news is at least Paulaner is on tap, and so you drink as many of those as possible to ease the pain.

Before we redeemed the taxi voucher with a pissed-off elderly former hippie driver, there was time to examine Airbräu, the world's first airport brewery. Actually it was the smaller "satellite" of the two airport locations; the latter has a brewery, restaurant, Tenne (barn), Stube (reconstructed 19th-century Alpine private room), another snug outfitted like the gondola of a balloon, and a 600-seat beer garden, all facing the Munich airport center.

The beer was delicious.

Our request for the earliest flight possible to the States on Friday morning was honored, and our departure to Charlotte was 9:00 a.m. The hotel shuttle delivered us to the airport at 6:00 a.m., and of course the flight was late -- every single one of the seven legs we flew on this trip was delayed.

Desperate for reasons to be optimistic about life, I was delighted to see a traditional Munich breakfast being offered by the kiosk in our arm of the terminal: Weißwurst (white sausage), special sweet mustard (Senf), a nice little Brezel and a Hofbräu Hefeweizen. The key to proper dining in this instance is to score the sausage skin and remove the succulent contents. An unexpected detour, perhaps but glorious localism for Frühstück.

At long last returned to American soil, and yet again late, we were in the position of being forced to sprint from one side of Charlotte's airport to the other. We arrived in the nick of time for boarding to Louisville to begin -- then waited almost two more hours for boarding actually to start.

However, as you already know, in due time we made it home safely.

The morning after the return from Croatia, Slovenia and Trieste.

THE END

Munich Tales 2018: The city's stellar airport should be a festive place to say goodbye to Christmas in Germany.

That's right. The airport, where we'll be on Christmas Eve as the way back home begins.

Munich Airport's Christmas Market Has 2 Ice Rinks and Almost 500 Real Trees, by Katherine Lagrave (Conde Nast Traveler)

Strap on some ice skates and sip some Glühwein on your next layover.

Nobody does Christmas quite like Germany, and as it turns out, nobody does holiday airport shopping quite like Germany either. On November 17, Munich Airport opened its 44-stall Christmas market amid nearly 500 (real) pine trees in the covered space between its airport terminals, meaning travelers facing a long layover can now do more than just flip through the latest Der Spiegel in Germany's version of Hudson News.

It's not just local handicrafts and seasonal treats like Glühwein, sweet roasted almonds, bratwurst, and Rahmfleckerl, a flatbread-like dish with cream, bacon, and chopped chives. The centerpiece of the market is a 50-foot tall Christmas tree decorated with 5,000 lights and 3,000 bulbs—but the main attraction is a big (especially for an airport) skating rink with free entry; visitors can rent skates for a "small" fee ...

... The market, in its 20th year, isn't the only notable thing about Munich Airport: It was ranked Europe’s first five-star airport by Skytrax in 2017, the best airport in Europe for the eleventh time in 13 years, and the sixth-best airport worldwide in the World Airport Awards 2018, with the second-best terminal in the world. In addition to its seasonal Winterlicher Zauberlandschaft (that's Winter Wonderland, to you), the airport also has Europe's largest roofed-in beer garden, a dedicated kids' center, and an alpine-themed restaurant where you can dine in a gondola from a real ski lift.

As we return home, a closing overview of Christmas in Germany, courtesy of Deutsche Welle.

10 things you should know before celebrating Christmas in Germany

Stock your pantry and keep your fire extinguisher handy. Here are 10 things you should know ahead of Christmas in Germany.

10. It's not over until the ... children sing

Christmas begins with Advent in late November and the holiday itself lasts three whole days, so it's only fitting that Christmas gradually come to a close in Germany. Officially, it's not over until Epiphany, or Three Kings' Day, on January 6. Typically, children dress like the Three Wise Men who visited Jesus in the manger, according to the Bible, and go door to door singing traditional songs.

Bavarian Christmas Interlude 2018, Tuesday: Christmas markets at Marienplatz and Viktualienmarkt, a few Augustiners, some venison goulash and a Funkstadl.

Diana and I visited Bavaria (Munich and Bamberg) just before Christmas. Prior to departure, there was a series entitled Munich Tales 2018. This is the first of seven installments summarizing what we did, saw, ate and drank. They're being back-dated to the day we were there.

Next: Strolling Munich's historic city center on Wednesday, with breaks for beers from Schneider and Ayinger.

We arrived in Munich on Tuesday morning to be greeted by a cold but sunny winter's day. The airport boasts a large public plaza between the two terminal buildings, where a moderate-sized Christmas market slowly was awakening for another business day. There's also an ice skating rink (above).

The Munich airport is linked to the city center by the S-Bahn transportation system, which is one of two "rapid transit" fixed rail networks serving the city and outlying areas. The other is the U-Bahn, and they're largely integrated these days. The "S" provides links with the suburbs, while "U" is more generally confined to the city's central districts. These are complemented by crisscrossing tram and bus lines.

Multi-lingual ticket dispensing machines are everywhere, and as we made our way through the instructions, a young Munich resident standing next to us, just back from business in Chicago, interrupted to say that since all three of us were headed to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station), we could save money by purchasing a group travel ticket. This we proceeded to do.

Our hotel was located just two blocks from the Hauptbahnhof on the south side. Thirty years ago this was a colorful, interesting district filled with Turkish immigrants and affordable hotels, and in large measure, it still is, albeit far more diverse now, with lots of Balkans, Africans and folks from the Middle East. Some might find this off-putting, but it never bothered me. It's a cross-section of the planet.

The Hauptbahnhof is the fulcrum of Munich's public transportation grid and I've been going there for long enough to remember the most recent Hauptbahnhof renovation in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which to my mind robbed it of much of its post-war anarchic charm.

Beginning next year, in accordance with a ten-year-long project to dig a new S-Bahn tunnel beneath the current one ...

The Munich S-Bahn system is one of Germany’s largest suburban rail networks. With 148 stations, 442 kilometres of tracks and approximately 1,000 train journeys a day, the network extends far into the city's hinterland, connecting the Bavarian capital with the entire region. Originally designed to carry some 250,000 passengers every working day, far more than 800,000 people make use of Munich's S-Bahn today.

 ... there'll be a complete overhaul of the Hauptbahnhof.

It'll become a damned airport. Here are a few views of the Hauptbahnhof and vicinity today.

We checked into the hotel a tad early, stowed our bags and walked to the Münchner Stubn, a new restaurant recommended to us both by our airport travel adviser and the hotel clerk.

The best way to describe it is "traditional beer hall meets new-age gastropub," and it is located on the south side of the station adjacent to an upscale bar, also of recent vintage. The food and ambiance were fine, and my regionally-sourced venison goulash memorable, if pricey.

My guess is the budget traveler's haven on the south side of the station won't survive the coming airport-standard model of gentrification at the train station, although I hope I'm wrong.

It finally was time to walk a half-mile or so to the Christmas markets at Marienplatz (town hall square) and nearby Viktualienmarkt, which is the year-round public market.

When locals and tourists come to sip mulled wine and purchase hand-made Christmas presents at Germany's holiday markets, they are participating in a tradition that has been around for centuries - and has even become more beloved lately. Some 85 million people visited German Christmas markets in 2012, up from 50 million in 2000, according to the most recent statistics.

Even before Christmas markets began, winter markets were held in Europe during the Late Middle Ages. At that time they usually took place over just several days, rather than weeks; the markets were an opportunity for residents to come together, trade food and handicrafts, and stock up for the coming winter months.

While the markets didn't initially have a strong Christmas focus, people started using them to purchase baskets, toys, wood carvings and baked goods for Christmas.

The upshot: Christmas markets are about socialization as much or more than shopping, although plenty of commerce takes place.

First, Marienplatz.

The Viktualienmarkt.

Walking, shopping, gawking and photographing can make a couple of jet-lagged Americans tired, and so we navigated a path to Zum Augustiner. It's one of at least three Augustiner dispensaries downtown (the other two, brewery and keller, are nearer the train station), and I've always been a fan.

A nap followed, and by eight in the evening we were feeling hungry again. In route to the Augustiner Keller on the train station's north side, a little family-run joint lured us inside.

"Funk" means radio, and "stadl" is barn; the space looks very archaic but is part of a modern building housing a radio and television broadcaster, hence the name. When I saw mućkalica (pork and pepper stew; I've been cooking it for years) on the menu, I was intrigued and asked the server if it was a Serbian dish.

"Croat," he said flatly.

It was superb, as was the crisp Spaten lager on tap. It helps a boy sleep well, too.