“When the Largest Airplane in the World Shakes Like that…

Thursday, May 15, 2025

Denver – Munich – Bled

“…You know it’s something.” That’s what the male flight attendant said to us as we were taking off out of Denver on Wednesday night.

We were on the Lufthansa A380 flying direct from Denver to Munich. Our first time on a double decker airplane and you could tell everyone at the gate was pretty excited about it.

Lufthansa changed the plane on that route since I booked the tickets, so we aren’t sitting in the seats I purchased for us. Instead, we are sitting in row 95, which is the first economy row after First and Business classes, on the upper deck.

It’s an exit row, with enough legroom for Shaq, but nowhere near the proper elbow room for a 7’1” basketball player. So we suffered, with no window and too much legroom, and a view to Business Class.

There were thunderstorms passing over DIA, so we were a bit delayed boarding and taking off, and once we did, it was a bumpy, bumpy ride until we were above the clouds.

So we got to know the flight attendant sitting in the jump seat facing us. We told him about our plans to hike in Slovenia, and once the turbulence subsided, Lufthansa made it right by providing glass after (plastic) glass of wine.

We managed an hour or two of sleep after quite possibly the best airplane dinner I’ve ever had. I had been hoping for Kasespatzle, but made do with real Mac and Cheese. Breakfast wasn’t that great, but hey, they gave out a chocolate bar afterwards, so its not all bad. We landed in Munich 15 minutes late, and as we were leaving the plane, our flight attendant friend told us to “Enjoy the walk.”

Munich is a nice, reasonable sized airport, and we had plenty of time to clear immigration, get our bags, grab cash, and get out to the S bahn platform.

I had purchased our train tickets back in February or March, so I opened the OBB app, validated our tickets, and we were on our way.

First up, the S Bahn from the airport (flughafen) to Munchen Ost train station. We took the S Bahn trains when we were here in 2023, so I was pretty sure we were going to be fine on that leg, and we were. Everything else past that was a new experience though.

Once in the Munchen Ost train station, we navigated away from the S Bahn platforms and found the traditional rail platforms. We had a hair over 30 minutes to make the transiton and figure out where we were going.

Our first train is a 2 hour journey taking us past Salzburg to Bischofshofen, Austria. The views in and of Austria are gorgeous and we are able to stay awake with no problem. From there, the rail line is getting worked on, and we transition to a rail connector bus, and then back to the train system.

In looking at our connections and train changes before we left, I was a little nervous, especially since we’d be jetlagged, but now on our fourth and final train, (don’t forget the bus!) we navigated it all just fine. I’ll take the win, but the credit goes to OBB and their wonderful app.

We had dinner at a hotel across from the train station in Spittal an der Drau, so we’ll arrive in Bled at 8 pm, tired, but fed.