Public Transportation

When we lived in Boulder, public transportation was fairly minimal. We did a lot of walking, but I never took the kids on the bus, and even before kids, it was rarely faster/easier to take the bus than it was to walk or drive. Now that we're in Germany, we don't have a car, and don't have any plans to get one, so we walk or take public transport everywhere we go. Luckily it's really set up here to do things that way. There are a lot of options for public transport in Munich. There's an extensive train and subway network as well as buses and trams. Our closest subway station is the second to last subway station on the line, with the last one being near Dylan's work. 

It's really nice to be on the subway line, and not have to use a car to get places. Since we've gotten here the boys and I have spent a lot of time getting aquatinted with our different transportation options. Because of where we live, almost everywhere we go in Munich is at least one 30 minute subway ride away. Sometimes we have to switch trains after about 30 minutes. We've also gone places where we had to switch to a bus or a tram. It's easiest if we can avoid trying to make connections, but even the busses and trams are surprisingly stroller friendly. For the most part, everything here is pretty stroller friendly. People are used to having to get out of the way for strollers on the busses and trains, and everyone takes their strollers up and down the escalators. It definitely took me a while before I was ready to do the stroller on the escalator, but now that I'm used to it, it's no trouble at all, and so much easier than always searching for an elevator. 

The boys do surprisingly well on the train. It's very novel for James, and he really like to ride the train, so he typically is very well behaved. For David it's been a bit more difficult. He loves to get out of the stroller and sit in his own seat next to me. Which looks absolutely adorable. And lasts about 15 seconds. Then he wants to get down and run around the train, and open and close the little trash can next to the seats, and climb up onto the seat and back down and... well, you get the picture. It's totally not safe for him to run around, or be down on the ground at all with the way the trains jerk, so I've found he does best if you can keep him content in the stroller. Entertaining a 1 year old for 30+ minutes in a non-moving stroller has been a little difficult, but we've figured out ways to make it work. So far I've kept him happy with food, toys, books, the iPod, and, when he thinks he can take it no longer, candy. Luckily at this age one piece of candy lasts him like 20 minutes, so the total amount of sugar consumed is minimal :-)