München!

I knew almost instantly that I was leaving Italy when I waited in line to check my bags at Rome's airport. My first indication was that there actually WAS a line instead of a corral by the counter. My second indication was that the plane left on time and my third was that the airline magazine was wrapped in a plastic bag.

I arrived around 10:30 PM in Munich, Thorsten was at the airport to pick me up. Munich's airport was cleaner than most hospitals I've seen, and there was virtually no one there. We drove along the highway where there was no speed limit, pretty cool.

Thorsten lives practically in the city center of Munich, so I was expecting tall claustrophobic buildings, small streets packed with parked cars and noise. But much to my delight there was none of that. Sure there are tall buildings, but they are more spread out (and modern) and there are lots of open spaces. His apartment building itself is old but his apartment feels modern and new, at least more modern and new than my apartment I was living in.

On Friday we woke up late and headed towards downtown which was just a short walk away. I saw many sights but don't know the names of them and won't try to attempt to spell and/or pronounce them. I would like to say that my German is terrible but by saying "my" German makes it sound like I know a little, which I don't really. Just a few words here and there. The most important being "bier" and "schnitzel". And I ate strudel too, yum!

I ate a schnitzel sandwich for lunch, then had schnitzel again for dinner. And of course beer. We went to the Hofbrau Haus where all the tourists go for those big liters of beer. It was awesome, there was a band and loads of drunk people. Thorsten said he was glad I was there because he was curious about that place but was too ashamed to go without someone who wasn't German. We shared a table with 2 other parties, a really nice German couple then some German kids. The couple wasn't from Munich, so they were tourists as well.

On Saturday we headed out to see the fairy tale castle built by King Ludwig II called Neuschwanstein. Sooooo coool. We really had to climb quite a bit to get to the entrance, but it was worth it. Then afterwards we went to Mary's Bridge for an even better view of the castle. It was also great to see some of the German countryside to and from. On the way home we stopped at this monestary where they had good beer and had a drink in the tavern. Those monks sure know how to brew!!

On Monday I left for Lausanne to visit Carla. That's where I am right now but you will just have to wait for details on that trip.

I'll post some pics when I can access the internet from my computer.