Made it to Munich

(Munich, which is in Germany)

FIRST: A word about the pictures. Somehow, it's become more difficult to post pictures within a blog in the past two years, hence their being posted separately from the text. Soon, perhaps, Martin will figure out how to make this more seamless, but for now, they are separate.

Well, we're here, exclamation point. We're writing this Wednesday morning, after catching up on two days worth of lost sleep and debating what to do today. But, dear reader, you only learn what we did in the past, not what we'll do in the future (debate of the day: which is better, art or technology?)

The plane ride was smooth enough, though Martin is ready to start an airline that chooses to leave its passengers in the dark long enough to sleep, rather than waking them up every twenty minutes to offer them yet more tomato juice. We went through customs without a problem, and waited too long for our luggage. When it arrived, it was time to change shoes.

We took the cleanest, quietest subway train in the world to the Bahnhof and met up with Jeremiah who had somehow already checked into the hotel. After a shower and dumping off our gear we headed to the city. Munich is breathtaking, a combination of New York City and Rodeo Drive with evidence of a middle ages boom town that survives today. We spent the day just walking, shopping in open air markets. Martin met with a friend from grad school who is in Turkey on a Fulbright and needed a break from no pork. She is doing well (check her blog, One Eye Closed , in spite of living in a place that is extraordinary noisy and often confusing.

We found the Hofbrau house and couldn't get images of Adolf Hitler out of our minds (he had his start here as a young politician). There was Omp Pa Pa bands and huge steins of beer that we mistakenly ordered two of ( we keep ordering food that we're not totally sure what it is or what it cost). The hofbrau house is next to the Hard Rock Café, which has internet so we've spent time in both places.

Tuesday night Jeremiah, ever the college student, had the idea of going to Manhattan, a restaurant on the 19th floor, the top of a … college dormitory. We ate macaroni and cheese and nachos, two of Germany's finest food offerings for students. Pam and Bob went back to the hotel to sleep, while Jeremiah and Martin went to yet another bar, where stolen cake and hot wine were to be had.

Sleep came easy, as it does when you change time zones and don't sleep for a day, and we were ready to adapt to European time.