Bavaria, Germany
Tuesday, July 24
Jenni has lost her glasses. The manager at the last hotel in Caen says she can't find them, so we give up on finding them. When we get off the train in Munich, we look for an optical store. We also call ahead and get a reservation for a bed-and-breakfast tonight and tomorrow as well as a pension for Thursday night in Munich. After an 18-hour journey (starting from Reims, back to Paris to catch the overnight to Munich, and then train to Fussen) we arrive in Fussen at 2 PM. Exhausted and hit hard by allergies, Joe sleeps while Jenni rides the hotel's bike around the Bavarian countryside, collecting picnic supplies, including a very mild cheese and weiners. Jenni also does the laundry, and we go to sleep early.

Wednesday, July 25
Fairy-tale castles, bobsleds and Bavarian beers. This will prove to be a memorable day! We ride the hotel bikes (free!) about 20 minutes to Hohenschwangau where Jenni tours an orange castle that belonged to King Maximillian while Joe decides to go on a longer 1 ½ hour bike ride. We picnic around 11 am with bread we pilfered away from our Hotel breakfast, as well as cheese and weiners from last night. We also eat a fresh, large pretzel and Jenni's new favorite soft drink: orange Fanta. Joe sticks with bottled water. In the afternoon, we tour the second castle; King Ludwig's fairy tale castle in nearby Neuchswanstein. It takes almost as long to climb the mountain to the castle as it does to pronounce the words! A man dressed in Bavarian garb points us to another spot in the mountains and says it's only a 50-minute walk. Actually, he was right - 50 minutes later we were paying to get on a Luge. That's a bobsled with wheels that is a favorite carnival ride in these parts. That walk was the most memorable part of the day. It was a quiet stroll down a mountain, right next to a waterfall. After an afternoon nap we head out on the bikes again for the Austrian border - about a 30-minute ride. After posing for pictures at the border sign, we stop at a local beer garden where we taste the local beer (Jenni has a Paulaner and Joe has a Koenig Ludwig ) and share a meal of spicy salad, potatoes and ham.

Thursday, July 26
Munich is gorgeous and we're anxious to see the sights. First, we need to make sure Jenni can see! She orders new glasses at the eyeglass store. The manager says they'll be ready Saturday. We take Mike's Bike Tour which is a fantastic way to see the city. We highly recommend it. It's a four-hour tour given by a guide who is irreverent and very funny. To help us remember that lions are the mascot of Munich, the guide tells us to ring our bike bells every time we see a lion. Hundreds of rings later, the guide tells us to ring if we see a good-looking person. (Joe breaks his bell in the Englischer Garten). Halfway through the tour we stop at a beer garden and eat lunch and drink. It's 2:30 PM and it's our first meal of the day. We are buzzed by the time we get back on our bikes. The guide now tells us to ring our bell if we see a "mullet." We laugh for what seems like hours but only ring our bells a few times. (A mullet is that hairstyle where you have your hair shaved on the sides and then long in the back.) We promise some of the folks on the tour we'll meet them at the HofbrauHaus, so we show up and start drinking at about 4:30 pm. We end up talking with a couple from California and drinking a couple of beers and eating two giant pretzels. After a couple of hours, we're cooked. Beddy-bye by 8 pm.

Friday, July 27
Joe is wiped out by allergies. He spends the day in bed heavily medicated while Jenni ventures off to Dachau for a 4-hour tour. Still drowsy, Joe joins Jenni for dinner at a local beer garden where locals elbow their way past the ignorant tourists to get food and beverage. We accidentally order Radler, a terrible beer that is mixed with Sprite. We eat some good white sausage and sauerkraut and leave as soon as we can. It's uncomfortable as the natives don't seem to enjoy being invaded by tourists. We watch street performers on the way home butcher the English language but at least we understand them.

Saturday, July 28
Last day in Munich and we take full advantage of the beautiful weather. Joe's allergy is gone. We head out with full backpacks past a crossdresser performer who is playing the same three guitar chords over and over. He's frightening the children. After buying Jenni's new German glasses, we store our big backpacks in the train station and then tour the incredible collection at the Residenzmuseum. We then make the terrible mistake of heading for the outdoor market in the tourist district to buy picnic supplies. It costs us $25 for bread and cheese and sausage! Just eleven dollars of that was cheese! The baguette was $2.50! Outrageous! But what the heck, we'll enjoy it. We take the trolley car to the Englischer Garten, which is a giant Central Park in the middle of Munich. The Isar River runs through it and, strangely enough, surfers take advantage of waves made by a man-made break. We make our picnic near the nudist area where naked people are sunbathing and dipping into the Isar River. We also watch as Germany's version of rednecks drink beer and constantly pick fights with each other. The naturists start jeering and yelling at the men to calm down. Then, just before punches are thrown, the men back down from the fight. In Texas, we wonder if it would have gone this long without shots being fired. The nudists even seemed ashamed. After spending three (fully clothed) hours in the park, we walk through the Old Town area of Munich. It's quite striking at sunset and we can see why so many people fall in love with it. The street performers we run into are playing a Jewish folk dance. It's wonderful and moving! We move on to the Hofbrauhaus where we join a table of rowdy New Yorkers. We drink beer from giant beer mugs and sing along loudly with the "oom-pah" band even though we don't know the words. All the songs sound like "Roll out the Barrel!" We clap loudly to encourage a 150-year old lady who is dancing alone. The party's over when one of the New Yorkers did a toast and busted his big beer mug. We've got to leave anyway. We've got to get to the train station to catch our overnight train to Prague.