Munich

Well, again it's cold and rainy- it has rained 7 out of the 7 days we've been in Europe, and today was almost too much for even us hard core tourtists to handle. Well, we took our free walking tour around Munich (or Mun-chin as the Germans call it) in frezing cold rain, again. Today it was 47 degrees feeling like 42. My two long sleeve shirts and thin jacket are barely enough. Checking the weather report, it looks as if we are in for at least another 5 more days of it- please pray the weather gets warmer and sunnier. It's much nicer to tour a city with your head up as opposed to down keeping your face out of the wind and rain.

So, Munich is full of beer; its the beer capital fo the world at that. They consume on average 40 gallons per person a year, so that should tell you something. We did our best walking around the city yesterday between down pours and noticed a much more alive city than Berlin. More tourists, more shoping, more food. Though it feels very Westernized; there is alot of history here as well. Hitler's first attempted at an uprising happened in this city. Also, he almost got shot here before he actually rose to power. Wierd to think about, huh?

Some high points in this city.....meeting new people. People are willing to talk and are noticiabley more freindly in this city.....maybe it's the fact that most of them have been drinking beer since breakfast (you think I'm kidding). We met people from all over the world today- most who are doing some version of a Western Europe tour as we are. One German lady who lives in Wyomming is traveling here while her husband in is fighting Iraq; another girl about our age who has always dreamed of coming over here from Brazil is traveling alone for 3 months striaght. Another high point- i finally got a long awaited German prezel and it was just as delicious as i had be expecting.

Our afternoon today ended with a chilly yet peaceful stroll through the gorgeous Englischer Gartens. It's a huge park on the northern side of downtown; brilliantly green and lush. Despite the cold, there were crazy surfer boys surfing in a fast current river that ran along the park....hard to explian but very impressive.

Well, I hope you are well and I encourage you to appricate the heat that you are living in as we missed and appricated Texas for all its warmth and glory today. Love yall.