Tiny Battles in München

Hello all -

Casey and I are sitting in an internet cafe just outside Munich's central station waiting for our night train to wisk us off to Venice, so I thought I'd take this time to give a quick update on our stay in München.

Munich was...well, a series of tiny battles. The first battle was Casey and Eliza versus the weather. This battle lasted for approximately 35 of the 36 hours we were in this fine city. It rained the entire time we were here. I'm not talking about a shower or a sprinkle -- it poured. This would have been fine except that the only concrete thing we had planned for Munich was to take a biking tour of the city. Well, cross that off the list. Weather (which, funnily enough, is "wetter" in German):1 point, Casey and Eliza: 0 points.

We did not want the wetter to spoil our plans, so after arriving at the campground and pitching our tent, we ventured into the city center. This is where we came across our second battle -- cost of food vs. Casey and Eliza. This too, was a battle we were destined to lose as we ended up spending our entire day's budget on an over-priced American style dinner. Why did we go for American style? Well, it's because Eliza vs. German food was not a battle I was willing to fight that night. As our guidebook so tactfully put it, "Bavarians generally don't like to eat anything that didn't have a pulse at one point". We did try some of the famous German Franziskaner Weissbier (a delicious wheat beer) that went over quite well for the both of us.

That evening, after our battle against the 300+ steps of St. Stephen's church on way-too-full stomachs and our brief and somewhat hurried walk around the rainy city, we relaxed at our fantastic campsite. It was a hostel-style place with cheap eats and nice folks. They had a communal outdoor kitchen (covered, thankfully) where we stayed up playing cards and trying to explain the game of Cribbage to a bewildered English couple who were engaged in a tiny battle of their own (namely, a 5 hour best-of-five chess tournament). Everything at the campsite was clean, well maintained and painted in obscenely cheery pastel colors. Perhaps most importantly, the staff was kind enough to lend us some real sleeping bags to help us get through the coldest night of our trip thus far.

The morning brought new battles. The biggest one of note was Casey and Eliza vs. slugs. During the night, a small colony of slugs had moved onto our tent fabric and in our shoes and sandles, which we had left out to dry. Just when we thought we had rid ourselves of them all, I found a slug the size of a Pez dispenser on one of our tent hooks. EW. There was a bright side to the morning, however. While hand-drying our tent with gobs of stolen paper towels, we met a nice group of kids from Milan. They offered up their places if we decided we would like to pass through, but we had to graciously decline. (Doesn't EVERYONE book all of their train tickets 6 months in advance????)

Off to the Deutsches Museum where we battled the line to get in (for over an hour). It was a great way to spend last few hours in Munich -- waiting out the rain at the largest "technical" museum in the world. Favorite exhibits included such disparate topics as the history of boats, musical instruments and mathematics.

And now here we are, sitting in this internet cafe. I'm engaged in my final battle of Munich as I race against the little timer on the screen telling me I have only a few minutes left to finish this post.

On to Venice!