As you all know, Steven and I are recently engaged. We are very excited about the upcoming wedding and we have decided to use our travels as inspiration for the part of the wedding theme. Tapping into our ancestry, we realized that we both have German roots and think it would be very special to incorporate those roots in our celebration. As such, we have decided to apply a Bavarian theme to our wedding party. Bridesmaids often complain that their dresses are useful only for the wedding itself but we feel that we have found something that will be practical in the future as well. The groomsmen will appreciate that their outfits will not need tailoring due to the adjustable nature of the straps.
Sincerely,
Libby

Today was our day to go visit Susi, Emily’s German roommate from Arizona. When we first mentioned that we were going to be visiting Germany, Emily immediately said, “You’ve got to visit Susi!” So we dutifully got in contact, and agreed to meet in her town near Munich for a day.
We weren’t meeting Susi until the afternoon though, so we decided to do some more touring of the city first. Libby finally convinced me to take one of the sightseeing bus tours, so we went down to the train station, bought our bus tickets (and our train tickets for later), and headed over to the bus stop. We managed to get seats on the open-air top of the bus, and set off for our tour. On the tour we were surprised to find that we had already seen many of the sights they were showing us; because Munich is so small compared to Berlin, it is very easy to walk from one location to another and we had accidentally wandered into many of the landmarks on our own. It was still worthwhile though, because it eventually took us out to the edge of town where Nymphenburg palace is located.
Nymphenburg palace is a summer residence for the Wittlebach family that was built by King Maximilian, to celebrate the birth of his first son. The palace was opulent, however, we both found the gardens more impressive than the building itself. We toured part of the interior. We decided that instead of waiting for the Tourist Tour bus we would save time and take the public tram system back to the train station. We actually did this very successfully and saved about an hour.
We were able to get train tickets to Miesbach and boarded the train. Luckily, Susi had informed us that the train separates at one of the stops. The first two cars continue to Miesbach and the latter cars go somewhere else. No one had told us that at the train station and we didn’t see any mention of it on our tickets.
Susi was there to greet us as soon as we got off the train. It was great to see a smiling, friendly face. She then drove us to Oedberg for the summer luge. Lib had been looking forward to this since we decided to go to Germany. The luge was located on a ski mountain. The carts were pulled up the side of the mountain with a cable and then released at the top. A hand brake could make the car accelerate or decelerate. It was very fun. After two runs down the mountain we headed off for a hike near Miesbach. The hike gave us plenty of time to ask Susi all of the questions about Germany we had been accumulating during the trip. She explained some of German school life to us, talked about the German government, and explained many of the Bavarian traditions to us. For example, most towns have a May pole that is put up in, well, May. A common tradition is to get the pole several weeks in advance and hide it, and then nearby villages try to steal the pole. If they succeed, they the first town has to buy the town that stole the pole beer. Susi is an English and history teacher and likewise had many questions for us. The hike was gorgeous and gave us excellent views of the valleys below. At the top of the hike we sat outside of a biergarten, drank water (sparkling of course, this is Germany), and talked for a while.
The hike made us hungry and we went to Miesbach for a Bavarian meal. Susi informed us that people in the town do wear drindles and lederhosen, but it is usually for special events. Ordering with a native German at our table made things much easier. We had roast, dumplings, and cole slaw. We have found that the Germans love their ice cream, so we did as the Germans do, and got ice cream (one thing we’ve noticed about German ice cream; it is more like Gelatto than ice cream in America). After dinner she showed us her flat (it was very nice) and helped us plan our last couple of days in Germany. We took a walk around Miesbach and had a wonderful time conversing with Susi, and of course, swapping stories about Emily (We found out some very interesting things. I think Emily may have to cook us some meals for a while, if you know what I mean).
We did miss our first train, however. We thought the last train left at 23:44. It turns out that the last train left at 22:44. Luckily Susi was kind enough to let us spend the night in Miesbach and head back to Munich the next day instead.
Signing off,
Libbenstein und Kadystein.
Traveling question of the day:
How hard will it be to convince the Pook (Emily) to come to Germany in two summers? We may have made a solemn vow to kidnap her and bring her back with us within 2 years.

We’re 2 days behind right now and counting, but the internet is as hard to to find as the restrooms are in Munchen.
We’ll try to keep you updated; hopefully we’ll have better internet in London (yes, this is a good trial for Steven).

Sleeping on the train was not exactly a restful experience but I’m glad we tried it out. We arrived in Munich exhausted and our first priority was to find the hotel. I actually navigated us from the train station to our hotel. Taking a good tip from the Rick Steve’s book (an excellent gift from Mark and Cindy) we avoided the seedier section of the city and are located in a very cute area. We dropped our backpacks off and went to Starbucks to wait until things opened. This gave us time to catch up on our travel writings and relax a bit. We then wandered around, as is typical of our travels, and actually found rain ponchos. We stopped at the Marienplatz (platz is the German word for plaza) in front of the New Town Hall (Rathouse – see picture below) to see the Glockenspiel (large clock with moving figures) and headed to the Frauen Kirche (Church). The church is Munich’s most famous church, and also one of its oldest. Interestingly, it was apparently built using money from the sales of indulgences. The interior was stunning, with high ceilings, many statues and paintings. We opted out of paying extra to go up an observation tower; after the last couple days in Berlin, we were done with stairs. We did take a small staircase below the altar to visit the crypt, where several Bavarian kings were buried. Already exhausted, and with our stomachs beginning to beg for attention, Steven insisted that we find sausage. We found an impeccably clean buffet style restaurant not far from the churches. We both got Weisswurst (white sausage), Bavarian mustard, and a pretzel. The sausage comes served in a bowl of hot water. Steven was feeling very proud for ordering exactly what we wanted. This pride was not to last. I watched Steven eat first to see how to go about eating sausage in a bowl of water. An old man sitting next to him rapidly intervened and explained he was doing it all wrong. I got a good laugh along with old man’s wife at Steven’s faux pas (Steven points out here that I was well on my way to joining him in his “faux pas”). You take the wurst out of the water, one at a time. The water is to keep it warm. Next, you cut it down the middle and remove the skin. The skin is not edible. He also mentioned that Munich has the best water in all of Europe and it is free at all restaurants. For having the best water in the world they sure do drink their share of beer. I kept this comment to myself. After getting a few more helpful hints we continued eating. We wearily made it to the hotel to FINALLY make use of my specialty, a nap. Somewhat rested, Steven decided that sleeping is for the meek so we headed off to see St. Peter church. The church contains many of the relics found in Munich. Munich has the second most number of Catholic relics in the world. (First is Rome). Munich was one of the bastions of Catholicism during the reformation, which is why the papacy gave them so many relics. The church contained fabulous frescos, stunning statuary, priceless paintings, glorious gilding, and… a mortifying mummy. The mummy lay sideways in a glass coffin. She was covered in silk and jewels covered her bones. It was extremely unsettling, but Steven enthusiastically paid for a postcard (He didn’t think it was fair that only we should be disturbed by the sight). After seeing another church and making a quick visit to the Residenz (the Wittlebach family’s palace), we made our way to the famous Haufbrauhaus. The Haufbrauhouse is the beer hall that is the center of Oktoberfest every year and where Hitler first began making speeches to large crowds of people in Germany. At the Haufbrauhouse we got to see the traditional beer maids carrying a dozen huge beer mugs at once, hear a traditional Bavarian band play polka-like drinking songs over and over again, and 15 year old boys drinking beer and trying to pick up girls. We also saw a couple of obnoxious American tourists who were drunkenly staggering in the street shouting to each other while sloshing around mugs of beer. We were both still tired at this point, so we decided to make our way back to the hotel (several times Steven got a goofy grin on his face and pointed at something; thinking he had spotted some new landmark I would look only to find he had spotted some exotic sports car. Apparently many rich Arabians come to Munich so they can drive their cars on the autobahn).
By the end of day 4 we both discovered that traditional German food (cheese, sausage, and bread) requires an intestine made of steel. We also discovered that neither of us possessed such an intestine.
Signing off,
Libby and Steven

Question of the Day:
How do they manage to make the city look so old, when eighty percent of it had to be rebuilt after World War II?