Munchen

We arrived in Munich last night after a long day of traveling from Interlaken on a smelly train. Our second class car smelled of urine and was very hot. Oh well. We got here, bought an expensive Munich map (which told us almost nothing) and then followed the walking directions listed on the sign above the train station to the hostel.

We found it, checked in, and received our free city map, drink vouchers for the bar, and room key. It was a card--very classy. We walked upstairs and into our five bed mixed dorm room. There we met Barrett Jones, who has become a fun part of our Munich tour. He just finished his first year of med school at the Medical College of Georgia, and is a Christian. So we all had lots of stuff in common. His friends had not arrived because of a stolen pack in Rome; they were waiting on the US Embassy to issue a new passport. We said he´d be welcome to hang out with us. We changed while Adam and Casey did a little sink laundry. We crawled out of our window and left the laundry drying over the rail on the roof. Very clever of us.

We bought meal vouchers at the hostel desk for the brewery-restaurant across the street. Adam and Barrett ate sausage and sauerkraut, while Casey and I ate duck and these weird knüdle-dumpling-potato-bread-shaped-like-a-ball things. It was called "side." We walked down to Marienplätz, the plaza at the center of Munich. We walked by lots of stores including one selling sweet lederhosen.

Casey telling the "dirty, dirty, dirty" story to Barrett. If you don't know it, ask her. You will laugh for at least 10 minutes and then again every time you remember.

Marienplatz

The Hammonds with our new friend, Barrett

We walked over to the Hofbräuhaus just as it began to rain. Waiters there have arms of steel, carrying giant glass beer steins heavy with ale. You should see them, five glasses in each hand, two glasses stacked on top of those five. It is pretty incredible. We had this bald waiter that first forgot our order, then forgot us entirely. No matter, we made our own fun. With Yahtzee and a stein of beer, we closed down this famous beer hall on a Sunday night.

This royal beer hall used to be the royal chicken coop.

Mmm...huge Bavarian pretzel

You'd think they'd kick me out for not drinking beer

Today the rain continued, which was a bummer. Still we went on a walking tour of the city, listening to a well-informed, fun Kiwi guide. He was tips only, the tour was free. We were wet and cold, but we still made it over to the famous English Garden and walked there for awhile after the tour ended.

Quick cappucinos to warm us up before the cold tour

The Glockenspiel: twenty minutes of my life I'd like to have back. Twenty because I've actually been dumb enough to watch this think twice.

Munich's symbols: officially, the lion and the monk; unofficially, beer.

We went the free tour route--peeking in windows

English Garden

Now we are back at the hostel and killing time before we eat dinner. We take the night train to Amsterdam tonight, and Barrett takes a night train to Frankfurt. In the morning we will go to Brussels. Adam and Casey were so sick when they were in Brussels before that they didn't try Belgian waffles. We mean to rectify that. Then we will stay near the Hague with Mark's dad. Adam and Casey leave on the fifth of July, when I'm supposed to go to London. Pray for me about that. I've wanted to go to London for a really long time and I've been looking forward to it the whole trip. But today I've been seeing lots of terrorist crisis stuff in Britain on CNN. I'm praying about it. I don't want to be foolish. Right now my plans are still to go, but I'll be keeping a close eye on the news over the next few days.

Ready to go

The only word I know in German is thank you, so danke for praying and keeping in touch.