Visiting Amy and Peter in Germany

Next Stop- Germany

We took a Lufthansa flight from Athens to Munich, and Amy and Peter came to pick us up. We were glad to see them, and glad that we were able to make the connection. It's easy to take for granted the convenience of cell phones in such arrangements, but we were quick to remember that convenience since we didn't have one. We were able to send Amy an email during the few minutes between getting a seat assignment and boarding the flight, and just like clockwork, they were able to come and get us.

When we made it to their house we played some badminton, since Peter had just gotten his set and hadn't been able to play with it very much. I really enjoyed the scenery around their house. There were other houses around, but it also had a rural feel.

Before long we were ready to pack up and head off to town. There is some fun adventure in being in a completely foreign place and not being able to speak the local language, but I think there is quite a bit more fun in having an expert guide who knows the language, the culture, and what to order at the restaurants. For us, both Amy and Peter were quite well qualified to serve in this capacity, and we were so glad that they were generous enough to spend so much time with us!

Here are the delicious plates.

After the dinner we went to the water park, which was probably my favorite part of the entire trip around the world. The complex is situated on naturally warm springs, so they operate year-round. The slides are in a big dome-shaped building that can open and close depending on the weather conditions. There were somewhere near 18 slides, and we rode many of them several times. There was also a pool and an extensive spa, though we didn't go into the spa area. We did get to wade through some of the different mineral pools and such, and even got to sit in some super-hot water. I sat there long enough to feel like bugs bunny and start looking for some carrots and onions in the water with me, and that was enough!

We retired to their house and played some Wii and watched highlights from the Bejing opening ceremony.

Peter had to work on the next day, so Amy was our tour guide around Munich. We had a good time quizzing her about little C and what it's like to have children. It just seemed to work out that the activities we did were well suited for having him around. Amy showed us a few of the sightseeing points and then took us to a market so that we could pick up a picnic lunch.

In Munich we saw lots of flowers, bicycles, and motorcycles.

We drove by Maximilian Street, which Amy said was a really expensive place, and made our way to the English Garden for our picnic.

I think the weather must have also influenced my decision to like Germany and Bavaria so much. You can see in these pictures that we had just amazing skies and clouds. The temperature was a little on the warm side when we were in direct sunlight, but it was August after all.

The bike in the beginning of the next row is a rental bike. They are scattered all over town, and if you come across one that you want to rent, you just call the number and arrange payment, and they unlock the bike by radio. You just ride it to where you want to go, and then leave it there. The next picture was of a two-stroke motorcycle that I wish I had been able to see run.

By this point in our trip, the girls were starting to give me a hard time about taking so many pictures of motorcycles. But in my defense, look at the ones below. The BMW Cafe Racer was really amazing, and it had the look of being about as minimalist as one could be on the street. We saw lots of BMW GS bikes also (picture 5 below), but we were in Bavaria after all!

We also saw some expensive cars.

Little C sure was excited about something- there's no telling what it was, but it must have been good.

After a great day of walking we were really impressed when Amy made supper for us. It was great spagetti and salad, the perfect preparation for Mario Kart Wii.

Click here to see the next part- the castles.

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