Guten Tag!

Well, we're here! We rolled in yesterday after a verrrry uncomfortable overnight flight from Atlanta. We had planned to be urbanites and take the train in from the airport to our hotel, but I was on the verge of cranky (yeah, the verge) and when Joe gave me the option, I took it. Taxi!!

We got to the hotel and met up with Joe's sister, Debbie and her husband, Dave. I knew if we sat for any length of time, we'd be fast asleep, so we decided to shop the Christmas Market hard and just go...until we hit the wall. That took all of about 2 hours.

Our first stop was at a sausage stand that just happened to sell those little Nurenburger sausages I love sooo much. We had sausage sandwiches and a beer as we walked around the Marienplatz (the main square in old town). Beautiful Christmas market stands littered the square and lots of gluwein stands. Pronounced Gloo-vine...it's that mulled wine, that, to me, tastes like grape flavored wall paper paste. Lots of folks like it...I'm not one of them. They were all standing around drinking their steaming cups of glop, while I enjoyed a cold Paulaner. I love Germany!

Jet lag hit and all too soon it was time to head back to the hotel...if we could only remember where it was. After a couple of false starts and some studious turns at the map, we found home...and slept for about three hours. Ah....much better!

We had made dinner reservations at the hotel restaurant because it was Christmas Eve (happy birthday, Joe) and most of the city was shut down for the holiday. That dinner was delicious! Yummy food, tall, cold beers and dessert that looked like a work of art: Toblerone mousse w/vanilla custard and some sort of apricot sauce...oh my!

And if that's not enough, and by golly don't you think it ought to be, afterwards during our nightcap in the bar, the hotel brought Joe a small birthday cake that the four of us fairly devoured. You'd think we hadn't eaten in days. Did I say I loved Germany?

Christmas Day we lounged around and had a late breakfast, then set out to see the town. After a bit of adventure the day before, we had our bearings a little better and forged ahead fearlessly. Munich is full of wonderful architecture, designer stores (Maximillian Avenue looks a lot like 5th Ave. in New York...Armani, Bulgari, Cartier, Chanel, Rolex, you name it...I felt waaayyy out of my league, but sure did enjoy looking!) royal palaces, old gothic churches and mexican food restaurants.

Munich is also full of beer halls. (Those of you who followed along on our Australian/New Zealand blog...this is the same song second verse.) I seem to have an innate knack for finding beer joints. It's not like it's hard to do in Munich. Our first stop was the Hofbrauhaus...a world famous brew hall founded in1589 (rebuilt in it's present location in 1897) and very reminicent of the Barvarian Grill in Plano (one of our favorite Dallas area haunts), but more like the B-grill on steroids: big beers, big hall, big pretzels, big food and big strudel. Wunderbar!

Linda and Wally arrived a bit later, and we all met for drinks before leaving for dinner. As we sat in the hotel bar waiting for everyone to assemble, it started to snow. Just lightly, then a little harder. It was just beautiful. Like Christmas in Germany should be. And it got really cold. I mean, cold. It was cold. Cold. Yeah, cold. But we braved it anyway and walked back into town and straight to the Donisl brew hall (it's a gift). Donisl is one of Munich's oldest inns...1715 to be exact. Great food, great beer and a fun Deutsche band...that is until, at one point, when Dave and I realized they were playing La Cucarache. Weird.

Tomorrow we're planning on taking one of the city tours, and I hope to figure out how to upload pictures. Merry Christmas, everybody!

Guten Nacht!
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