deutschland

been trying to find time to blog about our wonderful trip to germany. haven't found it yet. got home, went back to work, and that is basically all i have had time for lately. so, i decided that i will just have to remember our visit in shorthand, and in more detail in my head.

tuesday (7/8/08): took red-eye from sfo direct to munich. 12 hour flight. urghhh!

wednesday (7/9/08): arrived in munich around 5:30pm. siefke met us at the airport. went to the grocer to pick up food for the heavy metal festival, then back to his flat so he could pack. headed to stuttgart, picked up siefke's car, went to caro's house. arrived at midnight, had a great dinner that caro had prepared for us. chatted till about 2:30am, went to bed.

thursday (7/10/08): woke up, had a lovely german breakfast on caro's patio. forced boys to leave for their festival. caro and i went to tuebingen for the day. tuebingen highlights: gondola ride in the neckar river, castle, seeing a marriage at city hall, ice cream. met soeren for dinner at a biergarten in the evening.

friday (7/11/08): breakfast at french dax, stuttgart zoo...saw the eisbar baby wilbar! schlossplatz with the buddy bears in stuttgart, starbucks and downpouring rains. home for pizza dinner, then out to stuttgart to meet up with daniel, soeren, phil, and some of their coworkers for drinks. met a joerg, caro's classmate and good friend....stayed out till 4am. not too shabby for this old lady!

saturday (7/12/08): hp company picnic. had a doener for the first time...so tasty. saw soeren and bjorn in fancy spandex biking pants. good food, good friends (met phillip, a friend of bijan...very small world), balloons, and hp pins. bbq in the evening with caro's classmates; met caro's best friend, alex. saw fireworks set to music over the lake. awesome night. side note: ironic that i didn't even see fireworks on 4th of july in the states!

sunday (7/13/08): siefke and mike return from their concert in the wee hours of the morning. sleep in. have breakfast. get siefke's car to the mechanic shop. failed attempt to meet up with the boys in stuttgart. met caro's cousin, markus. rushed to caro's dance show...saw a video afterwards. picked up daniel from the train station. stopped in ulm for dinner, arrived in munich.

monday (7/14/08): breakfast reservations at maria's at 10am. bus tour of munich. rained all day. meandered through the marianplatz, had coffee and paninis, and went to the hofbrau haus for dinner. had a radler....got red in the face...and had a huge pretzel! drinks, eats, and chats with the gang at a few places before crashing out.

tuesday (7/15/08): spent the day in the munich sunshine. breakfast consisted of weisswurst, sweet mustard and pretzels. mike had traveler's diarrhea. went to a pharmacy to buy loperamide and simethicone. daniel had to leave, and visit him to celebrate her birthday. sad to see my friend daniel go. spent the day picnicking in the englischer garten, eating fresh fruit and watching the dogs playing. went to another bier garten with a chinese tower, trapped some bees, and went home to see caro off. super sad to see her go too, especially since she was my only protection from mike and siefke's poo jokes. she had to go back to work. boo. after our farewells, we had a bicycling adventure through munich to a tasty restaurant. too short for a big bike, but laughed all the way home in the dark!

wednesday (7/16/08): our last full day in germany. don't want our holiday to be over yet. took the train to kloster andechs. spent another day in the sunshine. missed the brewery tour. wandered around the land for a bit before finding a nice table in the shade to eat, drink, and of course, discuss more poo things. talked to that annoying girl and her husband from pismo beach on the train ride home. oh my god, bbq! back to siefke's flat to rest and pack up and get ready to stay up all night to catch our train at 3:30am to the airport. magic tricks and stupid west hollywood girls kept us awake and entertained till then.

thursday (7/17/08): slept the whole 35 minute flight from munich to frankfurt. crappy old 747 on the way home. old, fat lady kept touching me. got home safe and sound at noon. had lunch at madras with gp. went home, watched some tv, and fell asleep for the next 13 or so hours.

when can we go back?!?