Subaqua Sternal Rubs

After surviving my flights yesterday, where the reservations computer must have hated me, since it put me next to a screaming baby every single time… They make owners give their cabin-carried pets sedatives so that they won't bark/meow the entire flight, then why not babies?

The vacation started last week with a flight into Frankfurt, and then directly into the InterCity Express to Berlin. Two friends from the ambulance corps, her fiance and I checked into the hotel, met with some friends, and went out for a nice, traditional German meal. The next day, went out and walked around the city, hitting some of the traditional tourist spots, such as the Brandenburg Gate (Tor), the Rathaus (Town Hall), the Berliner Dom, and Checkpoint Charlie.

After a couple of days in Berlin, my friend's fiance drove us all to Wuerzburg, where he is stationed with the US Army. After a nice dinner in a Thai restaurant, we found a hotel, where I had probably the best sleep of the entire trip. (I had my own room free of any persons with nasal turbulent-airflow problems.) The next day, we went to go visit the US Army base, ate at Burger King, and shopped at the PX (a contracted Wal-Mart.) I ended up picking up a nice little MP3 player for those long train rides at significant savings.

Speaking of train rides, shortly thereafter we hopped a train to visit my sister in Biberach, where she is on a Fulbright scholarship to teach German high-school students English. My friend and I went to the school where my sister is teaching as a sort of "show-and-tell" exhibit of other native English speakers. Let me tell you, I think their English was better than ours - at least the grammar. Stupid public school system. Most of the period was spent discussing Michael Moore's Farenheit 9/11, the War in Iraq, and American politics in general. Since my friend is an avid Bush supporter, he spent most of the period defending his views to people that didn't have such a positive view of our current president. (Myself included.)

After a few days with my sister, we continued on to Muenchen (Munich), so I could visit another friend who was going to University there. He was actually my partner in a high-school exchange program, (dare I say it) seven or so years ago. We spent the day doing a lot of walking, exploring the city, and of course the obligatory stop at the world-famous Hofbrauhaus.

The next day, my friend wanted to go to Berechtesgaden, home of Hitler's Eagle's Nest compound. While nothing much remains, (it has been converted to a cafe, and that's about it), it does offer some nice Alpine views. We ended up renting a car (well more of a mini-van) to get there. Driving on the autobahn was fun, after I got used to the driving a diesel 5-speed mini-van. I even got it up to 165… (well, km/h but that's still 103 mph…)

After Munich, we returned to Wuerzburg, for a couple of days. Both my sister and my parents also were in town, so the Stracke family was reunited where it all began. After eating some of my mother's good cooking, it was back to Frankfurt for our return flights with all the aforementioned minature devils.

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