Vignettes of our first few days

Hello!

Unfortunately, I didn't spend enough time blabbing to all of you while we were with the Meintrup/Lutterman's in Muenster - we were having too much fun, methinks :)

So now we are in Munich, and on the long train ride from the north to the south, we talked about the first 5 days in Europe.  In case you're wondering, it's really important to write these things down!  Remember my broken promises to capture the Paris leg of our *last* trip 4 years ago?  Yeah, me too - I kick myself about it, not just because it makes me look like a chump.  But because I don't REMEMBER most of the things that made that part truly interesting!  I remember some of the highlights of course (Eiffel tower, gardens, Louvre for an hour, etc.), but the daily minutia that makes it so kewl - that's hard to get back.

Anyway, determined to not let that happen this time, here are at least some of the teasers from our first few days (I have the details written down, but it's late and I'm tired)

- Muenster is a paradise, so green, parks everywhere, cool old architecture, and bikers rule the town, just as god intended. 

- We found that with children aged 2-6 that the words "tickle tickle!" can bridge almost any gap in language

- Lots of great conversation, some at pubs, some at houses. 

- Speaking of pubs, Carsten and I went bike shopping (when is it not a good day to buy a bike?!?) and then had a couple at the local.  Good times!

- Biked to Carsten's home town of Telgte, about 18 km away.  Once there, we saw a sweet soccer match between Muenster-Bayern (jah!) and Bochom.  Great action, tied 1-1. 

- Got to see Dieter und Elizabeth (Eva's parents) and Willie und Inge (Carsten's parents).  Great food - just hanging with the family.

- open-air markets are the shiznit.  Whole stands devoted to selling kickass things like french fries, espresso, and dried fruits.  It may surprise some of you that I did NOT consume all of the 0.5 lb of dried apricots, 0.5 lb of dried strawberries, and 0.5 lb of dried papaya in one sitting.  (although I did consume enough to keep things interesting, IYKWIM.  But I was smart enough to not say "hey!  why is my stomach cramping?".  I learn, just sometimes very slowly...