Munich and red flowers

The girls and I arrived safely in Munich and are staying with my dear friend Laura, a roommate in college and in our early working days in San Francisco.   She lives in a beautiful apartment in city center of Munich, Rosenheimer Platz, just steps from bier gardens, symphonies, and the "S" Bahn (subway).  Her daughters (13 and 10) and my daughters (11 and 9) quickly bonded sharing ex-pat stories of international schooling and  funny YouTube videos.

With no holiday in Germany right now, our hosts have to go to work and school.  We spent our first day in glorious sunshine literally warming our cockles out at Europe's biggest thermal water world -- Therme Erding. What a treat!  We basked in the large mineral pools, rushed down water slides, and enjoyed a day of holiday merrymaking.  My favorite part was the massaging water falls and the hot tin mineral baths. Bravely, Melita even went down the longest water slide.

The girls have been surprised at how many words are similar between German and Norwegian -- like Ananas (pineapple) and schnitzel (ok, that's a stretch). We had ice cream with the flavor "Schmeckerfatz" for kids (it was too funny of a word not to order it and say over and over again ;-).  My favorite Norwegian word in "Havre fras" (oat squares).  But, truth be told, my German is much better than my Norwegian.  The girls were surprised that I could speak German at all.  I can actually understand what people are saying most of the time and the vocabulary is coming back to me.  Norwegian requires my total concentration and it still often baffles me-- the words flow together like a song.

Today we did a little shopping and siteseeing downtown.  The city is beautiful with long avenues for walking only and bustling with pedestrians.  The buildings are gorgeous with red flowers in planters and both gothic and romanesque in architecture.  The prices are also RIGHT!  For the price of one hamburger in Norway, I can get a dinner for four in Germany.  And, of course, a large frothy Munich Weissbier is only a few Euros.  We bought rainboots to bring back home to Norge and Annaliese and I also got our Haarschnitt.

Tomorrow the girls spend time with their Dad in Bavaria and Laura and I will hit the town running -- facials, saunas, cosmos, and catching up with some "girl talk."   I am sporting my new sassy haircut and am ready to relax.