Sat., July 17 - Sun. July 18 - Traveling & Munich

(Note: The posts to come, starting with this one, answer the "What did you do in India?" question only. And even so, it's pretty basic... they are pretty much straight from the journal I kept while in India, just to remember everything, and we were so busy that I was usually a day or two behind in recording our adventures. The answers to questions like "How did it affect you?", "What did you learn?", "What were the biggest things that struck you from your experience?", etc., will come later once I am less jet-lagged than I still am right now.)


Background: We flew from Denver to Chicago to Munich, where we had an 8-hour layover, so we definitely wanted to get out of the city. That evening, we flew on to Delhi.


I liked Germany the instant I saw it: it is the shape of the land. (By which I mean it is not all laid out on a grid, like in the U.S., but appears to have grown up organically, lines following the lines of hills and rivers and trees.) And there are forests, and little clusters of red-roofed villages.


The traveling-- well, I'm not going to say it was good, exactly, but we survived it, and even slept some. (The free Bailey's on the post-Munich flight did help on that account.) I was really happy to be able to get out of the airport during our 8-hour layover in Munich (and, let me tell you, Germany sure does let you just waltz on in to the country). After a train-door mishap that had us temporarily separated from one of our group in downtown Munich, we finally all regrouped. It's amazing how much harder it is to all find each other again, when you don't have cell phones to communicate and coordinate.


We came up out into the square in front of the Glockenspiel, where some sort of gay pride event was occurring that day. (Our first clue that that's what the crowd was for, before we noticed any rainbow-colored flags, was the band belting out the oh-so-subtle lyrics: "I'm gay! I'm gay! I'm gay!") We wandered a few streets, enjoyed some German fare at a nearby restaurant, and checked out the ornate Glockenspiel more close-up. We were trying to go up in the tower, hoping for some good rooftop views of the city, but the mysterious life (to which both signs and individuals attempted to direct us) was not to be found. We did get to witness the 5 o'clock music-playing and figure-turning, however, before we had to hop back on the S8 train (making sure we all all made it through the doors, this time) to head back to the airport.


Next stop: India.