Adam is busy downloading pictures from our camera to add to the blog - soon you'll be able to see all of his glamour shots of Germany.

We're relaxing here in Munich and enjoying the sites. It's tough to get oriented to such a big city after spending all our time so far in small towns. Munich bicyclists are completely fearless, so it's almost a full-time job avoiding an accident.

Last night we went to the 6,000-seat beer garden in Munich's largest park. We quickly discovered that we should have set out much earlier for dinner, as there are no lights of any kind along the paths, which makes finding your way in the many many acres a huge challenge when you can't see any landmarks. Eventually we made it to the garden and I have to say that I've never been so happy to see a massive group of drunk people in my entire life. While the park is quite safe, I haven't lost those Chicago instincts that have convinced me that wandering around outside at night with no lights is pretty much asking to be a crime victim.

Today we got to know the city a bit better with a guided walking tour. We got the gloss-over of most of the major sights, including the Residenz (an enormous museum), the Viktualien Market (a cornucopia of local food, drinks, and crafts), and the Frauen-Kirche (the Church of Our Lady, whose twin onion-domed towns are the symbol of Munich). We wandered through the Hofbrauhaus, which is Munich's most famous beer hall. You'd be surprised how many people are busily downing 1-liter steins of beer at 11am, complete with the head-splitting Bavarian musical accompaniment. And of course we saw the famed Glockenspiel, which really is not as exciting as the large crowd of rapt tourists in Marienplatz would lead you to believe.

This afternoon we checked out Munich's famed shopping districts and quickly discovered that we were definitely not the target market when we looked at the prices posted in the windows. We eventually found the more reasonably-priced shopping, but we're still a bit bug-eyed from sticker shock.

Tonight we'll continue to soak up Munich's lively beer culture with another trip out to the beer gardens, hopefully with less wandering through dark forests this time. Tomorrow it's a double-header of can't miss sights, as we visit the former concentration camp at Dachau (not very honeymoony, I know, but then neither are the two single beds we inadvertently got at our hotel here) and Munich's world-reknowned Deutsches Museum, which is the largest science and industry museum in the world.

I'm off to go check my email again for happy-birthday wishes. And there'd better be some when I get there, or I'll be forced to go drown my sorrows in several liters of Löwenbräu.