USA in Munich

We had a nice, action filled weekend. Daphne had spent all day Th and Fr unpacking and making the apartment look livable while I went to Paris Friday to recruit. I flew back Saturday morning determined to play with the kids.

We started with baseball in the local park. The boys and I all had our gloves, baseball caps, and a bat and we had many observers. David and Brian loved it. Hitting the tennis ball and running around the pretend diamond was a taste of home.

We agreed to play football, USA style, the next time at the park. We will all have to put on our football jerseys - Dad (Buckeyes), Dave (Seahawks) and Brian (Jets).

Later in the day we took advantage of having our stuff... including our bikes.

You might notice the sidewalk has two halves: one is for foot traffic and other is for bicycles. If you dare walk into the bike lane, the Germans will ring the bike bell signaling your gross violation of the rules. Brian has picked up on this and loves to ring his bell at anyone he comes close to while riding. I had to tell him he is not allowed to ring anymore today. He gave me that, "what?" look. He's assimilating.

The kids loved riding along the canal to the Schloss Nymphenburg (castle).

We also took some pictures of our neighborhood since a couple people have asked about where we live.

I love the look of our area. While we live in the city, it feels different than the glass and steel cities we are used to in NYC. They call Munich the big village. The shot down the street is one block down from our block. Very nice.

We also took a picture of our new car - it's hiding behind the kids mugging for the camera. I also found out from the insurance agent that it has been modified and "chip tuned" for a 30% increase in horsepower. So German...on a swedish SUV.