A year away: July 29 - Aug 2, 2010 - Goodbye China, Hello Germany

July 29 was my last day in China. Frankly I was ready to go by the time my 3.5 months were complete - a lot of the little things that make China China, like the crazy traffic, the spitting, the lack of personal space and the special levels of pollution, dirt, heat and humidity were starting to wear me thin - but I truly had an amazing time there and one day I will be back to see more of what I missed. I'm almost an expert now! Germany was to prove the ideal medicine for a mild case of China-itis. Clean, green, cool, organized, polite, English-speaking, it is almost the complete opposite of China. 10 hours on a comfy Lufthansa jet with food served and movies on demand seemed nothing compared to 11 hours on a bumpy hot bus on China's back roads and before I knew it Chris was greeting me at the airport, a bottle of the local Munich brew in hand of course (and even one for me!) After a couple of days in Munich and around with Chris kindly putting me up in his flat, including ample sampling of the local beer we headed to Cologne to connect with our flight to Corsica to attempt the famed 180km GR20 trail. Below are a few pics from the first few days in Germany. The GR20 deserves its own post.


Of course the first photo of Munich is the inside of a beer hall - the famous Hofbrauhaus in the middle of the city. We didn't drink there - way too many people, but it was very interesting to take a peek inside and see the tourists and locals alike gathering over a pint or 10.

Beer beer beer! This is what Germany is all about - good, cheap beer by the crate-load. (In all fairness this photo is taken in Erlangen, not too far from Munich)

Tourist shot of Munich - just to show that I wasn't drinking the whole time I was there (even though it felt like it)

Enjoying some of Munich's finest in a local bar. You can tell that the smoking ban in bars and restaurants is working well by the fact that everybody just ignores it. Das ist Deutchland, as they say.