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Germany

I intend to have pics (& accompanying stories) from Germany up as soon as I can, but I need to replace the USB cord my dog chewed through and I can only order this cord from Nikon. I might go see if I can burn a CD from my camera later today but no guarantees. In the meantime, consider these:

FUN FACT! -- The Gideon's Bible in German hotel rooms consists only of the New Testament. That whole Moses-to-Sandy Koufax part of it? Nicht dort. I don't know about you, but that gives me the heebie-jeebies.

FUN ANECDOTE! -- Farting openly in Bavaria is A-OK. We discovered this late one night in Mittenwald, an Alpine town on the Germany/Austria border that was positively overflowing with lederhosen. We had just rumbled through a meal consisting of (a) bacon; (b) veal; (c) beef steak; (d) pork chop; and (e) a 10-inch sausage (meat unknown). While strolling through a town square so freakin' quaint it would make anybody's grandmother moist, Spc. Mike laid an enormous fart just as a clutch of elderly Bavarian fraus walked past. It was the kind of fart that had a theme and variations; hell, it had several movements. It was the sort of fart that made it loud and clear that the fartier would soon have to induce vomiting, because he had far more numerous and varied meats sloshing around his beer-blasted stomach than a non-Bavarian should attempt. Truly A-1 material.

The old fraus gasped a bit and shook their heads, clucking "nein, nein, nein" at us. We expected an unintelligible public shaming. Instead, one of them cut loose with three melodic toots of her own -- "fwoot fwoot fwooooot" right out the back end of a traditional Bavarian dress. Un. Freakin. Believable. We laughed hard, but in truth we were humbled. Bavaria is truly the match for any High Life Man.

So that's all for now. Expect a full travelogue soon. Er, soonish.