I headed off to Germany just after midnight on July 1st on Emirates Airlines connecting through Dubai. Never had flown over that part of the world before or connected anywhere near Dubai. I was curious to check it out. From the air, Dubai is a sprawling yellow/orange desert world of yellow/orange houses and buildings. It was quite hazy and it was hard to see any of the famous skyscrapers from above. I was hoping to see the Burj, the soon-to-be tallest building in the world. I reckon I was on the wrong side of the plane. Bah!

I thought this was pretty funny when I logged on to hotmail in the airport:

(above) You’ve just won a green card!

We skirted the southern and western borders of Iraq before turning east again towards Europe. I got a couple shots from the window of some neat places:

(above) flying over Al Ladhiqiyah, Syria (figured it out from Live Earth), the second shot is Istanbul.

Michael’s directions to get to his house were easy – a couple of trains got we within short walking distance. I was conspicuous, with one large backpack on my back, another smaller one on my front, and hauling a large flat cardboard box (a gift), so it was easy for Kris to spot me walking along Bruderstrasse.

I’m impressed with Munich; it’s a very comfortable city. It feels so small compared to Shenzhen. It’s nicely organized and dense city. It feel like you can bike from one edge of the main part of the city to the other in 15 or 20 minutes. One of the first things we did was head to the English Garden park right near their apartment. There’s a biergarten (beer garden) there which is basically a large open area with tons of picnic tables, several small food vendors, and a playground. Tons of people were out and enjoying the nice weather. At the biergarten, you’re welcome to bring your own food, you just shouldn’t bring your own beer.

(above) Beirgarten environs. The tower is known as the “Chinese Tower”. Check out the big pretzel; they are everywhere!

(above) More fun in the park. The river channels through the park with a really fast current and folks enjoy jumping in and letting the current carry them to the other end (gotta do this). (second photo) Also, did you know that you can surf in Munich?