Berlin, Munich, and the beautiful Italy

July 6, 2009
Berlin was interesting. We only spent a couple hours there. All I really wanted to see was the Berlin wall. I heard they have really great museums there, but the whole “everything is in German” thing kind of hinders us. I was actually surprised by how much of the wall was still there, and there was a well put together honest “documentation center” which we enjoyed. After that, TJ got a bratwurst because we are after all in Germany . It began to rain, it was the first day we were outside in the rain. To avoid the rain we then went to Munchen, or as we call it in America, Munich. We took a free walking tour which gave us some history of the city. Munich was the starting place of the Nazi party, but they are trying to “move past” that, and they have chosen to not do memorials or pretty much anything to remember what happened there during World War II. Many people in Germany, and TJ and I, think that is very cowardly way to handle the horrible tragedy of the Holocaust. It seems that people will forget what happened more than move past, but other than that, we liked the city. TJ and I climbed 14 stories of a church tower and had a grand view of the entire city which I enjoyed when I ignored all the butterflies in my stomach. We were outside the tower on a tiny ledge when the bells rang to inform us that it was 3 o’clock. It was pretty freaky, especially since the ledge, in my opinion, had very thin guard rails.
We stopped off in Innsbruck, Austria for the night. It was quite beautiful. I believe we are traveling through the Alps. The city itself looks very old, but very well kept. Heidi and I actually camped in the Alps…if that’s what they were. Paul’s tent that we are borrowing worked great. It’s about time we got to use it, since I’ve been carrying it in my backpack the whole trip. We didn’t have a rain fly on because it would have been too difficult to do since it was already dark when we started putting it up. It rained, but we were sheltered very nicely by trees and didn’t get wet at all! I woke up at 5am, hearing the rain, and started singing (in my head) a song that I learned during my college years that has the lyrics, “you are a shelter Lord, a sanctuary from the storm”. God protects us so well from so many things, and continues to do so! It’s still raining quite hard, but we are on our way to Italy. The mountains are amazing, God is so great.

So, Heidi and I are in Venice right now! It's awesome. We got a great deal on some old restaurant owners apartment. We're right on a canal! It's beautiful. Well, until next time.