Bierbahn

    At 8 in the morning on the 31^st, I woke up Ryan and Preston to say goodbye and thank them for letting me stay with them.  Then I also woke up Emily to say goodbye, and because she was sleeping in front of the door (space is at a premium in Paris).  I had a great time with them, but like every other person and place on this trip, I said goodbye and soon found myself alone and lost in a new city.  My next stop was Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium.  Don’t worry, you’re not uncultured – I had never heard of it either.  If you’re a hardcore reader of my blog, then you might remember Uncle Ray, the inspiration and benefactor for my journey.  If you’re really hardcore, you might have actually clicked the link and seen that he’s the department head of statistics at Texas A&M (along with nutrition, toxicology, and bioinformatics; no big deal).  Well, I was in LLN because the Louvain Catholic University was giving him an honorary doctorate for the work he did with their statistics department and had a ballin ceremony to go with it.  He’s literally now Dr. Dr. Ray Carroll.  Again, no biggie. 

Left to right: Leah, Koen, Brett, Marcia, Ray, ME, Jeb

Notice Ray and my matching foreheads

    Before the ceremony, Ray’s wife Marcia and I attended his lecture on nutritional statistics, or something like that.  I had asked Ray is he was nervous, to which he replied, “oh no, I’ve given this talk before.  And plus, I know more about this topic than probably anyone else in the world… and by about an order of magnitude.”  He’s not even exaggerating.  After his talk, Marcia and bailed so we didn’t have to listen to the next guy.  On our way out, we hit up the food table, but one of the conference directors pretty much carded us by asking if we were with the lecture.  I mean, I basically looked like a homeless guy off the street, so you couldn't blame her, but she spent the next 3 minutes apologizing after she found out we were the family. 

    The next day, Ray, Marcia, their niece Brett, her boyfriend Koen, and I drove to Bruges, Belgium.  I had never seen the movie, but Bruges was a nice little town.  We saw some creepy art in a small museum, which was actually one of my favorites that I’ve been to so far, and ate what might have been the best salad I’ve ever had.  After two nights, we all said goodbye and I hopped on a train to Brussels.  This is what I’m calling the “beer train” or “bierbahn” part of my trip: Belgium, Köln, and München in a span of 2 days.  I had exactly 3 hours to try as much Belgian beer and waffles as possible before my train to Köln, Germany.  I went to a popular place called the Delirium Café for my brews and some hoppin spots for waffles, but I really wasn’t that impressed.  But I knew the next city would redeem it.

Take a closer look at... everything in this picture

Glorious

    I arrived in Köln in the early afternoon and my couchsurfing host Karsten was there to pick me up.  Before I left Belgium, Uncle Ray told me that his mother (my grandmother who I never met) said that the cathedral in Köln was the best one in Europe.  When I saw it, I said, “hoooooly crap,” so I think she was right.  We checked out the Cathedral and then met up with some of his friends at a local café and I got to try my first kölsch in Köln, which is like drinking Champagne in Champagne, but much less French.  Kölsch is only kölsch if it’s made in Köln and I’m a big fan of St. Arnold’s Lawnmower, a kölsch style beer made in Houston, so it was cool to try the real thing.  Later that night we went to a local brewery and tried some more kölsch.  All in all, I had three different kinds: Reissdorf, Pfeffen, and Früh, and I’d rank them in that order.  I liked the city a lot too, which was smaller than most places I’ve been lately and felt like it, but was still big enough to have the perks of a big city. 

Couldn't fit half the cathedral in one shot

Karsten and Pfeffer Kölsch

Occupy Köln making some serious headway

    I met back up with Lauren and Elena at München Haupbahnhof (main station) after they spent a few days in Prague.  We got in around 11 PM, but took the U-Bahn (subway) to Ryan and Emily Sandefur's apartment.  The Sandefurs have been doing YoungLife in München for 3 years now and we were connected with them through mutual friends back in Texas.  They had a beautiful place, totally put us up, and explained some of the finer German nuances to us.

    We only had 2 nights in München, so first we took a bike tour of the city.  Our tour guide was wildly inappropriate.  I wanted to make eye contact with the girls because of how ridiculous he was, but he was so dirty, I couldn't lift my eyes off the ground or even look him in face.  It was still a lot of fun, and afterwards we went to a small brewery just across the street from the famous Hofbräuhaus, which felt like choosing Good Burger over Mondo Burger.  As expected, the wheat beers were incredible, and with a name like König Ludwig Weißbier, it was hard not to like it.  We spent our last day in Dachau, the first nazi concentration camp, which was just 30 minutes outside of town.  It was a great museum without being too gloomy, but it was wild to see how beautiful the surrounding nature was.  It was hard to believe that it was so evil, so close to the city, and just within the last 75 years.

River surfing

They're there 365 days a year

Augustiner > Hofbräuhaus

Dachau, where the housing was

Entrance to Dachau - "Work sets you free"

Like a great man once said, "It's on to the next one," and so we bid farewell to the Sandefurs and hopped on our night train to Florence, Italy.  The only I-talian I know is from Inglourious Basterds, but I feel like I'm perfectly fluent whenever I put my four fingers together and touch my thumb to the index finger.

These two just couldn't keep it together at the Sandefur's