October 24, Morning Munich by bike then fly to Istanbul

For those of you who don'tknow, I tend to be a heavy sleeper.  In the dorms at Davis, I continued sleeping through a fire alarm until my R.A. banged on the door yelling my name.  I tend to have to set two alarms because I can turn the first alarm off in my sleep without knowing.  Ivy's roommate has one of those cute inbread dogs that snores.  He and I shared the living room at Ivy's apt. while I was there.  It was funny everyonce in a while to wake up and hear snoring from a dog!  Lucky for me, I am a deep sleeper and it never bothered me.  Actually, I thought it was kind of cute.  No need to go pet the dog or anything (you know me), but I did like the thing (Otto).
Anyway, today started off with a quick breakfast with Ivy before she took off for work.  I rode her bike to return it at central station, Hauptbahnhof.  I spent a few hours at this station with Ellie in 1998 when we took a train through Germany to the Czech Republic.
I returned Chen's bike and zipped back on the U2 (subway to Ivy's place) to get my bike.
I had just enough time to explore the city by bike.  First I found the famous Hofbauhaus.  It was a bit too early for beire, so I just took a stroll around and snagged some coasters for a memento.
Then I headed to a nice outdoor market called Vicualienmarket.  After that I had just enough time to climb the endless staircase to the tower of St. Peter's chuch (ha, funny, Peter, that was your suggestion :)
It was well worth the climb to be ableto see amazing views of Munich. The tower I was on faced Marienplatz, Munich's town hall.  The pantomime conversation with the swiss man up there told me that if I waited 15 minutes, for the clock to strike 12 noon, I would get to hear music and see dancers.
I was glad he told me to check my watch because, instead of staying, I zipped over to the train station to return the bike, get my bags, and head to the airport with just the right timing to get to my flight.
I had a lovely time in Munich meeting new people, and exploring.  What a difference a nice subway and bike path system make!!!
I had a lovely flight to Istanbul.  I shared the row with a cute Turkish woman who really wanted to talk to me.  When Turkish failed her, she would continue speaking Turkish, then throw in one or two German words.  She prayed and rejoiced the moment the plane landed.  It reminded me of another little someone I know.
Turns out that there are many Turkish immigrants to Germany, so this was a busy flight.
The evening ended beautifully with a nice dinner at Daphne's uncle's house.  It was so nice to be able to get to know her family and have a home cooked Turkish meal.  Daphne had to work because she did the majority of the interpreting.
well folks, thanks for checking in!
R