When was the last time you strutted around naked?

Clothes are VERBOTEN, as are cell phones and cameras

Well, I did yesterday. All day. Yes, in public. And it wasn't a big deal. Europe really is different from the US. You get invited to go to the Therme Erding, described as a sauna and pool place where one can spend a few hours in a relaxed way, and the next thing you know is you have to shed your trunks unless you are to be kicked out by the authorities. Old and young, fit and fat, hairy and not-so-much, they all just go there to enjoy a few hours or more in saunas with themes, pools with swim-up bars, and restaurants without clothes. Maybe Lubbock isn't so cool, after all.

Approaching Innsbruck via the backroads

My past week and a half has been one of hectic, crazy, wonderful life-sipping. I went to Berlin, where I inhaled more nicotine and tar while with my dad than the average rock-concert-goer in a lifetime. I returned to Freising, only to run off with Sabine to spend a night in Innsbruck, a beautiful Austrian town half the size of Lubbock at 110,000 souls, just two hours away—and it wasn't just a night that we enjoyed, but much more, especially the hike up to the Sistranser Alm, one of those places straight out of the Sound of Music. Then there was the a-Capella concert in Munich's Prinzregententheater that Sabine treated me to, plus the day in the nude.

Meat of a different kind

We spotted these pre-packaged balls (OK, Knödel, to be precise) not in the Erding Therme
but the Innsbruck MPreis

What a life.

No, seriously, what a life! I'm now sitting in DFW's terminal D, in the Admiral's Club, waiting for my last flight of the day after already having passed through London and Miami. Those past two weeks were full of so many impressions and emotions, so much unusualness that I have to keep pinching myself.

Tousled by 30-mph-winds (on the peaks 140 kmh) at the Sistranser Alm, close to Innsbruck

When I got back to the US, one of the first things I saw on an airport TV-monitor was a running headline that 100,000 people have signed some petition for Texas to secede. Well, I'm all for it if we also include a measure to establish beer-dispensing huts on the way to New Home, mandate (free) decent concerts in the governor's mansion on a weekly basis, and—most importantly—forbid the use of swim-wear at the Tech pool, especially the Lazy River section.

At Heathrow, home for British Airways

Pics have now been added. No nudies, though. You'll have to go to Therme Erding's website yourself. And if you check out the link, remember: All those pieces of cloth they put into the photos are not depicting the truth! I know—I've been there.

Upgrade to a top-floor suite and a perfect view of the mountains—que mas quieres?

Life's good, indeed.

Jürgen