Incredible day today!!!!

I finally got some sleep last night and we had a great breakfast here at the hotel so I was ready the day.  We went in the morning to Keltenwall Manching Realschule (school for 5-10th grade) just outside of Munich.  Realschule is where students learn a profession such as accountant or business profession.  I got to sit in on 2 classes.  One was a 7th grade compututer class and the other was a 5th grade English and literature class.  I have pictures of the visit.  I especially like going to the 5th grade class.  The students English was excellent for having studied it only 1 year.  They were very inquisitive and wanted to know all about me.  They wanted to see pictures of my house and my kids so I whipped out my cell phone and showed them pictures. I also gave my gift of the American Gothic print to the principal.  I think he was really touched by it.  It was a great morning.

In the afternoon we took a bus to a monastary called Kloster Weltenburg on the Danube River.  It was founded in the 600 a.d. by Irish monks and they brewed beer.  There are still 14 monks that live there.  We ate lunch in the beer garden, visited the church and then had a private beer tasting.  I never realized how serious these people in Munich and Bavaria take their beer!!!!  It is a law that the beer in Germany can only be made with water, wheat, barley and hops.  I have a picture of what the hops look like. Even after having the beer tasting, I still do not like beer!!!   At lunch, several of the males in our group decided to try some exotic dishes i.e. pig heart and cow tongue so I tried the cow tounge!!!  It tasted like roast beef.  Pretzels are served with every meal here in Bavaria.  I could not bring myself to try the heart. The church at the monastary was absolutely breath taking!

When we got back to the hotel, several us went walking around Munich and we got some eis (ice cream).  I have been really using my German.

We have another busy day tomorrow.!!!!