It's almost dark and Munich music rumbles in the distance.

I've loved it here, and alternately yearned for the heat and mesquite of what I know as home.

I've come to love Germany, and Europe.

In the US, you can go from East to West, and there's no more difference than there is between Boston and Houston. Same language, different accent. Same stores, similar food, same road signs.

It's hard to explain the thrill of driving half an hour and being in a very different culture, with a different language, culture, road signs, food, drink, landscape, and cityscapes.

We can drive to the battered, recovering Czech Republik, to places like Cesky Krumlov (next pic) to Austria, Italy, the Bavarian Forest, we can fly to Greece in an hour or so, and we plan to drive to Amsterdam at the end of September.

It's hard to imagine how stimulating it is to remember the things to say in such a different environment and how much fun that can be.

I would hate to go back to just driving 12 hours to get to Colorado.