Entschuldigung. “Entshuldigung” is the German word for “excuse me”. “Entshuldigung” is the word I can never remember until several minutes after I’ve bowled over an unsuspecting local in a crowded market or street. I’m always a little on the fence about just saying “excuse me” in English in the absence of the correct German word, as it emphasizes the fact that I not only rudely barged into them, but also didn’t bother to learn their language before I did so. It also highlights that I’m an American, which reinforces our stereotype in Europe. Since 99% of the people we’ve encountered so far have been able to guess that we are American before we ever speak, I’ve just been saying “Excuse me” with my finest bashful, apologetic smile.

I’ve said “Excuse me” a lot today, as most of the day was spent in fairly crowded places. As you may have read in Charles’ blog post from yesterday, we discovered yesterday that his passport was missing. We spent most of the morning and early afternoon running errands that we thought were required to replace it, such as getting passport photos (which turned out to be the wrong size and had to be retaken) and buying the appropriate postage and envelopes, which the US Consulate’s website said he would need (which turned out not to be true).

While Charles was at the consulate, I checked out the viktualienmarkt (farmer’s market / craft market) near our hotel (with a stop for gluhwein) and strolled around through the old village and Christmas market. Once Charles returned from the consulate with his temporary passport, we headed out to finish the rest of our Rick Steves’ audio tour.

The first stop on the second part of Rick’s tour was the historic Hofbrauhaus – one of Munich’s original beer halls. We, of course, had to stop and have a liter and listen to the oompah music in all of its touristy glory. As many of you know, Charles is not a drinker – but even he enjoyed a liter of radler while I had the Hofbrauhaus “original”. Charles quickly and determinedly finished his liter of radler, which beer drinkers will know is just a slightly rowdy sparkling lemonade, and marveled that I had only finished 1/3 of my beer. From thence, he began to pressure me to hurry up with the beer drinking, which by the end had bestowed a good sense of gemütlichkeit (German word for warmth and coziness) and a case of the giggles.

We finished up our audio tour and continued the beer hall fun with a trip to the Augustiner beer hall for dinner, further heightening the gemütlichkeit. We strolled back through the Christkindlmarkt, picking up some dessert (and a little more gluhwein) on our way back to the hotel for the night.