Well, today was a challenging day!

We left Prague at 8:00 this morning, heading for Munich. The drive is usually 3.5 hours, and after being slowed by a number of roadworks, we reached Munich at 12:30.

We drove straight to my grandfathers flat in Ofterdingenstrasse. This was an emotional moment, seeing the flat where Dad was born and lived for the first 5 years of his life. We had a conversation wiht the man who now lives in the flat, but he had only been there for 18 months and didn't meet Martin.

After leaving the flat, the fun began! It turns out that the annual gay pride rally and festival is on in Munich today, and guess where the parade started and finished and where the all night party is being held? Right in the square that is where our hotel is located! This meant that all of the roads within 1.5 km of our hotel were blockaded by police cars and we couldn't get anywhere near our hotel.

So, after driving for 4.5 hours to get to Munich, we drove around in insane traffic for another 2 hours trying to find a way to get to our hotel.

In the end, we gave up and found a parking spot near a German tavern, where we relaxed and had the best meal we have had in Germany. Sausages, schnitzel and the most amazing apple fritters for dessert. This helped us to kill 2 more hours waiting for the roads to open.

We then walked back to where the road block was and found it was open. After a long walk back to the car, we drove towards our hotel, only to find another roadblock closer to it. The cop told us to park somewhere and wait half an hour, which we did. As soon as the police car left we started driving again, only to find ANOTHER roadblock further in.

In the end, we parked the car on he street, got all of our luggage out and walked 15 minutes to our hotel right through the middle of the party. We had to go back and move the car later on, only to find that we had originally walked the long way. The car was actually parked right across a square next to our hotel, less then 2 minutes walk away. Aye carumba!

Anyway, we parked the car properly and then checked out the party. There was a stage with different bands and artists singing and loads of beer, sausages and all sorts of other stalls.

I also found a massage place that really sorted out my back and neck, which have been giving me loads of trouble since I fell off Alex's verandah a few weeks ago. The massage was wonderful, although I felt like a bronco when the masseuse placed her feet in the middle of my back, grabbed my arms and leant back like she was riding a windsurfer. It certainly did the trick though, my back and neck feel great!