Later Thursday evening, Steve and I returned to Schongau and Altenstatt, to again spend the night with the Hausers. When we arrived, they again insisted that we eat, even though we had done so in Munich. And, later, Hans-Peter took us out for the best Weiss beer around at the town pub. Way cool. (Did I mention that the beer rocks in Germany?)

As we went to bed that night we didn’t know what we were going to do in the morning. Hans-Peter had suggested that we go to Marktl, Germany, the birthplace of Pope Benedict XVI. You know, spend an hour there, go to Munich later, maybe another small town later… you know… just for a couple of hours.

I disliked down the idea, thinking we wouldn’t have time (since Marktl was four hours from Altenstatt). But, when I awoke in the morning and it was again brought up, I was like, “Yeah… we’re here after all… why the heck not???” So, off to Marktl!

The train-ride was beautiful. We had to take something like five trains. And we had an hour layover in Munich. So, in Munich, I scurried over to another couple churches that I didn’t get to see the day before… returning just in time to the station to one of those “hey, don’t leave without us!” sprints onto the train.

But, yay! …Marktl!.... ?....