Cote d'Azur Wedding

He nodded and we headed off to the showers. While we were under the running stream, he said, "That was unbelievable."

I replied, "That was pretty wild. I cannot believe we actually did that."

We soaped each other down, and then went to dry off. Arne' did invite me to join him for dinner, but what had just happened was not romantic. Just lust. It was great, but I did not want to carry it any farther. I made up that I could not as I was meeting someone. He was disappointed, but accepted my explanation. We said our goodbyes, and split up to the locker rooms. I got dressed and headed up to my room to dry my hair.

I was thinking about what had just happened, wondering what had made me let loose and run wild. The obvious answer was as previous experiences had taught; I was traveling, having a sense of anonymity, and meeting the right person at the right time. Spontaneous and unplanned.

But as I finished getting ready, I realized I had no regrets and I had needed to get off.

The rest of the evening was delightful, but uneventful. I found a great outside bistro where I drank wine and had great food. I loved watching people go by as I savored the experience. Sometimes travel could be grueling, but other times was only a pleasure. I enjoyed getting looks from some of the guys passing by as well as some seated nearby. There are frankly a lot of opportunities for an attractive female. It is just a simple fact.

It was probably about 10 p.m. when I finished dinner. I was feeling great. The earlier champagne had worn off coupled with the sauna, but I had replenished the slight buzz with a nice Chianti. I thought to finish the evening off by walking over to the Hofbrauhaus.

The place is cavernous and famous. I guessed there were over 500 people inside. Music was the traditional 'oompa' style, good German drinking music. People were having a great time. The beer they serve comes in these huge steins, and the taste is marvelous. I did not always make a point to stop at this place on visits to Munich, but as I walked in, I thought that was probably a mistake as I was soaking in the entire atmosphere.

I found one of the least crowded spots, but there was no place where you could sit entirely alone. I pulled up to the corner of one of the long benches. A waitress quickly came over and took my order. All of them were dressed like the girl on the label of St. Pauli girl beer, with the traditional outfits showing a decent amount of cleavage.

She came back carrying six of these huge glasses in her hands. It is a really impressive site. Others at the table had smiled and welcomed me as I sat down. But after the beer arrived, the clinking of glasses and drinking began.

I would guess the glass of beer they served was the equivalent of 3-4 standard cans. The taste is not at all harsh; in fact what I call 'easily drinkable'. From prior experience, I knew you could feel like you were drinking water until you stood up.

A few of the people nearby could speak passable English, but it was too loud to have a conversation. Instead, most of the discussion was "cheers" as we toasted each other. Not the kind of place for picking up a date, or being picked up. That does not entirely stop everyone though, and more than one guy would stop by to try his charm skills on me. Of course they had varying degrees of inebriation, looks and personality, but after my spa adventure I was not looking for anything else. It was fun though. I did not directly shoot down anyone burning in flames, but I was friendly and polite, sometimes acting as though I could not hear them because it was too loud or could not understand due to language. At the very worst, we would clink glasses. A few people nearby found it amusing as the various guys would try and unsuccessfully pick me up.

They would hold up their beers in salute, keeping a mock scoreboard.

As it was beginning to get late, and it would be a busy day tomorrow, I headed back to my hotel. I got undressed and quickly fell sound asleep, waking to my alarm clock.