In Germany the strawberries are in season in June. This fact has taken a bit of time to sink in for me because in Florida, March is strawberry month for me. But I’m a believer now. Although Florida strawberries are the best, hands down.

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This weather has been down right depressive in Bavaria. For real, is this June? Is any one willing to spare a ray or two of sunshine? °°°
I forced myself and Alex to do a 40k bike ride this past Sunday. We avoided a potential deluge by heading north to Garching instead of south. I’m not a fan of northbound treks because the terrain is flat and that means we’ll be speeding to get any kind of heart rate going. And man did we fly.

We checked out Alex’s old stomping ground and made a pit stop at the Taxi Pizza and gobble down a Mexikana (made with kidney beans and corn) - the first German pizza I ever tasted. There’s lots of sprinkled chili flakes on the pizza that make your lips burn hours later.

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So I think I’m in love. Oh Yes -with the new Coldplay album, Viva La Vida. Like I’ve awoken from a music coma and have the urge to bob my head in a ‘hell yeah’ -okay maybe not like that, give a girl a break, it was coma.

It’s been a while since I’ve bought an entire album and felt that floaty, whoa feeling. It sounds like the band had a lot of fun making this album. Way to go, guys.

But maybe I’m partial to sounds that veer off the predictable path just at the right moment. Who doesn’t like ear candy, Gretel? And still I find it cool that these songs manage to tickle the familiar by captivating the energy of earlier U2 and incorporate some of that instrumental butter I’ve gone gaga for from Explosions in the Sky. I couldn’t help but think of John Lennon’s “Imagine” as I first heard Coldplay’s “42″, and that’s not a bad thing. Yeah, the piano motif. Can you hear it too?

Viva La Vida cuts through the dreariness blanketing Munich on this June day. The sky could be blue. But I don’t mind. so much..

Artist: Coldplay
Album: Viva La Vida
Title: Strawberry Swing

..please, if you are an American tourist, do not ask the question aloud, “Hey, why is the German flag in Belgium?” It’s hard to defend against the astonished Europeans.

We were in Belgium and visited Kortrijk, Knokke, Brugge, and Brussels. It has been a year since I’ve seen the beach and Knokke brought it all back albeit a bit cold and very trendy. I wish I had taken pictures during the ride to Knokke. Along the way the land is wet and mushy and on more than one occasion we spotted animals that look like miniature woolly lambs. Some highlights of Knokke:

more Knokke pictures here.