Spargel?

So every 30 feet or so, while walking along the cobblestone streets filled with beer-guzzling folk and interesting churches and historic buildings, we pass a fruit/veggie stand. each one selling roughly three things: strawberries, apricots, and spargel. The question that has been plaguing me is what the heck is spargel? It appears to be an oversized, white asparagus, but could also pass for some sort of wax candle...I am puzzled.

In other news, the bike tour this afternoon was lots of fun! This city is incredibly bike-friendly, and it appears to be a very popular (and eco-friendly) way to get around the city!We saw all the major sites, and spent an hour hanging out at a Chinese-pagoda shaped biergarten. I got "the rattler" which is beer mixed with lemonade - sounds gross maybe, but is quite delicious! Later we walked around the center of town, got ice cream (for only 1 euro!) and climbed to the top of one of the churchtowers to get an amazing 360 degree view of the city. You could also faintly make out the alps in the distance. (I tried to upload pics, but the computers we are using in the internet cafe wont let me, and I cant understand German enough to read the pop-up box that explains why...)The city is full of buildings with red-clay tile roofs, many ornate church steeples, and other incredible buildings. We learned today that over 65% of the city was destroyed in WW2, so it is an interesting hodge-podge of very old buildings, relatively new buildings, and new buildings that look old.

Okay, reading about architecture without seeing pictures is pretty boring, so I'll stop now! I still havent eaten any bratwurst, which is on our list of things to do, but we did get a ginormous pretzel, so I guess that is authentic.

Bye for now!