We’ve had some great experiences and I’ve learned a tremendous amount during this trip, in a continuation of our last trip over. Being here for three months has allowed us the chance to live like the people, rather than like tourists. I’ve tried to keep my online journal up to date, but I have a [...]
Dalia and I watched the finals of Euro 2008 tonight. Spain defeated Germany 1-0. Out of an entire season, an elaborate round of play-offs, a winnowing process that pitted the best against the best, the game was decided by one point. I must say, after this week, I have a much greater respect for the [...]
29
Jun
To me, soccer is sill just a game (I have to say that quietly because I’d probably be lynched if anyone heard me say that over here). This is a funny picture, so you should click to enlarge it. This is a picture of an apartment house just before the Germany-Turkey game. ‘Course, it’s in [...]
29
Jun
Well, the ol’ spine has crumbled enough that, after three days flat on my back, I now have to use two canes to get around, can’t bend over, and can’t pick anything up. I’ll have to use a walker when I get it. So yesterday I went to town (Dalia was there, of course) with [...]
Click to enlarge Nelson Mandela Just a moment out to wish happy birthday to a man of peace, Nelson Mandela, who is 90 years olds. The world would be a different place had he not lived and prevailed. Such is the case with many humans of dedication. May we all factor his dreams into our [...]
Baron Von Stuben Click to enlarge Unlikely as it may seem to some of us, During the Revolutionary War, when Gen. George Washington had to pick someone he could trust to be his second in command, to stand beside him, give advice, and make judgments, he chose Baron Von Stuben, a German officer, and Von [...]
26
Jun
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (click to enlarge) The last of the Euro 2008 playoffs took place tonight in Austria, amidst one of the most horrific storms of the year. Blazing streaks of lightning lit the skies above the stadium as Spain faced Russia for to determine who would play Germany on Sunday. The Spanish players [...]
26
Jun
Click to enlarge the castle crapper I have a sick curiosity. I’ve always wondered about pragmatic things, like castle heating and plumbing. Here is a castle crapper from the years beginning around 1300. The castle is actually located on a small island in the middle of the Rhine, downriver from Mainz. The hole is located [...]
26
Jun
click to enlarge photo The River Rhine. It is truly an amazing river. Here, in the middle of it, on a car ferry, we see what, at least in part, may have been what was seen hundreds, even thousands of years ago. This, at one time, was a natural boundary to the Roman Empire. Even [...]
Schnitzel I’ve always been a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy, so that is another reason Deutchland is a pleasurable place for me to be. There are some places for vegetarians, but, for the most part, look for heaping helpings of hospitality that include meat and potatoes. The most usual “Fleisch,” or meat served is pork. It [...]
The lead changed hands twice in a nerve-wracking game, and it was left to Philipp Lahm to seal the win with an 89th minute goal. We’re in a small town in Germany. After a beautiful day yesterday, today was a magnificent thunderstorm day. When I say “magnificent,” I mean that, with it, came warm rain, [...]
There’s a fairly substantial Russian population here in Germany and in the small town in which we’re spending most of our time. The fireworks and shouting and general revelry didn’t begun until a bit late tonight, because the Euro 2008 soccer game didn’t end until there was an overtime, in which Russia defeated the Netherlands [...]
21
Jun
More cheers, fireworks, and horn-honking as Turkey defeated Croatia in soccer. Germany, having beaten the great team from Portugal, will now face Turkey in the quarter finals. Since Turkey is well-represented in many German towns, one hopes the competition stays at the level of soccer and doesn’t, as is sometimes the case with all sports, [...]
19
Jun
What? Me a sports fan? Hardly. But somethings are impossible to avoid. At about 10:30 p.m. local, here in Germany, a roar went up throughout the town of 40,000, followed by horn-honking, fireworks, church bells, and shouts. The soccer game was over. Though we were already in bed, it was clear that Germany had beaten [...]
14
Jun
My daughter PattiJo, seen with her son, John, who has just graduated from high school. He may become a Marine. I’d be proud if he did, but I’d be just as proud if he chose another course. And I am very proud of my daughter for being such a good mother AND a good and [...]
14
Jun
Cell phones, or, as they are called here, “handies,” are ubiquitous in Germany, as they are in most of Europe. For a U.S. traveler, one of the most convenient and least expensive luxuries is a “pre-paid handy” for both yourself and your companion. You can buy a pre-paid phone, have some time put on it, [...]
13
Jun
Some of you know that we live in the northern Sierras of California, small town, excellent community college. My wife,Dalia, went back to school for fun last year and took a full load. The school’s on the edge of a major national forest (Plumas) and, as such, all animals in the area, including massive herds [...]
GERMANY — (blog entry) I’m troubled. Within days, a month will have slipped by as thought it were but days, and I will not have adequately found a way in which to describe either the totality of the experience or the myriad of small incidents and encounters that make this travel so literally life-altering. The [...]
12
Jun
After we returned home from Bad Kreuznach today, legions of huge black clouds marched toward the Rhineland from the North Sea and brought with them an onslaught of winds, the sounds of which might have been recorded from some 1950′s horror movie, before darkness set in, after which, unrelenting rains invisibly and unrelentingly pounded the [...]
I’m so far behind in recording the events. Let’s go back a week or so. We had a wonderful terrace dinner with members of the family: a doctor, a PhD psychologist, a retired history professor, a retired physical education instructor, a magnificent artist, my brilliant wife, and me. Talk about odd man out. It was [...]