Spike

I found Spike abandoned at a dumpster by the side of the road in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. Only weeks old and less than five pounds, the vet said he wouldn't live. But he did, and how. Over the next 12 ½ years, Spike traveled more widely than most people. Spike was with me through a divorce, five hurricanes, two cats, numerous jobs, boyfriends, a doctorate degree, a new marriage, and five moves.

Spike's survival was due in no part to me - but entirely to Julie and Rita. Julie and I saw him for the first time on the same day. When Julie got to her office she immediately called to see if I'd seen him and his sister at the dumpster. I had. "Someone should rescue him - we should tell Rita," was my response.

Lucky for me, Julie was more proactive. She rescued the malnourished, dehydrated scrawny mutt. Unable to catch the female, she called the Humane Society and Hubert set a trap, but he was never able to catch the pup's sister. Julie kept Spike, raising him along side her four cats. Those six weeks with Julie made a permanent imprint on Spike and he spent the rest of his life somewhere between cat and human, with an occasional bit his dog-ness showing.

Rita, too, went above and beyond in rescuing Spike. Even Julie's help wouldn't have been enough for Spike if Rita hadn't come to Julie's every day and made chicken broth for the puppy and hand-fed him. He grew and thrived, bonding with his cat siblings and driving Julie crazy. She diligently tried to find a home for him, and refused to call him anything by 'the puppy'. I didn't want the responsibility, so insisted I couldn't have a dog - the landlord said so.

Then Julie went off island for two weeks and I babysat the cats and the puppy. Within days, he went from 'the puppy' to Spike, from spending nights in the bathroom to the bed, and from an orphan to my baby.

Spike spent his first year on St. Thomas, going through normal puppy 'trauma' - obedience school, vaccinations, and neutering. He made his first doggy friend - Tessa, Randy's parent's Doberman. She was tolerant of his puppy antics and energy, and even joined in for digs in the sand and chases around the yard.  Spike's lineage (greyhound, pitbull, date-rape) showed itself as his legs grew long - matching his too big nose and ears and giving him his greyhound profile and powerful jaws. When he broke into a screaming run, up and down the driveway, he was a racer through and through.

After his first year, a few hurricanes and a couple boyfriends, Spike and I moved to Puerto Rico so I could attend grad school. Spike came into his own in La Parguera. He developed his unique people-personality and mannerisms - taking the end of the leash to walk his best friend and love of his life, Huracan, grabbing the top of a water bottle to let me know when he was thirsty, pressing the door handle with his paw to let himself in and out, carrying his Frisbee to the park during Little League practice to play with the kids, and tugging at my hand or bringing me his leash when he wanted to go for a walk.

It was in PR that Spike started to enjoy beach outings - digging up ghost crabs, being alpha-dog to Huracan, and chasing waves. He learned to swim at Boqueron when he wanted Calcetina's ball badly enough to jump in the water and swim for it.  He loved the muddy water in the fish ponds at Mike's, where he learned that it was okay to chase birds, but not to catch them.  He also learned that some birds, like the big gray goose across the street, chase back. He also learned what all those obedience classes had been about - protecting him. He ran into the road and was hit by a car. Luckily, it scared him more than it hurt him. From then on, Spike was a champion 'heeler'.

After two years in Puerto Rico a job opportunity brought us to Charleston. He loved our outings to Sullivan's Island, where he could race up and down the beach to his heart's content, dig up ghost crabs, and roll in the occasional dead fish. We lived in Mt. Pleasant for a year, and that's where we met Spike's new "Dad", Matt. Then we moved to Summerville, where Spike spent the longest part of his life. For the first time ever he had his own yard. He loved digging up moles, chasing birds and squirrels away, and patrolling and defending it - this was his home.

Five years later, we moved to Stuttgart, Germany, the most dog-friendly place you can imagine. Spike loved his big yard and his long walks through the fields and woods. No ghost crabs to dig up, but there were moles and mice. We couldn't help but laugh at the smile on his face as he deer-leaped through the tall grass and wheat fields, his over-sized tongue lolling out to the side.. He had a new babysitter, Theresa, who he adored. I think Spike actually looked forward to 'Mom and Dad' being away - he knew Theresa was going to take him "bye-bye car-car" every day for a walk around the lake.

While in Germany, the tumor on Spike's leg grew from marble sized when we arrived in May 2005 to tennis ball size a year later. We had it removed and it was diagnosed as malignant.

Spike's vet in Germany, Dr. Annette Richters, was Spike's favorite vet. He would take treats from her, shake her hand, and only cower slightly. She gushed over him as if he was the most amazing and special dog she treated, as I expect a vet to do. Dr. Richters had counseled caution with treating Spike's cancer - thinking of his quality of life first. I appreciated that. When she finally decided it was time to remove the tumor, she warned me that, although the surgery was successful, it was only a matter of time - weeks or months - before the cancer returned and spread. Despite the odds, Spike continued to lead a full and active life in Germany for our remaining two years there.

When it was time to return to the US, I took Spike to upstate New York to visit his "Grandma" for a month while we went through the chaos of moving. The airlines won't fly pets during the summer (May 15-Sept 15) because of the heat and we weren't scheduled to return until June. We would pick him up after we were settled in our new house some time in June.

"Be a good boy for Grandma, and you stay alive until we come and get you," I told him. I couldn't say good-bye even though we'd be apart for at least a month. I was too afraid that it really would be good-bye. Would I ever see my baby boy again?

Aside from a rote bedtime prayer, and that more from habit than sincerity, I don't pray. But I prayed as I drove away that day in May. "Please let him live to see his new home." I didn't bargain, didn't promise to return to church or be a better person. That was too cliché and it would be a lie. I wasn't making a deal, I was asking, begging for a favor.

Miraculously, my prayer was answered and five weeks later Spike came home to his new house. Our furniture wasn't there yet, but he had his pillow and his favorite blanket, the one that Nancy made and that went everywhere with him, so he was happy. He explored the new smells and met the neighbors' dogs. He thumped his tail and smiled at us, and at night he curled up on the air mattress next to me.

And then he stopped eating and drinking. He paced through the night, too uncomfortable to lie down. IV fluids and pain medicine didn't help. Ten days after coming home, we made the decision we'd known was inevitable but dreaded none the less.

Spike died on July 7, 2008. We were blessed to have such a great travel companion, loyal friend and loving and lovable family member, and to have him for these last two 'bonus years' after his surgery.  There will never be another dog quite like him.

I've had quite an exciting week.  I know there'll be a few more of these before we're packed up, moved and settled in Charleston, but this may stand out as both the most traumatic AND exciting of them.

On Monday (May 5), we closed on our new house in Charleston.  Hurray!  It's officially ours now.  You can see the pics on Matt's flickr site:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/drobnikm/.  That started the week's excitement.

Then, on Thursday,  I took Spike to New York.  He'll be vacationing with "Grandma Hinkey" until the Subaru arrives in Charleston, hopefully around mid-June.  The airlines won't fly pets in the summer months because of the temperatures, especially flying through Atlanta.  So, Matt drove Spike and me to Frankfurt and put us on a Delta flight to JFK.

Spike did great on the trip.  After the two-hour drive to the airport, he was ready for some walking and didn't mind the taxis, cars and buses around the airport.  Dr. Richters had bandaged up his tumor the day before, so all the Delta agents paid him lots of attention.  He ate up being the center of attention.  He wasn't too happy about being carted away when it was finally time to load him, but when I picked him up at the large baggage area at JFK he was none the worse for it.  He probably slept the whole way. 

Spike adapted quickly to life at Grandma's house.  He loved the cats, although they weren't too keen on him.  Meeko stayed in the closet for the first 3 days.  Cyrus followed Spike everywhere, harassing him, sneaking bites of his food, and intimidating him.   When Spike has had enough, he snaps at the cat and then Cyrus keeps his distance, growling and snarling, for at least a few minutes.  I think they'll work it out.   Spike is still fascinated by the bird, but after getting yelled at once for nibbling on Joby's tail (it was poking out through the cage) he's just lusting after the bird from afar.

The stairs I bought to help Spike get onto Grandma's bed are a bust.  He won't use them.  Cyrus likes them, though.  Cyrus also likes Spike's pillow and the cushion from the crate.  No wonder Spike snaps at him - he's taking over all Spike's spots!

Spike's next adventure was a trip to my brother's house in Liverpool.  Spike isn't used to THAT much excitement:  Four kids, two cats, a rabbit and a hamster provide lots.   He did surprisingly well!  I was concerned about Michael - don't know what Spike would do if he had a seizure or moved to quick.  The only 'scare' was when Michael discovered Spike's squeaky toy.  Michael loved it - carried it around squeezing it and gnawing on it (he knows what dog toys are for!)  Spike watched, teeth chattering, but didn't try to take it away.  But when he finally got it back and Michael reached into his mouth for it, Spike did growl.  So, we put that back in the car.  Once his toys were safe, Spike was great.  He settled on to the sofa, went for some long walks around the neighborhood and followed Tina around the house.  I guess he has good instincts for who does the cooking!

I left NY on Tuesday and arrived in Frankfurt on Wednesday morning, then took the train back to Stuttgart.  Leaving Spike for 5-6 weeks is the trauma.  The last time we were apart for that long was when I taught at UVI in the summer while living in PR.  He stayed with Mike for six weeks.  As much as I missed him then, it wasn't nearly as difficult.  He was young and healthy and loved being on the fish farm.  This time, he's 13, has cancer and I worry about how much longer he'll be around.   Much more difficult to leave him behind, even for a short time.

I arrived in Stuttgart at about 12:30, jet lagged and sleep deprived.  Matt picked me up at the Hauptbahnhof and we went to International Car Sales to pick up my new Mini-Cooper!  It's beautiful - British racing green with a dark green convertible top and white hood stripes.  I'd wanted a bright color, but Matt was opposed to looking like a taxi cab in a yellow car.  So, the green was our compromise color.  It's like Matt's old Chrysler, and the color I've always wanted for my Jag.  It's not a Jag, but it's British, so it'll do.  I was too jet lagged to dare drive it.  We'll have pictures up soon.  Any suggestions for names are welcome!

That was our exciting week.  We'll spend the next 10 days getting everything ready to ship.  They pack us out on the 26^th.  Then I'll have a few days to clean windows, floors and walls after all the furniture is out.  I'm not looking forward to the last week in a hotel - without Spike to walk three times every day, I'm afraid I'll be bored here and anxious to get to our new house!  Then we'll have a few more exciting weeks of painting, settling in, sleeping on an air mattress until our furniture arrives and another trip to NY to pick up Spike as soon as the Subaru gets to Charleston.  The fun just never ends!

Only 6 ½ weeks to go.  It seems both a long and a short time.  It's a long time to be in-limbo, where we are now.  Not soon enough to pack things up (we have to wait for the movers to do that on May 26), too early to start a really thorough house cleaning, and too soon to start making any serious arrangements on the other side since we don't close on the house until May 5.  But, it's too short a time to fit in all the things we have yet to do and see everyone we want to see before we go.  So, we plan and make lists and make insignificant efforts to get ready, like cleaning drawers and purging the closets.

Suzi, from the masters swim team, asked what I'll miss most about Germany.  The short and glib answer is 'everything'.  Then I started to list some of the small things - krokettens, walking and biking trails, curry ketchup.  From there, the list grew.  Each day, some small thing will remind me of more things that I'll miss.  There are so many things we take for granted here that we won't have when we return to the states - things that have become part of our typical day and typical life.  These things are so 'average' here that we don't think about them, but so foreign in the US that the impact of not having them will be drastic:  Green space around each town with easy access to biking and walking paths; each town being a livable and walkable community where I never have to get in my car to get groceries, run errands, go out to eat, or find entertainment, but if I do want to venture farther afield, I can easily jump on a bus or train and get anywhere conveniently.  I know regardless of how much more outdoors I am here - walking Spike on the trails, going to the farmers' markets, eating and drinking at outdoor cafes - it's not a fraction of how much we could or how much German's do take advantage of the pedestrian friendly environment they've created here. 

Even in the winter or with bad weather, there's more going on outdoors here all year round than there is in most places in the US, even Charleston with its wonderful climate.  THAT is something that isn’t easy to articulate to anyone who hasn't experienced it, and something that I'd imagine will be difficult to adapt to when we return.  How do you adjust to that live your life indoors, behind privacy fences, sequestered in your house or car lifestyle that we have in the states?  I keep imagining things like biking to the store, then the practical side hits me - there are no/few bike paths or sidewalks, and drivers aren't taught to watch for bikers and pedestrians, and the crosswalks, where they exist, aren't really for pedestrians because of the abuse of right-on-red that drivers take to mean 'right of way'.   

Here's our list of what we'll miss most.  It gets longer every day - not surprisingly food and drinks make up a big part of the list!

WHAT WE'LL MISS MOST (see pics of these in the photo album with that title) 

Biergartens in medieval castles, in the forest, along bike trails in the middle of nowhere - EVERYWHERE!

Krokettens

Dog-friendly malls, restaurants, stores, historic sites, etc

Curry ketchup

'Toothpaste tubes' of condiments (mustards, wasabi, tomato paste, horseradish, ketchup-mayonnaise, etc)

The Filder-Neckar-Teck Senioren Schwimm Gruppe

My SMART Car

Käsespätzle

Our house - and solidly built brick/block houses, in general 

Driving on the Autobahn

Good drivers!

Semis and slow drivers staying in the right lane

Döner Kebabs and Imbisses

Our town's Eis Café and their awesome gelato flavors

All of our friends - especially the Perrys, Taylors, Ballards, Saylors, and those who we already miss - the Pukanskys, Lenkeits and Lucases

Mövenpick ice-cream

Outdoor everything - regardless of the weather - hiking, biking, dining, sitting on park benches, swimming, walking

Walking and biking trails EVERYWHERE

Hanutas!!

Ritter Sport candy bars

Müsli and good yogurt

Dr. Oetinger Frozen Pizzas

Our neighbors

Edeka (grocery store)

Walkable, pedestrian friendly towns

Twice a week farmers' markets

Bakeries

German Wings, TUIfly and other discount airlines

German bier

BIO-products readily available in all the stores

A real 'downtown' with everything we need in walking distance

Restaurant Zum Trauben

My houseplants

Our garden

The Röhms

REAL and the AWG Center (shopping)

Good, cheap wine

The Nurtingen Hallenbad and Friebad

Trains, buses and easy public transportation

The Fests - Frühlingsfest, Volkfest, Weindorfs, Zwiebelnfest, Knoblauchfest, Vinzenzenfest, Fasching . . .

The Patch Ski Club and ski trips to the Alps

Maultaschen

MezzoMix

Apfelschorle

Full and comprehensive waste program - recycling, incineration (waste-to-energy), reclamation, and land-filling as a last resort

Cheeses - lots and lots of cheeses

Olives

Frischkäse-stuffed peppers and tomatoes

Sit-as-long-as-you-like restaurants with no-hassle wait-staff

Dr. Richters (the vet)

People doing environmentally sound things (recycling, building energy efficient buildings, stormwater runoff control, bio/organic, developing solar and wind energy, fuel efficient vehicles, etc.) because it's right, not only if/when you have to

 Hills and mountains

Historic to prehistoric sites all nearby

Cultural diversity

The cool shutters on our house!

What won't we miss?  Matt won't miss work - that's been a struggle for him since he got here!  We won't miss the weather, either.  While I've toughened up some, I'm still a Caribbean girl at heart and need some sunshine and warmth.  We were incredibly lucky our first two years here, and I really didn't believe those who told us "this is unusual, just wait until it returns to normal."  This last year, it returned to normal and what a depressing year it's been!  Thank God for travel to warm and sunny climes, otherwise I'd sit in a corner and cry!  Last April was the last consistently nice weather we've had.  After that, it went downhill and stayed there.  May and June were cold and wet.  By then, I'd given up on the Freibad.  The summer before, I swam every day starting in May through August.  Even when it was still cold, the sun was out and the water was nice.  Last summer, it seemed to be in the 50s and rainy most of the time.  All the yard work and housework that required opening windows or hanging anything outside had to be done on the few warm or sunny days we had.  I only went to the pool a few times.  I thought I'd miss the onset of real summer while I was in the states.  I did get a short dose of sun and warmth during my few days in Charleston, but then went right back to 'scheisse wetter' in New York and even more of it back in Germany.   AAARRGGGHHHH!

Of course, with all the crap summer weather, we were due a spectacular Indian summer, right?  Wrong - more rainy, cold weather.  And just when we thought we'd have a brilliant, snowy winter with those gorgeous, crisp days with cloudless blue skies for winter, we got more of the same weather.  It rarely snowed, but I'd have loved the snow over the cold, damp, drizzly yuck that passed for winter this year!  We've had a few nice days this spring, but they've been few and far between.  Each false start brings hope, only to be dashed a few days later by snow (twice in April - more for Easter than for Christmas and New Year combined), or more rain.

Still, I'd be willing to tolerate the miserable weather for another year to take full advantage of the items on that big, long list of things we'll miss most.

THE BERLIN ZOO

We spent the long Presidents' Day weekend in Berlin for the swim team's Championship meet.  The kids did great and Matt and I added a day before and 2 days after for some sightseeing.  We got in a number of the sites that I'd visited last year and knew Matt would enjoy - Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate, and the Reichstag, and went to some spots that I missed and wanted to get to - the Kaiser Wilhelm Kirche, Alexander Platz (the tv tower, although it was too rainy and foggy to warrant a trip up to see the view), the Pergamon Museum (amazing!), and the zoo. 

The zoo was my priority 1.  Knut, a baby polar bear was born on December 6 - just about 6 weeks before my last visit, and the controversy was just heating up.  Knut's mother shunned him and his sibling, who subsequently died.  There was quite the furor over what to do with the poor cub.  Should a zoo let nature take its course and not interfere if the mother refuses to take care of her young, or do they intervene?  Luckily, the decision was made to intervene and baby Knut was raised by the zoo keepers.  He's since become the biggest attraction at the zoo.  Even though he's over a year old, he's still a 'baby' and I wanted to see him!  We'd also heard great things about the Berlin Zoo, overall, and we weren't disappointed.

Berlin Zoo is the oldest in Germany, with the largest number of species.  We visited on a drizzly, gray day (no surprise - it's February!) so there weren't any crowds.  We strolled around by ourselves, only occasionally running into other visitors while outdoors.  Most folks stuck with indoor exhibits like the aquarium and lions' house.  Outside, it was one of the most active zoo visits we've had!  There were lots and lots of young animals and lots of rambunctious ones, too.  The first and one of the most striking animals we encountered was a Bactrian camel - a two humper with the coolest dreadlocked beard, and a face with serious attitude!  He seemed to enjoy posing for the camera and repositioned himself a few times to give Matt a better angle!

We saw baby hippos (that's the manatee looking 'blob' laying on the ground by its pool in the photos!) baby warthogs, a baby rhino, some other piglet looking things, lion cubs, and, of course, Knut.  We also saw a lot of future baby animals in the making!  A male bear chased a female into a corner and went at it, a zebra, after chasing down some gazelles in their shared enclosure, jumped another zebra.  We think he may have been an adolescent and hadn't quite figured it out yet - you'll see why in the pictures!  It seemed like a lot of the other ungulates were ready for spring, too!

We meandered through all the paths, pavilions and exhibits.  The aquarium is a cool, old building and the exhibits are nicely done.  The other animal houses are typical - when the animals have had enough outside, they come in and get stared at some more.  The lion house was exciting!  The lions are fed at 3:00 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.  Monday is a fasting day, and that's the day we were there.  Dad lion was none too happy about not getting his meal, and he knew it was 3:00.  His roar echoed through the hall and grumbled in our bellies.  That got Mom lion in the next cage going and her screams were added to the din.  So, the cubs knew something was up and THEY started in, too, with adorable, high pitched, 'Mrrows' of their own. 

We found Knut in his own private enclosure, we weren't disappointed.  He's not a tiny, cuddly cub anymore, but he's still adorable!  But, I think the poor guy is lonely.  He strolled down to the edge of the moat separating him from the crowds and waved a paw, sniffed the air, like he wanted to join us.  Of course, it might not have been us he wanted to join, but the 'other' polar bear he could see reflected in the glass across the moat from him.  Made me want to climb over and give him a hug.  Which explains why I can't work in a zoo - I'd be one of the statistics of zoo keepers who were mauled by the animals!

I'd highly recommend the Berlin Zoo, maybe because I'm partial to Knut and maybe because we were there on a day without too many other people, but we enjoyed it.  If you want to see wonderful pictures and video clips of Knut, there are some below.  Our next zoo visits will be the Nurnberg Zoo where another baby polar bear was abandoned by its mother in November, and Stuttgart, where 'Wil-bear' is the newest polar bear cup in Germany.

Knut's page on the Zoo web site (in English)

http://www.zoo-berlin.de/en/experience/young-animals/ice-bear-knut.html

Knut's Blog (in German - great pics and video clips)

http://blog.rbb-online.de/roller/knut/

ROTA, SPAIN

 We returned to Spain for the long Thanksgiving weekend, this time to the southern coast.  We stayed at the Navy Lodge in Rota - a cute, coastal town that probably picks up in the warmer months, but is pretty quiet in November!  They take their siesta seriously in Rota.  Matt and I went for a stroll through the old section of town, looking for some lunch at about 1:00 p.m..  Armed with a map and recommendations from the receptionist at the Lodge, we wandered through quiet, shuttered-up twisty alleys and plazas, only occasionally running into any other people!  We did find a tiny restaurant (4 tables and a counter) and had a fabulous lunch of octopus salad, olives, bread and other tapas.  The boardwalk and beach were equally deserted, aside from one or two lunchtime joggers, we had it all to ourselves. 

TANGER, MOROCCO

We wanted to go to both Gibraltar and Morocco - both easy day trips from Rota - but also wanted to see more of Spain.  So, we decided on a day in Morocco and a day in Seville.  We left Spain from Tarifa on a fast ferry.  About half way across the Strait of Gibraltar it got rough - the customs station on-board the ferry shut down when the police officer manning it turned green, the crew hurriedly ran around passing out seasickness bags, and the poor woman in the on-board duty free shop had her hands full picking up cartons of cigarettes from the floor only to have them fall off the shelf with the next lurching roll of the vessel.  Our 35 minute crossing took 1 hr 15 minutes - then we were in Africa.  One of my favorite movie lines is Matthew Broderick describing the southern heat in 'Biloxi Blues': "It's hot.  It's damn hot.  It's like Africa hot!"  Well, I have news for you.  Africa isn't always hot!  Morocco averages 3" of rain per year.  They got 1.5" of it the day we visited.  It was a cold, wet and just plain miserable day!  Everyone was wearing their heavy wool kaftans and djellabas (long-sleeved, hooded kaftan-type garment for men).   And I was eyeing them enviously as I shivered in my lightweight jacket and slacks (and thought I'd overdressed!)

I'm glad to say that following a friend's recommendation we took the guided tour offered by the ferry company.  They handled customs, money exchange, transportation and meals.  While it might have been an adventure to try navigating the Kasbah on our own, it could also be rather dangerous.  Talking with two men - a Russian and a Frenchman - on the ferry afterwards, it could also be an exercise in futility.  They spent the better part of the day asking for directions and being 'held hostage' for payment in return for those!

Our tour took us through the streets of Morocco on a bus, a quick overview of the city's history, and then dropped us off at the gates to the Kasbah.  A guide through that maze of alleys, dead-ends and bazaars is essential!  The streets are filled with people speaking every language imaginable.  I had the no-so-brilliant idea that we'd fool them by switching languages.  Obviously, all of the street vendors spoke English - the universal language - and French, since they'd been a French colony, and Spanish, since it was such a short hop away.  So, when they started in English, I switched to German, which they quickly and fluently picked up!  Then I tried Spanish, knowing full-well they'd just as easily switch to that!  I would have given up and gone back to English, but most of the American's in this group were such the typical 'ugly Americans' that I refused and stuck with Spanish or German.  Our fellow-tourmates were an embarrassment to all Americans!  They refused to eat a fabulous lunch at the ambiance-filled restaurant that we stopped at because it had all this 'funny foreign stuff' like couscous and curry chicken!  With terror in their eyes, they huddled in a bunch in the middle of the group, shooing away the street vendors, kids begging for money and even the clerks in the bazaar, as if they were contagious.  I;m happy to say that by the end of the day, the every decreasing prices for the plates, teapots, fezzes, bongos and jewelry the vendors were hawking even broke their xenophobia down and they boarded the bus loaded down with all of the 'bargains' they got at the gate as we were leaving the Kasbah. 

Matt and I did pretty well in the bargain-hunting department - I think.  Or perhaps as well as any tourist can do there!  We came home with a beautiful plate, a brass and bamboo window-mirror, a small decorative teapot, henna lip gloss from the apothecary, a kaftan for me, and a small carpet that went from 700 euro to 150 to 80 in the course of 20 minutes!  It's a gorgeous carpet and now I refuse to put it down because it might get dirty!

After our visit to the Kasbah, we boarded the bus and drove down the waterfront to an open field with the remains of an old stone building where three camels were grazing.  And here's where I got my camel ride.  Almost passed on it because I felt so sorry for the poor thing - kneel down, get some big, fat American or a screaming kid on your back, walk around in a little circle, do it all over again.  But, touron took over common sense and I rode the thing.  Not the most comfortable ride; and, eau de wet-camel makes wet-dog seem like perfume!  But, I did it, have the photo to remind me.   The day was indeed an adventure - and we can add not only a different country, but a whole other continent to our list of travels!

SEVILLE, SPAIN

While Barcelona is a bustling, modern city with incredible, cutting-edge 'modernisma' architecture, Seville is filled with old-world charm.  The Seville Cathedral embodies this with its towering gothic spires and details.  The church was built as part of the city's 'celebration' of the reconquest of Spain from the Moors.  The canons of Seville went on a 100-year austerity budget in order to fund construction of "a church of such a kind that those who see it built will think we were mad."  The cathedral is the third largest church and the largest Gothic building in Europe.  It also has the largest altarpiece in the world.  The cathedral, along with the Archivos de las Indias (where all the documents pertaining to the discovery of the New World are housed) and the Alcazar (the royal palace), is a World Heritage Site.

Entrance to the cathedral is via the Puerta de San Cristóbal on the south side. Near the doorway dedicated to the saint he was named after is the tomb of Christopher Columbus (Cristóbal Colón in Spanish). Columbus was originally buried in the cathedral of Havana, on the island he had discovered on his first voyage in 1492. But during the upheavals surrounding the Cuban revolution in 1902, Spain transferred the remains to Seville.

Seville, like most European cities, is a very pedestrian-friendly, walkable city.  It's also incredibly clean and friendly - even more so than Barcelona.  We wandered the length of the city, through palace and cathedral gardens, public parks and plazas, past orange trees, palm trees and giant Norfolk Island pines, then walked back along the riverfront to see the Bullfighting ring and museum and the Tor d'Oro, ending up back and our starting point where we watched sunset over the river as we had a glass of Sangria:  A delicious end to a wonderful day.

You can see pics from both of our Spain trips in the photo albums of 'Barcelona', and 'Rota Seville and Morocco'.

SPAIN - NOVEMBER 2007

November was our Spanish month.  We traveled to Barcelona over the Veterans' Day long weekend and to Rota and Seville (with a side trip to Morocco) over Thanksgiving.  They were whirlwind trips, and Rota included one day at the base pool for a swim meet, so we piled a lot into the remaining days.

BARCELONA

Barcelona is an eclectic mix of modern, old, utilitarian and fantasy.   The 'working' city center is like any other - high rises, glass, concrete and steel and rather bland.  But tucked away are little pockets of breathtaking and unconventional beauty  - the art deco-style buildings (known as 'Modernista' in Barcelona) along La Rambla, the 'Fred Flinstone'-like Casa Milá or (La Pedrera, which to me sounds more like the Bedrock-style house it is!), the surreal, sand castle spires of La Sagrada Família church, and the child-like fantasy-scape of the Park Güell.

We roamed the city with abandon; that is to say, without any plan.  Up Mountjuic at night, following the sweeping spotlight beam to the Palau Nacional, to find the spectacular fountains (from the photos, at least) were temporarily closed for maintenance.  But, we did find the Olympic Park and a wonderful little tapas restaurant along the way!  We stumbled across Miró's Dona i Ocell in the Park de Joan Miró, the statue of Cristobal Colon, and strolled along the waterfront, checking out the boats getting ready to depart in the morning for the two man Around the World race.

The Sagrada Família church, begun in 1883 and still under construction, is an architects' and artists' wonderland.  The spires look like nothing less than wet sand dripped into cones atop a cavernous church.  Looking closely, you find bits and pieces of the construction mimicking bits and pieces of nature.  The cathedral columns branch upward like trees, windows are honeycombs, spiral stairwells imitate the curling chambers of a nautilus shell, and the rooftop of the former school undulates and curls like a leaf. Fruit baskets top the spires, representing bounty from God.  Colorful Venetian mosaics on rounded spires meet minimalist, angular sculptures of the crucifixion on the façade.  Contemplating the intellect of the person who could conceive something all at once so complex, diverse and unified boggles the mind and makes one really appreciate the genius of Antoni Gaudí.  Even if you've never heard of the man, even if you aren't an architecture-buff, by the end of a visit to Barcelona, you will be!  And we were.

Our focus now shifted to tracking down some of Gaudí's other masterpieces.  We ventured to the north side of the city to the Park Güell.  The Park was originally planned by Spain's equivalent of the US's 'Robber Barons' to be a residential 'garden-city', a utopian enclave for the industrial elite.  WWI and a general lack of interest by the bourgeoisie brought an end to that plan while the park complex was still in its infancy.  The park was eventually used for parties and celebrations, and was made a public park in 1922.  UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 1984 and since then, the park has undergone an extensive restoration.  Like the Sagrada Família, the park is filled with surprises: Promenades where you 'surf' under the breaking stone wave, mushroom headed chimneys, colorful mosaic animals, wavy benches, a column-filled marketplace, and fairy-tale buildings of curved rooms and birthday cake roofs.  It's obviously a popular park.  After a stroll around the paths, to the stone Calvary at the top of the hill (Mount Menas) we were ready to sit, relax and people watch.  But there wasn't a spare seat on the 110m undulating bench that surrounds the large square above the columned marketplace!  Vendors, musicians, groups of young people and families spread and sprawled everywhere in the park.  The view over Barcelona is gorgeous!  Green parrots flit from palm tree to palm tree, and doves peck at leftover crumbs around the benches.   It's both a relaxing and energetic place where one can discover new nooks, crannies and details with every visit.

From there, we headed for the Casa Milá -yet another of Gaudí's truly inspired works.  It's commonly called 'La Pedrera' or the Stone Quarry - a very fitting name given its right-out-of-Bedrock appearance.  Certainly Hanna or Barbera must have gotten the inspiration for 'the Flinstones' after a visit to this building!  This is an 8-story apartment block has no straight walls anywhere!  The building wends around two circular courtyards, the apartments wrapping around it - a window-lined hallway wraps around looking into the courtyard, while each room looks out over the streets of Barcelona from wave-like walls with seaweed balcony rails.  The rooftop is a surreal walk over waves, up and down short stairways, through arches and around sculptured chimneys and airducts known as 'espantabruixes' or witch-scarers.  Again, the imagination and exotic forms attest to Gaudí's unique brilliance as an architect and artist.

Everything about Barcelona, from the energy of the waterfront, to the evening throngs of La Rambla with its eclectic mix of souvenir shops, galleries, markets, 'adult stores' (including the Museu de l' Erotica, which we had to visit - early 20^th c 'porn' films are just too funny!) to the delicious tapas is appealing and invites you to explore a little bit more, and a little bit farther afield, and a little deeper.   It's a great city.

Sailing the Aegean

The Aegean Sea: Sun, sand, warm breezes and clear blue waters, or, as Homer more accurately described it, "The wine dark sea."  Throw in some ancient ruins, modern cities, phenomenal food and a welcoming crew that cater to your every need and that was our perfect sailing adventure in Turkey with Azure Odyssey (www.azureodyssey.com). 

Matt and I, along with our friends Todd, Donna, Nadine and Ted, started and ended our adventure at the Su Hotel in the bustling seaside resort town of Bodrum on the southwest coast of Turkey.   We were picked up at the Bodrum airport by the hotel van for the 30 minute drive into town.  Our excitement grew as we passed palm trees and resorts, crested the hill into downtown Bodrum and wound our way through narrow streets and dark alleys.  Our excitement changed to concern when our driver parked and we proceeded on foot down a bustling, narrow side street and into a dark alley.  Where was he taking us?  When we opened the gate into the courtyard of The Su Hotel (www.suhotel.net), we knew - paradise!

The Su Hotel is a group of beautiful, bright white Mediterranean-style buildings just a few blocks from the waterfront, but hidden away from everything by vine-covered walls.  It's an oasis of tropical vegetation - hibiscus, bougainvillea, golden trumpets and palm trees.  The hotel cat greeted us and led us into the main courtyard, where the invitingly lit pool sparkled and begged to be swum in.   The buildings and rooms are trimmed in bright, primary colors.  Turkish mirrors, plates, pictures, amphorae and urns line the walls, enticing you to explore every nook and cranny.   The dining area is a large courtyard with comfy cushioned seats and benches around long white tables.  The delicious aromas coming from the kitchen were fully matched by the great food that followed.  The staff made us feel right at home, except Matt doesn't get service and food quite this good at home!   

There are great sites all around Bodrum.  We explored the bazaar for spices, clothes, plates, tapestries and beautiful materials, pillow-covers and bedspreads.  Vendors sell fresh seafood along the waterfront, and there are loads of treasures to be found in little shops down all the twisty alleys.  The bright, intricate designs of the pottery drew us into Vivaldi, a shop specializing in pottery and ceramics using traditional techniques and designs, as well as exploring new methods and patterns (www.vivaldiceramics.com).  The Bodrum Castle sits prominently looking over the harbor and we spent most of a day exploring its collections on history, culture, shipwrecks, and art. 

As great as the shopping and sightseeing in Bodrum are, the focus of our trip was our cruise.  Azure Odyssey has a fleet of four traditional Turkish sailing vessels (gullets) ranging in size from 19 to 30 meters that can comfortably accommodate 12 to 18 people (2 per cabin), depending on which vessel you choose.   Our fantastic crew - Captain Yavuz, Sailor Mustafa, and Cook Comhur - welcomed us about the Azure Dolunay, a 22 meter gullet with six passenger cabins (each with its own head).  Once aboard and settled into our cabins, we headed out to sea.

Azure Odyssey has a helpful and detailed web site that lets you plan out your own itinerary, selecting archaeological and historic sites, natural areas for snorkeling, swimming or hiking, or whatever your interests are.  We weren't that motivated, so we let the crew know what we were interested in (a little bit of everything, but not too much of it), and left the planning up to them.  We were lucky to have the boat's owner, Darlene, with us.  She's from Endwell, NY (small world!) and we worked together at NOAA in Charleston for a while.  She'd told me about Turkey back then, and I've wanted to go on this cruise ever since.  She answered all our questions about history and culture, food, language, people, the boat, shopping, sightseeing and everything else we could think - a real bonus for us!  

Our five day cruise took us around Gökova Bay.  We visited secluded coves at Oraklar Island, Tekerek Harbour and Tuzla Bay for snorkeling and hiking, a small island with ancient ruins and a white, sandy beach (Sedir Island, also known as Cleopatra's Beach), and a tiny harbor town (one store and a few houses) that served as a departure point for an overland trip to the busy port town of Marmaris for shopping and sightseeing.  We kept up a relaxing daily schedule of eating, snorkeling, eating, hiking, eating, swimming, eating, occasional dancing, and more eating.  Each morning started with our wonderful crewman, Mustafa, bringing us coffee, followed by breakfast.  After only a day or two, we were plotting ways to lure Comhur back to Germany with us so we could continue to eat the great meals and snacks he prepared.  What a cook!

Although the snorkeling in this area doesn't offer the abundance of marine life found in the Caribbean or other sailing destinations, we did see a variety of fish, eels, urchins and lots of fried-egg jellyfish (Cotylorhiza tuberculata) .  These jellyfish are a yellow with an orange circle in the center, thus their name.   Unlike most jellyfish, they don't have stinging cells and are active swimmers, moving to sunny areas to keep the algae that live in their tissues happy.  We also spotted a brightly colored Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), yellow wag tails (Motacilla flava) and other common sea birds (gulls, cormorants and heron), and a flock of geese that made their home along the docks in one harbor.  Sadly, the most abundant thing we found snorkeling was trash - newspapers, cans and bottles and potato chip bags.  Darlene is on a single-handed mission to clean up the waters they sail and returned from each snorkeling trip with a bag or two of garbage she'd collected. We occasionally tore ourselves out of our food-induced lethargy and picked up a can or two in support of her efforts, too.

Our best wildlife spot of all was Badem, a Mediterranean Monk Seal, one of the most endangered mammals in the world.   Badem was found along the coast in December 2006 when she was 4-6 weeks old.  She'd been separated from her mother, she was rescued and cared for by Underwater Research Society – Mediterranean Seal Research Group (SAD-AFAG, in its Turkish acronym).  A local businessman, Mustaca Koç, and his family, covered most of the rehabilitation cost of the orphaned seal and have led efforts to ensure residents, boat crews and visitors help ensure the future of Badem and the remaining monk seals in the region.   The Turkish Coast Guard and SAD-AFAG monitor Badem's movements and try to minimize interactions between Badem and people so that she'll more quickly adapt back to her natural way of life.  Badem has other ideas.  She's decided that people have better sleeping accommodations than rocky beaches and frequently jumps into the dinghies of anchored boats for her afternoon nap!  She also likes to play with snorkelers.  The boat crews help the protection efforts by letting their passengers know not to approach or try to touch Badem, she is, after all, a wild animal and will bite if threatened.  But, she has no qualms in going for a ride as she showed us when we met her in Tuzla Bay where she was napping in a neighboring vessel's dinghy.  The captain rowed her over to our boat so we could ooh and aah and take pictures while she slept on.  It's illegal to approach her, touch her, feed her or harass her in any way, but she sure makes it difficult not to!   (For more information on Badem, go to:  www.monachus-guardian.org/news/pdf/badem_brosur.pdf)

 All in all, we had a fantastic time and learned many valuable lessons.  Todd won't drink his bourbon starting at 9 a.m., Lynne won't drink turkish coffee ever, Matt won't dance with Comhur, Ted will get a bigger lens, and Nadine and Donna will try to avoid men with big lenses!  And we'd all HIGHLY recommend a blue cruise with Azure Odyssey to all of our friends!

Merry Christmas - or whatever the nearest holiday is to when this finally gets out! 

 
Matt and Lynne are humbugs this year - we're both sick and the holiday spirit didn't want to catch it, so passed us by!  We just finished our holiday shopping, still have gifts to ship, and haven't even begun to think of Christmas cards, but we want to let all of our friends and family know that we're thinking of you!

We've had a crazy-busy year.  Since we're down to our last 5 months or so in Europe, we're trying to fit in as much traveling as possible around the general chaos of Matt's life with SPAWAR-Europe and his second office move in just over a year and Lynne's coaching and teaching for UMUC.  Matt has become the 'official team photographer" for the Stuttgart Piranhas - you can see pics of the team at:http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuttgart_piranhas/

This year we checked off a few more places from our list and got to 2 more continents - Asia and Africa.  In between lots of day trips around Germany, we also hit: the Dolomites in northern Italy for a ski trip, a week skiing and exploring Chamonix, France and Mt. Blanc (the tallest peak in western Europe) in February and March, Athens, Greece in March, Bodrum, Turkey for a sailing trip in September, Spain (Barcelona and Rota/Seville) and Tanger, Morocco in November.   Lynne keeps saying she'll add something about these trips and photos to the blog, but that hasn't happened, yet!  There are loads of pictures from these at Matt's flicker site:

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/drobnikm/

Ryan and Kelly came to visit after their graduation from SUNY-Oswego in May.  We had a great time visiting castles (Neuschwannstein, Hohenzollern and Hohenwerfen), hiking in the Black Forest, exploring the largest ice caves in the world in Werfen, and following in the steps of the Sound of Music in Salzburg, Austria.  The time flew by far too fast, but it was a wonderful visit.

Lynne headed to the states for a few weeks to visit friends and family in Charleston and New York.  The weather there wasn't any better than in Germany, but it was nice to see everyone and spend time with her family, especially the nieces, nephews, and Ryan.

Spike and Spooky continue to love their lives in Germany.  Spike has made friends with all the neighbors and their dogs - despite the "Bisschinger Hund" (biting dog) signs at the gates.  And Spooky still likes to wander into strange houses and yards so we always meet new neighbors through him.  Spike's tumor on his hind leg has returned and is growing fairly quickly, so we don't know if he'll be with us for another year.  We're doing everything we can to pamper and spoil him and he's taking full advantage of it!

Lynne has had 2 stories selected for publication - both due out in January.  One is a short fiction piece (The Visit, in Skylines Literary Magazine) and the other is a creative non-fiction essay (Desperately Seeking Joe, in The Painted Door).  Neither is a paying venue, so Matt isn't going to retire just yet - but, it's a start!

That's our year in a nutshell.  We hope you've had a happy, healthy 2007 and wish you and your family a wonderful 2008!

Love,

Matt, Lynne, Spike and Spooky

Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson

 Einstein.  We all know the wild-haired genius who sparked a physics revolution.  Using previously unavailable personal correspondence, Isaacson draws a complex portrait of Einstein that goes beyond the well-known image of an unconventional thinker, to show an imperfect man who struggled with family, career, politics, and moral questions.

 This biography deftly intertwines science with personal anecdotes to give a clear and very human portrait of Albert Einstein.  The science is presented in clear, concise descriptions, similar to Einstein's own "thought experiments" that make it easily understandable. 

 Einstein's scientific success is due to resistance to conformity.  "A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of the truth," he wrote in 1901.  His aversion to lock-step acceptance of commonly held beliefs led to the most important breakthroughs in the history of science.  Yet, as a Jew in Europe, he struggled to succeed professionally amid a society and colleagues firmly entrenched in obedience to authority, rote learning, and strong nationalism.  The book delves into the personal and public conflicts Einstein faced due to his views on war and politics: issues that resonate strongly in today's world making this a very relevant and timely read.      

My next 'success' was in a short-story competition, the Weekender Challenge.  The 'challenge' was that the topic and specific entry details were unknown.  These were sent to entrants at 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning and the entry was due by 9 p.m. Sunday.  The topic was "Falling."  Entries had a 1200 word limit.  I placed fifth, with an honorable mention with "The Visit".

UPDATE:  'The Visit' has been accepted for publication in SkyWriter's winter edition!  It's an on-line and limited print literary  magazine - so, now I'm a published writer! 
UPDATE TO THE UPDATE:  I just learned that something that's been published on a blog is considered 'published', so I'm not supposed to post it here if it's published elsewhere!  So, 'The Visit' can be found in the winter edition of Sky Line Review.  http://newyorkskylinereview.com/index.htm

 TWO MORE WRITING 'VICTORIES'!

My creative non-fiction essay, 'Desperately Seeking Joe' is published on-line at The Painted Door: Stories Plain and Simple.
http://www.att.net/p/s/community.dll?ep=16&groupid=58114&ck=

AND, a travel article I wrote on our sailing trip in Turkey will be published in the Travel Section of the Stars and Stripes (European edition) on Thursday, Feb 21, 2008.  This is a double victory - some of Matt's photos from the trip will be published with the story!  This is a modified version of what appears above in this blog.

ANOTHER SUCCESS!

My creative nonfiction essay, "The Lost Art of Funerals" will be published in Vanguard Press's 'The Battered Suitcase' in July 08! 

RYAN’S AND KELLY’S VISIT (photos to come)

The Graduate

My stepson Ryan graduated from SUNY Oswego on May 24. He has a business degree and starts his first “real” (full-time, permanent) job in August. What a shock – not that he graduated, but that he grew up. When I think of Ryan, I still see eight-year old Ryan in fake Oakley shades and Tevas, strutting down the boardwalk at Rehoboth Beach, or three year-old Ryan walking out to the end of the diving board at the old YMCA, telling everyone, “back up” then doing a perfect somersault. We’d watched Greg Louganis in the Olympics the night before.

Now he’s a young man, but he still has the same shy smile and the same wry and a bit sarcastic sense of humor that he had as an eight-year old. He just has them attached to a grown-up body (as Emmaline told her mother, “He’s buff”) and a deep voice. His poise floors me. I wonder where he got that?

I’m so excited for him. He’s at such a wonderful and exciting time in his life. I would never go back to high school. What a horrible time. And as much fun as college is, it’s a stop on the road, a place to grow and learn and prepare for what’s next. Ryan is now at the ‘what’s next.’ THIS really is the best time of his life. This is where he will really blossom as he continues on the journey of becoming who he will be. But now he’ll be fully in charge of that process for himself and as an adult, he will be more aware of that process than ever before.

Visiting Germany

Matt and I were lucky and had a two-week visit with Ryan and his girlfriend Kelly to celebrate their graduation. I haven’t seen Ryan since our visit to New York in December 2004, before moving to Germany. We e-mail and I’ll occasionally call him, but with the time difference and calling to a cell phone, that isn’t very frequent. The last time I saw him, he was still working out what he wanted to do with his life. He was narrowing in on his major and getting ready to move to Oswego. What a change those two plus years made. He's a confident, capable adult, still unjaded by too much of the work-a-day grind.  His zest for life and learning and new experiences is beautiful to see.  

Arrival

I picked Ryan and Kelly up at the airport on Wednesday morning. Matt and I were expecting the jet lag to kick in, so didn’t plan anything for that day. I was going to put them to bed and do errands, but the adrenaline kept them going so they opted to join me on a trip to the on-base travel agent to see about their Eurail Passes. After that, the adrenaline wore off and the jet lag kicked in. It was a low-key night and next morning (they slept until noon).

When I haven’t seen Ryan for a while, I always wonder “will it be awkward?” and “has he outgrown his ex-stepmom?” I worry that my role in his life will someday end. Then I see him and he’s my baby boy all over again: all grown up, but still my baby boy. The years and miles that separate us disappear and are made irrelevant by everything else we’ve been through together and the fact that he is my Ryan.

This was my first time meeting Kelly. I was a bit nervous about that, too. Would I like her? Would she like me? Does it matter if either of us does or not? Within minutes of meeting her, all my anxiety disappeared. She’s great – very outgoing, adventurous, and pleasant. She’s also very pretty. She has long, wavy dark hair, beautiful big brown eyes framed by long, dark eyelashes, and perfect, white teeth in a gorgeous smile.

In very short order I discovered that Kelly and I share some traits – probably not my best, but I found it funny! Within minutes of arriving at our house, she’d spread out, was leaving things around and generally made herself at home! I found that quite endearing, knowing I have that tendency myself. She also carried a stain-stick with her and had frequent cause to use it. Hmmmm . . . . sounds like someone else I know! (OK, I’m not prepared enough to carry a stain-stick, although I know I’d have to use it all the time!). She could also be just a little clutzy, like me. Nothing big, just small things that I do all the time – little spills, drops, misses that come from wanting to get everything in NOW! I really liked her. And I really liked her relationship with Ryan. Very different from the last girlfriend of his that I met – much more mature and relaxed. They both seem interested in having their own lives and selves figured out before being too tightly knit as a couple. Maybe Ryan learned something from my bad example(s)?

Once they’d rallied a bit, we took the train to downtown Stuttgart, strolled along Koenig Strasse, grabbed a snack at a bakery then loaded up on treats for dinner at the Markthalle. We wandered back through the plazas (Rathaus Platz, Schiller Platz and Schloss Platz) and the gardens to the train station, taking pictures in all the fountains and ponds along the way. The weather was perfect for fountain dipping – sunny and hot! That night, the jet lag kicked in again and we made it another early night.

The Long Weekend of Castles and Caves

Hohenzollern

Matt took off work on Friday to make it an extra long weekend (Monday was Memorial Day and he took Tuesday off, too). On Friday, we headed south on Route 27 to Hohenzollern. That was the first castle Matt and I went to after we arrived here, and we hadn’t been back since. It’s dramatic setting and its rich history, right up to today, makes it a great “introductory castle.” First, there’s the steep ascent up the path along the hillside, then the winding, concentric paths through each of the three gates leading to the main courtyard, then the castle itself. The whole ordeal of getting to the inner portions of the castle builds the excitement. We did the tour (in German, so we mostly looked around and made up our own stories for each room), stopped in the courtyard biergarten and headed back down the hill. We stopped in the field along the road at the base of the hill for our first picnic. It was a marvelous “welcome to Germany” day!

Black Forest

On Saturday we headed west into the Black Forest. We went to the outdoor museum in Gutach where they have examples of all the different farmhouse styles in the Black Forest from different times. It was my first time there – Matt came with his parents when I was sick or at swim practice of something. The old thatched-roof buildings with small windows and barns adjacent or above the living area were fascinating. After a “fast-food” lunch at the biergarten there, we went into Triberg, saw the world’s largest cuckoo clock (although just missed its cuckoo), and hiked up the highest waterfall in Germany. The weather was really being cooperative and we had another day of sunshine and warm weather.

Neuschwannstein Castle

On Sunday we drove southeast to Fussen and Castle Neuschwannstein – crazy King Ludwig’s Fairytale Castle (and the reputed inspiration for Disney’s Cinderella’s castle). We started with a picnic by the lake. This time, we had much better weather for it and were able to sit out on the grass, feed the swans, and people watch for a bit. Then we took the kamakazi bus to Mariebrucken and took a few pictures of the castle from there (not many – neither Ryan nor Kelly were too keen on standing out over the gorge on the tourist-jammed bridge!) We toured the castle, oohed and aahed at its splendor then headed back home. The rain that started to threaten after our picnic held off until we were on the road, so again, we were luck with the weather.

Hohenwerfen

We headed west to Austria for an overnight trip on Monday-Tuesday. First, we went to Hohenwerfen. This was our second visit and now I’m sure it’s my favorite castle. There was a “medieval festival” in the courtyard with games for kids and a show. Ryan and Kelly both tried there hands at archery – and Kelly got a bulls eye on her first shot! We watched the show (choreographed fighting), took the castle tour and raced for the bird show. The falconry demonstration was spectacular although Matt was disappointed they didn’t bring the owl out (the wind picked up a lot during the show and it began to downpour within a few minutes of it ending). After a visit to the biergarten (of course!) we took the funicular back down to the parking lot and headed to Bischofshofen to find our hotel.

The Schutzenhaus and Hotel Post in Bischofshofen are owned by the same family. The buildings are on two sides of a small square and are wonderfully “typical” Austrian Gasthauses. The rooms were HUGE and the both hotels were immaculate. (We were in the Hotel Post). After a walk around town, we went to the Schutzenhaus restaurant for dinner. There weren’t many other choices since it was also a German/Austrian holiday AND a Monday, when lots of stuff closes anyway. Dinner was great – very traditional German/Austrian with HUGE portions. After dinner, Ryan, Kelly and I got biers to go and continued talking in the lobby outside our rooms (until another guest asked us to keep it down!)

In the middle of the night, Matt and I were wakened by what sounded like keys at the door or dropping. We ignored it and it stopped: for a few minutes. When it started up again we realized it was a tapping at the window. Ryan and Kelly went out after we went to bed and the front door was locked! They’d found a Pakistani-owned pizza place with a pool table and darts and hung out there until they closed!

Eisriesenwelt (Ice Giants’ World)

Tuesday morning was gray, drizzly and cold. It didn’t matter since we were going into te world’s larges ice caves where the temperature always hovers at around 0 celsius. After a long, twisty, windy ride up a steep hill on the Tenenbirge (the Alpine Mountain the caves are in) we arrived at the parking lot. The sign said we had a 20 minute walk, 3 minute gondola ride (on the steepest gondola in Austria), followed by another 20 minute walk to the cave entrance. It had better be worth it!

It is! I can’t believe we haven’t heard more people rave about this place! Maybe the walking puts them off. We walked at a very leisurely pace and it was really only about 15 minutes for each part. When we got off the cable car we’d entered a winter wonderland: snow everywhere! It made for a fun walk up the hill, although visibility was nil for most of it. The caves themselves are beyond description. Wooden stairs and walkways let you get over and up the steeply rising tubes and paths that twist through the mountain. The only thing it compares to is the animated caves in “Ice Age.” That’s almost EXACTLY what we walked through! We only covered a small portion of the 40 km caves, but walked up 790 steps and then back down as many along a parallel route to get back to the mouth of the cave. It was truly amazing. We couldn’t take pictures inside the cave, so bought postcards and books with photos from inside. As marvelous as they are, the real thing is truly awesome – not in the teeny-bopper, I can’t think of another word sense of awesome, but in the “no words can describe this” meaning of ‘awesome.’

Off On Their Own

Wednesday was a recover and prepare day. Ryan and Kelly were heading off by train to explore more of Europe, specifically Berlin, Amsterdam and Paris. On Thursday morning, I took the train with them to the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof and waved as they left the station on the direct ICE train that would take them to Berlin. That trip is their story to tell, but it sounds like they had a great time. They came back together and still talking to each other, so I guess things must have gone well!

Wilhemina Zoo

Ryan and Kelly returned from their five-day adventure on Tuesday morning. They took the train right back in to Wendlingen, then fell asleep for most of the morning. That evening we had house guests – Kevin and Emmaline were spending a few days with us while Karla was in the hospital.

The next morning I really showed our company a good time – I took them to the hospital where Kevin and Emmaline spent some time before school visiting their mother. After dropping them off, we stopped at the Ritter Sport Factory Outlet to buy chocolate for presents (I did most of the buying to stock up for my upcoming trip). Then we had lunch at the pub in Wendlingen’s Marktplatz. (It was delicious – Matt and I have to do that sometime!) Then we finally made our way up route 10 to the zoo. We waited about ten minutes so we could get the reduced evening rate that started at 4 p.m. and then we spent far too much time looking at EVERYTHING! It was a great time to go. The cats were awake, the elephants were inside eating, and the gorilla babies were all wound up! They LOVED Kelly – one kept pounding the glass in front of her. A leopard hissed at us, the boas started climbing around their tree while we were there, the polar bear woke and stood up, and pretty much everything was active (except the brown bear – he was nowhere to be seen). It was a great, although rushed, visit. We had to get back to Patch to meet Matt, Kevin and Emmaline at Kevin’s baseball game (Matt could only take one home in the smart car). We couldn’t have had any better timing – they were just coming off the field when we arrived, and a few minutes later the thunder started.

Although Ryan and Kelly wanted to cook that night, we opted for a meal at the Patriot since we were all tired (and Matt wanted to avoid eating the Spargel we bought that afternoon). So, we had our quesadillas and called it a night.

A Sad Farewell

They left on Thursday morning. Their two weeks here went by far too quickly and it was hard to say good-bye at the airport. I got through it by reminding myself that I'll see them when I visit the US in a few weeks. I’d have loved to have seen more of them, but wanted even more for them to take advantage of their trip to Europe. Who knows when they’ll be back or in a position to travel so freely again. I’m so happy that they did go out and explore on their own and got to experience and interpret so much of their trip without us. As helpful as it is to have a tour guide, it’s more important to draw your own views of a place. They did. And Matt and I hope their view is one that will make them want to come back again!

We spent 5 days in Athens over a long week-end the week before Easter. Athens is a vibrant, exciting city that buzzes with a modern, big-city energy that merges seamlessly with a laid-back, Mediterranean relaxation, and ancient history. I loved that the streets and cafes were always crowded with people on their way to and from somewhere, but not in a hurry (except the tourists on their forced-march paced schedules). Out of everywhere we’ve traveled in Europe so far, Athens is the hands-down winner in the best food category. Every meal but one was fabulous, and the one that was less so was still good. Of course when you’re in Greece you expect the Greek Salads to be good, and they were. The tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, and feta cheese in olive oil tasted like everything was just plucked from the garden when we’d ordered. And it goes without say that the olives were a mandatory and delicious part of every meal!

It’s also a very stray-dog and –cat friendly place – thumbs up to that! We saw loads of stray dogs and cats happily exploring Zeus’ Temple, playing in the parks, and hanging out around the edges (or in the middle) of cafes. We didn’t see any skinny ones, either! They all seemed to know “the rules” to their happy existence, don’t beg too aggressively and everyone will tolerate you, and even feed you. We saw street vendors and pedestrians feed and pet strays, and were even in a line of traffic that stopped when a stray dog at Syntagma Square decided ½ way through the crosswalk that it was far enough. He turned, faced the cars and watched us all sit and wait through the green light. Then he walked back to the side he’d started on and sat down to watch some more! I assume they have some sort of spay/neuter program since we noticed lots of strays with similar collars and tags.

The following chronicles our trip day-by day.

Waking up at 3:30 to get ready and get to the airport on time is just not a fun way to start a vacation. We finally decided that if the only flight available to any future destinations is at 6:00 a.m. we don’t want to go there. But, for this trip, we were on our way.

We’d heard Athens is in the best shape it’s been in years because of the Olympics but that was changing fast. We landed in the new airport where everything was sparkling clean and new, then took the new and spotless train (no eating or drinking allowed!) to the Syntagma station in downtown Athens. Here we started to see some signs that maybe long-term maintenance of the facilities after the Olympics hadn’t been budgeted for. It was cleaner than Naples, but there was relatively new-looking graffiti emerging on every free wall space. Our 3-block walk to the hotel (Hotel Amazon – good location, price, ok breakfast, and the smallest bathroom we’ve ever seen. Matt had to come into the main room to dry off because he couldn’t extend his arms in the bathroom!) gave us a taste of what was to come: jewelry stores, more jewelry stores, some carpet stores, and more jewelry stores; most with fairly aggressive owners and sales people. On day 1 of the trip, and with little sleep, less coffee, and the excitement of a new city, it seemed welcoming; after 2-3 days of it, less so.

After settling in, and discovering the “do not flush toilet paper down the commode – put it in the wastebasket” rule wasn’t just an odd rule at the airport, but at hotels (and EVERYWHERE), too, we headed out to explore and have lunch.

Our first meal was a family-sized Greek salad to share, moussaka for me and a gyro plate for Matt. We randomly chose a small place on the corner of a pedestrian street with outdoor seating based on the “I have to eat NOW” factor” and a very friendly waiter who corralled us in. Good choice! The waiter made great recommendations and also helped us work out pronunciations of some of the words we new we’d be using most – efcharisto (thank-you), parakalo (please and you’re welcome), nai (yes), ochi (no), and me synchoreite (excuse me). We do normally try to have a few more words than that but Greek is, well, Greek. It was so different from English, Spanish or German that we had nothing to tie things with to help remember them (I did remember excuse me by saying “mi senorita”).

You find unexpected bits of history popping out at you anywhere you walk in Athens -- a byzantine church (11th century AD) in the middle of the modern shopping district, the Tower of the Winds (2nd century BC) next to a row of restaurants, the remains of Hadrian’s library (AD 132) next to the flea market stalls. We avoided the Acropolis (as much as one can avoid that hill with the giant, ancient buildings and monuments on top that dominates the city), wanting to be awake and have a full day to explore it. Instead we window shopped (and got dragged in to stores to do more than window-shopping), weaved through streets and alleys with no destination, just discovering by accident, then looking up what we’d found in our guidebooks. We wandered through the National Gardens and around the Temple of Zeus that closed at 3:00 so we added that to our growing list of “for tomorrow”. On our way back to the hotel we passed the Presidential Palace and saw the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. As with the guards outside of St. James Palace in London, what’s most impressive is that they keep their tempers with the insane tourists snapping their photos and trying to distract them.

We made a point of napping every day so that we could go out to eat at a “civilized” time of 8:30 or 9 (still early by their standards). We found a square in Monastiriki that was surrounded by 4 restaurants, each with its own territory in the square. We picked one and had another wonderful meal that included olives, a Greek Salad and a Cretan salad (salsa on toast with feta cheese), souvlaki and salmon. We roamed about exploring the city at night, when all the monuments are lit up and the streets are thronged with people strolling and exploring. Despite our best efforts to be cosmopolitan and make a late night of it (and for us, it was a success), we were still back in the hotel, ready for bed by 11:00.

Day 2 was the Agora and Acropolis day. The Agora is beautiful and intriguing. The small museum with site artifacts and history kept us busy for longer than we anticipated, but it could’ve been longer. The Hephaisteion, an ancient temple built in around 440 BC was magnificent, but only a hint of what was to come when we got to the Parthenon. All throughout the Agora, foundations of old public buildings, latrines, and remains of the sewer system are interspersed with interpretive signs, pieces of columns, and statues. Every few minutes my brain would seize up with the thought “this has been here for 2400 years!” And the basic lay-out has been preserved and we know what buildings were where, their design and use, and even details about the inhabitants lives from items found in the area and in graves around the site. It boggles and amazes.

We then walked up the hill to the Acropolis and continued to be amazed and dumbfounded by it all. Truth be told, I was more impressed by the Hephaisteion than the Parthenon, but I’m sure that’s due to the scaffolding that covered the latter and all the workmen swarming it in preservation and restoration efforts! Afterwards we walked down the other side of the Acropolis, had lunch in Makrygianni and went back to the Temple of Zeuss (for 10 minutes, until it closed on us at 3 again).

That night we found a rooftop restaurant (Sissiforos) up some stairs in an alley in Plaka and had the most amazing dinner of the week. I had lamb that was slow-roasted all day, served with potatoes (and of course, a Greek salad). It was the most tender, succulent, amazing meat I’d ever tasted, well-seasoned without being too salty or seasoned. We had a view of the Acropolis and the Erectheion (temple that was a sanctuary for both Poseiden and Athena, on the site where the two Gods battled for possession of the city), under a starlit sky, on top of Athens. How cna you go wrong with a setting like that?

Day 3 we went to the National Archaeological Museum – a full day’s worth of things to see and read and just absorb it all (or as much as you can until you’re entirely overwhelmed and your brain just can’t take anymore!) Especially fascinating were the finds from a shipwreck that included a mechanical instrument that researchers suspect is something like an astrolabe. Until this, it was thought that the ancient Greek mariners hadn’t used complex instruments in navigation. Incredible display on how they x-rayed the portions they found, then recreated the instrument.

Of course we had another great meal that night. We were getting a bit full from all the eating, so we went to Hermion (located in an alley in Monastiriki) and shared an appetizer plate that let us sample a bit of everything – stuffed grape leaves, spinach pie, hummus, tatziki, Melitzanosalad (eggplant), octopus, and fried cheese.

Sunday was flea market day, and free-entry to all the museums and archaeological sites. Boy, are we glad we didn’t wait for THAT to go to the sites and museums. They were literally crawling with people! The flea market wasn’t any less crowded, but that’s the atmosphere we expected there. It was fun to wander around the alleys and check out the antique stores, gift shops, and stands. The sales-pitches could get a bit high-pressure, but most of them backed-off as soon as you said a definite “not interested.” After that we walked through Monastiriki and then up Filopappos hill to the monument of Philopappus. The area was lively with vendors and outdoor cafes, and it was a sunny, warm spring day, so there was lots of activity everywhere. The path to the monument goes through a beautiful hillside part of town along the side of the Hill of the Nymphs. From the monument we had spectacular views of Athens and the Acropolis.

Matt was starting to fade by that evening (the never-ending flu). So we grabbed a quick dinner at the small diner nearest out hotel. That would be the “ok” meal. The stuffed pepper and tomato weren’t bad, but it just didn’t stack up to all the other fantastic meals we’d eaten.

Monday was my favorite day of all! We rented a car and drove to Cape Sounio to see the Temple of Poseiden high up on a bluff overlooking the sea. It was a warm, sunny day and the drive down the coast offered some great views, and interesting towns. The temple was spectacular. Incredible white stone and marble columns perched above the sea, with purple and yellow flowers growing up in and around it, all set against an incredibly blue Mediterranean sky made it picture-perfect. That, and we had great timing, arriving as one busload of tourists left and before 3-4 more arrived! We had the hilltop almost to ourselves. This monument, without crowds, without scaffolding (although with a rope barrier to keep overly zealous tourists from climbing on it) felt ancient. Even the graffiti was old (we found names and dates back to 1800 carved into some of the fallen pillars strewn about the site ).

After dropping off the rental car we wandered through Plaka and into Anafiotika, one of the oldest neighborhoods around the Acropolis. We “found” the monument of Lysikrates (334 BC). There were more of these monuments, but this is the last remaining in Athens. They were built to commemorate victors in an annual choral and drama festival at the Theatre of Dionysus. Since we had to wake up early to get to the airport, we broke with Athenian ways and had dinner at a restaurant near the statue (Dionysus, I think) at about 6:30 p.m. We also opted to try a Caesar salad, rather than the Greek salads we’d had at almost every meal, again split an appetizer plate, and shared a stew of lamb and potatoes cooked in a terracotta pot. Another fabulous meal, followed by an early bedtime and all too early wake-up call for the return flight!

Matt warned me about Naples – within an hour of arriving he’d phoned me to say “If I ever say “let’s go to Naples." Just say no!” The taxi ride from the airport to the hotel about did him in. In the space of that short drive they 1) played chicken with a police car, 2) went the wrong way down a 1-way street, 3) forced the car coming the right way down that street to veer away from them and hit a garbage dumpster, and 4) used the sidewalk and pedestrian/bike lane as a car lane.

So when the swim team was heading to Naples for the long-distance meet in November, Matt was a bit hesitant. But, I talked him into it (how bad can it be, spending 2 days at a pool watching kids swim back-and-forth for 16, 32 or 60 lengths?) With 2 days taken up at the pool on a US military base (Capodichino), we really had only 1 day and 2 nights to explore any of the city and surrounding area. Pompeii was high on the list, and we found a Monday night USO tour of “Naples at Night.”

On our first free night we sent all the swimmers to one room and ordered them pizzas so that the parents could go downtown. We piled 13 of us into 3 taxis and headed into downtown Naples.

If I ever say I want to go to Naples, Just say No! Matt was ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!! What an experience! The 3 taxis raced in and out of traffic, horns blowing, hands waving, and us swaying and sliding back and forth across the seats, trying to hold on! Becky, who gets car sick on winding roads had to lay across some laps in the back seat. Not that the road itself was winding, just the driving! After a few translation snafus and 2 attempts to drop us off nowhere near where we intended to go, we made it to the waterfront and had a great meal. The taxi driver did remind us to keep our wallets and purses close, and don’t let any jewelry show – he wasn’t the first, nor the last to remind us of how bad crime is in Naples.

Naples visit recommendation #1 – take a taxi ride anywhere! It’s better than a rollercoaster ride for getting the adrenaline pumping!

On our free day we took the bus and train to Pompeii. The pictures and stories from History and Latin classes don’t do it justice. It’s incredible! They’ve been excavating it for 300 years and there’s still more to go!! Many of the houses are shops are so well preserved that the painted murals and tile mosaics on the floors are still clearly visible! The plaster casts of the bodies that were buried in the lava are eerie and moving. More than any other site we’ve seen in Europe, the tour and audio-guide here brought it all very clearly and gut-wrenchingly to life.

Naples recommendation #2 – spend 2-half days at Pompeii, and another at Herculaneum. There’s a lot to see and it gets a bit overwhelming trying to see it all in just one day, especially if you want to hear everything on the audio-guide, and it’s all worth listening to!

The USO tour on our second free night gave us a chance to experience driving in Naples again – oh boy! This time from a 7 passenger van. We got to experience the twisty, windy alleys and side streets that run up to the castle overlooking the city – some of them couldn’t possibly have really been meant for vehicular traffic!! The tour and history of Naples was interesting and a good way to get a quick overview in and see some of the more interesting spots in downtown Naples. As someone told Matt, Naples is “the most beautiful dirty city in Europe.”

I can’t say I’d put Naples high on my list of “must see places” in Europe, or even in Italy. But I would put Pompeii on that list. Matt also enjoyed Capri when he was there for work, so that and the Amalfi coast are some other reasons to head to Naples. The people I know who’ve been stationed there have either loved it or hated it. There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground. In that, and many other respects, it reminded me a lot of Puerto Rico – another beautiful place that’s dirty, has too much traffic, too many bad drivers, and too much crime! It’s a nice place to visit, but once is enough!

LIGHTS! MUSIC! ACTION!

We took our second trip to London over the long Thanksgiving weekend so that we could see the stage version of Monty Python’s Holy Grail, "Spamalot", while Tim Curry was still starring as King Arthur.

What a fabulous show!!! If any of you has the chance to catch it, DO!! Yes, Tim Curry was spectacular – a bit older, and more “filled out” than I was expecting (from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hunt for Red October, Clue, and other movies that I realized are all a few years old!), but he's even better with age! He was fantastic, but with material like that it would be as side-splittingly funny no matter who played the lead! The Lady of the Lake is a fabulous role, too, and the actress who played her was over-the-top brilliant as an over-the-top seductress! By mid-way through the play the audience was primed and we’d all start to laugh as soon as she stepped onto the stage!

I really had some doubts about how the movie could ever be adapted for the stage, but they, or he (Eric Idle) did it and if anything, made it even funnier than the movie! It had everything the movie had, plus a few additional Monty Python bits, an incredible set, and all the zaniness of the Pythons, plus audience participation (at times, quite unexpectedly, at others, spontaneously!), and more!

That alone would’ve made the trip worth it (we were tempted to get tickets for the next day’s matinee to see it again, but since we’d already booked a tour to Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath, we didn’t. I almost think it would’ve been worth the missed tour to see the show again).

It was gray, overcast, and sloppy all day as we did a “forced-march” bus tour of Windsor Castle – nice, big, ooh-la-la, we’re walking through the same rooms as the royal family, a few minutes in the gift shop, and move on the next stop . . . lunch at the second oldest pub in England (aren’t they all?), yummm, take a few minutes to buy the souvenir t-shirts and caps, and back on the bus, on to Stonehenge, and out into the gale-force winds and monsoon rains for a quick walk on the boardwalk surrounding the stone plinths – can’t get too close or touch them now that it’s a World Heritage site, damn graffiti artists ruined it for everyone – then a few minuites in the gift shop, and back to the bus (this time thankful to be rushed out of the rotten weather!), and on to Bath, quick walk around the old town, a few minutes to do some souvenir shopping, then an after-hours tour of the old Roman Baths, a champagne reception and the long drive back to London. Yes, one of THOSE kind of tours. Herd the cattle from place to place, keep them moving, don’t get off the well-beaten path of the billions before you, the schedule dictates all, and the schedule includes lots of gift shop stops! But, it did let us see the additional sites that we wanted to without the insanity of driving on the left from the right side of the car with a gearshift that runs from 1st to 5th, top left to top right as in American cars (shouldn't it go the other way - top right to top left since the driving is on the other side?!!)

We also went up (or around) in the London Eye, and watched the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace on this trip. We spent a much more leisurely day than we had on our first visit, just wandering around London without the rush of thinking we'll see "everything." We saw what we wanted to and that was plenty. All we're missing now is a "Harry Potter" tour of London and Scotland (although we did get to Kings Cross Station and the London Zoo on our first trip so have done part of that!)

It’s a great city; one that we could keep going back to again and again and never get bored. But, our list of “must see” cities is growing too long for us to make too many repeat trips . . . at least for now! So, that was probably our last London visit. Next on the list – Naples!

I (Lynne) had to go to Berlin for the swim team's Divisional meet over President Day’s weekend (January 27-28). Matt opted not to go because “there’s nothing to do in Berlin.” This assessment was based on the fact that Berlin was destroyed at the end of WWII, therefore, what could there possibly be to see in the CAPITAL OF GERMANY?

After arriving late on Saturday and spending all day Sunday (7:30 a.m. til 6:30 p.m.) at the pool, followed by a group dinner at the Greek restaurant by the hotel, I was looking forward to spending my one free day, Monday, exploring the city.

First stop was Checkpoint Charlie – the point where east met west, face-to-face for about 40 years. A guardhouse stands in the middle of the street, under a billboard with the images of a young Russian and American soldier on the west-, and east-facing sides, respectively. Next to this is the sign with the (in)famous words “You are leaving the American Sector” written in English, Russian, French and German.

The Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie sits next to the guardhouse and my “quick stop” here turned into a 4 hour visit. My trip to Dresden with the Schwimm Verein probably had a big influence on why I was so impacted by the displays at this museum (you can read more about that in the entry on the Schwimm Verein), still, it’s hard not to get drawn in to all the stories of escapes, successful and failed, and what people were willing to do to reach freedom. Imagine how horrendous conditions had to be for parents to throw their children over the wall from the upstairs windows of an apartment building next to it in an effort to give them a chance for a better life. The museum also put a human face on “the evil empire” with images and stories of Russian guards who escaped themselves, or turned a blind-eye to those who were escaping. The displays encourage visitors to “see through the uniform” to the military men and women who were doing their job – following orders. Following these orders strictly meant promotion, and violating them could lead to severe punishment. So, most followed orders, but only to the extent needed to avoid punishment; giving up opportunities for advancement to do what was right.

I didn’t expect to be as drawn in to the exhibits as I was. It was fascinating and moving and definitely worth the trip! An exhibit on religious tolerance highlighted all the similar tenets of the world’s main religions. They should have included a section on the Baha’i Faith, since the main point of the display -- that their holy writings and teachings all say the same thing (man's mis-interpretation and implementation are what cause the conflict!) is pretty much what the Baha'i Faith is all about. It was an inspiring display that should be mandatory viewing in all classrooms, Sunday Schools, and churches/temples, etc around the world! Ah, except then what would we possibly fight about?

Onto my next stop – Bebel Platz. This open plaza sits between the old Opera House, St. Hedwig’s Kathedral, the Humboldt University, and the Altes Schloss (Old Palace) and looks like a big empty square. For me, it was one of the most moving memorials of all in a city overflowing with reminders of WWII. A plexiglass window in the middle of the square looks down into a room with empty bookshelves. Bebel Platz was the site of the Nazi’s May 1933 book burning, when some 25,000 books written by authors considered to be “enemies of the Third Reich” were burned. Plaques laid into the ground on either side of the window tell of the event and include a quote from the poet Heinrich Heine: “Where books are burned, in the end people will burn.” The words are even more frighteningly eerie knowing they were written in 1820!!

From here I walked down Unter den Linden, once the “main street” of Berlin. The wide boulevard runs from the Altes Schloss to Brandenburg Gate and was named for the parallel rows of Linden trees that created a canopy over the length of the street. Hitler had the Linden’s removed so that he could parade his tanks and troops there, so today the replanted, young trees aren’t quite as stately as they once were.

I saw the Brandenburg Gate on my way to the Reichstag – ooohh, ahhh, one of those things that you must see while in Berlin, like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It’s an impressive gate in the street with a nice statue on top and makes for good photos, but there’s only so much looking you can do at a gate!

My next stop was the Reichstag building – Germany’s Parliament. This is a beautiful building and the short photo exhibit in the dome makes it worth the wait to get in! During the Weimar Republic (German democratic government after WWI), the extreme right-wing National Socialist (NAZI) party began growing in power (for a wide variety of reasons, primarily discontent over the economy) and eventually won a majority of seats in parliament. In January 1933 a “mysterious” fire destroyed the building. Blaming “terrorists” and using the fear that instilled to manipulate the population and the elected representatives, the Nazi-controlled parliament voted to cede their powers and civil liberties. Adolph Hitler, who had been the Chancellor, was now Dictator. (Are you getting chills reading that . . . see any parallels to modern history? Can you say “Patriot Act”?)

According to the displays, although the Nazis were the majority party in the Bundestag, Hitler wasn’t elected Chancellor until right before the fire and so never actually attended any meetings in the building. After the war, the building grounds were used as a meeting and rallying point for many demonstrations, but the building was still a ruin. In the 80s, it was decided that the building should be restored and the reunified seat of government should move from Bonn to Berlin and the Reichstag (and this was acceptable to everyone since Hitler had never actually used it), and so the building was restored. The dome is a very poignant symbol of democratic government – a circular walkway spirals up the dome around a central column of mirrors that reflect down into the parliament chamber allowing the people to watch over their government and I’m sure reminding elected officials of the proper order of power in a representative democracy. (The rooftop also offers spectacular views of Berlin, and the entire building shows that solar power, energy efficiency, and heat recycling are cost-effective, practical buidling stratgies that can save the government loads of $$ - similar to London's City Hall. Hmmm . . . wonder why we can't do that in the U.S.? Could it be that our engineers are too stupid? I doubt that. I'd have to guess it's that it's too much of a threat to some industries who'd actually have to progress and evolve to do anything that "radical"!!)

My last stop before heading to the airport was the new (opened in May 2005) Holocaust Memorial. This monument to the murdered Jews of Europe is a sprawling field of 2,700 stone slabs on a 19,000 square meter lot near the Brandenburg Gate. It’s a stark and silent labyrinth of tomb-like stones, each one a slightly different size and shape. There are no plaques or symbols anywhere in the field, only the plain stone blocks. The paths between them undulate unevenly so that passage through the area keeps visitors constantly alert, and slightly wary, perhaps reminiscent of the way many in Germany and Berlin felt during the Nazi’s reign.

Everywhere one goes in Berlin, there are reminders of the past, the good and glorious, and the shameful and wrong. Berliners and visitors to the city aren’t allowed to forget (and thereby repeat) past wrongs. Amid all of the “here’s our history in your face – yes, we screwed up!” reminders, there are also the signs of growth and progress and the bold statement that “yes, we acknowledge that, and we have learned from it and will now grow in better ways because we aren’t hiding it, or forgetting it, or pretending it didn’t happen.” It seems that the German’s are facing and embracing their past in a way that allows them to move on, rather than defiantly and proudly clinging to past mistakes under the shameful excuse of “it’s our heritage and we’re proud of it!”

Overall, Berlin was a great city! The people I met and spoke with were very friendly, it’s an amazingly easy city to get around walking and by train and bus, and it has a great mix of metropolitan and small town. There’s a lot more to see and do than I could squeeze into one day, so Matt’s going to have to suck it up and make the trip with me next time!

I won’t talk about my swimming other than to say I SUCK! And I’m too old to get into shape in a month. But the meet itself was loads of fun. Great swimmers, exciting to watch, lots of fun people. Just like masters’ meets in the US.

The really fun and interesting parts of the weekend have to do with the location (the formerly East German city of Dresden) and the group I went with, my masters club – Schwimm Verein (Swim club) Filder-Neckar-Teck. The name covers the 3 areas that team members come from and pools they practice at. I practice in Nuertingen, just down the road from our town. It’s along the Neckar river in the Neckartal (tal = valley). Other members of the team practice at a pool in the town to the east of us, Kirchheim unter Teck, and others in the town near the airport, Filderstadt.

The Neckar contingent of the team rented a van and drove up together. Steffen Winter is the team captain, the membership man, and general, all-around team clown. Practice is never dull with him there throwing people in, splashing, pulling you under during sets, and generally being disruptive. In between all that he actually works hard and is a great swimmer. His crowning feature is his big, loopy handlebar mustache. It’s big, full and bushy, and he finesses it into big curls at the ends. Once it’s wet, it hangs down over his mouth like a walrus’ whiskers. While we all dry our hair after practice, Steffen coifs his mustache back into form under the hair dryers. His head is shaved, so it doesn’t take any time or attention away from the mustache grooming. Steffen has a swimmer’s body – broad shoulders, narrow hips, probably even a flat, 6-pack ab stomach at one time, although that’s filled out a bit. He’s quick with a joke and has the exuberance of a big, overgrown kid about everything. His wife Gabi matches him perfectly. I’ve never seen such a well-paired couple! She’s petite and blonde with a gymnasts body, and can match Steffen joke for practical joke. She’s a teacher and her English is better than Steffen’s, so she helps translate conversations between him and me, although I’m getting better at understanding him. Anyone who’s ever learned a second language will know what I mean – his mustache gets in the way of my understanding him! I take a lot of cues from watching peoples’ mouths when they speak, and with his whiskers blocking my view, I can’t do that! He also talks as fast, if not faster, than me!

Simone Schwarze and her husband, Helmar (Helmi) also came. Helmi was used more sense than I did – he knew enough not to swim, even though he does swim with the team. He’s about as consistent in practice attendance as I am. Simone is wonderful. She’s very sweet and tries hard to communicate with me. Her English is about at the same level that my Deutsch was at when I started swimming. She’s very good about making herself understood with sign-language, too! She reminds me of Corey Dubick – tall, slim, short blonde hair, always positive and upbeat with only good things to say about everyone and everything, and she’s always smiling. We swim in the same lane and are about the same speed. She’s slightly faster on breast, and lots faster on back, I’m faster on free and fly. I suspect she was a very good swimmer in her youth. Now, it’s apparent that she enjoys it, but isn’t interested in committing all her time and energy to it. Swimming good enough is good enough. She’s an especially good sport about her husband. Helmi is a riot! He has typical Irish features, of all things! Red hair, blue eyes, a round, fair-skinned face. I’m sure he had freckles as a boy! He’s also quick with a joke and enjoys everything, and Simone is infinitely amused by his antics. Since he wasn’t swimming, he felt free to drink lots of beer at all meals, eat sweets, and generally NOT do what we all should’ve been doing to prepare for the meet! Helmi’s English is so very good that he can make jokes and puns in English. He’d crack himself up, or Steffen would do that, and he’d laugh so hard he’d snort! Then he’d do a little “chhh, chh, chhh” laugh and the “youngsters” on the team (who all swim in Kirchheim) call him Kermi, for Kermit the Frog.

Those four, I found out, are the “East Germans” or at least they were, until about 20 years ago when the Winters’ moved to the West and the Stuttgart area. The Schwarzes followed a few years later. They’d all been friends in Chemnitz, where they’re from. What a fascinating perspective on Dresden and the east! As we passed a dilapidated, concrete tower, they told me that the tower was part of “The Wall”. We were now in the former GDR, or East Germany, and it was somewhat emotional for the former East Germans to “come home.” They were obviously proud of their home, but its history was painful, and the tower remnants from those years brought back memories of people killed trying to get out, of neighbors spying on neighbors, and constant fear of reprisals for some unknown and unintentional “misconduct”.

We detoured to drive through Chemnitz and passed a series of ugly, concrete, rectangular high-rise apartments, very stark, gray and depressing. They rose up out of an otherwise beautiful wooded area and the air of decay and desperation emanating from them seemed to suck up and overwhelm all the natural beauty of the surrounding forest. When I think of “communists” and “Eastern Bloc” this is what I see in my mind, similar to the outskirts of Prague. Helmi explained that these were built by the Russians to house 8,000 families. The apartments were small, poorly built, and horrible to live in, but under the socialist system, you were given a job, pay, and an apartment. You didn’t ask questions or say “I’d rather do something else, or live somewhere else.” The choice was the government’s to make. And someone, neighbors, family, friends, was always there watching to see if someone stepped out of line, and to report it: such a horrible way to live that thousands risked and gave their lives trying to escape.

Our next stop in town was for lunch at a restaurant that the East Germans were all anxious to get to. It’s spezialitaet? Horse meat! Ugh! I wasn’t overly keen on the idea, but there wasn’t much else on the menu, and they were looking expectantly at me to see what I’d do, so of course, I ordered it. Jaegerschnitzel. Turns out when they make horsemeat into Jaegerschnitzel it’s more like SPAM than any real meat, so I choked most of it down, filled up on potatoes and mushroom sauce, then passed it off to Steffen, who was my unofficial plate cleaner when I couldn’t finish a meal. On that note, this is when I first noticed that everyone, including and especially tiny, petite little Gabi, had cleared and cleaned every scrap of food off their plate (and these were big portions!) and did so when I was less than halfway done with mine. Once the meal came there was no more talking and joking, everyone got right down to business! Even without talking, I couldn’t keep up, and I’m no slouch about food. It was quite impressive!

After lunch we went to the reservoir where Steffen and Helmi were the “Bademeisters” (bathing/swimming masters, or head lifeguards/water front directors). The dam itself was a beautiful old stone wall with a walkway along the top. It was built by the Italians either in 1911 or 111 years ago, I’m not sure which version of the English translation was correct. It was old. So old that it had leaked out most of the water and there was a small grassy pond where there once had been a 14 m deep reservoir with boating and fishing along the dam and a swimming area on the upstream side. It was surrounded by a green, densely wooded area, and we walked down a trail to where their (government provided) house had been. There was only part of the foundation left now. The four reminisced about the wonderful times they’d had their, living at the site as Bademeisters and general caretakers of the park. People were still picnicking, sunning, and playing with their dogs around the waters’ edge, and some young men were rock climbing up the outside wall of the dam, but again, that omnipresent sense of decay surrounded it all. It had been maintained by the government – recreation for the masses who were imprisoned in their ugly, small socialist apartments – but now there were other priorities aimed at creating and improving an economy that took time effort and money away from maintaining a recreation area. It was sad and beautiful at the same time; haunting, I suppose, is the right word.

Then we were back in the van and “ready for take off”, as Steffen says, to Dresden.

So, back to describing the rest of our contingent. The other pair from the Nuertingen group was the Sobecks, Hoettle and his wife Brigida. Hoettle is our “coach”, or at least he comes up with the workouts and on Thursdays leads them, but from in the water, so there’s no real “coaching” as in supervised stroke work and stroke improvement going on during practice so much as giving a workout for us to all do together. I knew Hoettle least of the others and had never met Brigida till then (she’s not a swimmer). I wasn’t sure of Hoettle’s age, other than he’s older than all the others, but by no means slower. He’s a bit more serious in practice, and works a bit harder than everyone else. He’s a compact man, very fit, with a broad chest, and just a bit of a belly. I thought he was older than he is (55), but after spending time with him and seeing him “at play” with Steffen and Helmi, he seemed younger, or more his age. The more I got to know him, the more I saw George in him. He has a quick smile and dimples, and his eyes squint up when he laughs; laugh lines crinkle up into the corner of his eyes, and they sparkle with merriment. Very much like George. Their physical appearances aren’t that strikingly similar, other than that glimmer of it every time Hoettle laughed, but the spirit was the same, the enjoyment, the athleticism, love of fun and life. That came through. Although I barely understand Hoettle half the time (damn Schwaebs speaking their own private German language!) I enjoyed his company and his coaching and support during the meet. He was fun and encouraging and I could tell he really cared for every member of his team. Brigida is his second wife and I think she’s younger than him, maybe middle-late 40s. She spoke the best English of the group and spent lots of time translating for me. She’s sweet and funny and comfortable being herself, the non-swimmer surrounded by a bunch of “jocks.” I really liked her and her pleasant nonchalance about the dramas of swimmers and the meet. She was there and supportive, but she, Gabi and Helmi went about doing there own things, and taking advantage of the opportunity to explore Dresden.

We arrived in Dresden at about 17:00 and I was ready for a nap, but this group would have none of that! After drinking two bottles of sekt it was off to the Altstatd (old town) to explore. We walked along the river, then back through and around the Neuestadt (new town) to our hotel (the return walk must’ve been twice as far as the walk there, I’m sure it wasn’t the most direct route!) More about Dresden itself in another story . . .

When we returned for dinner at the hotel, I met “die jungen” or “the youngsters” who swim in Dettingen (the Teck part of Filder-Neckar Teck): Simon and his girlfriend Carina, and Birta, all amazing 20-something swimmers who were lots of fun, and my roommate for the weekend, Elke. She’s 45, so the “kids” referred to her as Tanti Elke. She was hilarious, and beautiful – tall, slim, blonde haired, blue-eyed, with a quick laugh and a great sense of humor. At one point over the weekend, she responded to a wrong number on her handy (cell phone) and ended up SMS-ing and sending pictures to some guy in Bavaria for the whole evening. It was hilarious!

Although I probably only understood about 25% of what was said all weekend, I really enjoyed it. Lots of team bonding over touring, eating, watching the Deutschland victory over Sweden in the World Cup match with Deutsch flag tattoos on our faces, and swimming! Everyone was very tolerant of my limited Deutsch, and my poor swimming performance, too! I think the experience helped my Deutsch, or at least my ear for it, and I am getting a bit more comfortable speaking, even poorly, and am better able to express myself, I think! It definitely motivated me to a) be a bit more consistent in my swimming efforts, and b) work on learning more and improving my Deutsch!