Summer Fun

We have had fun so far this summer with both the Kids and the Grandkids. Jordyn and Dalton were able to attend the summer fine artrs camp hosted by the county school system. Children through 6th grade were able to participate in Orchestra, Band, Art, Dance, Chorus, or Theater. The finale wes a presentation to all the parents with a wonderful production.

Jordyn participated in Chorus

Dalton participated in Theater

Aidan staying cool.

James is just (and always) happy.

Pawpaw with his tiny bass caught in a formerly sterile lake.

Of course the biggest change this summer was the difficult decision to trade in the beloved Jeep for a car with more "old people" comfort and better economy. As I was about to begin the few repairs to my VW Rabbit deisel (50 mpg), my oldest proclaimed: "Dad, you are almost 60! Go get a car with airconditioning and other comforts." How could I let my poor sons down. My wonderful and important better half sent me off to the vultures with the instructions that I could have anything as long as it had 4 doors and leg room in the rear seat. I did not look far. I found a car with the nicest wheels, grill, and color and was immediately in love. It had the 3.5 L V6 engine and I did not know what else until it was in my posession. It turns out that it had most of the options and is now known as the TV car. It has an entertainment system including TV and wireless headsets. It also includes GPS and bluetooth. A 30 GB hard disk allows me to copy my music CD's so I do not have to carry them inside the car. In the fall, I will try opening the power sun roof to enjoy the air. This winter, I am sure I will enjoy the heated leather seats. All of my boys and grandkids approve of grandpa's choice.

The Red Drag-on

We all hope our summer is fun. More updates will follow as they come.

The Grandkids (AKA Grand Kids)

Because I have returned to work, my spare time is not like it was when I was trapped. It also means that I can again play with my grandkids and have fun.

Aidan finally got to have a sleepover. Our favorite game is Evil Pawpaw accompanied with Tickle Monster. There are many rules and formalities in playing this game. Aidan must run, scream at the top of his lungs, jump on the bed, and take sanctuary under a blanket on the couch where he becomes "a pile of dirty laundry". My role is to hide and leap out at him when he comes searching, growl, and do the appropriate amount of tickling. Lights being off will ensure the Evil Pawpaw. Lights on bring back the nice Pawpaw.

Dalton and James got to visit recently when they lost power during recent storms. We went out to a great restaurant for a "garbage pail lid" full of ribs, BBQ chicken, corn on the cob, corn bread, cole slaw, baked beans, and other delectible foods. After dinner, we returned to the house and watched a movie before they had to go back home. They are fun to play with and we miss them when they do not visit.

We were invited to Jordyn's 5th grade graduation ceremony. It seems crazy that she will begin Middle School next year. We were very proud of her and the accomplishments she attained in school. She received an academic award for grades and citizenship. Many in the school received these awards and many parents and grandparents were rewarded with the satifaction of seeing their special person recognized.

However, Jordyn's name was called later for another award. The Richard Portee award is presented to a student who has a high achievement despite adversity. It was established by a teacher many years ago and is the only recognition which included a monetary award. There were only 4 different single awards and Jordyn received one of them. We were very proud of this young lady.

Finally, we had the pleasure of sitting with Dalton during the ceremonies. His high grades and citizenship resulted in his selection to be an Usher for the graduation. We were met at the entrance by a handsome young man in a white shirt who gave us our program. Just before the ceremony began, the same little guy bounded into our row of seats to hug his Pawpaw and sit with us.

Leaving Germany

All good trips must come to an end and so did this one on the 22nd of March. I was missing my family and friends at home and so on the 2nd day of Spring, I arose to put my suitcases in my car and found that there was a bit of snow around.

After scraping off the windows and loading the car (both trunk and back seat), I began my journey to the airport.

Looking at the on-board GPS, it appeared that Autobahn A63 was a clear straight shot. Hmm, it looked a little different out the windows, but I cautiously increased my speed to a prudent level: eager to get home and all.

Somehow, I missed several exits to the airport in Frankfurt mainly because I was worried about finding a gas station on the right side of the road that gave Green Stamps and took credit cards. After a quick U-turn (translation: less than 25 miles out of the way), I made my way back to the correct exits, got gas and turned in my car to the rental agency who acted somewhat surprised that the car was in perfect condition.

It was a good thing that I arrived early. There are many lines to stand in at the airport and I think there is an international conspiracy to develop more lines. I had to stand in a line to pay for an extra bag after standing in a line to check the bag in. When I got to the front, they said I had to go back to the other line to get the bags weighed first, then come back to the line again to pay. Now why wasn't the guy in the first line knowledgeable about that? Anyway, there was no way that the lines were going to dampen my spirits when I was on my way home. I flew home in a 747 which remained quite clean for the long flight across the Atlantic. I landed at Dulles International almost an hour early. The person responsible for picking me up actually heeded my advice and arrived 45 minutes after my scheduled arrival so that he would not have to wait for my to clear Customs and Immigration. There is an urgent need for baggage watchers for people traveling alone when they have much too much luggage and there is an urge to use the facilities after being on the plane that long. I was 2 minutes away from declaring an emergency when my ride arrived and thus, the headlines in the next day's paper were again some mundane thing about elections, or some other silly thing.

It seems that the last leg on the local Beltway seemed to be longer than anything thus far on the day's journey. After a long time I finally got home to kiss my bride:

It sure is good to be home...

The Black Forest

I thoroughly enjoy the Black Forest. The forest is no more black than the Black Hills of South Dakota, but both are dark when viewed from a distance.

The journey to the center of the forest is about 3 hours in duration. There are many kilometers of unrestricted (that is WOOHOO to some of us) Autobahn so I suppose that the trip is longer than it would seem.

I love the town names: Landau (the Star Wars city), Karlsruhe, Offenburg, Wolfach, amongst others. Traveling south, the road is flat and straight as it basically follows the Rhine River on the western border (France on the other side). At the proper ausfahrt we leave the Autobahn and begin the easterly drive into the mountains. The countryside shows centuries of maintenance and some of the hillsides look like well-manicured golf courses. The river we follow has had its banks raised and turns straightened so that it looks more like a canal than a river. When we get to the mountains, the ascent is rapid. During the early spring, before the Algore effect had taken place, the outside temperature dropped 1 degree C every 2 KM. This picture was taken on a previous trip in the summer, but does a good job of representing the beauty of the approach to the Black Forest.

Triberg is the ultimate destination and is about in the center of the Black Forest. It is also the location of the tallest waterfall in Germany.

Downtown Triberg

The Waterfalls

Of course the waterfall is not the reason most people come to the middle of the Black Forest. They come to shop for a genuine cuckoo clock carved and assembled by one of the many artisans who reside in this area. I made friends with the people in House of 1000 Clocks. I have enjoyed their company on many visits and their selection of clocks is very good. They are also the only shop who has a negotiated warantee service within the United States. They enjoy showing their clocks as much as we enjoy looking at them. It never seems to be an imposition to demonstrate the music, cuckoo, or hang clocks together so that one can compare them.

Ian and his wife Siglinde related stories and Black Forest history to us as we shopped for clocks. In the end, they surprised me with a gift which was signed by everyone in the store.

After one of our speedy trips to Triberg, Ian suggested taking a back road north through the heart of the mountains. Elevations at some points was over 1000 meters. Even though there was a lot of low-hanging clouds that day, the scenery was beautiful with the snow.

At one point, we stopped to hike up to a lake that was formed during the Ice Age. The road was snow covered and steep. We walked uphill for over a kilometer to get to the lake.

The road continued to meander until it took a dogleg to the west and ended in Baden Baden and where our Autobahn entrance was available for the remaining trip home.

Here is a video of the clock store interior. Please enjoy the sights and sounds of the clocks and excuse the poor photography from a rank amateur.

Eating in Germany

One of the most pleasurable experiences was sampling some of the fine food that is traditional to Germany. A lot of it seems to be closely related to the food we eat in the United States and I am unsure if the post war occupation had some effect on the variety of food. Nevertheless, the food was always fresh and delicious and after spending nearly a year (4 trips, each about 3 months in duration) have yet to have a bad meal.

My favorite place to eat and the baseline to how every other restaurant is judged is The Wooden Spoon, or Zum Kochlöffel in Sembach, Germany. Gabi is the hostess and usually the waitress and is very good at what she does. To see information about the restaurant, go to http://www.kochloeffel-sembach.de/welcome.html . I always enjoy the same thing when I go there as I have tried most everything on the menu and found my favorite dish. Filetsteak “ Köhlerin “ mit Pfifferlingrahmsauce, Pommes frites und Salat is the best steak I have found. The only difference is that I do not order it with the Pommes frites (french fries) but substitute Spätzle (German dumpling that looks like pasta).

Before the main attraction though is the salad. I think everyone in Germany shares the same type recipe. The bottom of the plate is some type of cabbage with a sour, maybe vinegar dressing. On top of that is greens and other vegetables. The greens are generally fresh and whatever is growing during the time of the year.

I was always a driver (1 beer=DWI in Germany) so Apfelsaftchoerle was my choice of beverage. It is an apple juice spritzer and seemed to go well with the food. Mixing the juice also made the beverage cheaper and that is nice as well.

Finally dessert was not always a given, but for those times when there was a bit of room left, Heisse Himbeeren mit vanilla eis und sahne was my favorite. (The doggone people put raisins in the strudel). The hot raspberry sauce on vanilla ice cream with whipped cream was always great and nary a nasty raisin did I find.

Just a few more notes about dining in Germany: When you are seated at a table, that is your spot for as long as you want it. There is never any pressure to pay and leave or order more items. Dining is casual and enjoyable. Also, I have yet to hear anyone come back to the table to ask if everything is okay. Hah, they know it is okay and do not waste your time with a redundant question.

YA WOHL!

A Trip to the Museum

A week later it was raining so it was decided that a trip to the Museum of Technology was in order. The Museum was about an hour away to the East in the town of Speyer. We took the back roads so that the passengers could enjoy some of the small towns and see the city of Frankenstein in the daylight. The road meandered through the hills following a small river. Several castle ruins were on the hillsides and it seems that this would have been a difficult journey to the west if you were not on good terms with the castle owners.

Frankenstein Castle at night

We arrived at the museum and were blessed with periods of no rain so that we could also enjoy some of the outside exhibits. Among the interesting things to see was a 747 on a display stand that you could climb up into and walk out on a wing to view the museum grounds. It had a stainless steel slide from the top platform for a fun ride back to the bottom.

Inside displays included a Messerschmidt that was in pristine condition and another which was dug out of the ground..

I also enjoyed the Motorcycle with training wheels and the one with tank tracks. The Zepplin car was interesting and I really enjoyed putting a Euro (About $1.50) into the slot to make all of the music things play.

One would think that all of these beautiful and interesting pieces would satisfy the person viewing all of this. But, remember that we are with young people and it takes a little more to amuse them. The finale for the museum was a virtual 3-D roller coaster ride which was incredible.Thank you Tee, Brodie, and Smitty for suggesting the ride.

On the return trip, we stopped in Neustadt (literally New City) which had to be completely rebuilt after the devastation of WW2. We found a weird little restaurant tucked in an alley after being greeted by the chef in his white apron. The inside was cozy and filled with clocks. Although one could have told some wonderful scary stories to go along with the decor, we instead feasted on Reindeer steaks and traditional German sides.

The Saga Continues

The next time I was able to go out and see things was after a trip to an Optometrist so that I could fill my prescription for a new set of glasses which would improve the vision in the eye that had the potential to see. Although my depth perception was a little askew for a few days, the improvement was remarkable and I was ready to hit the Autobahn for some tourism on the weekend.

Gathering up a group of sailors, we decided to visit the oldest city in Germany. Trier was about 60 miles away and the weather cooperated so that we did not have to walk in the rain. We easily found parking near the Centrum and walked to the largest remaining Roman wall piece still standing north of the Alps. This wall section has an entrance to the city as it was almost 2000 years ago. Porta Nigra (Latin: Black Gate) is listed as a World Heritage Site.

Porta Nigra

Of course, this is not the only thing of interest in this old town. There were other sites of interest left by the Romans. There are recently uncovered baths and a Colosseum that is used during the summer for re-enactments of the gladiator fights.

Roman Bath

Colosseum

Finally, I had to go visit the birthplace of my arch-nemesis: the person who enabled me to have my life-long ambition to defeat evil. Karl Marx was born in the city and later teamed up with Engles to write the Communist Manifesto. The Nazis, under the direction of Hitler, destroyed most of the items possessed by the Marx family and used the house for political gain, but being able to visit and learn about the person with the unkempt beard was fascinating.

Darkness came early so we did not get to drive the few kilometers to Luxemburg to see Patton's gravesite at the American cemetary. We did not miss out on a fine evening of German food though and that will be a future topic.