I have to say this year has been exciting, and at times spectacular for me. In February, I got to revisit Germany for the first time in many, many years. I had a great time, but I missed my family much more than I expected to. And one lasting part of the experience is that [...]
It’s become our family tradition to hide each others’ gifts and set up clues in order to find them. This year it was my turn to hide Peter’s presents. I tried hard to keep it easy, but not too easy. When the clues are too hard to figure out, it frankly gets frustrating for everyone. [...]
While I had some time in Frankfurt, I wanted to see the Museum of Communication. I’m pretty sure I visited it once as a child, though I just remembered it as the telephone museum. It’s so much more: it’s all about how people have communicated with one another at a distance since the earliest times. [...]
As I was heading out of the Frankfurt train station, my big city instincts fully ablaze, I was approached by a young man with a thick Bavarian accent and a sob story about needing just 30 euros or so to get home. I told him (in German) that I was foreign and didn’t understand him.
“The [...]
I’d planned to spend my last night in Germany in Wiesbaden, rather than in Frankfurt, because my tour book made Frankfurt sound kind of dangerous and dull. But instead, I was surprised how awful Wiesbaden seemed to be on my brief trip into it.
It was almost like Fate was steering me away from it. First [...]
While I was biking along the Rhein River, I saw this carved on the banks:
I swear to you, my German’s pretty good, but I seriously did not understand it. I thought the first word was missing by some accident, and it said “Long Live Vegan!” What an odd message, I thought. Does someone have (or [...]
I’d mentioned my plans to travel down the Rhein River while I was chatting with some Colognials at the Dom Forum. I was mildly confused when they kept referring to each place along the river as a “bend” not a village, but as I rode the train along the Rhein River from Koblenz to Bacharach, [...]
I bought a lifetime membership in the American Youth Hostel association over 20 years ago, after my cousin went mental on me and told my mother she never ever wanted me to visit again. I asked her what I’d done, but she never answered, but I knew I wanted to be able to visit Europe [...]
My tour book had warned me, but neither Peter or I had believed it. Germany is very much a cash country. The only credit card that was widely accepted was the Eurocard, and all I had was Visa. I was able to pay for my lodging with my Visa card, but everything else was cash. [...]
Bonn used to be the capital of West Germany; now it’s simply known for its university, a mile long stretch of worthwhile museum, and for being Beethoven’s home. Word had it, though, that it was so boring otherwise that even Beethoven’s corpse moved out. So I really wasn’t expecting the many bums I ended up [...]
