Windmills, Chocolate and dessert

Today we met Robert and his wife Tania to go to Zaanse Schans outside of Amsterdam.  Robert and Tania picked us up at 9:45 and we made the 45 minute ride to Zaanse Schans.  Zaanse Schans has several museums that show the process used by the people of Holland to make everything from wooden shoes to peanut oil.  Our first stop was at the wooden shoe museum where they showed us the old way of making wooden shoes which took about 2 hours to finish a pair (yes this was just an explanation).  Then they showed us how using a series of machines that work much like a key cutting machine, cuts the work of making a pair of wooden to shoes to less than 10 minutes.  The wooden shoes are decorated for all different reasons from working in the garden and wet soil to a wedding or special

event.  It is amazing the way some of these are decorated.  Years ago, the wooden shoes were even outfitted with blades or wheels for skating.  The clogs even were made with spikes to assist in walking across all of the ice in the winter.

After the wooden shoes, we went to one of the windmills.  The windmills are located on the famous Kalverringdijk.  At one time, the Zaan district of this area was the oldest industrial area of the world.  At one time, there were nearly 1,000 windmills in this area.  Each of the windmills have a different purpose.  We stopped to see one that made peanut oil.  When we walked into the windmill, we saw two very large stones rolling along a table in a circle.  At the same time, there were pieces of wood that moved along side to push the crushed peanuts back under the rolling stone.  At another station, the crushed peanuts were being heated up.  The heating released the oils so that it could be pressed out and collected.  The collection process was done by placing the heated, crushed peanut "mush" into cloth bags.  The bags were then placed into a device that used wood and a very large wood "hammer" to compact the mush.  As it was being compacted, the oil was collected on metal pans.  From the metal pans, the oil was poured into large 50 gallon barrels.  Those barrels were then sent to a plant where the oil was cleaned and bottled for selling.  This particular windmill produces 6,000 liters of oil per year.  So as not to waste anything, the remaining "cake" that was left after pounding out the oil (twice as a matter of fact) was sold as cow fodder.

After the oil pressing, we went over to the ferry to go across the dijk.  For 1 Euro, we were each able to go across the water on the ferry, which was really more like a large fishing boat.  Once across, we watched as racing sculls were put into the locks that led from the dijk water to one of the canals.  The area is full of canals that transport everything from kayaks and canoes to barges and sailboats.  In most sets of locks that we see in the states, the water is lowered and raise using pumps.  This makes the time required much lower and more vessels are accommodated.  However here, the locks are managed by hand.  From opening and closing the locked to opening the passage for the water.  So, the process takes quite a bit longer to occur.  Additionally, because of this time, it is much more likely that a small vessel like a scull will tip over waiting.  This happened today right before we got to the locks.  We saw the poor rowers pulling their vessel out of the water (and trying to dump out the water) downstream about 50 yards.

As we walked around the rest of the area, we bought cheese and revelled at the scenery and its beauty.  The last museum we went into held and exhibit on the Verkade company.  Verkade was started as a bakery in the late 1800's.  After 100 years, it included chocolate and candles.  In the exhibit, we were able to read about the start of the company and its evolution.  There were also original machines setup that showed how the products were made.  After 5 hours of roaming, taking in the sights and learning a bit of local history, we set out for Robert and Tania's house where we had dinner.

Dinner was a collection of different foods.  We had a dish that was originally from a Dutch colony in South America served with rice, as well as a traditional Dutch pastry casserole that had chicken and vegetables in it.  Along with it were several different sides that you could add including hard boiled eggs, bacon, fried bananas, and dried banana chips.  All of it was very tasty, but I have to say that my favorite was dessert.  Tyko, Robert and Tania's oldest son, bakes for a hobby so he made dessert.  There were several choices: Dutch apple pie, a tart that had a custard and whipped cream filling topped with strawberries, and a cherry dessert that had a chocolate crust with a light creamy frozen second layer topped with a cherry glaze.  It was light but very tasty - definitely my favorite.

Tomorrow we are off to a tour with a local.  We shall see how that goes.....

Countryside of Germany and Day 1 of Amsterdam

Well yesterday was a day full of traveling the German countryside seeing more towns with small,

Fritz and Stefan

cobblestoned streets and sidewalks.  Cousin Fritz and his nephew Stefan took us to the places the he knew about that family members used to call home.  We visited the place where my great-grandfather lived, the place my grandfather and his brothers were born, as well as several other places of previous generations - like aunts, uncles, etc.

Fritz is amazing, he wanted to make sure that we saw plenty of the Schwabian part of Germany which included a museum that was housed in the castle of a past king of the region during the 1700s.  He also showed us a tower that had been reconstructed just feet from where the original had been uncovered about 30 years ago.  The tower was used by people to see the enemy arriving and sat on the territory limits of the "civilized" area of the kingdom.  Using the towers, soldiers were able to see the "barbarians" that may be coming to try to fight for land within the kingdom.


After seeing about 10 small towns, having lunch at a little cafe and going to the museum, we were treated to lunch at Fritz and Kerstin's restaurant Weinkellereinhorn in Esslingen.  They serve traditional Schwabisch German food.  We didn't know before we came here (although I suppose we really should have) that the food is different depending upon the region of Germany that you are in.  Bavaria is probably what most people think of when they thing "German food"  as it is the traditional sausage and sauerkraut.  But I must say that I think I enjoyed Fritz's food much more than I thought I might.  Perhaps it is simply because I was tired of sausage and potatoes.  Anyway after 4 hours, yes four hours, we said our goodbye, thanked our hosts, and Fritz took us back to the hotel in Stuttgart.

We got up this morning and caught our train out of Stuttgart to the Netherlands. We changed trains in Duisburg and finished the ride to Amsterdam.  Total travel time was about 5 hours.  Once we got to Amsterdam the fun really began!  We got off the train at the main train station which sits within a very short distance from the harbor/seaside.  We grabbed a cab since our hotel was about 1.5 miles from the station.  The station was surrounded by people, trams, bicycles, scooters - you name it ti was there.  I have never seen such a mess in all my life.  I thought Chicago was crazy - this puts all of our big cities and those in Germany to shame.  One must watch for people, bikes, scooters and dogs in the street, on the sidewalks, in the bike lanes - everything was everywhere.  By the time we got to the hotel, we were so shell-shocked we didn't quite know what to do.

We got up to our room through the very narrow hallways to find a room that wasn't much larger than most master bedrooms (12x20 maybe) the room's arrangement was strange with the desk in the middle and the TV on top of it facing the bed.  At the end of the room was a daybed.  This will be a very interesting 4 days.  We then met a former colleague of Mom's, Robert, and his family.  They met us here at the hotel and we went to the city center for a drink to chat.  We will be spending the day with them tomorrow going to a couple of museums and then having dinner.  They have two sons, one in college and the other in high school.  The high school student will be a foreign exchange student next year in the states.  How funny would that be if he ended up in our area?  Well more tomorrow if we don't get back too late from Robert's house. Untill then....Ciao.

New Family

We traveled to Stuttgart yesterday to meet my dad's cousin Fritz.  We were all quite nervous as we didn't know what to think or expect.  So we made the hour and a half trip via train and when we pulled into the station and got off the train,  who should be standing there with a sign "WEISS" in his hand but Fritz and our other cousin Stefan.  It was quite a surprise.  So after walking to our hotel (which was right across the street from the train station) Fritz and Stefan took us to Trude's house.  Trude is Fritz's older sister and Stefan's mother.  In a wheelchair, Trude is a bit frail at 82 but you could see the excitement in her eyes that we were there.

We were immediately treated to coffee and homemade cheese cake that Stefan's wife Bettina had made from scratch.  The cheesecake seems to be made differently as the taste is not the same as at home.  The cake is much lighter in consistency and in taste.  As we sat eating the cake, we chatted about our families and other very light topics.  Fritz has told Mom that his English is not very good, but I think it is much better than we had expected.  Stefan's English is better and Bettina's better yet.  Often if Fritz didn't understand something it became Bettina's job to explain it in German.

When we were done eating the cake, Fritz pulled out his computer and showed us the family tree that his son Max had done.  There were people that were missing their dates of death, but he traced at least the Weiss men back to 1769.  Then Fritz pulled out the other things that he had gathered and found, including pictures of people that he knew and others that he did not. We think that my grandfather was in one of the pictures, but we weren't sure.  We tried to identify the unknown people, but it was really hard to determine who they were as we don't have any pictures of the family.

Fritz, Stefan and Bettina took us to dinner at a local restaurant near Stefan's house.  We began dinner at 6 or so and weren't done until nearly 8:30.  Fritz's wife Kirsten joined us for dinner and she then became the interpreter.  Her English is VERY good and she wanted more practice.  Kirsten is a teacher at a Montessori school and finds that English is very helpful as it tends to be the only language that everyone speaks.  Because the restaurant was local, the menu was only in German so Kirsten had to translate it for us.  As dinner progressed, Kristen became the translator instead of Bettina.

Today we will be going to see the areas that our family has lived, including where Grandfather grew up.  Maybe we will see some gravesites of other relatives.  Then tonight we are going to eat in Fritz's restaurant.

Our final day on tour

Well today is the last day on our Germany escorted tour.  Tomorrow we leave for Stuttgart to meet Dad's cousin Fritz, his wife Kirsten and perhaps their children.  Fritz owns and runs a pub/restaurant outside of Stuttgart, so we will get to eat some more sausage.  Well maybe not, as Stuttgart is not in Bavaria where you find the most sausage.  Yesterday I just wanted a pizza - something that I was used to eating.  When I get home I will be looking forward to eating a hamburger, steak, a salad that isn't sour - all of the things that I apparently take for granted.

So we left the hotel this morning and began driving into the Black Forest.  We stopped at a nice little shop that greeted us outside with cherry liqueur - no doubt to get us ready to spend money.  They had a

This is what my cuckoo clock will look like

HUGE cuckoo clock with music outside.  The figurines were life-sized.  It was very cool.  Inside, the shop owner was carving wood using his carving tools.  I missed getting a picture as I didn't want to offend him.  They had so many cuckoo clocks, it was unbelievable.  I was glad that I waited until we got there to purchase mine.  It will take 3-4 weeks to get to me because they have to make it yet, but I am so excited.  I took a picture of what it will look like so I could show everyone.

Then we went to Heidelberg.  There is a castle there with a wine vat that holds 50,000 gallons of wine.  Yep, you read correctly and I did not mistype it - 50,000 gallons.  I would hate to taste it.  Can you imagine?

Well tonight we are staying in Frankfurt and we had our last dinner together as a group.  We met a ton of nice new people from all over the states and Canada.  I haven't seen my dad laugh so much in such a short period of time.  I hope that they all have safe travels home.

I will continue to write while we are in Stuttgart and Amsterdam for the next week, so keep checking back.

On to the Land of Black Forest Cake and Cuckoo Clocks

Today we left Oberammergau and went to see King Lodwig II’s palace.  Only a 20 minute drive, we made good time and enough time to ensure that we were on the first tour.  Apparently this tour is not nearly as popular as the one of the castle Neuschweinstein that we saw yesterday. I must say however that I liked this tour much better than yesterday’s.  There were more rooms completed and more history behind them.  The grounds were finished and the statues, waterfalls and other pieces were quite

impressive.  I am still amazed by the expense of all of the things in the palace.  For example, all of the gold work was 22 or 24 karat flaked.  Additionally, the wood floors had inlays for the details and the grain of the inlay matched that of the grain of the wood around it.  There was a chandelier that weighed 500 pounds! 

We also saw the cave that King Lodwig had made so that he had a place to go and relax away from everyone.  In the cave, he had his own pond and he had that pod heated to about 92 degrees Fahrenheit so that it would keep the “room” warm while he was in it.  He also had the first lighting of its tie including the ability to change the colors of the lights to influence the color of the room.  The man was completely eccentric and some say crazy.

We then traveled to Lindau to spend lunch along Lake Constance.  Lake Constance is so big that it gives the aura of the seaside.  In the background, you could see the Alps.  It was quite a sight.  

We then traveled to the Black Forest where we spent the night.  The hotel we are at has a nearly life-sized glockenspiel that rings and plays its music on the hour.  Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures because they turn it off between 8:30 pm and 8:30 am.  We go to Heidelberg to see the woodcarving tomorrow.  Maybe I will find a cuckoo clock I like.  

Day 9 - Frescos, castles, and the German Alps

Today we stayed in Oberammergau for the day.  Known for its Christmas shops, Oberammergau also presents the Passion Play every 10 years.  This sleepy town of about 5,000 people draws tens of thousands every year (even more when the passion play is happening) to their shops in the foothills of the German Alps.

This morning we drove to Schwangau, which is almost in Austria, to see Kind Lodwig II's castle Neuschwanstein.  This castle was Disney's inspiration for the castle in Cinderella and at his theme parks.  It's white castle walls are in deep contrast to the dark forested mountains that surround it on three sides.  The fourth side overlooks a valley that seems and endless sea of green with a few small towns, barns, and red-roofed houses.  In addition to all of that, there are two lakes to finish the landscape leaving no one to wonder why he chose this particular spot for his enormous castle.

Started in 1869, the castle was not completed before the king's death in 1886 and sits today just as it was left.  Over that period, the kitchen and the third floor were completed - more or less.  The king slept a total of 11 days in the castle before his death in 1886 - under still suspicious circumstances.

We had dinner in a town about the size of Batavia, but our restaurant was in an area of town that would appear at first glance to be much older.  Nearly all of the buildings had frescos painted on them - including homes.  It is amazing that many of these frescos last decades.  This is because they are created and painted at the same

time that the houses have plaster put on them.  The paint is not put on the plaster, but put into the plaster.  So instead of painting on the plaster like a canvas, they are plastered as paintings.  It's an amazing sight to be honest and this comes from someone who by her own admission has no real desire to see artwork.  Tomorrow off to see King Lodwig I's Linderhoff Castle and start travelling toward the infamous Black Forest.

Day 8 - Munich's Birthday

Well today was pretty low keyed.  In Germany the government does not allow businesses to be open for shopping.  There are a few exceptions like gas stations, bus and train stations and of course the airports.  Otherwise shopping does not exist on Sundays, so today we spent most of our day in Munich.  We took a tour this morning of the city as well as the area where King Ludwig built his wife’s summer home.  It began as one 5-story house with a building on each side of it.  After he added on and his son and grandson added on their parts during their reigns, it became a 600 acre park with a reflection pool (much like the one that sits in front of the Washington Monument) and 16 buildings that included the world’s largest indoor carriage house and a church. 

During the tour we also found out that this weekend was the celebration weekend for Munich’s anniversary.  Anniversary number 586 I think is the correct number of years.  This anniversary celebration was all that one would expect to see in Germany.  We watched the glockenspiel that is in the city hall play its tunes and the figurines rotate telling the story of Munich.  Then there were Bavarian bands playing their Oom-pa-pa, oom-pa-pa music along with people dancing traditional Bavarian dances.  Of course all of this was done by people wearing lederhosen and those Bavarian dresses (the name escapes me at the moment).  We spent several hours listening to music and walking the streets of Munich looking at all of the handcrafted items from paintings to yard art made from metal or glass and handbags to wood carvings.  The talent is amazing!  Best part of the day was seeing men dressed as women walking through the crowd on stilts – it was crazy.  The day was a little too slow to write too much so I will just post a bunch of pictures.  Of course I will have video of the glockenspiel when I come home.

Our Hotel in Oberammergau

Day 7 - The Romantic Road

We left Nuremberg this morning to relatively quiet city streets as it is Saturday morning and the Germans take the weekends to truly relax.  So much different than us in the states.  We always seem to be rushing around insisting on getting from place to place in the least amount of time possible, never relaxing to simply take in the air and what is around us.  We traveled about 2 hours to Rothenburg and along the way, we took what the Germans call a "romantic road".  It was explained to us by Mishko our tour guide (who is Serbian) that a romantic road is one that includes truck traffic, is not four lanes, and winds through the countryside.  Since today was Saturday, we did not see many trucks so it seems that the road was probably a bit more romantic than during the week.

Once we arrived in Rothenburg, we had the opportunity to walk around the old Bavarian town and take in the scenic valleys, that surrounded this wall-guarded town.  Although it was badly damaged during WWII, Rothenburg (reconstructed) appears much as it would have before the war with the typical Bavarian building structures, colors and designs.  There are streets filled with small shops within old home structures that sell anything from clothing and Birkenstock sandals to 'steins, Christmas ornaments, teddy bears, and nutcrackers.  Then there is the food - German food as we think of German food - including all types of sausages, strudels, cookies, candies, and bread.  Dad and I had a polish sausage for lunch while mom had a curry sausage.  I loved the polish but didn't care for the curry sausage.  I left Rothenburg with a new addition to my animal family - a teddy bear with a Bavarian hat, vest and that plays music.  Now I just have to find a place in the house to put him so that Joey and Jesse (our younger cats) can't knock him down so that Ziggy (stuffed animal loving dog) can play with him.  Not sure where that will be yet, but I will figure it out.

We left Rothenburg and arrive in Munich around 4:00.  Before dinner we went to the famous Hofbrauhaus and had drinks.  Did you know that the Hofbrauhaus is where Hitler and his cronies would secretly meet before he came to power?  I know that I had heard that before but not sure where
exactly.  It was exactly what I expected - hot and loud.  We then went to a restaurant called Ratskeller München for dinner.  I had pork and sausage with german potato salad (it had 

vinegar in it - yuck).  We had strudel for dessert.  I liked yesterday's strudel much better than today's.  

Tomorrow we are off to Oberammergau after spending a few hours in Munich in the morning on a 

sightseeing tour.

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round......

Well, I misspoke yesterday when I told you I was going to Munich today.  We will get to Munich tomorrow.  Today was Leipzig and Nuremberg.  We spent a total of about 7 hours on the bus today.  8 AM load the bus, stopped at 10 for a "comfort" break.  Did you know that Germany doesn't have alot of restrooms like we do for public use?  We are used to stopping at rest stops on the interstates.  Here you stop at a gas station or rest stop and you must pay to use the "toillette".  Yes, you read that correctly - you must pay to use the bathroom.  Sometimes you will get lucky and the attendant lets you through without paying.  Other times, not so much.  Today it was 0.70 euro to use.  In Berlin, Frankfurt and Dusseldorf it was only 0.50 euro.  Apparently because people have to be paid to watch the restrooms and the facility must pay for the toilet paper, this gives them reason to charge.  Ok, I can see that when you are stopping at a rest stop, but if you are stopping at a gas station to purchase drinks or snacks, you spend money there anyways.  So why not leave it free?  Although I will say that today when we stopped at the gas stations and used the bathroom, you did receive a 0.50 euro voucher to use on anything in the store.  So it really only cost you 0.20 euro.

Leipzig was our first stop today.  Not only were people buzzing about waiting for the World Cup to start (already staking out their tables for a game that didn't start for 5 hours) but they were also getting

Streets of Leipzig were lined
 with outdoor cafes ready for
Bach Fest and the World Cup

ready for the Bach Fest that started today.  Bach Fest? Yes, Bach Fest.  Every year in Leipzig, they celebrate the works of Johann Sebastian Bach.  He spent more than 25 years there serving as the musical director for St. Thomas's Church.  He directed the choir and wrote all of the music for the services.  His contract stated that he was required to write a new Cantata every week.  That's alot of composing....

Then we went on to Nuremberg.  There we saw the largest Protestant church in all of Germany.  We walked around and took a look at the shops.  I must say that the city center, as it is called, was made for foot traffic.  No cars and very few bicycles.  Everywhere else that we have been has had an extraordinary amount of bicycles.  So may in fact that if you don't specifically look for them, you are quite possible going to be run over.  So we did a little looking around but no buying.  I think that we will buy in Oberammergau and Neuschwanstein.

So I guess I haven't talked much about the food.  Well breakfast is the same very morning.  The only difference between here and home is the amount of fresh fruit available.  It is a buffet everyday so I have found that I am growing tired of bacon and eggs.  So I try to switch it up.  This morning I had a turkey and cheese sandwich on toasted bread with spicy mustard.  Dinner every night is "American food".  We didn't have our first "German" food until last night.  Of course we also found out that the Germans call this Bavarian food, not German food.  So Mom and I had Goulash and Dad had Sausage,

mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. The goulash was not tomato based as I had expected but was good anyway.  Dad's sauerkraut melted in your mouth and the sausage was very good.  Today we had the BEST STRUDEL ever!!!! Must have had 8 -12 layers and it was served with a cream sauce that was pretty good too.  Then this afternoon we had a brat sandwich.  Sandwich? yes the brats are quite small and you can fit 3 on a kaiser roll.  I am looking forward to going to Munich and eating at a couple of more Bavarian specific places.

Goulash

Day 4 - Tear this wall down

Well the streak of bad luck finally ended today.  We spent the day touring both the city of Berlin and the city of Potsdam.  As a way to make up for yesterday's train debacle and late arrival to Berlin, we were given our tour of Potsdam and the visit to the Allied Museum free.  We began the day doing the sightseeing tour that we were supposed to do when we arrived yesterday.  The sun was shining brightly so we were able to take many stops without sweating too much.  The temperature has finally gone back to normal here as it had been in the upper 80s and 90s for several days here.  Today it was 75 and very pleasant with an occasional breeze just when you needed it.

Glienicke Bridge -
connecting Berlin to Potsdam

We saw so many pieces of architectural history today it is hard to remember them all.  I think the ones that stand out in my head the most are the Brandenburg Gate, the memorial for those lost in the holocaust outside the US Embassy near the Brandenburg Gate and the ornate palaces of Frederick William I for his son Frederick II (better known as Frederick the Great), King of Prussia.  One of the palaces was called Sanssouci, meaning "no worries" as this was where the King would go to hide from the pomp and circumstance of the royal court.  It was designed to look much like Versailles.  The strange thing was that when King Frederick William had it built for his son Freddie the Great, he also had erected in direct view of the palace but across a vast garden, up on a hill, another building that looked like ruins.  This was to remind Freddie of his father's complete and utter disregard for his son (or something like that).  Either way it was Freddie the Great who made a name for himself as one of the first famous modern kings - around the same time as Louis XV.

The Brandenburg Gate is one of those things that you see in magazines, books, etc and never really know where it is (well at least I didn't).  Now that I know, it seems so obvious.  The Gate is what was in the background when the Berlin Wall, on November 9, 1989, "fell" .  You've seen those pictures and video of all the people climbing over the Berlin Wall 2 days after President Reagan made his "Mr. Gorbachov, tear down this wall" speech, right?  With a big old gate behind it?  Well there the gate was in all it's glory.  Well close to it anyway - the world cup starts this weekend on the Berliners watch the games in the square by the Brandenburg Gate.  So it was surrounded by workers today getting the area ready for MILLIONS of Germans to watch the cup. Can you say crazy?  Heck, even we don't do that for the Super Bowl, NCAA basketball finals, or any other sporting event in the States.  Nonetheless, it was gorgeous and quite impressive.  Oh yeah, we also saw what's left of the Berlin Wall.  Not much to be sure and in a twist of irony, it is know protected by a fence to keep people from chipping pieces off of it.

On the way back from the Gate on the way to the bus, I stopped by a memorial that had been built no too far from the gate.  It was actually across from the US Embassy.  Called "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe", this memorial is meant to memorialize the millions of Jews that were killed during Hitler's Reign.  Made from 2,711 concrete slabs, the slabs lay in rows across a city block in berlin.  It is in stark contrast to the buildings around it and are not laid at even depths within the ground.

Lots of history today from King Frederick William of Prussia to Adolf Hitler and to the falling of the Berlin Wall.  It's a good thing I like my history.  The two sisters in our group that appear to be 14 and 16 years old were definitely bored today.  I could completely see it in their faces.  Maybe they will come back in 30 years and it will finally sink in for them......maybe.

We are off to Lipzieg, Nuremburg and Munich tomorrow.  Maybe I will finally get to do some shopping.

Day 3 - Murphy's Law part 2

Well we arrived in Hamm a little earlier than we had anticipated.  So when Mishko went in to check with the reservation people about our reservations he was told that because of the outages, they would not guarantee a seat.  So, we rushed to platform 5 to await the arrival of our train.  Because the train system has been so screwed up from the storm, we had no idea what time the train would arrive.  So there we stood on platform 5 with trains coming and going - a bunch of foreigners with no working knowledge of German.  After about 8 minutes of waiting and several announcements in German, Mishko said (in his very thick Eastern European accent), "Now they have moved da train to platform 10! Com'on everhybodee, must quickly move to platform 10!"  By this time we were all quite hungry.  It was nearly 1:00 and we hadn't eaten much for breakfast.  But nothing to worry about since there was a dining car on the train.  OK, no problem, I will eat on the train.

The train arrived at approximately 1:10, we all boarded the 1st class cars and off we went.  About 30 minutes into our ride, I took a stroll to the dining car with Mom.  What did we find?  Nothing! Absolutley nothing was availalbe to eat.  No, they hadn't run out of food, there wasn't any because the crew that was to serve the food couldn't get on the train in Dusseldorff.  No food?!? Not only was I upset, but so was nearly half of our group as we had been promised when we rushed to the train that there would be food aboard.  So, no food.  For two days I have been hearing about how efficient and effective the Germans are when solving problems and so on.  Well, they really managed to throw a monkey wrench into this problem!!!  Not only were there many trains down in Dusseldorf, but there had been many others in other cities as well.  And the kicker was that the German train officials didn't post anything on their webpage, their facebook page, instagram - NOTHING.  As a matter of fact, one of the Canadian transplants got online with her phone to try and make a reservation so we could tell if the train was running through a nearby city.  No only could she not make a reservation, the German government train officials actually shut down the entire reservation system! They had no plan for when catastrophies like this happened.  They were unprepared and unable to deal with the thousands of people that this affected in a small geographic area.  My dad mentioned that it sounded like something that would happen with the bureacracy within the U.S.  I disagree, I believe tht we have ha catastrophies similar happen in Chicago and busses were put into service to get people from one place to another.  Not here, it absolutely did not happen here.  People were stranded and couldn't get to where they needed to go.  The best part of the whole thing is that the German train system has busses that they use to get employees and food from one place to another.  But not today, apparently the Germans' brains took a little holiday unable to get it right for their people.  For goodness sake, they couldn't manage to get food to our train.......

But I digress, We left on the train at 1:15 or so.  The ride was supposed to take 4 hours.  We arrived in Berlin at 6:15.  Chalk up another inefficiency for the Germans.  This train was supposed to travel approximately 200 km/her, but because we were using a different track than we were supposed to, it rarely went above 120 km/hr.  No matter how you measure it, km or miles, we got in late and missed the sightseeing tour of Berlin.  By the time we got to the bus and the hotel, it was 6:45.  So we ate dinner starting at 7:30 and we were all starving.  but the food has been good so far.  We have been disappointed at the lack of "German" food that we have been served.  We have been expecting wiener schnitzel, strudel, and sauerkraut just to name a few.  Not all at the same time mind you - that would be gross.  But a bit here and there would be good.

Tomorrow we will be doing the tour that we missed today, then we will go to Hamburg to the Allied Museum.  Maybe some strudel is in my future tomorrow.  We shall see.

Day 3 - Murphy's Law

11:00 a.m. - Things never seem to go as planned - especially when your time is dependant upon others.  We have been spending the last 2.5 hours traveling from the hotel in Dusseldorf to the train station and then on to Wuppertal (back on the bus) to try and catch the IC train.  Apparently the train line that we were supposed to take from Dusseldorf to Berlin was damaged in the storms two nights ago.  Strangely, no one could really tell us anything.  The German train officials couldn't tell us if there would be an IC train anytime soon so we went to Wuppertal and waited for 45 minutes to find out that we had to go to Hamm to pick up the train.  So we are traveling another 50 miles (1.5 hours) to pick up the IC train.  I am amazed at the length of time that it takes to get an answer to any of theses questions from people.  I guess as Americans we are way to worried about time.  The Europeans appear to take this much more in stride - even though the public transit system runs a very tight schedule.

Well, back on our way to Hamm and if I don't stop typing now I will surely end up with motion sickness. So, signing off for now...maybe more later tonight.

Day 2 - Over the River and through the Woods......

Well, we have met many nice people so far on our trip.  We have about 37 people on our tour so it makes for a very comfortable ride.  Most of the folks on the trip are indeed living in the States.  Some are citizens and others are transplants from Canada.  We also have an Australian couple on the tour – they are the only ones not residing in the U.S.  There is a family of four with two daughters who appear to be in middle school and high school and both are behaving as you would expect them to at their ages…very quiet amongst a group of “old people”.  But for the most part it is married couples that appear to be or close to being retired. 

Today we traveled from Frankfurt to the Rheine River just north of the city.  I noticed a very large difference in the traffic today.  It’s amazing that here when there is a holiday the traffic is truly near non-existent.  In the states, it is lighter but not even close to here.  I was reminded by my dear Aunt Blanche that Sunday was the first Sunday of Pentecost – hence the holiday.  Seems very strange to me that the government recognizes church holidays and so many things are not open.  Separation of church and state never seemed more obvious to me. 

Anyway, after getting lost and stopping to ask for directions 3 times, we made it to the boat dock with only a few minutes to spare.  The boat pulled up right on schedule and loaded the approximately 50 people waiting and off we went cruising down the Rheine.  Along the river we saw an amazing amount of castles and little towns dotted all along the river.  Unlike the rivers at home, there are very few recreational boats out on the river, but there are many tourist cruises and barges that travel up and down the river.  In addition to the small towns and castles, it was amazing to see the number of grape vines dotting – more like lining – the sides of the hills.  Germany does make wine as well as the beer, although it does tend to be more white than red.  We hve been told that the red German wines are “not so good” and the whites “better, but Germans drink beer”.  Our cruise lasted an hour and a half, but it flew by as we watched castle after castle and town after town pass us. 

After getting off the boat, we were headed to Cologne (Köln) to see the largest cathedral west of Constantinople.  But wouldn’t you know it, we lost our two Australian friends at the dock.  Mishko went back to look for them (after we returned to the bus) but came back empty-handed.  So we all went back to the city center to find the two Aussies and have a bit of lunch.  We stopped in a local “hotel” to have lunch only to find very little on the menu that didn’t appear to be a full dinner.  (By the way, Mom, Dad and I are still trying to figure out if they eat their large meal at lunch time or at dinner/supper.)  After lunch we got back on the bus and headed to Köln.

Big cannot even begin to describe this cathedral.  How about monstrous, larger than life, incredibly tall…you get the idea.  It stands over 150 meters tall and its footprint must be 60 meters long by 40 meters wide.  Describing it just doesn’t do it justice so I will have to share the pictures later.  I am still working on getting my old CF card to work in an adapter so I can get the pics onto my computer.  We left Köln and went on to Dusseldorff where we had dinner – at 8:00 p.m.  That’s another thing I can’t get used to – eating dinner so late.  We are off to Berlin in the morning via ICE train – that’s the international cities express.  His train can travel up to 320 km/hr which equates to about 200 mph, but after an accident last summer, they lowered the speed a little.  I believe I heard that we will be traveling at the snail’s pace of 290 km/hr, but hey who’s counting – I sure hope my motion sickness doesn’t kick in.