Germany 23 Feb-9March

For the next two weeks or so, Sheila and I are in Germany mostly Stuttgart enjoying our friends Christel and Bernhard. It is nice to stop and have the time to rest recoup and not have to pack or deal with the feeling that you have to rush off to see something. We did have some amazing adventures not the least of which was enjoying Christel, Bernhard and their amazing hospitality. Sheila and I have been blessed with some amazingly loving and generous friends. We spent a fair amount of time walking downtown, looking shopping and getting to know the culture of Stuttgart in a way you cannot when you're supervising high school students which is how we've come here in the past. Every culture has little nuances about how they do things. The grocery store: First, there is no such thing as a large paper shopping bag provided by the store. You bring your own, and if you have something to recycle, there's a machine you put your cans and bottles into then you're given a voucher which deducts from your food bill. Very cool. Also, if you want a cart, put 1Euro into a slot in the handle, that disconnects the cart for you use. When done insert the key. That relocks the carts together, and you get your euro back. When you want some produce, you identify it by pressing a button on a scale. It's weighed. A barcoded ticket is dispensed and you stick it to the bag. One day we went to the Markthalle- a market established and in continuous use since the thirteen hundreds. It's completely inside, and there are all these wonderful individual stalls that sell everything from fresh fish to designer liqueurs. Lots of meats,breads, candies, pastries produce. It is a shoppers dream. It's a little on the expensive side so the locals use it when they want something special. Another day we accompanied Bernhard to the spa. All kinds of people use these baths and saunas there are five or six pools: a hundred degree mineral bath, a cooler but larger mineral pool, an out door pool with falling water you can use to pound the tension from your shoulders, a cold out door pool(no one was in that one. It was too cold) and a freezing cold pool (if you want to avoid a crowd, use that one). In addition, there are saunas of varying temperatures leave your modesty at the door. Clothing is not allowed. We had the opportunity to celebrate Sheila's 64th birthday. So we dressed up as well as two people traveling for two months using two carryons can, and we went to a local restaurant 3 min walk from home here. Illya is a quaint little Greek restaurant. The place was uncrowded. In fact everywhere we go it's uncrowded. Sheila and I have a particular genius for avoiding crowds. The waiter spoke little English and the menu was, well, Greek to me. So we asked him to bring us something. It was wonderful. The antipasto was sumptious with several traditional Greek finger foods all good. The main dish was a leg of lamb, at least it seemed so because it was so large with pasta, beans and potatoes. We had a great time. On 2 March, Sheila and I took a day trip to Nuremberg. I wanted to see where the National Socialists held there annual party rallies. This is really the only relic of the Nazi era that remains. Hitler and his archetect Albert Speer designed this complex which accomodated over 150 thousand people in the stadium and 50 thousand in the rally hall. All this was supposed to convey power. Power in the person of Adolf Hitler. I have seen how this complex was used in the Leni Reifenstall propoganda film. But I came away with a clearer understanding about how a person could mobilize an intelligent literate population to do what they did during the thirties and forties. It was an amazing experience. It's always chilling to know that these major players in history stood here. It definitely brings it to life. We were in the museum with a tour group of German Airforce personel. Everyone in the military should come here. Next, we visited the walled city which which was the meeting place for the political elite of the Middle Ages-Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. It was no accident that Hitler chose his location to stage his displays of political power. This was like walking back into the Middle Ages high stone walls, a moat, ancient oaken doors, and cobbled streets. We got back home about ten having, once again, navigated the public transportation successfully. More to come. Love to all