Montego Bay, Jamaica; 10 - 17 Dec 2008

Going away in the 2nd last week before Christmas was probably not a good idea - except it was warm, and very pleasant.

However, it does not leave a lot of time for writing the blog or posting photos on fototime, so keep checking back for both - I will get to it just as soon as we are finished with shopping, wrapping , slicing, dicing, broiling, boiling, and everything else that will lead to a wonderful Christmas dinner on the 25th.

Meanwhile, love, peace and the wishes of the season to all of you.

We would / should have been home by now ...

All having gone well, we would have returned from Germany last Wednesday - and that would have been a very rainy, sad day!

As it happened, of course, we never went to Germany; for reasons obvious if you read below.

We did do a few side-trips - one to Toronto and the Scarborough Bluffs. The Bluffs are some very steep cliff-like "shore formations" along Lake Ontario, from somewhere west of Midland Avenue and Kingston Road, to somewhere east of Markham Road and Kingston Road. June had never seen them, so we went in one day, had lunch at Jerusalem (a mediterranen buffet) and thenwent out to Scarborough, Bluffers Park, to see the Bluffs from the bottom, then up to the top, along Cathedral Bluffs Drive (where I had my Rectory during my time as Rector of Christ Church Scarborough Village) to see the same view from up above.
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We also went up to Drayton, in the vicintiy of Arthur, ON, to a performance at the Drayton Festival Theatre - "Legends" - a revue of early rock music from the 50's to about the 80's. Lots of energy, lots of good music - recommended!

One of the problems with Drayton is that there is nowhere to eat! At least not in the afternoon. We ended up rushing into Arthur, for some very good homemade tomato and beef soup at a local greasy spoon - I'd recommend it, except I can't remember the name! If there is some entrepeneur out there - highly recommended, start a decent restaurant in Drayton - it can't loose!

On the way home, we stopped for supper at the "At the Crossroads" restaurant, south of Elmira on Hwy. 85. Basically, a Mennonite buffet (thus, no alcohol available), but with lots of choice for everything else! Avoid the tour buses, but otherwise this is a great place to eat - and unlike most buffets, everything is fresh - and save room for dessert.

Sometimes the system works, but not perfectly ....

I've had an interesting e-mail exchange with hotel.de, the hotel booking site that I have been using. As noted in the post below, a hotel south of Hamburg, that we were supposed to be staying in tonight and for the next 4 nights, claimed to have no booking for us when I phoned to cancel.

A very competent woman (with excellent written English-we've had a few e-mails back and forth) at hotel.de got back to me within 24 hours, having spoken to the manager at the hotel concerned, determined that they had indeed received our reservation, but that it had been misfiled by whoever received it. No foul, no harm - we will not be charged, and hotel.de will argue it out with the hotel.

Just out of curiosity, since no one seemed to be much concerned about a reservation in a prime property being lost, or cancelled on short notice, I dug around a bit on the Internet. It seems that by about tomorrow night, Hamburg time, 70,000 international visitors will be arriving for a major trade exhibition at the Hamburger Messe. I checked the availability at the hotel we had booked, nada. Then I checked the availability for the period we would be there at any hotel.de managed hotel within 100km of Hamburg - the first one was 48km out of Hamburg. I checked availability at hotels within 50km of our original booking, and the first one would have been 40km away in a direction that would have been problematical. No wonder no one was concerned about a booking gone missing!

Which leaves me asking; Who would have cared, had we arrived this evening, and there was no room at the inn?

Memo to self: When we re-book this trip next Spring, or any other trip before then with hotels booked on hotel.de, or on any other Internet booking site, a few days after booking, give them a call, to make sure they indeed have the booking!

The system is not perfect!

Sometimes when the system doesn't work, it's a good thing!

First of all, a note on how I usually do hotel bookings when travelling; and the usual disclaimer, I have no interests, financial or otherwise, in the company through which I do these.

I use an Internet booking site http://www.hotel.de/ for my bookings. This is a German organization, but they seem to be smart enough to look at the IP address that you are connecting from, and figure out that you want the English website. If that doesn't happen, there is a language button at the top right (with a flag representing the current language of the page your looking at - for English it is a weird combination of a Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes!), and you can use that to change the page to English. You can use this site to book a hotel just about anywhere in the world, and, you can set yourself up as a user, with your contact information stored, and even your preferrred payment option (all over a SSL-Secure Sockets Layer link), so that you can simply book without having to enter this information each time.

You can search for hotels using various parameters; within a particular city, within x km/miles of a particular city, within x km/miles of an attraction or event, etc. You can set up other parameters, such as more than x stars on their rating system, and below y $/Euro/whatever currency per night. Besides a star rating system based on what the hotel provides about their facilities, you also get a user score on a 0 - 10 scale for each hotel, based on user evaluations. If you book a hotel through hotel.de, you will get an e-mail on the day you check out, asking you to evaluate the hotel, with a link to the evaluation page. The user score is derived from these evaluations, and you can also read any written comments submitted as part of the evaluation process - although these are in the language of the user, and since this is an international site, may not be understandable by you.

On about 10 bookings both in Germany and in Canada, I have found this site very reliable - in one case they got me a room in a hotel (in Canada) at a lower rate when the hotel itself had told me that only their premium (about $100 more) rooms were available. And, they guarantee that you will get the lowest Internet rate, that is, the hotel cannot sell their rooms for less than this site offers, on-line. (If they do, and you bring a print-out of the web page on which they do, the hotel has to give you the lower rate.)

Rcommended! .... but

As I noted in the post about having to cancel our German trip, there was one hotel that I had booked whose cancellation policy required cancelling at least 14 days prior to arrival, else they would charge anything-unspecified- between 0 and 100% of the total cost of the booking. We were well within that period, and thus the hotel.de website, which allowed me to cancel all my other reservations on-line, would not cancel this one. I contacted the hotel - twice. The first time I talked with a very charming young (I think) woman, late evening German time, who didn't seem to know what to do, but assured me that the hotel would call me back, after they had figured out what to do.

That didn't happen at a time that made sense, given the time difference between Ontario and Germany (they are 6 hours ahead of us), and so at about 4:30 p.m. their time I phoned again. This time I got someone (a man as it happens) who, after some explanations about what I called about, informed me that they had no booking for us (today was Wednesday, this was for Saturday next) and thus as far as they were concerned, if we didn't arrive that was no problem for them; on the other hand, they didn't care to be charged for a booking that they never received by/from hotel.de. But he also agreed that we should not be charged, certainly not the 450 Euro that our full booking was for. After an exchange of contact information - he already had my phone number from call display, but e-mail would be cheaper - we left it that I would contact hotel.de, point out their failure, ask questions, and insist that no one be charged anything for failure to cancel a reservation that never was made. I am still waiting for a reply from them. (Questions asked; how would it have worked out if we had shown up at this hotel, after an overnight flight from Toronto to Frankfurt, then a 5+ hour drive, and they had no reservation, and no room?) To be fair, digging around on the hotel.de site, looking for a hotel and looking at user comments, very occasionally (maybe 1 in 100 to 200 comments) someone complains that they arrived at a hotel that had no idea they were coming, and always the hotel either had room, or went to great lengths to place them elsewhere, at the same level of quality, and the same or lower price(which may be a hidden policy for hotels that sign up with hotel.de).

So, the booking system failed, but it may have saved us something between 0 and 450 Euro!

In other good news, the Salzburger Landestheater, where we had tickets for an operetta, got back to my e-mail telling them we couldn't make it with the news that they would put our tickets back into the "for sale" pool, and if they were sold, credit us with the value against a future visit, when we try this trip again next Spring. I am still waiting to hear back from the Hamburgische Staatsoper, where we had tickets next Tuesday.

All together, this is not working out too badly!

The mysterious Toronto event

If you are reading top-down, this is not mysterious, as you are getting the story from the beginning; if you are reading bottom up, in order of date and time of posings, then you have had mysterious hints about this.

We were in Toronto yesterday evening for a reception at the official (that is owned by the university) home of the President of the University of Toronto (more of a description of the home below). The occasion was a reception for the 2008 recipients of the University of Toronto's Arbor Award, a recognition of volunteers who have done work for the good of the University. (In my case, that was for work at Trinity College - actually the University of Trinity College - a federated university within U of T.) It is nice to be recognized; it is even nicer to be recognized when you thought that no one noticed!

The home of the President - well, first of all it has a back lawn big enough to hold a reception for perhaps 300-400 people, recipients, past recipients, and guests (being uncrowded enough that no one gets pushed into the very nice swimming pool), and to set up a tent with seating for all present, plus a stage for the awards ceremony. The home itself is on the north slope of the Rosedale ravine, and from the lawn all that suggests that you might be in a city is that you can see the CN Tower, and the Bay building at Yonge and Bloor above the tops of the trees.

In my lifetime in the academy or the church I have never aspired to high office - but this home might be worth having students march and occupy your office everytime they don't like some decision you have made.

Life is what happens ....

.... while you make other plans. (John Lennon)

It's been an eventful few days; late last week June began to notice some odd symptoms; dizzyness when changing position rapidly, mostly mornings, and a real lack of energy. Got out the blood-pressure device (I know it has a name, but I can't remember it, nor spell it when I do); blood pressure is low, 100/60 range, bouncing around, and pulse when resting in the 90s. Make dr. appointment for Monday morning; hoping for definite answer, and begin to think about perhaps not travelling. Symptoms continue over weekend (despite eating badly at a parish barbeque - hamburgers and hot dogs - lots of salt, should sent blood-pressure (BP) through the roof! Went to the installation of Bishop Ralph Spence as Chancellor of Renison University College (yes, the new Act was finally passed in the Legislature), with subsequent reception featuring more salty and spicy snacks -no luck in raising BP.

The visit to the dr. was helpful, but not enlightening. Measured BP every which way and in every position, agreed it was low (but not seriously so, except for a few of the extremes we measured), but also not positional, ie. the dizzyness was something else. June had a bout of this for years while flying, dr. suggested that this never goes away, just goes dormant, and can recur, mildly or seriously. Plus, inner ear fluids are adversely affected by high sodium. So, some sort of inner ear problem, that has recurred; BP may be due to a recent meds change, not initiated by him, which he reversed. All of this will probably go away, in a week, a month, or whenever, and we'll never really know just what caused it all. (This is why we like this dr.; he doesn't pretent to have answers he doesn't, but sometimes we wish he were more of a guru!) Bottom line; June is ok to travel, but probably won't enjoy it much!

We had an event (more about that later - or earlier,if you are reading top down) in Toronto in the early evening, preceded for me by a Senate meeting at Trinity College, so we had lots of time to talk about it on the way into the city. No conclusions so far, but consideration of the bottom line - my recollection (I should have looked at the documentation at home a little more) was that all our bookings - air, car, hotels, were definitely cancellable without penalty, the only thing we would have to swallow (perhaps) were opera tickets in Hamburg and Salzburg - and, who knows? (As it turns out, there was one hotel that had a two week in advance cancellation policy, after which they charge non-recoverable costs, unfortunately one at which we had booked 5 nights. But still, even had we known this at the time, it probably would not have changed the decision.)

Ahh, the decision - in the face of the uncertainty about how June was going to be feeling by this weekend and next week, and beyond, we decided we'd rather be at home, and her feeling perfectly normal, wishing that we had gone to Germany, than to be in Germany, in a hotel (probably the one that won't let us cancel withour penalty), June not feeling so hot, and both of us wishing we had stayed home!

So, I spent today (well, not all of it, some of it was delightfully spent with our younger granddaughters who we were able to have for the day, rather than finishing up packing and all that) undoing all the bookings, and writing e-mails to all concerned, plus some phoning to see just what we would end up paying for a hotel we will not see - or will see another time, depending on how reasonable they are.

We have agreed that we will not let all the trip planning I did on this go to waste; we will simply move it into another time frame - Spring 2009, late April into May, probably. That was the time that Scott and I were in Germany this year, and the weather was wonderful, all was green and blooming, and the days were getting longer. Yes, we will miss the wine harvest this Fall, and we defintely will not miss Oktoberfest in Munich (we avoid the Kitchener-Waterloo Octoberfest; why go for the real thing?), but the compensation for that will be the fresh, white asparagus available everywhere (at seemingly ridiculous prices; eg. about $1 per spear in a restaurant, until you work out just what is involved in getting that one spear to you).

We also agreed that, all going well, we would find a warm and relaxing place to visit late this year, or early next year.

So, keep on checking in here, not just for that, and for next Spring, but I will continue to post reflections on travel, life, and whatever is happening.

Among other things, see the posting above this one, about last night's event in Toronto.

(And then, above that - I still have problems with blogs working bottom-up instead of top-down [latest dates above, earliest dates below] I am planning on satisfying some requests for e-mails that I sent to a select group of people - not so select apparently that they saved them - in the Fall of 2006, from MS Zuiderdam, as we cruised down the West coast from Vancouver, through the Panama Canal, to Miami, over 21 days. [Some people have suggested I should try travel writing; this is as far as it gets!)


Now, I just have to find those e-mails!

(And, I did find them. To read them, expand the "2006" listings in the tree to the left, by clicking on the triangle.)

Communications - International Considerations

It used to be, you travelled abroad, you told your family and friends when you were leaving, when you were coming back - and in between they were lucky if they got a postcard. A few years later, after telephone long distance billing cards were invented, you might have called - if it was really important. But these days, given our "need" for instant accessibility, by cell phone, text messaging, or mobile e-mail, we get nervous (and so do our family and friends) if we travel somewhere where we are not instantly reachable, or where we cannot instantly communicate. And that "need" can get very expensive!

Disclaimer: I will be mentioning company names below; I do not have any financial interest in any of them, nor do I care if you choose to use any of the services mentioned! My cell-phone and mobile data provider happens to be Rogers, my home data provider is Bell Sympatico - so I'm working both sides of the (Canadian) street.

As we are going to Germany, the costs below are for that country, but the comparisons work for most of the world, except recently the rest of the world has gotten relatively more expensive as Rogers, responding to competition, has lowered some of their prices for European roaming. But not nearly enough!

By the way; amouts below are in Canadian dollars.

If you are a Rogers customer (and Bell is probably the same), using your cell phone and/or Blackberry in Germany looks like this:

Voice Calls
Local calls within Germany: $1/minute
Calls back to Canada or USA: $2/minute
Calls to other international destinations: $3.50/minute
Incoming calls from anywhere: $2/minute

Data
Sending a text (SMS) message: 60 cents
Any other data: 3 cents/kilobyte, in 20 kilobyte increment (so, just to turn on your Blackberry will cost you 60 cents, and, because Blackberrys continually communicate with the mother ship, to see if e-mail is waiting, or whatever, you will discover that after a week or so, you have run up a bill of $50 or so (per week), without actually having done anything - and, your mileage will vary!)


Thus, the last ime I went to Germany, I looked for alternatives!

What I found was a Canadian company, roam+simple, based in Toronto. (And, as I said above, I have no interest whatever in this company, but have found them to deliver on their promises, and when there are problems, to respond quickly.)


roam+simple delivers cellphone and text services just about anywhere in the world; with small up-front charges, and usage charges billed directly to your credit card. Interestingly, roam+simple uses one of the same German cellphone companies that Rogers uses as their primary carrier in Gemany, and my experience is that as one moves around Germany, all of the other Rogers partners come into play.


Voice Calls (through roam+simple)
Incoming calls (from anywhere): no charge - German carrier are forbidden from charging for calls beyond the control of the receiving party
Calls to within Germany: 49 cents/minute
Calls to Canada and USA: 79 cents/minute
International calls (other than Canada & US): $1.99/minute

Data (through roam+simple)
Receiving a text mesage: no charge
Sending a text (SMS) message: 39 cents
Other data (Internet, etc): 30 cents/10 kilobytes


As you can see from the numbers above, given that Rogers and Roam+Simple use the same German carriers, there is a a serious discrepancy in prices in every category - some of the charges, like charging for incoming voice calls, might be described as gouging - given that in Germany itself cariers are not allowed to charge for incoming calls.


So, how do you get with roam+simple?

Google them - but here are some of the considerations :

You will need an "unlocked" GSM phone, ie. one that you own but are no longer using because you have upgraded to a new one, or, you can buy such from roam+simple, either reconditoned, or new. If you have GSM phone you are no longer using, Google "unlock + your phone manufacturer + model number" , and you will likely find a website that will offer you instructions on how to unlock your phone, in return for a fee of about $10.

Once you have such a phone, however you get it, Google roam+simple and select a SIM card for whatever country you want to travel to - you will need to give them a credit card number to which they will charge the purchase of the SIM card ($19 or so) and subsequent charges - the SIM card charge is good for one year, using it in the country you are going to will get charged at their published rates directly to your credit card with e-mail bills, and if you return the SIM card within one year, you get something like $10 back, otherwise, you will be charged for another year, except they will ask you to agree to that first.

That is my advice on staying in touch abroad, at a lower cost than just using your cell-phone or Blackberry!

But of course, your milage may vary!

And still more mechanics

1. There is the "bottom-up" nature of blogs - to read from the begining, you need to scroll down to the bottom, and then upwards, whichis sometimes awkward! But, that's how it works ...
2. You can work around that, somewhat, by using the "tree" that appears to the left of this, and any test that I post. Like any Explorer tree, some of it is collapsed; usually, a few of the most recent postings are listed, below that may be months or years with a little triangle in front of them; click the triangle to expand the tree;


3. And again, you can subsribe to a "feed" ; at the very bottom click on "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)" and follow the instructions, to have new posts automatically sent to you computer.

More of the blogging mechanics

As I begin to learn how to work with this medium ( and perhaps as you begin to interact with it) a few things (two) immediately come to mind:

• the time at which blogs are supposedly uploaded have no relation to "my" time (where-ever I am) - they are the local time at where Google is located - the west coast (of the US); that is 3 hours behind Eastern time;


• there is the possibility of "interaction", that is commenting on postings; simply click on the "# Comments" link at the bottom of any posting (# is any number from 0 on up).

Beginnings

We are off again, on a longish (18, 19 or 20 days, depending on how you count) trip to Germany. It will be my (Gerry's) 2nd trip to Germany this year; the trip this Spring with my son Scott was so much fun that I talked June into going this Fall.

Briefly, we leave on Friday, September 19, 2008, and will return on Wednesday, October 8, 2008. While in Germany we will spend time in the greater Hamburg area, a few days around Nuernberg (my birth city), and then lots of time in the Bavarian Alps, both in the Berchtesgaden area, and the Garmisch-Partenkirchen area. Then, back to the Frankfurt area, for a day with my step-brother Karlheinz and his daughter Sylvia. Aside from the usual sightseeing, I've managed to reserve opera tickets both for the Hamburgische Staatsoper (Verdi's Simon Boccanegra) and the Salzburgisches Landestheater (Kalman's Graefin Maritza).

The last time I tried to keep a whole lot of people in touch with our travels was two years ago, from our Panama Canal cruise on "Zuiderdam." Then, I did it (or tried) by e-mail, which turned out to be a major amount of work, particularly as we got further south, and the ship internet connection was increasingly unable to connect to my mail servers.

[I have inserted these e-mails into this blog, back-dated to their original date and time (roughly); to see these click on the "triangle" next to 2006 at the left (where you see the blog "tree") to expand the postings in that year.]

This time, I am going to try using a blog; theoretically, all I will have to do is write what I want, once, no e-mail, no fuss. Of course, whether or not you see it will be up to you; you will have to connect to this blog and see if anything new has appeared. (There is also a subscription possiblility; click on the "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)" link at the very bottom of this page, or here, and follow the instructions.)

Two years ago I also tried to post pictures on our fototime web album, which turned out to be a major mistake (for technical reasons too long to explain here), but meant I had a major clean-up job to do on both my mobile computer, and my desk-top, after returning. I won't be doing that again, although I might post the odd picture in this blog, just for illustration. However, I will be posting an album on return.

Don't let that discourage you from viewing our other pictures, at http://longworth_mueller.fototime.com/ .
And note, that "blank" space between longworth and mueller has an "underline" under it.

And check this blog regularly

Germany with Scott 2008; 29 Apr 2008

Today was our day in Nuernberg.

We drove into the city after breakfast at the hotel, usually about 35 minutes to the parking garage, today a little more because of road works (a constant theme on this holiday) and also because we stopped at a supermarket to pick up a few of the essentials that one always forgets to pack (eg. my deoderant was about to run out), but also some laundry detergent and bottled water for drinking on the road.

We soon parked in one of the many parking garages within the old town part of Nuernberg, which are usually well-hidden underground, or in out of the way corners. One of the (many) nice features of German cities and their traffic control systems is that not only are directions to off-street parking well-posted, but the signs directing you to the various garages tell you how many free parking spots are available. This allows you to choose which one to go to - if the sign indicates only a few places left at the one you initially thought you'd park at, and another has several hundred, the decision is obvious. This avoids arriving at a parking garage, only to find it full, and then having to find another. It requires some infrastructure; the data from all the the "in" and "out" gates at all garages has to be fed to a central computer, which then adjusts the numbers indicated on the dozens of direction signs to each garage, but the result is saving on driving times, and many fewer frustrated drivers; and probably significant energy savings and less pollution. The question for our cities; this technology obviously exists, why isn't it being used here?

Having parked, we began our walk. The inner core of Nuernberg, like most German cities, has many automobile-free streets. It's not that automobiles are never admitted, but they are restricted in time. Thus, delivery trucks are permitted, but only before 7:00 a.m. or after 10:00 p.m; just one example. All this makes walking safe, a pleasure, and makes the city a friendlier place. Shopping areas especially are often long and wide pedestrian areas, with street art, and street performers, and street vendors selling pretzels and sausages and other food, and the restaurants set up outdoor tables and chairs where one can stop for a snack, a meal, a beer, whatever. It's just so civilized!

Our first order of business was to walk to the opposite end of town, to an artisans' market at the Koenigstor (King's gate) near the Hauptbahnhof (main railway station) but still within the old city walls. If interested, a map of the old city of Nuernberg can be found here http://www.planetware.com/map/nurnberg-map-d-nurn.htm. For many, many years I have been saving my pockets by putting paper money into my wallet, and coins into small leather purses for my left-front pocket, rather than just carrying them loose. Since such purses are not commonly available in Canada, or if they are they are too large, or ugly, I always buy one or two (they do wear out) at a leather crafts shop, here in Nuernberg. Having again stocked up for the next few years, we walked up Koenigsstrasse (KIng street) towards the Lorenzkirche (Church of St. Lawrence). It was a bit of a drizzly day, not enough rain to keep you off the street, but just enough to be unpleasant, and so there wasn't much life, although the Nuernberger Bratwurst (Nuernberg roast sausage) vendors were trying to drum up Brotzeit business - Brotzeit, literally bread time, is the equivalent of what we would call a coffee break; a time in mid-morning, or mid-afternoon when workers of all kinds can replenish their energy, except Germans replenish with much more than just a cup of coffee. And more on Bratwurst, Nuernberg variety, later.

Next place to visit was the Lorenzkirche (Church of St. Lawrence). Old Nuernberg has two chuches which dominate the skyline, although there are a few others within the old walls that are notable. South of the river Pegnitz, which roughly divides the city in half, the main church is the Lorenzkirche. North of the river, it is the Sebalduskirche (Church of St. Sebald). Dominating the entire skyline to the north is the Kaiserburg (Imperial castle) built about 900 A.D. by the Holy Roman Emperor (cynical historians have noted that the Holy Roman Empire - the 2nd Reich in Hitler's scheme of things, his being the 3rd - was not holy, nor was it Roman, nor was it an empire, it was simply a loose federation of Germanic states). However, being an imperial seat, and probably more importantly, being on a crossroads of north-south and east-west trade routes, caused Nuernberg to become a very wealthy centre, with the consequent spill-over of support for the arts, development of industry, and considerable invention and entrepreneurship. Several Nuernberg artists of the middle ages are world-renowned not only for their art, but for moving art techiques forward; Albrecht Duerer is only one. A local toy industry began trading their wares all over Europe. And the pocket watch and the world-map globe were invented here.

The Lorenzkirche illustrates some of this artistic development. Not only is the building itself (started about 1250) a gothic monument, with high soaring nave supported by impossibly thin pillars, magnificent stained glass including an outstanding rose window on the west wall, it contains at least two significant (and many others, several of the many altars and most of the windows are masterworks) pieces of art. One is the Engelsgruss - the angel's greeting - Angelus, a carving depicting the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary. It hangs high in the nave; within a circle of 55 roses (the normal number of beads in a rosary) are the virgin and the angel, seeminly fully formed as 3-dimensional figures - except when viewed from the sides, it is impossibly thin, and two dimensional. The artist, Veit Stoss, was one of the pioneers who worked out how to depict three dimensions in two, along with his fellow Nuernberger, Albrecht Duerer. The other major piece of art is what in English might be called an aumbry, a small box in a church in which the blessed sacrament is kept for the needs of those not able to be in church for Mass (Eucharist). In the Lorenzkirche, the small, ornate "box" the Sakramentshaus (sacrament house) is contained within a towering structure, floor to high ceiling, carved from stone with impossibly thin vines and branches, all highly decorated. The "aumbry" itself, and the whole structure are supported on the backs of a few figures, one of which is the self-portrait of the sculptor, Adam Kraft. St. Lorenz, like many churches, ask that you not take photographs, so there are none on our photo website, however, much of the art in this church can be seen here http://www.lorenzkirche.de/kunstwerke/index.html; however, the descriptions are in German. A full 360 degree panorama view (needs Quicktime) is available here http://www.lorenzkirche.de/rundgang/panorama-gross.htm

From there we went northward, towards the Marktplatz, the market. Late in the year, this is the place of the Christkindlesmarkt, literallythe Christchild's market, the premier Christmas market and prototype for all others http://www.christkindlesmarkt.de/english/index.php?navi=1&rid=2 . On an ordinary day, like the one we were there, it is a farmers' market, with produce on sale from the surrounding countryside. However, unlike our farmers' markets in Ontario, which have become tourist destinations, this one is still a city market, where the locals shop for their produce (and it needs to be remembered, that there are many people living within this old city, many of them in apartments above businesses, often working within a few meters of where they live), so such a market is a vital part of the city's life.

Two notable sites on this market. One is the Schoene Brunnen - the Beautiful Fountain - a stone carved fountain that has been painted and gilded, standing very high, with wedding-cake like layers of figures from history and from the biblical stories - popes, kings, emperors, prophets, evangelists ... It is surrounded by a tall wrought iron fence, with spouts that can be manipulated to bring water outside, to be drunk, or carried in buckets, although little of that happens today. Embedded within the wrought iron is a brass ring, perhaps 12 to 15 cm across. Its story is that an apprentice in ironworking wanted to marry his master's daughter, and was set the task of producing a work in metal that the master could not reproduce. The ring is it, and event oday metallurgists have not been able to discern how it was incorporated in the iron structure of the fence, as neither the brass ring, nor the three circular openings in which it is fastened into the fence show any evidence of joints. The apprentice got the girl, and today turning the ring three times in its fastenings is considered to bring good luck, and it keeps it well-polished.

The other notable site is the Frauenkirche - the Church of our Lady - on the eastern side. Somewhat plain iside, although with a number of art treasues, it has a remarkable clock. Every day at noon, as the clock strickes, as little theatrical performance happens on the front faced of the church. Trumpeters raise their horns, little men with hammers strike bells, and the electors of the Holy Roman Empire move around a circle, stopping in front of the figure of Emperor Charles the Great, who waves at them with orb and sceptre, then the elector bows. All this from a clock perhaps 500 years or more old. Known as the Maennleinlaufen - the running of the little men(?) - it is one example of the ingenuity of Nuenberg rafts from its golden age, during which, among other things, the first pocket watch was invented, as well as mechanical clocks of this type.

(To be continued)

Germany with Scott; 28 Apr 2008

Today was the Fraenkische Schweitz (Franconian Switzerland) day. This is a region not far north and east of Nuernberg characterized by wide river valleys, overlooked by craggy mountains (hills really) with very weathered exposed limestone crests. It has a lot of beautiful small villages, many of which are characterized as Luftkurorte, literally "air healing spa towns" - the air in this area is very free of pollution, and is supposed to have healing properties.

[A little side note on the German heath care system. Most of the system is what we would call a public-private partnership. Everyone is covered by some form of insurance, but only those never employed and not covered by a spouse's or partner's insurance are insured by the government. All others, including pensioners, are covered by private insurance, with the employers negotiating the best deal with an insurance company. The government sets minimum standards, which are quite high, with coverage well beyond what we get in Canada, even with the best of plans. Benefits are a part of labour negotiations, and thus tend to get better with time.]

All of that leads up to an explanation of why a designation as a Luftkurort, or for that matter, as one of several other Kurort designations, is important. Most Germans have heatlh insurance that covers a stay in such a place, for anything for a week to a month, as long as your physician certifies it as necessary. Thus, the physician might think that a couple of weeks relaxing, breathing clean air, while hiking around and eating healthily, will take care of your high blood pressure caused by stress. Off you go, to one of the beautiful little Fraenkische Schweitz villages (or a place where you can take a mineral water treatment, or any place that is reputed to be healing for what ails you), get checked into a pension - small hotel or B & B, and your Kur - cure ie. program of treatment, will be monitored by a local physican or other health care professional. Some of these Kurorte have cultural activities, such as concerts or theatre, which are most often included in the small (a few Euro per day) Kurtaxe (cure tax) that one (or the insurance if that is why you are there) pays when staying at a hotel or guesthouse. Even if you are not there for a Kur, the ID card that goes with having paid the tax gets you reductions at local attractions, etc. And this is on top of holidays; the time taken for this Kur is considered medically necessary and you maintain your holidays. Not bad!

Anyways, we got up on time this day, and after a very nice breakfast at the "Gruener Baum" headed east along the B470, the Bundesstrasse that runs all along the Aisch river valley in which Hoechstadt an der Aisch is located (Hoechstadt on the River Aisch - there are probably a dozen Hoechstadts - all it means is high town - all over a Germany, which can create a GPS navigation problem mentioned earlier in another post).

[Note on Geman highways. Fastest are the Autobahn, usually intercity highways, at least four lanes, most often six, except in city areas, where they can go up to eight and even ten. Notorious for no speed limits, they are in fact very controlled. Yes, in areas where it is considered safe, there are no speed limits. Elsewhere, such as through a built-up area, the speed limit migh be 120 or 140 (all are km/hr). In some areas there are no limits in daytime, and specified limits during night hours, or when the road is wet, or in Winter vs. Summer. Most importantly, the Autobahn has electonic signs every few km, which allow a monitoring centre to change or impose speed limits based on local conditions, even on a lane by lane basis, and warn drivers of conditions ahead. Add to that the very rigid German lane discipline; keep right except to pass, and if you are not in the right-most lane, and another cars comes up on you from the rear at a higher speed than yours, get to the right as soon as you can safely do so, the principle being that if you are not in the right lane, and you look right and there is no one there, then you should be; and these road, despite the extremely high speeds by North American standards, are very safe; the serious accident rate per 100,000 km driven is considerably lower than Canada or the U.S. (On maps and in GPSs, these have an A+number designation. Most Autobahn roads also have and E+number designation - and alas, the A and E numbers are not the same; E being the designation for an Europastrasse, a European highway, generally designating a route through Germany between two other European countries.)

Next are the Bundessstrassen - Federal roads - B+number designations - which are often 4-lane, speed limited to at most 120. Somewhere in there are Schnellstrassen - rapid roads - S+number designation, with the same limits, but limited access.

And then, there are the Landesstrassen, roads designated and controlled by one of the Laender, member states of the German Federation. Generally, they are designated by signed numbers with no prefix, and mostly have 100 km/hr speed limits. They can vary from any number of lanes down to roads where two cars can barely pass, although at that low end, you are probably on a municipal road.

Generally, speed limits in Germany are well-posted. One local rule you need to know; as soon as you pass a town entrance sign on the right of the road (oblong, yellow, with the town name, and possibly a district description, the speed limit is 50, unless otherwise posted. Leaving a town, you will see a sign on the left side of the road (the back of the entrance sign at that end) with a red line through the town name. That cancels the restriction, and the speed limit goes back up to whatever class road you are on, and is not necessarily posted.

That impositon of a limit, of any kind, and then its cancellation, is used elsewhere. Thus, on a road you may see a "No Passing" sign, which is a red circle, within which are two cars side by side, with the leftmost red; the cancellation sign is similar, but only black and white, with a diagonal line across it; similarly with speed limits; the imposition sign is red circle, white background, numbers in black; the cancellation is black and white, with the number having a diagonal line across it. All very logical, but you have to get used to it.]

Back to our day, we drove through the town of Ebermannstadt, another town familiar from my childhood. There was a cheese plant there, making Emmenthaler and Tilsit cheeses, which I occasionally visited with my father, as it was a part of his district. From there, down the Wiesenttal, the river Wiesent valley, the main way into the Fraenkische Schweitz. It's a broad river valley, and green with Spring, the trees just beginning to leaf out (this area is a little colder than the surrounding flat land) and flowers everywhere. The first stop is the town of Streitberg (literally means quarrel or battle mountain), with its castle ruin high above the village in the valley, and another castle ruin perhaps a kilometre across the valley, also on a high crag of rock. In the Middle Ages, these castles, and many more like them up and down the valleys of this area, were the seats of so-called Raubritter (literally robber knights, we might call the robber barons, except they were at the very bottom of the nobility scale) who made their living by taxing their tenant farmers, charging tolls from the merchants transporting goods through these valleys which were a major trading route, robbing the merchants if the toll was not paid, and sometimes even when it was, and fighting with each other for possession of land and toll rights. Apparently the families of the two castles visible from this town were particularly quarrelsome, over many generations, and hence the name of the town.

The major attraction at Streitberg is the Binghoehle (Bing cave), a limestone cave that goes right through the hill from one side to the other. It is full of fascinating stalagmite and stalagtite (and I can never remember which goes up and which goes down) formations all carefully lit with halogen lamps to bring out their colours. These living rocks are still growing, as water still slowly drips from the ceiling, and as a drop falls off the tip of a stala-whatever, it leaves a few molecules of solids behind, and the tip extends at the rate of perhaps 1 mm per century - small, but measurable. June and I visited here six years ago, and since then the cave has undergone a complete facelift, lowering the path in places to increase clearances, improving the lighting, and making previously unaccessible areas easier to get into. During that renovation a small underground pool was found, and in it lived a colony of very small prehistoric water creatures, almost totally transparent because they lived in total darkness and hence colour had no function in their world. These creatures had been found in the fossil record, but were thought to have become extinct milllions of years ago; here is a continuing colony of perhaps 50,000 individuals, living on minute algea that also grow underground.

The way to the Binghoehle is a steep climb, with a possible detour to a gazebo high up on a limestone crag, which gives a view of the Wiesent valley for several kilometes in both directions, well worth the climb. We actually went directly to the cave, and the woman guide there told us we were a bit early for the first viewing, suggested we climb up to the gazebo, enjoy the view, and then come back. We were glad we followed her advice. When we returned, we were still the only ones wanting to see the cave, so we had a private tour. As we were the only ones, we were able to take as many pictures as we wanted, something they ordinarily discourage. A very small sampling of the pictures can be seen at our photo web site, URL already given in previous posts.

[A historical note. The Bing cave was originally discovered by a Herr Ignaz Bing, supposedly while out walking with his dachshund, in 1905, when the dachshund disappeared down a hole. Subsequently, the first few meters of the cave were found and excavated by Herr Bing, supposedly looking for pre-historic treasure. Some of this history is at
http://www.showcaves.com/english/de/showcaves/Bing.html.
Apparently the cave was originally a dead end,it could be toured, but one had to return by the same path back to the entrance, a nuisance as it limited the number of people that could enter. In 1936 it was decided to dig through to an artificial exit on the other side of the hill from the entrance. A fairly unsophisticated but effective orientation device was improvised to orient the diggers in the right direction; the local Hitlerjugend - Hitler Youth troop was mobilized to stand at the spot where the exit was to be, and to sing patriotic songs at the top of their lungs and stomp on the ground as hard as they could. The diggers dug towards the sound, and the exit was established right where it was planned - given subsequent events, probably the most useful thing those Hitler Youth did.

After exiting the cave, we took the well marked path to the ruin of Burg Streitberg (castle Streitberg), and were rewarded with yet another fine view of the valley. Then down by a steep path into the village itself, and being by this time (just after 11) somewhat thirsty but not yet ready for lunch, found an open (this was a Monday, definitely not in tourist season yet) souvenir shop with the owner present and bored, who sold us two bottles of very cold, very tasty local beer, which we drank while chatting with him and fending off his best efforts to sell us local "kitch".

Then on, for a drive down the valley, and a steep climb up to Goessweinstein, a little town with a very large pilgrimage church, and a relatively intact castle. The church is again in the Franconian baroque style, very ornate, but since they ask that one not take interior pictures, we didn't. Then a walk up to the castle, stopping on the way for some mineral water and icecream at a sidewalk cafe. The castle is still one of the residences of Freiherren von Sohlern family (Lords/Ladies of the Manor of Sohlern, roughly), and is the family burial place. There is a chapel that is open, and some exhibits of very old liturgical books and articles, and a view well worth the steep climb.

After returning to our car, we drove down to the Wiesent valley again and follwed the river through several beautiful little villages, with lots of photo ops, to Pottenstein, where we had a very fine lunch (by now it was about 2:30) at a restaurant with an outdoor patio with a great view. June and I had eaten here six years ago, and enjoyed the food; why go into the unkown? For all I know, I might have had the same meal; sauerbraten with potato dumpling and red cabbage sauerkraut.

After lunch we drove a few kilometres further up the valley, to where there is a summer bobsled run. Basically, you get into a sled on rails, equipped with a pull handle that applies a brake. The sled gets pulled up the fairly steep hill, and then comes down a very curvy back and forth track by gravity. There is some control over speed by using the brake, but it is more of a full off-full on kind of brake, hard to modulate. (There are actually two tracks up, and two tracks down, with different coloured sleds, and I think, different speeds and gradients. We picked the one on which you get your picture taken, which is also the faster.) We increased the difficulty by trying to not only control speed, but take pictures at the same time - not always successfully; I deleted an awful lot of views of blue sky, or brown dirt, but that's one of the bonuses of digital photography, there is no cost to wasted shots. Scott, who was in the lead sled, complained afterwards that I hadn't told him that the little signs at the side of the track with "Bremsen!" on them meant "Brake!" - I'd forgotten about that! Lots of fun was had by all, and we did buy the pictures.

From Pottenstein we then went out of the Wiessent valley and followed a route cross country through lots of pretty little villages, and because we were following the GPS, which thinks a road is a road and you did say shortest distance, down what were essentially very narrow but paved paths through fields. Only once did I choose to ignore directions, when it wanted me to take a road which had the red circle with plain white background at its entrance, the European "No Entry" sign, and a small note "Except Forestry Vehicles" - however, we eventually came to our intended next stop, the city of Bamberg.

Most of the old part of Bamberg is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Amongst other things, a river runs through it, and on a small island in the middle of the river, connected to the mainland on each side by bridges, is the very picturesque city hall. Some of the old district has become very chi-chi shopping areas and trendy restaurants and bars, but with that German genius that does not destroy the old ambiance in favour of the new. We arrived quite late in the day, so we only had quick walk-around the old city, then up to the cathedral on a hill (Bamberg has been compared to Rome, as both are built on seven hills, and in Bamberg the important buildings are on top of hills). We did not go to the Schlenkerla, a local brewery pub famous (some would say notorious) for its Rauchbeer (smoke beer - beer brewed from barley roasted over hickory wood, with a very distinct smoky - think something like consomme but not quiete, taste.) Traditionally, one drinks this beer, and eats Leberkaese (a very dense cooked hot liver terrine) picked up from the butcher's next door, on buns picked up from the baker on the other side. It's an acquired taste; I've accquired it, Scott hasn't - I guess the Franconian heritage does dilute - so instead we found a very nice restaurant with food both of us would eat, and beer both of us would drink.

[Just an aside note; Bamberg has 10 breweries, and there are maps and guides available to guide you in walking from one to the next, with samplings at each one - and if that is not enough, there are at least 90 more breweries in the surrounding area - however, for these you would need to drive. Thus a word of caution - the German police are very vigilant about drunk driving, the limits are lower than in Canada and if you get caught, kiss your licence and perhaps your freedom goodbye. About 1/2 litre per hour, with food is probably safe (most German beer is somewhat lower in alcohol than ours, about 4.5% - but there are some special beers like Maerzen or Bock brewed in the Spring or for festivals that can be at 7.5% or more - buyer beware, and be aware). Also note, that German police are not restricted by our Canadian notions of human rights and due process; you can be stopped at any time, for no reason whatsoever, and checked for intoxication. Incidentally, a police officer can ask you to identify yourself anytime, anywhere, so it is best to carry some id at all times, at least a copy of your passport details page, if not the original. Police can also close down an area, by setting up control posts at all exits, and asking everyone on the street to identify themselves.]

We stopped for dinner at the Hofbrau. We started out outside, under umbrellas, started with the Hofbrau beer, but before our meal came, dark clouds rolled in, and the heavens opened. We were moved inside very competently without even a drop on us, and the evening continued. The food was very good, and we could look out an open door onto the street and across a bridge to the Rathaus (city hall) and watch the streets literally flooding to knee deep in minutes. A cyclist went by, with the water up to the hubs of the wheels. And then the rain stopped as suddenly as it had started, and the water ran off, probably right into the river, and by the time we had finished our meal we were able to walk back to our car dry, and drive back to Pommersfelden (only impeded by the GPS wanting to take us down roads closed by contruction, and having to find alternates).

And then, to bed; tomorrow, Nuernberg (or Nuremburg, as the English insist on calling it!).

[A final note, on "Hofbrau." Above, I noted that we ate at the Hofbrau in Bamberg. Most Canadians associate that term with Munich (as the English inist on calling a city that its inhabitants call Muenchen, but then the English call Aachen Aix-la-Chapelle, Koeln Cologne, and so forth - why not call a town what the people who live there call it - but enough of that rant!) Most in Canada, when they hear Hofbrau or Hofbrauhaus think of Muenchen: In Muenchen steht ein Hofbrauhaus, einz, zwei, gsuffa ... goes the song that, at least in Kitchener-Waterloo is sung at the local Oktoberfest (and more on that!) - Translation "In Munich stands a Hofbrauhaus, one two, chug it down ..."

Hofbrau or Hofbrauhaus translates as "court brewery" or "court brewery house/building" although in German the "haus" addition is of much less importance than in English - the two terms are effectively identical, and which one gets used depends on local usage.

brau is easy; it means brewery! Hof is more slippery; it can mean anything from a farmyard, a farm itself, a schoolyard, a jurisdictional district, a domain, a royal court, the court of anyone of degree or nobility, etc. and much more! In a beer context, to label a brewery as Hofbrau is almost equivalent with the English label on goods, "By appointment to ..... " Basically, it designates a brewery that was either set up by the local high muckety-muck, or supplied beer to them in the past, since officially since 1918 there are no high muckety-mucks in Germany - except they still exist (but that is another rant!). So, most places in Germany have a Hofbrau/haus, all it means is that some local important person either set them up originally, or they supplied beer to them.

Muenchen/Munich might be an exception - the Hofbrauhaus was started by King Ludwig I of Bavaria, with the commisison that they must always supply beer to the workingmen of Muenchen at a price lower than the other Munich breweries, of which there are many. That was to ensure that Muenchen workers would always be able to afford this nutricious beverage at a reasonable price - an early experiment in social welfare.

And that leads me to note that in German culture and practice, beer, and wine, are not considered alcoholic, intoxicating drinks are not considered something evil and to be suppressed (no Puritan Presbyterians here!), no, beer and wine are Naehrungsmittel, literally means of nutrition!

We did eat and drink at the Munich Hofbrauhaus (later description); we did not check out to see if their beer price was less than elsewhere.]

Germany with Scott 2008; 27 Apr 2008

We should have done something!

Flying overnight, then driving and sightseeing, then staying up till midnight, we should have;

1)gone to bed earlier,

2) set an alarm clock,

3) both of the above.

And so, we woke up at about 10:30 in the morning, not unreasonable, since that was 4:30 in the morning back home - but it serously interfered with the plans we had for that day. But, some of those daily plans were interchangeable, so after a period of getting organized, washed, shaved, and awake, we set off.

First on the order of battle was lunch.

We went off to the family restaurant of the Voland's in the nearby village of Limbach, again one of the places my father used to frequent. We lunched at an outside table, only slightly interupted by a rider and horse, who parked just beside us, while the rider got a beer through a window into the dining room area. (Germany is much less uptight than we are about animals and food; dogs are almost always welcomed with their owners in restaurants, unless they are a nuisance and won't just lie under the table), but I must confess that this was a new experience for me. See pictures for this day (and others) at http://longworth_mueller.fototime.com/

Then, we drove off in the general direction of the town of Ebrach (except that I got confused, the last time I visited there was 6 years earlier, and we actually headed for Burg Ebrach). As we were using Scott's Tom-Tom GPS, the difference was not immediately apparent; one gets authoritative directions, which one follows without question (except when, as frequently happened over the whole trip, one runs into roads closed by construction, but the detour instructions, available at the push of botton, are equally authoritative). The GIGO (garbage in-garbage out) principle applies; if you give the GPS the wrong destination, you are not going to get to where you want to go. We ran into this problem several more times, not always caused by my dozziness. The major problem is the German reality; many towns, some quite close together, have the same name. The locals have no problem; they know where they are going. But if you are not a local, and you put the name of a destination into a GPS, you may be offered a menu of destinations, all with the same name, each one qualified with some descriptor (such as; near , or, in the valley of , or, in the district of ) That again is all very well for the locals, but usually not much help for those of us who are not intimitely familiar with the fine points of German geography.

But, eventually, we did arrive in Ebrach, and the detour through Burg Ebrach was not a waste of time, as the entire countryside was worth seeing.

The attraction in Ebrach is Kloster (Convent) Ebrach, a former Cistercian monastery, which has long been secularized, and is now a a youth prison (a very imaginative use of an old building; it already has lots of single rooms - monks' cells - communal dining room, administrative offices, etc.) But the conventual church is still open, and is one of the treasures of Oberfranken (Upper Franconia) church architecture - it is now a parish church, which presents certain problems, more on that later.

Most notably, the church has three organs! Each one is played from a separate console. Processional music was written specially for this church and its instruments for use on high festivals, and some of it was recorded last century, a recording which is, alas, no longer available. There are however other recordings of the orans in this church that one can buy there Architecturally, it is in that late baroque style called "roccoco"; very ornate, and almost overdone. One of its features is marble pillars, except the marble is actually plaster of paris, coloured to look like marble - not because that was cheaper, but because it was actually more epxensive! It is one of Germany's treasures, and is protected as a historical monument, which may not be a good thing for the local parishioners, since they will be expected to carry a good deal of the preservational freight!

June and I visited this church in late Summer of 2002, six year ago. At that time, one almost couldn't see the interiour; they had just begun a major restoration, and the entire interior space was covered with scafolding and protective plastic. This time, all that was gone, except that all three organs had been removed for rebuilding. Talking with one of the parishioners who was there as a guide, it will be three more years before they are back in uninterupted business! (And, they are fundraising as best they can; the German and Bavarian governments are providing a major percentage of the restoration costs, because this is a national treasure; however, the governments are not interested in paying for anything related to actually maintaining the building as anything other than a museum, like a place where people worship, and so the loal people, for whom this is their church, face enormous costs.

Thus, it was very gratifying to see, that, within this enormous convent church, the local congregation had carved out a worship space sufficient for its needs. At the crossing, an altar and ambo, both of solid bronze and modern design, had been placed, surrounded on all sides with chair-seats (ingeniously interlocked and yet re-arrangeable), seating perhaps 200 persons - the church itself would seat at least 2000. Thus, they had created a relatively intimate worship space within an otherwise too large bulding.

After a quick supper of sausage and beer we left Ebrach, in the direction of Pommersfelden, but detoured via the near to Pommersfelden (within 2 km) town of Steppach. This is where my father managed the local dairy for the Bayerische Milchversorgung (Bavarian Milk Supply) in the late 1940s -1960s. This was the place where I spent a number of happy Summers, riding the milk collection trucks with my step-brother Karlheinz, helping out around the dairy (in retrospect, if we hadn't been the boss's kids we might not have been tolerated as much). Sadly, the dairy has been closed, and is not being maintained - and becoming a ruin or slum. Don't know who actually owns it, but they don't seem to care.

From there, back to Pommersfelden, and Schloss Weissenstein. After an exterior (we were too late for interior) walk-around, we went back to the "Gruener Baum", and a very nice dinner in the restaurant there.

And this day we hit bed early!

Germany with Scott 2008; 26 Apr 2008

Boeing 777's rock!

We ended up in "Hospitality" which is Air Canada's euphemism for economy, but on this aircraft, despite having about 350 seats, the comfort level is quite high. The seat pitch does not make you feel too crowded, and one can recline enough to sleep. The lighting when darkened is somewhat lurid - pinkish and purplish, think bordelo - but otherwise, very comfortable.

We arrived early in FRA, cleared immigration with the usual no hassle (by the time you actually arrive at the booth with a German "Grenzschutzdienst" officer inside, they have gone over the aircraft manifest, which was sent to them as soon as we pushed back, with magnifying glasses, so the casualness with which your passport gets stamped is pretent; if you are a bad guy, they will be much less casual! )

Then on to the baggage hall (free carts - Toronto YYZ please note!!!), get our bags, go through the green line (nothing to declare) and we are out in the arrivals area, following the signs (very clear) for the car rental desks - probably a 500 metre trek.

No problem at Avis, but the charming young man behind the desk, taking a look at our luggage, suggests we might want to go up one size on the car I had booked, at not much more cost, and we agreed. Handed the keys, and directions to the car in the FRA multi-story car park, it'a about another 10 minutes, and we are putting our "stuff" into a C series Mercedes Benz station wagon (diesel). I am sceptical-not knowing much about diesels-but, what the h.....

And so, we are off! But first we have to find our way.

I know how to get from FRA to the Autobahn south in the direction of Nuernberg, but we have brought Scott's Tom-Tom GPS, which has maps for Germany on it. So, following it, I miss the first turn - which becomes a common theme - you either follow the directions from the GPS, or your own knowledge, but don't argue internally, because you will miss a turn. (This happens all the time in Canada, when I am following my own [Garmin] GPS, and just know that the directions I am being given are wrong - actually that I know something about the suggested route that the GPS doesn't, like too many lights or stop signs.) Suggestion for travellers using a GPS: if you don't know the route, follow the GPS directions; they will get your there! If you do know the route, follow your own instincts; the GPS does not know about local traffic conditions, or construction, or anything else that is not permanent.

Eventually, we are headed southwards to our first destination, which is the Hotel "Gruener Baum" in Pommersfelden, near Hoechstadt an der Aisch, the town my father (Scott's grandfather) lived the last decades of his life, and where he , and my stepmother Frida (Friedl), are buried.

And, as we hit the Autobahn with unrestricted speeds, I discover that our car will go like snot! I loose my nerve at about 180 km/h, but am still being passed! We eventually settle to a max of perhaps 150, which is slow for some of the natives. And, with all of that, the fuel consumption, indicated on an in-dash display, settles at about 6.5 l/100 km - and in Gemany diesel is still cheaper than regular gasoline!

But first, we go off the Autobahn in the direction Sulzfeld am Main, south of Wuerzburg, for a walk-around, and a lunch of their famous 1 metre sausage. Sulzfeld is a pretty little wine village, well worth a walk-around, even without the sausage, with lots of "fachwerk" - meaning half-timbered - buildings, lovely gardens, and little alleys worth exporing, and at most of the pubs in town you can get a lunch of the famous sausage, sauerkraut, potato salad, and/or green salad, at very reasonable prices - we actually went for the half-metre sausage, with kraut, salad, and a half-litre of the local beer; all of it excellent and sufficient.

From there we went off the main route cross country. First to Iphoven, another pretty wine village, with a beautiful parish church, and, again, streets and alleys worth exploring. Then, along the "Steigerwaldhochstrasse" in the direction of Hoechstadt an der Aisch, through Castell, another wine village. Then on to Hoechstadt and Pommersfelden, to check-in.

About the Hotel "Gruener Baum." It has been in the little village of Pommersfelden, nestled up against the wall of Schoss Weisenstein, the local residence of the Schoenborn family (owners of vineyard, producers of the Lord Bishops of Wuerzburg, and more) for almost 575 years (that will be in 2011) all in the ownership of the Hofmann family. A very pleasant place to stay; recently modernized, and the Hofmann's, four of them, the older one's in their 80's but still helping out, and the present owners in their 50's, very friendly and pleasant folk. We had an "apartement" which was a very large living/dining room, two bedrooms, and a bathroom and toilet. Nicely furnished, and with Ethernet connection!

After checking in, we returned to Hoechstadt, and drove around; visiting my father's former house, now painted an attrocious green, and his grave (and that of my step-mother-no evidence of rolling-over because of the green paint on the house!). Then, dinner at Weberskeller, the local pub that my father used to love, and where we had a reception/dinner following his funeral in early March 2002. We ate outside, overlooking the wide and beautiful Aisch river valley, notably eating a white asparagus salad (at a seeming unreasonable price, like about $1 per spear, until you work out what it takes to get that one spear to your table.) The owner of Weberskeller, after I identified myself, remembered my father, and the reception/dinner we had had there, about six years before.

After that, back to the "Gruener Baum" in Pommersfelden - we should have gone to bed immediately, but we stayed up far too long.

[A note on German prices: Unlike in Canada, German prices as listed on price tags, are what one pays; that is the tag is the total cost to the consumer, including the usually 19% value added tax. In restuarants, the menu price is what one pays; it includes the value added tax and a service charge, what we would call a tip. When the bill comes, it is customary to round it up to next Euro. Thus, while menu prices seem high, relative to Cananda, one needs to increase the Canadian price by about 30% for comparison, and when one does that, the prices are relatively equivalent. And, the service in Germany is usually much better than in Canada; to be a waiter in Canada is usually a way to earn money while in university or college, even high school; a waiter in Germany has been through training at the equivalent of our community colleges, and is highly skilled.]

Germany with Scott 2008-Setting off

This trip has been planned a long time, over a year, but is finally happening. Scott (my older son) and I are heading off for two weeks touring in Germany, my birth country, and a place that he has been as a child, and toured on his own as a young adult.

I've checked us in, and almost a miracle in the space-available travel world, we have been assigned seats on Air Canada (AC) 872, Toronto (YYZ) to Frankfurt (FRA), leaving at 17:30. Mary (Wilson) Mueller, Scott's wife is driving us to the airport, June and the munchkins, Trinity and Rachel, are coming along.

We've planned the itinerary for a long time, balancing driving with just being in an area. What we ended up with is mostly a route where we stay at a hotel for 3 or 4 nights, and travel around in the surrounding area, or the city near which we are staying. That way, we don't have to lug suitcases every morning, and we get to have some choice, based on weather or circumstances, on just exactly we will do, rather than being forced by reservations.

Eventually, I will post pictures (a selction from both Scott's and mine) on http://longworth_mueller.fototime.com/; from the main screen scroll down to "Germany (with Scott); Apr-May 2008" in the list of folders to view.

And now, we are off!