Cliff's European Adventure: July 2014

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Buchenwald Concentration Camp

Experience too profound to comment upon, or post photos from. Except to say that I was stopped in my tracks when the audio tour quoted the sign at the entrance: "Recht oder Unrecht mein Vaterland", which I immediately recalled seeing word-for-word on bumper stickers in the 70's: "My country, right or wrong."

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Life in Germany

(Of course, I mean, life at this one particular location in Germany, with this one particular family, and extended family and friends.)

I feel completely “at home” here. I don’t feel any differently being in this area of Germany than if I were in Kansas (except it’s not as hot here). Sitting around with extended family and friends is just like when I was growing up and we were visiting our relatives in Ohio every summer (except it’s not as hot here). Visiting Jenny’s family in Weissensee seems just as normal as visiting my daughter, Nadine’s family in Colorado.

Like I found with the two families I visited in Spain, the family, extended family, and friends are very close. The relationships go back generations and generations. We passed by Jenny’s kindergarten, Jenny’s primary school, Jenny’s secondary school, Rene’s (Jenny’s dad’s) kindergarten, Rene’s primary school, Rene’s secondary school, the house where Rene was born, the house where Rene’s dad was born, etc., etc., etc.

Talk about “eating local”. Both sets of Jenny’s grandparents have their own gardens, and her mom’s parents have their own livestock. They grow their own fruit and vegetables, make their own sausage (from their own pigs), as well as the duck we had for lunch (tasted like roast beef to me).

Mario, Danny, Werner (grandpa), Julia, Jenny.
Duck, potatoes, and "Rottkraut" (sweet, red cabbage, delicious!!)

Rene explained to me the construction that I always associate with "typical German". It's wood beams, and bricks covered with plaster. The deal is that the wood beams are built first, and they are the structural support. Then the bricks and plaster are added to fill in the exterior walls. The idea is that wood has flex and therefore won't crack as the ground settles, whereas if they built just out of bricks, the bricks can separate and crack.

Danny (Jenny's boyfriend), Jenny,
grandpa's (mom's dad) barn / workshop / pigs, chickens, ducks, rabbits.

Grill-Meister Danny.

Anja, Laci, Nico, Hannes, Anette, Claudia (mom's sister), Meline, Uwe.

German dinner. Meat and potatoes.

Breakfast in Jenny's back yard.

German Mehrkornbroetchen. Yummmmmmm!!!

Jenny’s dad, Rene owns a warehouse which is filled with tons and tons of road salt (this is just one small corner). On this roof he has solar panels and he sells his generation back to the electric grid. We took Rene’s 4-wheel drive vehicle to one of the wind farms located on his family’s wheat fields.

In Guenstedt, we stopped by the church-yard where several relatives are interred. All of the graves are covered with live flower gardens which are tended by the descendents. This is the grave site of Susanne's (Jenny's mom's) grandparents.

Weissensee:

Same Issues Everywhere: "No Dog-Toilet!"

Beautiful Erfurt (about 20 km from Weissensee):

I think I would call this a “peace rally”. It's called the "Monday Demonstration". This right to do this was just granted 16 weeks ago. Several different speakers got up and spoke, and frequently the audience applauded, although people also felt free to occasionally make dissenting comments. The gist of the message, as best I could understand it, is that the German media is presenting one-sided reporting on the situation in Ukraine and Russia, and that NATO and the American government are posturing anti-Russia.

Many streets (Ring = Circle) are named after famous people and heroes.
This is a reminder that we are in the former Soviet block of Germany.

Jenny's grandparents' (dad's parents) "cottage" where I am staying. When she told me it was a cottage on their property, I was expecting a one-room house. Instead it was a magnificent home on a large property with beautiful gardens and trees. Her grandpa planted the trees 35 years ago, and he has built two houses and landscaped the entire property himself, as his "hobby". Wow!

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Wrong Turn in Czech Republic, Missed Poland...

I had already been thinking that I should have done more preparation for driving in Europe, and then I got pulled over by the police in Czech Republic. Between their and my broken German, it took me a while to figure out what the problem was. I was driving on the Czech Autobahn without an Autobahn pass. So that cost me about $60 US (1,000 Czech Crowns) but then I had to get off the Autobahn (freeway). So for a while, I was stuck way over on the far east edge (away from Germany) of Czech Republic, trying to figure out what to do next. Finally I found a gas station with an attendant who spoke English, and was able to buy a Czech Autobahn pass (10 days for $30). But she told me it wouldn't be good in Poland. By this time, I had lost enough time that I decided it would be best to reschedule Poland for a future trip, and just try to get to Weissensee (Germany).

I made it in in time for a delicious dinner (photo below), got a tour of Weissensee by Jenny and her boyfriend, Danny, then escorted to the "cottage" of Jenny's grandparents where I will be staying (I'll write more about that later). Today I met other grandparents and relatives, and then Jenny and Danny and I walked around Erfurt.

Jenny's grandfather was 8 years old in 1945 and he was willing to answer some of my questions. Since he lived in a small village, he was unaffected by any bombing, but he remembers seeing the large formations of American planes flying overhead. The American ground troops arrived at the village peacefully, with no opposition at this location. They were African-American and he had never seen people of this race before, so he was quite fascinated by them. He said the troops were respectful to the villagers, interacted with them peacefully, and stayed about 2 weeks before moving on. After that the Russian troops came (we are in a part of Germany of the former East German / Soviet block).

From Slovkia into the Czech Republic. Started out fine.

I happened to pass an Air Museum in Czech Republic, so I pulled off and found it.
They had a pile of aircraft remains from WWII they had dug up and identified.
In some cases, they had the name/info of the pilot. Plus a pile of Soviet-era hardware.

Arrived at Jenny's around 7pm for a delicious German dinner!!

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Germany -> Switzerland -> Austria -> Hungary -> Slovakia

I left Germany and headed over to Austria (via. Switzerland) to meet up with my friend, Thomas, whom I had met last fall in Florida, where he was hanging out at Quest, working on hang gliding and aerotowing, and participating in one of our events. He was an awesome host, taking me on a tandem paragliding flight. Because I was able to reach the control handles, he let me fly it a while, with left and right turns, speed up and slow down, and a 360 turn. I found it very relaxing, and the view of the mountains was spectacular.

Then Thomas and some friends invited me to dinner, he showed me around downtown Innsbruck, and then invited me to stay at his flat for the night. I've had such great hosts on this trip, it's really amazing!!

Then the next day I drove east across the entire country of Austria, on into Hungary, then north into Slovakia, making it almost up to the Czech Republic before it became dusk. I was looking for a campground, but not finding one, stopped at a really nice hotel and asked the price. It was 18 Euros (cash) for the night!!

Miscellaneous Observations:

1. Best Radio Music - Slovakia! Actually, all the European stations are really interesting. They play about half local music and half what-I-thought-was-American music. But the "American" music isn't the cliche pop stuff I hear back home; it's all indy and folksy stuff. Then I realized, at least a good percentage of it isn't American at all; it's native singers and production singing in American English.

2. Tunnels - I've driven through hundreds of tunnels; the first hour through Austria I was below ground more than above; one of the tunnels was 14 km long!