When Your Plane Feels Like It Will Fall Out of the Sky ....

Sorry, no chance to publish pictures, just a brief update

We are in Senegal, West Africa, spending time here with our Andando Foundation. Left Oregon with a team that started out with a team of eight, but wound up here with only seven. As we tried to check in at the Portland Airport our son Lewis was not allowed on the plane because of “passport issues”.



So the seven of us got on the plane early, early, Friday morning -, flew to New York and then to Dakar Senegal. Lewis had to make an emergency trip to Seattle to straighten out his passport and has not arrived as of yet, today being Tuesday Nov 29th.  But we know he is making progress and on his way.


No blog post would be complete without another airline story. So we’re halfway across the Atlantic and they serve the airplane dinner. As we enjoy the fine cuisine (not), it starts to get bumpy. Then ... all of a sudden .... all of us passengers are shocked and very alarmed when the plane drops a hundred feet in half a second! Everything flies into the air, including most of the food, drinks, and a small child or two. Anything not strapped in hits the ceiling of the aircraft. Real bad feeling.



People start yelling and screaming. Many passengers have not been through this kind of radical turbulence. It is very unnerving. When you experience this rapid plummet from the sky, you begin to wonder if the wings are going to fall off the plane. I’m thinking, if this is bad, then we can turn around and head back to a nearby airport. Then I realize that we are halfway over the Atlantic, probably three hours from land. This is not comforting.



I look back up the aisle of the plane and it is an astonishing view of carnage. Plates of food in the aisle, everybody is soaking wet from all the drinks flying around, and some people are crying. Unreal. And it is still bumpy and the plane is rocking. I’ve lost my appetite.


Eventually, we stabilize and the pilot comes on the intercom to reassure us that they "had not anticipated the choppy conditions". They were apparently as surprised as the rest of us. 

With all the sophisticated equipment they have, they couldn’t see this coming? And then he says, “we are the first flight to come through here, so there were no previous reports of bumpy conditions” - what? Where are we? No one has been through here before us? Are we lost?



The rest of the flight was reasonably smooth, but no one could really relax.



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We are out in the bush, here in Keur Soce, Senegal. It’s a remote village where we are deeply involved in many development activities. Unfortunately, access to internet is not good, and it might be a few days until I am able to blog again.

We are engaged with our team in a variety of projects, with a focus on a building effort at a new facility.  We worked hard there in the heat all day, and made a lot of progress.  

Fiona was injured in a fall at one of the gardens.  She took a pretty good tumble.  But she's tough and will carry on.  

Another update report will follow in the next few days. 

Once a Plumber, Always a Plumber ... Even in a Foreign Country

Before we left on our trip to Nicaragua, our son TK had asked me in advance to help him install a toilet at their remote homestead.   They only have an outhouse pit, which is a long walk from the house where they live. 

So I agreed, in advance, and set about this task.  I was somewhat familiar with their house, and knew there was a small well-built shed close to their back door that would serve as a good bathroom. 

On our drive home from a tour of the country, we procured the proper fixtures, pipe, and fittings.  At least that's what we thought.  A trip to a foreign plumbing supply house can be a challenge, trying to bridge the cross cultural gap in language, methods, and equipment.  

As an example: we were discussing parts using the common plumbing phrase "male and female" to describe  fittings.  (If you don't know what that means, I'll have to address that in a future blogpost!).  We weren't getting anywhere until the sales clerk said "macho" - okay, now we're getting somewhere.

We  arrived home in the evening and commenced pounding away at the concrete with a sledge hammer and chisel. Lacking any power tools, you have to do this work by hand, using a solar lantern.  They don't have electricity at their house.  It was not that fun, but at least we were making progress.  


The next day was a big work day and we started out early, like 6:30 am.   Fortunately TK had a local guy who helped work around the homestead, named David (pronounced in Spanish as Dah-VEED).  He was a hard worker and helped to dig the trenches in the ground to lay drain pipe.

Things went well.  I was able to tap into their water line, get the pipe run under the concrete floor, knock holes in the concrete walls to runs pipes, and even knock out a window to let in some light. 

I was surprised how well things were going.  This kind of construction project can be fraught with disaster, especially since they live 20 kilometers out of town and there is a shortage of decent tools.  In other words, you can't just run down to the hardware store and pick up a few more things.  You have to make do.

The second day looked promising, with most of the hard work completed the day before.  But then major problems ensued with basically bad parts.  As I installed the fixtures, none of the stuff fit together, and there were several missing pieces - it was very frustrating.  

I did my best, and it took a long time, and when I finished and turned the water on, everything leaked.  Bummer dude!  This was going to be a hassle.  The quality of the parts and pieces, and even the fixtures (toilet, sink, faucet, hose bibb, valves, etc.) were very "poor" - although "terrible" is probably a better word.  

This called for extra time, effort, and creativity to get done because we didn't have a whole lot more time here.  Like this was the day to finish.  I took a break for a cup of coffee.  I needed to rally my internal resources, and have a talk with myself "come on Kevin, you have to find a way to get this done!"  Ha! Ha!

I started over with the fixtures and parts and pieces and basically took everything apart down to ground zero and rebuilt everything all over again.  There may have been some bailing wire and duct tape involved, but lo and behold, it worked!

Getting low on time to finish, we filled the holes, poured concrete to patch the openings, and filled in the trenches where the drain pipes were buried.  The toilet flushed properly and the sink worked and victory was at hand!

What did I learn from this experience?  Sometimes you have to dig down deep (pardon the pun) and use your emotional reserves to complete a very difficult task.  Oh, and as I have said before ... America has the best plumbing in the world. 

How Do You Rate a Natural Wonder? On A Scale of Ten?

So we are traveling around Nicaragua with our son TK and his wife Jenny.  We had achieved a wonderful surprise by showing up for her birthday, and now we were taking a few days to look around the country and enjoy some time together. 

Our destination this particular day was the crater of the Masaya Volcano with a promise of viewing flowing molten lava up close and personal.  Not exactly sure HOW close, but we were going to find out. 

 
This small Central American country of Nicaragua is full of volcanoes.  They seem to be everywhere, about one every twenty miles, and many are quite spectacular. 

On the way, we had coffee with a local contact regarding the Nicaraguan business climate and local opportunities.  Then we had to wind our way through hills in a quest for the restaurant with a wonderful view of the crater, where we had a late lunch.   You can see the crater in the background of the picture below. 

  
In other words, we took our time making our way to the crater with a few stops, we were not in a hurry.  This turned out to be a mistake. Even though this is a major tourist site in that country, they have some rather unusual hours.  

We got there around 4:35 in the afternoon.  And there were a bunch of cars and buses in line, and the gate was closed.   What?  This is like a national park, why would they be closed?  So we got in the queue and shut off the rig and waited.  

 
You have to wait a lot in developing countries.  For manic Americans, you really have to throttle back on the pace of life and just roll with it.  Everything takes a long time.  Waiting is not a strong suit of mine, not in the top ten of my premium personality traits. 

I finally walked up to several people who were milling around and asked in my broken Spanish - "what's going on?"   Well, they close down between 4:30 and 5:30 to ... adjust their prices ... !

If you get there before 4:30 you pay like two bucks.  After that, you pay ten bucks.  Blatant exploitation of tourists!  C'mon man!  So we sit there and wait, and the line of cars gets real long.  The sun goes down (this is the tropics - the sun sets every day at 6:00).

So, with my amazing skills of discernment, I come to realize that apparently, the lava looks better in the dark, and so you have to wait for it to get dark and they charge you more money.  

Except, well, they don't open up until way after they said they would.  The whole thing seems kinda dumb.  If they want you to pay more money, I sorta get that, but why do they make you wait, along with a whole bunch of other cars and buses and minivans, motorcycles, etc. 

So they finally open the gate, and proceed to collect money from each and every vehicle (this is gonna take a long time!) and explain the ground rules.  

Here are the rules:  
- Wait until you are allowed to drive up to the crater 
- Then you will be admitted with several other vehicles 
- Then you have 15 minutes to view the lava 
- Then you have to leave

What kind of rules are these?  So you wait for over an hour so you can pay more money to go up and see the lava and then you have to rush off?  Pretty bad system if you ask me. 

So  we do what we're told, (again, not a strong suit of mine) and go up and see the lava.  Frankly, it was underwhelming.  There were only a few precious spots where you could look down and see the bubbling lava, and everyone was kinda throwing elbows to get a view.  Couldn't really see much.

And then the guides starting blowing whistles and yelling!  It's time to leave!  Hey, we just got here!  What kind of natural wonder is this?  Super lame. 

So you start off down the side of the crater, and there is the next bunch of spectators coming up the one lane road in a mad rush to get their 15 minutes of viewing time.  

All in all, it was a disappointment.  If you were going to rate this kind of thing, what kind of score would you give it?  On a scale of ten, I'd give it maybe a seven - I mean, the lava was cool (actually really hot, pardon the pun) and the nighttime glow was interesting.  

But the whole operation was very poorly run. This is not a thrill ride at the local carnival, it's supposed to be a wonderful spectacle.    

Couldn't even get a decent picture.  We left scratching our heads, there has to be a better way to do this. 

Color Commentary - Nicaragua is Bright! What color is your shirt?

It's amazing what a change of scene can do.  When you come from the rather dull grey monotone of the Oregon winter, the vibrant colors of Nicaragua couldn't be more striking.  

We spent yesterday walking around and exploring the old historical city of Granada in on the shores of the giant lake Nicaragua.  It was at times, eye popping.  I took a lot of pictures, but they never seem to truly portray the impact of the variety and intensity of the colors here.

Since we have a nice rental car (a truck actually, a Toyota Hilux, the kind with the extended cab and four wheel drive that are a staple in developing countries) we can get around almost anywhere.

Including the hardware store.  TK has asked me to help install a flushing toilet at their homestead, and we went researching for parts and pieces.  We found a good place and pulled in and had a discussion about toilets, and pipes, and valves, and fittings.  Even a sink too!  Great fun!

They were in kind of a hurry to leave, and were closing the place up at 2:00 on a Saturday.  The proprietor told us that everybody wants to go home and drink.  

Even the supermarkets are bright colors

Our destination yesterday was the old city of Granada, a place a four hundred year history full of classical old colonial buildings, churches, and plazas.  And color.  They don't use subdued pastels and earth tones here, it's all bright primary colors.  

I have included several pictures scattered through this blog post, trying to capture the flavor of the town.  I will let them speak for themselves without explanation. 




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A funny thing happened the evening we arrived at our AirBNB house in Catarina.  One of the challenges in getting around most developing countries, including this one, is that they don't have very good directions. 

The streets are not marked and there are few directional signposts.   You just have to sort of wing it.   When we pulled into this small town, we thought we had a general idea of where the house was.  We were dead wrong. 

We drove around a while and without luck and realized it was hopeless.  We had no address and not a clue how to find the place.  Luckily we discovered we had a phone number, apparently for the "caretaker".

We called him but the conversation immediately went off the tracks.  He said "turn left, turn left, turn right, turn left and look for the white gate."
What?  How do you even know where we are?  We just start randomly turning and expect to find the place?  We've already done that. 

We're thinking maybe this guy will come out on the street and meet us.  Jenny asked him "what color shirt are you wearing?"  

We can just picture the guy looking down at his shirt, "what color shirt am I wearing?  Why does this matter?"  He eventually answers "it's blue, kinda dark or light blue, maybe like chartreuse?  periwinkle? maybe a little darker?"

This information proved to be worthless, because he was standing inside the gate and we couldn't see him.  Ha! Ha! Ha!  He probably thought the question was completely strange.  He eventually sent a young lady down to meet us at the corner, and we made our way to the house. 

When we finally met up with him, we decided his shirt was more like navy blue with little stripes.  It's important to determine these fashion questions.  

Nicaragua is Full of Surprises

We couldn't talk about this trip in advance because it was a secret.  We were going to Nicaragua to help Jenny celebrate her birthday.  Jenny is our daughter in law, married to our son TK.

So any blog post before we got there, or even on our way, would have spilled the beans.  As it turns out, we were able to pull it off, and Jenny was amazed, what a fun way to spring a surprise on someone. 

Only, well, okay, it's sort of a long way to go.  We had been wanting to come and visit TK and Jenny for a while and this was a perfect way to make it work.  Nicaragua in Central America is not that terribly far from the US, unlike some of the places we visit.  

They were having breakfast in a local popular cafe, and it was pre-arranged that we would meet them there.  As we walked in, Jenny was like "Oh look, there's your mom and dad TK, Wait, WHAT?" her jaw dropped and she took a moment to process.  We shouted Happy Birthday!  and she was completely astonished.  She had no idea we were coming. 



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It's now Saturday, yesterday we traveled by car to another part of Nicaragua to a town called Catarina.  It's about three hours away from where they live, and it's by a couple of large lakes.  One is actually in the crater of a volcano, Nicagagua's version of Oregon's Crater Lake.  I wrote about this in a previous blog post when we were here earlier - click here: Oregon isn't the only place with a Crater Lake.

We are staying in a house on the rim above the lake, and from here you can see the second lake in the near distance.  This second lake, called Lake Nicaragua is much larger, probably fifty miles long and almost as wide.  In fact, it's the biggest in Central America, so big that there are two huge volcanoes rising up out of the middle of it.  This whole darn country is full of volcanoes, many are quite spectacular. 

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We went out for dinner last night, to celebrate Jenny's birthday, but were challenged to find a nice place.  We ended up on a big plaza in the middle of town that was filled with a very lively crowd.  There was a concert going on (super noisy) and a parade of futbol supporters (very noisy) and a bunch of music and cars driving by (very noisy).  All in all, it was ... very noisy, but quite energetic. Seems like everyone in town heads out to the plaza on Friday night for some fun. 

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The place we're staying in is a grand old house on the rim of the lake, with spacious spanish style interior and beautiful lush grounds.  This is the kind of climate and landscape where anything can and will grow, competing with fellow plants for room to grow.

I woke up in Idaho Falls on September 11, 2001

I woke up early on September 11th, 2001, in Idaho Falls, Idaho.   I had flown from Portland to Boise, rented a car, and drove five hours to get there.  

I had just acquired a new business there in Idaho Falls for my company, Western Tool Supply.  It was to be the very first day that this location became part of our growing company, and I was going to meet many of them for the first time.  

I went for a jog in the morning, as is my custom, and when I came back to the hotel, there was a TV on in the lobby.  It was showing that a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center buildings in New York City.  

Wow, I thought, what a terrible accident.  I watched for a moment.  The video was something that no one will ever forget.   But I had to get showered and ready to meet everyone at the new company.  I had to bring my "A" game. 

When I got out of the shower and turned on the TV in the room, it was obvious that this was no accident.  Another plane had run into the other tower.  And another had hit the Pentagon.  And yet another went down in Pennsylvania.  Our world had suddenly changed.  

I called my wife and told her to turn on the TV.  It was early in the morning in Oregon.  I wanted to hear her voice.  This was a serious "Oh My God" moment, back when that meant more than three letters in a text. 

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By the time I entered the store, formerly Ideal Industrial, everyone had of course heard about the attack.  People were stunned.  Nobody knew what to say.  

I had to try to balance a jovial, "Welcome to Western Tool!"  with a profound personal mix of uncertainty, fear, and a growing sense of anxiety.  I would normally have a big smile on my face, shake hands, and buy everyone lunch ... but not this time. Everybody felt awful.  It would get worse. 

Time would reveal that this was a terrorist attack, inspired by Osama bin Laden, and thousands of people would die in New York.  It was incredibly horrible.  

This was a day that would deeply rock America to the core.   Keep in mind that in the early hours after the attack, no one knew if the whole nation was under siege.    

I did my best to introduce myself to these fine employees in Idaho as their new boss.  Eventually, that location would thrive and prosper, but the first day was difficult.  During that immediate aftermath, people were scared - would be more attacks or  ... ?

Suddenly, this country was in a state of emergency, and ALL airplanes were grounded for a week, stranding hundreds of thousands of people far from home, including me.  But I did have a rental car. 

When I left Idaho Falls, the employees (like everyone else in the US) were in a state of shock. These feelings would last a long time.  

I left around midday and drove back to Boise, and when I got there, I stopped by our local branch store.  These were long time staff members.  The situation was not quite as awkward as meeting the others for the very first time.  We shared our feelings and tried to console each other and make sense of it. 

I had been listening to the news the whole time in the car.  I knew the flights were grounded, and I knew I could not fly home.  I was supposed to return the rental car, but I kept it.  There was so much uncertainty that I figured, well, I could at least drive home.  

I left Boise and drove all night.  The news on the radio began to clarify what had happened.  It was gruesome, but compelling to listen to.  

I distinctly remember when they began to describe the towers coming down.  Since I had only voice and no pictures, I could not possibly imagine the Twin Towers collapsing, that just couldn't happen, they were too big  (ironically, my wife and I had been to the top of the World Trade Center just a few months before).  

I made it home the next morning, physically and emotionally exhausted.  I would learn later that this experience of making your way home was repeated many, many times over the next few days for countless travelers.

That day is unforgettable for lots of reasons.  It was such a tragedy.   It changed the world, and not in a good way.  

It Kinda Depends On Your Point of View ...

We're home now, I wanted to do a post basically focused on just pictures.  

I love photography, and have spent a fair amount of time gathering pictures for this blog, among other things.  All pictures published here were taken by me, using an iPhone camera.  I have occasionally resorted grabbing a photo off the internet for the blog, but 99% of pictures were generated on my own, with occasional help from Fiona.  

Much of the time, I am capturing an image in order to explain a point of view.  Literally, like what the scenic view was like in a foreign land.  But sometimes, I just want to capture an aesthetic image for the sake of a unique or unusual moment in time. 

The pictures on this post would fit that description. Pictures just for the sake of a picture, too interesting to pass up.

This little rig was cool looking and dazzling, but puzzling.  We came upon it on a cobblestone street in Rothenburg.  Turns out it is actually a bicycle.  Looks hard to maneuver.  By the way, everyone rides bikes there, which can be challenging on the up-and-down cobblestones.  

This was some leaded ancient glass in a church in Bacarach Germany.  Loved the texture of the glass and the colors behind.  

  
Again, colors and texture.  We saw a lot of apples, especially in Kazakhstan, where they are said to originate.  Although ... this picture was taken in Germany. 

This was a classic expression on a large statue carving on the front of a church.  There were other characters in the artwork, but this guy's mood seems to imply he's fed up and bored ...

Stark colors and textures. Street scene on a low window ledge in St Goar.  

Loved the light and the detail in this picture inside a church in the chancel area.  Doesn't look very comfortable.  Most of the churches in Germany are Lutheran.  

Again, just because ... I loved the lighting and lines and texture.   

  
So many people (tourists?) in various forms of modern clothing, amongst a background 1,000 years old. 

Having lunch at an outside cafe, with this view across the street.  Found the variety of elements very interesting.  

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Inside yet another church, but hey, gotta love the bright basic colors.  Not bad for a bunch of Lutherans, eh?

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Loved the detailed carving.  Was trying to capture the close up view against the blurry background, depth of field.

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Guess you can tell where this picture was taken.  Candles against the enormous background of the church in Rothenburg.  For the curious: O.D.T. is a geographic reference and translates as "On The Tauber" the local river nearby. 

The Small Things Make the Best (Funny) Stories -

 

Sometimes it's the little things that make a lasting impact ... 

A Funny Story

So on our trip up the river (see below) we found a nice courtyard cafe in a six-hundred-year-old building to enjoy a very nice lunch. On this particular day, I chose to order a big bratwurst, or German sausage, which is a staple in the local diet.   It was terrific, along with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. Pretty dadgum German if you ask me.

But when the time came to pay the bill, they only took cash! Yikes! We were rather short, assuming we could pay with plastic. I asked if there was an ATM machine nearby, and they instructed me to go up the block and I would find one. So I did, while Fiona waited at the table.

Only problem was that it was actually in a bank, and the door was locked. It was one of those electronic doors that usually open when you approach. I waved at the overhead sensor, but nothing.  I looked around, and there were no other ATM’s in sight. This was a small town. What to do?

Another couple came up and tried to get in, and had the same result. But the woman pulled out her European card and stuck it into a slot and the door opened - and I followed them in. 

They tried to get some money out of the machine, but it wouldn’t cooperate with them. They became more and more irritated and then started to get angry with each other, they were speaking Italian (I can speak Spanish, and understood most of what they were saying).  At one point, the guy gesticulated wildly and shouted “MAMA MIA!”

The arguing escalated, and they accused each other of not know how to operate the machine. They kept taking turns and it didn’t work for either one of them.  Keep in mind, it’s been some time now and Fiona is still waiting at the cafe and I’m still waiting my turn at the ATM.  The couple starts getting pretty mad and flailing their arms in an Italian show of emotion. They accuse each other of being idiots- “You are an IDIOT!” - “No, YOU are an Idiot!”

Eventually they threw up their hands and began to walk out, thoroughly fed up and pissed off. They were poking their fingers into each others chest accusingly - "It's Your Fault! You are so Stupid!" A whole bunch of grief and no money. 

So I step up to the machine (finally!) and prepare for my turn, and the machine says “Please take your Cash!” I look down and there is a bunch of money the machine has just spit out. I call out to the Italians, “Hey, hold on, look at this!”

They turn around just as they are about to leave the small office, and they are amazed. Their money is there!  Deliverance!  They are vindicated! Salvation is at hand! It’s a Holy miracle! Their cash is there after all, and who knows how it showed up? They are also incredibly grateful to me that I pointed it out to them.

“Thank you Thank You,"  they tell me  "Bless you! Grazie! Grazie! Holy Mother of God!” they kept saying.  I don’t know, were they thankful I didn’t take the money?  It was almost like they gave me credit for making the money appear!  Anyway, they continued to celebrate their good luck and shower blessings on me and my descendants!

As mad and disgusted as they were just moments ago, they were now ... joyful and triumphant! It was pretty funny. They were saying things to me like “May the blessed Virgin Mary smile upon you until eternity! May you go forth and multiply!” 

I was like, hey man, no big deal, it was your money. It was the least I could do.

They eventually left, laughing and dancing and slapping high-fives, and waving the money in the air!  Hilarious!

I got my money in a much less eventful manner, and after a very ... long ... time, walked back into the cafe, where Fiona had been waiting patiently ... forever. When she saw me she started laughing. I’m not sure why.  I guess it seemed funny, and she is familiar enough with me to know there is probably a story attached to this.

This is undoubtedly the most exciting trip to the ATM machine I have ever had.

It helps to know what you’re looking at. 

How did these castles get here?  Why are there so many?

We had traveled outside of Frankfurt via train and boat to the small town of Bacarach, on the Rhein river. It was a beautiful day with bright sunshine and 80 degrees. The boat ride was fun, with eye-popping views of castles on either side of the Rhein.  You couldn't go a mile without seeing another one. 

We climbed a couple of steep hills, high up the river bank to visit the castles, and it was a lot of work.  We worked up a sweat. 


 
The hills are severe and the castles are located in difficult places on purpose, so to provide a better defense against “the enemy”. 

I have described earlier, the methods used in the old days to secure a "fiefdom". There were a lot of wealthy landowners and noblemen in those days and they fought a lot and tried to conquer their neighbor, or seize territory, or invade another country.  And you better have some good fortifications around your own place. History is full on conflict.

The Rhein, (in English it's spelled Rhine) has always been an important river in Europe, and was a channel of commerce and trade. And the castles that lined the river made every effort to extract tariffs, taxes, tolls (or whatever you want to call it), before they would allow freight to pass by. 

Obviously the shipping companies took exception to this. Battles ensued, and this hampered the movement of goods between regions. Once these trade barriers went away, prosperity was enjoyed by many. 


Germany became a united country under Prince Wilhelm and Otto von Bismarck, and the importance of castles diminished. Another contributing factor was the previously mentioned development of gun powder and cannons and rifles and other modern weaponry. 

But the castles remain, and many are quite spectacular to visit. They are in various stages of repair or decay, and it can take a lot of time, effort, and money to maintain them. Tourism helps. And there can be a lot of tourists. 

In fact, Fiona and I first went to St Goar, a historic town with one of the best examples of a once-glorious castle. But there were so many tourists that we had to flee - in this case, to Bacarach (shown above), a quieter and much more mellow town further up the river. We went by boat, which is a common way to get around, along with trains that travel on both sides of the river. 

And then we had lunch in a courtyard cafe ...

Hey, We Weren't Born Yesterday - Well, Yes America ... You Were

 

History goes back a long ways.   Our travels continue in Europe - Germany to be more precise - Historic Rothenburg

Travel gets in your blood.  Seeing unusual things far away can be very enriching.  You can never get enough, or at least we can't.

So after we finished our trip to Kazakhstan, we had engineered a brief spell in Germany into the return trip home.  Sort of a readjustment.  That's where we found ourselves the last couple days. 

Upon our return, we rented a car at the airport in Frankfurt and headed out of town - jet lagged and all.  Driving in Germany was a culture shock, there was no transition from Kazakhstan.  We were immediately on the Autobahn, with insane Germans driving at speeds of 100 MPH, I kid you not.

After poking around on bad roads in the outback of K-stan, we were thrust back into the modern world, and these Germans have to be some of the most aggressive and extreme drivers in the world.  

There is a reason that the speedometers of Mercedes and BMW's show numbers up to 200 Kilometers per hour - because they expect to drive at those speeds.  It's crazy.  If you're going a mere 80 miles per hour, you will get run off the road.  

Rothenburg - One of a Kind

This was a destination that we had marked on our calendar.  A medieval town preserved at it's best ...

This trip has really been noteworthy in terms of historical perspective.  We have seen a lot of ancient stuff, going back a thousand years or more. Kazakhstan has a very old history, and so does Germany.  

These historical sites and buildings date from the middle ages, or years with only three digits, like 800 AD.   As Americans, we don't have that kind of perspective of life.  Everything in our country is relatively new.  

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The views in Rothenburg are stunning, and I took a lot of pictures.  Too many really to post in a blog. So I will just hit a few highlights....

We started out the day on a long walk, this time outside the city walls, around the countryside.  It is very lush and green here, with gentle rolling hills.

Imagine our surprise when coming around a corner and finding a huge production stage going up in the middle of the woods.  What? They're gonna have a concert here?  Turns out there is not only a concert that night, but a music festival in the next week.

I asked a guy working if it was gonna be rock music, and he said "A bit of everything ... except classical."

Some of the views were amazing.  It's an old city, the kind where they had a wall around it to keep out invaders and enemies.  They made a darn good wall that will stand for a long time.  You can walk around the inside.

There is an evening tour by a "night watchman" who leads a walking tour around different sights and tells stories.  We found out this guy is like a rock star, a big time celebrity.

We thought there might be like twenty history aficionados show up, but no - there were like two hundred.  They guy was good and very entertaining. 

With my business oriented mind, I started doing the math.  If two hundred people pay eight Euros apiece, and he has two tours a night (English and German) this guy is raking in big money.  As much as $2,000 a night during peak tourist season! Good for him. 

These citizens of Rothenburg know they have a good thing, and they do a great job preserving the quaint and scenic attributes.  Fiona described it as "terminally cute!"

Our Hotel went back five hundred years.

And other buildings were intriguing to look at and admire the style in which they were built.   This building below looks like something out of the Hobbit.

And this street view below shows the towers in the town.  There were many towers, where guards could shoot arrows down on invaders to keep the town safe, or pour boiling oil down on their heads.  

Of course that was in the old days.  Eventually mankind invented rifles and cannons.  Towers are no defense against cannons. 
  

One last point of time perspective.  On our long walk through the countryside, we came across this little church.  They used to bury people in the churchyard.  One of the gravestones said "Here lies Hans, he died in 1537."  

So America, we have a long way to go in terms of history.  It's not about comparing countries, and a nation can't help it if it's young.  Hopefully we can learn from the past.  But it helps to know that with all that goes on, the human race is pretty resilient.