Home again!

The next morning dawned… well, neither bright nor early. In fact, it dawned a good hour after our alarm went off. Granted, this isn’t saying much in Germany in late December, but still. We pried ourselves out of bed and prepared for our flight out.

Then the cockups began. Nothing major, but a series of small ones starting with breakfast. The hotel, which was otherwise very good and very reasonable, had a breakfast buffet which we recalled being a bit on the pricy side, but not too bad. To put things into perspective: you can get a perfectly reasonable and tasty breakfast at any Imbiss (lunch counter) or Bäkerei (bakery) for about five euros. The hotel in München charged fifteen euros for the two of us, so about seven fifty. The one here was fifteen euros as well, but we had a train and a plane to catch, so we opted for the buffet.

It was a delicious buffet, but then we went to pay and realized this one was fifteen euros per person- not total. Good food, but still a bit much to spend on coffee, croissants, hard boiled eggs, cold cuts, etc. Whatever, we knew we were going to be on a plane all day, so a proper meal was in order and we weren’t rushed. Call it a win.

Then we tuckered off to the train, made a few wrong turns in the labyrinthine station, and found the local train to the airport and the trouble really began. First there were not ticket machines on the platform, so I watched the bags and Amy ran off to find one. Naturally, the escalator to the platform with the machines one went one way, so she had to find the machines, find the stairs down at the other end of the platform and come down to tell me that the machine hadn’t taken her credit card.

OK, no big deal, this was why we had extra time. I had a card that we’d bought our tickets to München on, so I knew that one worked and I ran off to find the machines, leaving Amy with the bags. Except I’m paranoid when I travel, so I lugged my backpack along, with my messenger bag slung over it. Up the escalator, find the ticket machines, and… it didn’t work. Tried another one- same thing. I clicked through the screen to find the accepted payment methods (thank god I speak German!) and found that they take a) charge cards (which I didn’t have); b) Deutsche Bahn cards (which I also didn’t have) and c) cash (which I also didn’t have). So off I went to find a Geldautomat (ATM).

I found that, got the smallest amount I could (20 euros), contemplated asking at the info booth next to the Geldautomat about using credit cards on the ticketing machines, discarded that idea, and rant back to the machine. No luck- it wouldn’t take my money. The damn machine cut off at 10 euro bills, and accepted nothing larger.

So, if the ATM only gives out 20s and greater, and the ticket machine only takes 10s and smaller, then there must be a change machine somewhere, right? Wrong. I ran back to the info desk to find it empty. No bell, no button, nothing. And no jacket slung over a chair or coffee cup indicating they’d be back. I ran upstairs to the main level to find… something.

Since this wasn’t an international station, there was no change office, and whle there were plenty of Geldautomate, there were no staffed banks. Then, there! A Bäkerei! They always have cheap stuff! I bought a pretzel (I’m a sucker for good pretzels), got my 19.20 in change, and ran back downstairs, found the ticket machine, bought our tickets, ran to the other end of the platform, took the stairs down, and ran to Amy. Our train pulled up, we got on, and the train pulled out. Made it!

Naturally, they never checked out tickets, and the pretzel was the worst pretzel I’ve ever eaten in Germany, but it was worth a bit of sweat.

And that’s really about all. We found our outgoing airline (Lufthansa, running a flight for United), breezed through security, and got on the plane. We had a two-hour stopover in Heathrow London where we had to go through security again (since now we were going to America, and that meant heightened security because terrorists were totally going to blow up any plane going to America. They took our duty-free sodas, the bastards!), and found a pub for fish and chips and a pint of Hobgoblin. Then some browsing in the duty-free shops (nice whiskey selection in one and I got to compare a bunch of tablets in another) then back on the plane to SFO.

I’d loaned my car to my brother for the duration of the trip, so now we had a pickup waiting for us- best idea ever! He ran us home, first Amy, then I dropped my brother and drove myself the last 20 minutes of our ten-day, 17,000 mile trip.

Frankfurt bei Nacht

Frankfurt at night is another world from the cheerful and brightly lit Christmas markets of München or the medieval cobblestone streets of Freiburg. It’s a major metropolis, full of tourists and locals, alcoholics, bums, urban professionals, taxis, cops, cars, everything you’d expect in San Francisco or Oakland or, for that matter, New York, Miami, Chicago, Paris, Madrid, Cairo, or Shanghai.

It was a Tuesday night, and most business had wrapped up, people had eaten dinner and returned to the streets for whatever they were after. We’d eaten leftover pizza from lunch on the train, so we weren’t particularly hungry, and walked quickly through the dirty streets in the industrial quarter toward the city’s financial center and the Occupy camp. The camp was still there, but not much was going on, so we kept walking. We passed by a dance club with a line out the door and down the block, all young people dressed in shiny clothes with greased hair and makeup. By our standards, they were very young for the club crowed- maybe 18 or 19, rather than the early- to mid-twenties we see here. The effect of a lower drinking age.

 

The top of one of the financial towers was lit by a yellow beacon, and in the mist it was just barely short of terrifying. Frankfurt.

We continued on to the Altstad (old town), which was reasonably well lit, but still the middle of the night. This was the same place we found the Weinachtsmarkt last week, but now it was empty- a strange discontinuity. It was deserted as we walked past the Rathaus, some statues, then crossed over to a small (relatively speaking) church. This church had a huge tree festooned with lights, and a row of very medieval looking houses- tall, narrow, all attached to each other.

Much like Freiburg, Frankfurt was bombed to bits during the War, but while Freiburg took pains to recreate the older sections of the city as accurately as possible, Frankfurt still has a new smell to it (metaphorically- we still found the that warm stink of the German sewers). The houses, while old fashioned, don’t have that layer of grime that you’d expect after half a millennium or more. So: charming, but not really all that interesting.

The Rathaus has a covered bridge going to another building. Frankfurt.

The buildings by the church were old fashioned, but not actually all that old. Frankfurt.

The church was pretty, but not as impressive as the Freiburger Münster (or, for that matter, the Frankfurter Dom). It did have a nice Christmas tree, though. Frankfurt.

We walked by the “old” houses on the left, toward the Dom (cathedral) behind them. We passed some construction boarded off with plywood on the way, and noticed some well drawn Roman soldier cartoons graffitied on the barrier. They were obvious homages to the Asterix comics and other comics of that topic which are popular here, but we weren’t sure why they were there.

Then we found an overlook to the Dom, and some very new construction laid down in front of it- just some foundations, nothing more. Weirdly, though, there was a permanent looking walkway across it, and a staircase down into it. We went down, and the wall were all stone walls- as if someone was adding to the Dom.

There was a ticketing booth that was just closing down for the night. I went to ask what we were standing in, but the window closed before I got there. There was a small theater behind it, so I assume the ticketing window was for that, and not for whatever was happening with the walls- nobody seemed to care that we were there. Then Amy found the plaques.

I read them by the light of my cell phone, and realized that what we were standing in was not a new build, but an old build. Several old builds, actually- very old builds. There were three things there: a granary from the 17^th century, a monastery from the 13^th century and a Roman bathhouse from the 7^th century! They had all been built on top of each other, each using the ruins of the last one to build off. The different wall heights (about 30, 100 and 150 cm) indicated which walls were from which period. It was a bit of a tangle, and I wasn’t able to make out which was which for sure, but it was definitely impressive. Then we walked around the cathedral.

The Frankfurter Dorm is clearly a modern building, built in the image of the old one. It’s definitely Gothic architecture, but the sandstone is so new that it’s still light pink (instead of the black and gray of the Münster), and it has modern murals all around it and on the doors. It’s a bit incongruous at first, but actually a very nice touch. It’s as if the building was clearly meant to be a rebuild of the old building, but was not trying to wipe away the destruction of the old one. Rather, this one seeks to incorporate contemporary tastes and other bits of local history with its murals. Quite well done, but too dark to get any photos of.

The spire on the Dom, from the front, at night. It's impressive, but I don't think it's quite as large as the Münster in Freiburg. Also, the Münster is surrounded by a Platz, and then two-store medieval buildings, so it's much more imposing than the Dom which has no Platz and then has taller buildings. But the Dom is lit internally at night, which is very cool. Frankfurt.

Loads more images of Frankfurt, and Germany in general, on Amy's flickr.

We completed our circuit and I put my tired foot down and said we’re going back to the hotel. Amy had burned off enough energy that she was OK with that by then, and we marched back, passing the now-familiar cell phone, luggage and sex shops on the way. We also passed a number of sex workers and their pimps, one of which was loudly accosting some passing gentlemen with his wares. We walked by quickly and escaped without too much attention.

Back at the hotel, I showered, crawled in bed and passed out. Amy was still up for a bit checking email, and then showered too. I was drifting in and out of sleep, but remember hearing the blow drier.

I heard the blow drier for a long, long time. Then there was another person in the room, talking about the blow drier. Then in and out and then gone for a long time, and then back, and all the time the blow drier was howling away in the bathroom at top volume. It actually got remarkable warm in the room. Finally, it shut up and I passed out completely.

The next morning Amy explained to me what happened. The blow drier in the particular hotel was permanently wired into the wall so it can’t be stolen. In all, not a bad idea at all, unless the switch breaks and it gets stuck on “on.” And then doesn’t turn off, and can’t be unplugged.

Of course you can’t just clip the wires, because the power is still on. One could just kill power to the room (both the hotels we stayed in had key card slots near the door that you stuck your key card in to turn on the power- take the card out, and the room has no power), but then it would be pitch black in there. So the handyman finally got the howling, hot blow drier operated out of the wall somehow, and left us in peace. Ah, sleep!

Münster!

So. The Münster. It’s 209 steps up to the clock room, then another 29 to the bells if I remember correctly, and something like 44 to the observation deck. We did the bells first.

There are 18 bells in the Münster, and 16 of those are in the bell tower (the other two are scattered throughout the other spires). The total weight is well north of 50,000 lbs, and most of it is right there. To say this room is reinforced would be a massive understatement. It’s joisted up every two feet by massive, two-foot-thick timbers, and the larger bells are so huge that both Amy and I could curl up under them and still have room for the clapper.

We dodged the 12:00 noon bell chorus (where they all just ring like nuts), but did stick around for the 1:00 ringing. That’s four small chimes of two bells each, and a single chime of a medium sized bell. For chiming the hours, they don’t actually swing the bells, they just drop a small hammer on the edge.

Mind you, a “small hammer” has a solid steel head the size of a cinder block. It was quite loud in such an enclosed space. I remember the noon chorus (where they just chime all the bells like nuts) from when I was a kid, and the air vibrated so much it was hard to breath.

Anyhow, these bells are pretty cool. Also, old. All the bells have names, and Hosanna was cast in 1258 AD. She weighs 3,290 kilos, alone. They’re greenish gray behemoths, like slumbering elephants hanging off massive timber crossbraces. Really remarkable.

Then we climbed back down to the clock, and took the Wendeltreppe (spiral staircase) to the observation deck. Coming up the 209 steps was also a spiral staircase, but not like this. This thing was so steep you had to keep to the outside to get enough step to stand on, and the whole thing was only about four and a half feet in diameter- six inches of which was the center pole. Steep as hell, and with windows cut through to the outside to make sure you really saw the height. Neither of us are huge fans of being that high up, but we did make it, and sat in the center of the platform, clinging on for dear life and gasping for breath.

Cathedral spires don’t move of course, and there were high, temporary wire fences around the edge, as well as a cover for the platform itself, so it was completely safe, but it sure didn’t feel that way. The observation platform is 66 meters high- from two thirds of a football field up, the people at the marketplace below looked smaller grains of rice. Short grain rice.

The Münster is under renovations at the moment, so parts of the platform were taken up by construction scaffolding and blocked off with plywood, but that actually drew attention to the differences between the old and the new. After close to a millennia, the Münster is badly weathered and discolored, but the new sandstone pieces really shine. It’s a red sandstone, so it stands out bright pink against the dark gray and smeared black of the old pieces. And there’s the graffiti. Besides the standard “Christ we’re still here- Franz und Anika 16.12.11” written on the temporary wooden structures, there’s also names like “Ioseph” and dates like “1560” etched into the stone. It’s pretty impressive.

 

This is a door in the Altes Rathaus (old city hall). The ironwork was impressive. Freiburg, in general, has loads of neat ironwork. Most of it is post-war restoration, but it's gorgeous nonetheless. Freiburg.

 

The Münster, in addition to being a cathedral, was also the city lookout. The cylinders are leather fire buckets (if the top of the tower catches fire, the over 25,600 kilos of bells come crashing down). They're so narrow because the stairs up are narrow. The lantern is a signal lantern, so the watchers on the tower can communicate with the people in the street below, and the trumpet is a huge megaphone. It's over six feet long. The lantern ain't small either. Freiburg.

 

Some of the graffiti was quite old. The date on the bottom left is half in shadows, but it's 1560. A lot of the etchings we found were in old scripts (see the HI to the right of center), incorrect (H.S. just above 1560), arms and symbols (AW and WC top left), strange spellings and Latin (Gallea, bottom). This example is from a window in the clock room. Freiburg.

 

The view from the observation deck toward the Schwabentor with the Blackforest lost in the mist in the background. The columns to the left and right are less than a foot in diameter, and a good 20 feet tall before they arch together into a series of delicate Gothic arches. Freiburg.

 

You can clearly see the renovations in progress. The icon (statue) and the window are old, the roof over the icon is new. For scale: the roof is maybe 4 feet tall, and the large window probably about 18. Still, at 4 feet, that little roof has an impressive amount of detail for sandstone. That was the case throughout, right up to the roof- there were pieces up there only a master sculptor could have created, and nobody would have seen them without climbing all the way up there. Quite a bit of it was barely visible from the observation deck (high up in other spires, etc), but judging from what the rest of it looked like, equally delicate. Very impressive. Freiburg.

 

 And finally, this lovely ...thing. The sign says "children's and idiot's hands besmear walls and benches"- an exhortation against graffiti. Clearly, highly effective.

Then we climbed back down, did some last shopping for souvenirs and gifts to bring back home, ate lunch, and headed back to the apartment. We’d packed this morning, so we relaxed for a little while and then met my uncle to give the key back and head to the train.

We ended up getting on an earlier train, which was slightly more expensive, but we paid the difference and enjoyed the fact that we didn’t have a transfer anymore. We got to Frankfurt, and checked into the same hotel we were in when we first came in. I was ready to crash, but Amy dragged me back out for a walk, and I’m glad we did.

This time, we went to check out the old town of Frankfurt. We found some neat graffiti, the cathedral and roman baths. More next time.

Auf Wiedersehen, Freiburg!

The last entry I wrote, I think, was posted from my uncle’s living room in Freiburg. Shortly after that, Amy and I piled into my uncle’s van with his wife, two kids, a ton of food and coats and all that for the trip to Karlsruhe (well, Grötzingen, really- the 1,015 year old village where my grandmother lives) to Omi’s house.

It was spectacular. Most of my family was there (barring two of my three brothers), both my uncles with their wives and kids (I have five first cousins), and of course my grandmother. It was the first time we were all in the same room in almost ten years, and everything went off without a hitch. First coffee and cake and getting to know each other again (most of my cousins I hadn’t seen since they were kids, or mid teens at the latest- this was the first time I met them as adults), and then it was family picture time, and finally off across the valley, two clicks away to my other uncle’s house for wine, dinner, stories, gossip, wine, a very small bit of family feuding but really just as much as was necessary to satisfy tradition by the scantest bit, then more wine, stories, gossip, etc.

I had some wonderful insights about family and social habits that I’ll spare you all now, but don’t hesitate to ask if you want to hear the sappy details of what I realized while drinking with my family in Germany. Suffice it to say that I was far happier and more touched from getting to see my Omi and my cousins than I had anticipated.

Amy, my uncle, his daughter and I fell asleep in the car on the way back to Freiburg, while his son and wife stayed awake and drove. This morning we packed, and then hit Freiburg to climb the Münster (cathedral) tower and pick up some last minute things.

The Münster isn’t nearly as awash with gilt as the Peterskirche in München, but spectacular in its own rite. It hasn’t changed much since it was finished in the 15^th century (the conversion from local monastery to cathedral began in the 13^th century), so it’s still very much about wooden pews and massive red sandstone arches against a white plaster ceiling, enormous stained glass windows all around, and at least three sets of monstrous organ pipes. And when I say “monstrous” I mean that they were a good 20 feet long, in bundles at least 25 feet wide, with the larges ones so big around that you could drop a five year old child down them without grease.

Like many medieval churches this one, in addition to the usual clock tower with bells, look-out post and weather vane, has a number of handy things carved on the outside- calendars, sun dials, the official Ellenmas of the city where all measuring sticks could be verified (the Elle, or ell, is a distance measurement based on the tip of the middle finger to the back of the crooked elbow- hence the term “elbow,” being literally the bow of the ell), graffiti, the arms of local dignitaries and groups, etc.

And the Wasserspeier (gargoyles) are of course always a point of amusement. Medieval buildings have a certain whimsy to them, so along with the usual bearded men, dragons and demons, some of the gargoyles here included goats, trolls and even a woman clinging to the battlements with her hands and feet, legs stretched out and a water pipe coming out of her ass. Earthy humor at best.

Then we climbed the Münsterturm (clock tower). It’s 209 steps up to the actual clock, a massive mechanical beast of precious metal with a gothic arch case. The whole thing is about 8 feet wide, including the clock itself and the mechanisms on the ends that pull the bell ropes. It’s encased in a series of glass doors that let you see it, but not actually touch. It struck ¾ (quarter ‘till the hour) while we were looking at it, and wow, was it loud! The bells are just about 8 meters above you, pointing right at your skull. Quite something.

At this point in the writing the train pulled into Frankfurt, so that’ll have to do for now. Check back next time for more on climbing the Münster (including the bells and the cramped, open stairs to the observation platform), pizza of DOOM, catching the wrong train and wandering around Frankfurt in the dark.

Weinachten in Freiburg

I’m sitting in the tiny kitchen of our rooftop flat in Freiburg, eating Brot (bread) mit Butter und Gelee (with butter and jelly). Unlike American bread, this is dense, firm, brown bread with a thick crust- it doesn’t crumble when you spread cold butter on it, and makes for a satisfying breakfast.

Amy is still asleep after another late night with my uncle’s family, comparing California wine (I brought a bottle) to local wine from the Kaiserstuhl, a small mountain range in the middle of the Rheintal (Rhine Valley). It’s weird to wake up before dawn, even if “before dawn” can mean “8:15” as it did today. It’s after nine and I’ve showered, shaved, flipped the laundry (it’s been drying in front of various space heaters throughout the night), and am eating breakfast, and it’s still just starting to get properly light out. The church towers to the west are illuminated, and some of the higher buildings as well, but our neighborhood is still in the shadow of the Schwarzwald (Black Forest)

After a late breakfast with family we explored Freiburg a bit more yesterday, but it was cold and everything was closed. Eventually we ducked into the Starbucks I made yesterday’s posts from, and then came back to the apartment to read, nap and relax. Then, as usual, back out to the family for dinner.

My uncle’s wife is from Cyprus, but has lived in Germany for 30 years or so. The food was, in a word, phenomenal: Roast duck (German) with gravy (also German), meat dolmas (Greek), some sort of fried meatball (Greek), tzatziki (Greek) with boiled as well as fried potatoes (both German), Rotkohl (red cabbage, German) and of course the two wines. Much of it was meat-based, but I got my fill of German food with a touch of Greek, and I’m assured the meat was delicious.

And now the sun has just about reached us, and is shining off the Ziegel (tile) and Schiefer (slate) roofs, clearly illuminating the huge gilded clock on the double-spired church by my uncle’s house. I can’t read it with the sun blazing off the Zeiger und Ziffern (hands and numbers), but it’s about 9:20, so time to wake Amy and go meet the family for a road trip down to Karlsruhe to meeting my other uncle and his family, my parents, brother and grandmother for a family Christmas luncheon. We’ll be back here tonight, likely with my brother and father in tow as they strive to get out from underfoot of my aging grandmother and the worked-up clan.

 

The view out of our apartment with the Münster (cathedral, left spire with the scaffolding), the Schwabentor (not the Martinstor, as I called it earlier- I always get the two confused), and the Feldberg (Field Mountain) in the background. The first truly sunny day we've had so far. Freiburg.

 

The view looking the other way. The two-spired church in the background isn't nearly as far as it seems- maybe a kilometer away. My uncle lives right across the street, so we just walk it. Freiburg.

 

Out the same window, now a bit more to the left. The house there has a gorgeous widow's walk on top, and you can see a classic slate roof on the right. Freiburg.

Happy Christmas!

Well, while I’m waiting for the pictures to upload, I’ll start typing up another post!

We got to Freiburg OK, and then went to meet my uncle for Jörg (pronounced York) for the key, and discovered that a) I don’t, in fact, remember his address, b) of the two phone numbers he gave me, one was a digit short and c) the one complete number I had for him was his work number- obviously, he wasn’t there. So we called my dad to get the number, but he didn’t pick up.

Fuck it all, we’re getting lunch! And hot damn, was it tasty! A nice little Italian joint (most places were closed, it being after 12:00 noon on Christmas Eve), and enjoyed a salad with sheep cheese and a tasty pesto spaghetti. Naturally, right when we ordered my dad called, I called my uncle, and we got contact. Shortly thereafter we had a key and a ride back to the apartment, a quick tour of the heaters and all that, and had the afternoon to ourselves.

When you’re in Freiburg, you explore. It’s a small city, founded in 1120 (yes, it’s almost 900 years old) with a university and Münster (cathedral). Much of the Innenstad (inner city) is very old, with lovely designs in the sidewalks made of split river pebbles, as well as Bächle (“brooks,” deep gutters with permanent water running through them. Back in the day, the Bächle were the sewers, but more recently they’re self-cleaning gutters and, of course, wonderful toys for kids. I remember floating sticks and paper boats down them when I was a kid. The water in them is straight out of the Dreisam river, and (supposedly) drinking water, so it’s safe. The fountains, too, are all potable water, although most of them are off in the winter. Fountains are all over Freiburg- they’re the origin of most of the Bächle, and function as drinking fountains, public art and Denkmäler (memorials) for all sorts of things. A city that’s nine centuries old has a lot of memorials.

The Münster is being renovated, so most of the steeple is scaffolded at the moment, but that’s ok, it’s still very impressive. The entire thing is built of red sandstone (indeed, much of the city is), with gargoyles and crenelations aplenty, and of course spectacular stained glass windows.

In the evening, we went back to my uncle’s place for dinner. My cousins are huge now- Robert is in college, and Emily is graduating high school. I haven’t seen them in about ten years, so it’s like getting to know strangers. My uncle and his wife are both a bit older, but not changed much. He’s a sarcastic, snarky German man with iron gray hair and an avid hang glider, climber, skier and kite surfer, his wife’s from Cyprus, speaks excellent German with a Greek accent, and dotes on her kids and puts up with her husband’s penchant for extreme sports. Today she announced they’re welcome to go skiing, she’s staying home, taking a hot bath, and enjoying her new Christmas gift (an infrared lamp). In all, they’re very kind people who are taking excellent care of us.

Dinner was delicious (Raklet, a sort of roast-your-own cheese thing from Switzerland that’s rather popular here. It’s a twist on the classic fondue, in that the cheese is roasted in small treys and then placed directly on the bread, potatoes, mushrooms, whatever, rather than melted and dipped), and then we all moved to the living room for Christmas. In Germany, the gift-giving is done on Christmas eve, after dinner. We were told “no gifts!” which we took seriously (mostly- we brought a bottle of California wine from Lodi and some Scharfenberger chocolate from Berkeley), but of course they didn’t- I got a lovely Lami pen (Lami is the premier pen manufacturer in a country that still values penmanship- I’m very pleased) and Amy got a small embroidered green fabric pouch. Then, after much wine, champagne, Christmas cookies and good cheer, we toddled home in the cold and slept like logs.

This morning, we went back to my uncle for breakfast, were informed we’re coming back for dinner, as well as breakfast tomorrow before we all carpool to my grandmother’s to meet my immediate family and more of my German family. That’s how it goes here- once someone gets hold of you, they invite you back and back and back until you insist you have to go elsewhere, and then they’ll pass you on to someone else they know will take care of you. It’s lovely.

And now we’re in a Starbucks (the only thing open on Christmas) slowly drinking hot tea and mooching WiFi (or WLAN as it’s called here). More later, though perhaps not for a bit. Ooh, sunshine! Time to go!

Picture dump!

 

The Sendlingertor in München. This was a half-block down from our hotel, and part of the old city wall. You can see the old ironware sconces, as well as where various windows have been punched through and bricked up through the centuries. München.

  

Otto Fürst von Bismarck. This statue was a good thirty feet tall- very impressive! To the right is the bridge across the river to the Museumsinsel (Museum Island) and the Deutsches Museum. München.

 

Plaque for Fürst Bismarck. München.

 

A cut-away ship (not a model- an actual ship!) in the Deutsches Museum. They had a lot like this- huge things, cut away. A U-1 submarine, airplanes, etc, etc. München.

 

Amy posing with one of the larger steamengines. They got a bit larger, and a lot smaller- all real and still reeking of oil. Deutsches Museum, München.

 

And beer. Oh, yes, the beer! This was in "Münche's Kleinste Gaststube"- Munich's Smallest Pub. A three-chair diner with a tent out back expanding by another 12 tables or so.

 

The decorated verandas on the tower inside the courtyard of the Neues Rathaus- the New City Hall in München.

 

The Martinstor (Martin's Gate), my favorite Tor in the world, and about four blocks from where we're staying. Freiburg.

 

I believe this is the City Hall, or was at some point. Notice the brightly colored roofs and heavy gilding. Freiburg.

 

Amy standing by a rosette in the sidewalk. There are several of these every block. All those stones, the large and small, are round, flat river stones from the Dreisam that were split and laid in broken side up. Very sturdy sidewalks with excellent grip in the wet. Freiburg.

 

We found an excellent playground on the way back from my uncle's place, in a churchyard. Freiburg.

 

The church near my uncle's house. This is NOT the Münster- the Münster is much larger and more ornate (although not painted). The bells here were impressive when they rang at the end of Christmas morning mass. Freiburg.

 

Hemingway's pub. Not sure how I resisted. Freiburg.

 

A plain (non-decorated) sidewalk, and some locals- even the older people (these were in their 60's) believe in fashion here. Notice the gilded owl handbag. Freiburg.

 

Germany still has a tradition of fanciful storefront signs. Here's a  jeweler and watch repair store, with interlocking gold rings and a working watch clock. Freiburg.

 

It's the mate to the Starbucks mermaid! A decoration in a window frame at the side of the Rathaus. Freiburg.

 

Another decoration in a window frame. Freiburg.

Amy standing in front of the lovely painted ironwork gate to the Rathause. You can see the city arms and the dates inlaid in front. The stripe isn't raised, but not many sidewalks are around here.