Pictionary

Welcome back to Europe! My 'laaste collega' (last mission companion) loved to play this endlessly entertaining game - and she played exceptionally well -  which game continued on my subsequent trips to Europe. Because so many languages are so closely crammed together (not to mention the high volume of dumb tourists), most of the signs on the street have few words, if any at all. That means it's up to you to figure them out. Don't hesitate to call out answers!

 

(This way to bike over rotten eggs?) (Sorry, no burger joints in here?)

The best one last. How do you figure?

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

Nine, nein, neun! Germany is a beautiful country, at least the parts that we saw, full of history, culture, good food, and German speakers. Imagine!

My husband's parents graciously hosted us in their European size apartment and showed us places like Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, Dachau, the local ice cream shop, various bakeries (a must on any European trip!), the Glockenspiel in Munich, the mountains of Austria, more castles, cathedrals, and many other places along the way. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, if I just stop writing, you can figure out the rest, right?

Okay, maybe a few stories. We spent our last evening at dinner with a woman from church she is German born and raised, thankfully with an excellent handle on English, told us of her trips to the U.S. and how on multiple occasions she was asked if Jews are still persecuted and killed. She's not even 40 yet, so it wasn't too long ago, but someone wasn't paying attention in history class. The war is done. There is more to Germany than what happened 65 years ago. Stepping off the soap box.

The landscape and architecture are worth the 12+ hours of travel alone. Of course, most landscape and architecture give my lovely desert home pretty stiff competition when it comes to beauty. The snow only added to the Bavarian charm...and the treachery of the roads.

And the food...that would make a 30 hour travel day worth it. When your bowl of gnocchi comes out bubbling with cheese, yes it's all healthy, or you get a half a 'turkey' on your plate (turns out to be chicken, but who needs translation), or you end your meal with a fresh slice of apple strudel, it's all worth it. My one recommendation is to have plain old water available somewhere. Anywhere! No little bubbles and not in a 3 oz container. But the birds are taken care of at least.

One memorable part of the trip was watching the neighbor downstairs take apart the street organ he is building to show us the pipes. He built the entire thing himself, including carving the airways and constructing bellows. Unfortunately, it didn't work yet, but he has a few ideas on how to fix it. He showed us an organ he had purchased online and pulled out some music rolls to play. After a nice Austrian dance, and the Bare Necessities, he played Schnappi the crocodile, about a crocodile from Egypt that lives in the Nile. He spends his time schnapping things cause that's about all he can do at his young age. Of course the organ was not complete without a stuffed monkey to sit on top. Sadly of a few of his close neighbors don't appreciate all the noise, but we were glad he shared. Sorry there's no video to share with you.

But I hope  you enjoy the rest of the story in pictures.

Brats anyone?

Welcome to Bavaria, home of the blue and white checked flag, Germans, and hops fields. We saw the Glockenspiel in Munich (Purists, please forgive my lack of accents) and went to Dachau. It was the first concentration camp in Germany and considered heaven compared to others, as it was not ever an execution camp. Don't let that fool you, because 25% of the prisoners that came there died there. But that's a lot 'better' than the 95% in Auschwitz. And what is the Glockenspiel? It's a clock tower with giant dancing and celebrating figures that was created to commemorate the marriage of a Duke in 1600 something and the cooper dancers that entertained during the Plague in 1517 (?). (Coopers are barrel makers.)

We have visited a castle and a cathedral. We ate lots and lots of brats and wurst and potatoes. We have also slept a bit. Which is a nice change after staying awake for over 30 hours on our flight over.

At church we met lots of people and I tried my hardest to understand German. I thought I could, I thought I could, but it was one of the longest church meetings I ever attended. It's not that the speakers or lessons were sub par, but German is not Dutch.

Oh, we ate applestrudel too. And kabobs. And ice cream. I like ice cream. And German food. Maybe that's all the weight I'm gaining...

Who can read what's in your wallet?

Since the mister and I are headed off to scary foreign places soon, we each invested in brand new passports, complete with RFID reading capacity, in order to prove our identity to those who may question it. RFID, or radio frequency identification, chips sends out a radio frequency, go figure, with information about the object or person with the chip. RFIDs are used all over to keep track of things, for example, in industry to track orders and shipments, in medicine to track samples, medications, and lost patients, and in agriculture to track live stock. Now they are also used in credit cards to offer a swipeless option. Some parents may want, or probably already have, to inject one into their kids. Great technology, right?

From my vast 10 minute search about these chips, I learned that card readers for such things range from a piddly $10 on up. What's the big deal? It means that Joe Nobody can buy a reader and, if your card has the chip, he can get close enough to you (as in 20 feet) and 'skim' your information. And you won't feel a thing. What a cozy world we live in! While not many cards use this technology just yet, some do and US passports do as well. How do you protect yourself? Don't carry one of those cards, or ask the bank to replace it with straight plastic, or buy an anti-RFID wallet. For passports, the US government was kind enough to slide and extra layer of metal into the book itself that is supposed to hinder, not prevent, would be thefts. How nice.

So, what type of shield works best? According to Consumer Reports, of the 10 products available on the market when the article was written, the homemade aluminum foil and duct tape sleeve worked better than 8 of them. Maybe I will make an aluminum foil helmet next to prevent someone reading my brain...though they may not find much useful information...

Any security people care to comment?

Now boarding...

We're off to the land of the tulips. Yay! And the Fatherland and the Garden State. Time to pack yet?

Traveler's guide

My brother lives in a little white house,

With 3 little gray kittens who chase the mouse,

And lots of fuzzy chickens and a little red wagon,

And a realio, trulio, really big black gun.

He has another kitten too, but it's kind of orange. It's a boy, though, so he's my nephews' favorite. My brother moved his family to a top pick of most visited destinations, so I thought to give future travelers a few thoughts on making the most of their visit.

Things to know:

• It's worth the trip.
• Only go in to the gas station if you have time for a chat.
• Chaps are in fashion. Feel free to wear them. Cowboy hats are welcome as well.

Things to see and do:

• Jump on the bed. The house came with an extra dusty mattress, now exclusively used for jumping.
• Watch the chickens and guinea chase bugs and zip around their little house. It's better than TV.
• Swat flies. They have a good supply, so don't hold back.
• Shoot a few rounds at the hay bail target. Try not to miss.

Things NOT to worry about:

• The coyotes and owls are not after you. They want the chickens or guinea fowl.
• The stink bugs and the earwigs aren't that bad. Just watch out before you use anything that may be moist, like a toothbrush or a washcloth.
• The scary basement is not haunted. It just has a frog and lots of old food. (The frog is live. Try to avoid stepping on it.)
• If wasps periodically drop from the tree on you, just step away. The chickens can eat them.
• My sister-in-law is a gracious hostess. If you need anything, just ask.

Things to bring:

• A fly swatter
• Shoes without laces that attract burrs and grass seeds...or be prepared to pick them out.
• A good sense of adventure. We had a great time.

Also, feel free to drive like my brother...at least, my older brother. The younger one only has a permit.

The chocolate covered food group

Take heart Americans! Life just got better here. No longer need we feel deprived. Recognize these? These are the remnants of the box of Belgian delight I discovered yesterday. This stick used to hold a magic wonder, in the form of chocolate covered ice cream. The Magnum was one of the major food groups while I lived in Europe as a missionary and it has been a struggle trying to get a balanced diet in the States. But gone are the days of crossing the pond and now is the time to cross the street to the local grocery store. True to form, they come in a box of 3. Usually, we would buy these on the way to somewhere, and had no access to a freezer, which meant somebody got to eat 2. Maybe that someone can be me this time. Do you think my husband will notice?

What goes on in San Fran...

...should stay there. I just got back from a weekend with friends in San Jose, CA. We spent a day in San Francisco, which has yet to fail in making for an interesting visit. Now, San Fran is all about being open-minded and accepting everyone, so they say. That's great, but does it mean accepting the consequences of a choice? I hope so. As we drove through one of the neighborhoods on a beautiful, sunny day, we spotted a man in a white hat. The man also had shoes and a backpack...but that was it. For a man who is conscientious enough to wear a hat on a sunny day, one might think he would take similar precautions for the other 97% of the body.

Maybe I need to think with an open mind.

What's with the background?

The thought may have crossed your mind, maybe, to aks what the background is with the seashell on the blog. No, it is not at the beach, nor at an environmental museum. It's not even in a seashell collection. This picture is of the dirt in Amsterdam. Weird? Maybe. Cool? Yes!

My cousin and I were there last May and we found a street unpaved due to some repair work. As luck would have it, there was a small collection of shells waiting for a photo op. The explanation I heard was that these are remnants of sea life when the land was actually sea floor. Some say the shell are carted in for the tourists, but after living there a few months and seeing shells in most dirt patches, including construction sites, I'm a little skeptical.

Either way, who would not think it was cool to find seashells while gardening? Pulling weeds, or cleaning out the irises, just got more interesting.