Day 6 - Friday June 1 2012 - Cologne or Koln

We were there when we woke up this morning. Walked into town with a very nice guide named Jeremy. Jeremy we think was originally from the UK, but he came to Koln 30 years ago as a student. A common story - he met a girl here, fell in love, married and has children who attend university here. The population of the city is about 1,000,000. Believe it or not, the city originated as a Roman outpost and there is a cathedral in town! There were actually ties to the old Roman Empire here. Agrippina, the mother of Nero and sister to Emperor Claudius was born here.
There was a Jewish community here. We saw an old synagogue being restored.
Also saw where the city put up barriers to prevent flooding from the Rhine.
Jeremy showed us pictures of different parts of the city right after they had been bombed during WWII.
Also saw the place where modern perfume was born - hence Cologne. It seems that two brothers invented a way to create alcohol without any odor. With that as a base, they were able to add scents creating eau de cologne - water of Cologne - what we know as perfume.
Tonight sailing, and tomorrow - Amsterdam! Because of the logistics of the last night - people packing and preparing to fly the next morning, they did a special farewell dinner tonight. Not really that special. It was pretty much the same as the other nights. Pretty good food.
We made sure to get pictures and exchange addresses with our new friends, the McQuades and the Westheims.

Day 5 - The Rhine Gorge and Koblentz - Thursday May 31 2012

Woke up a little later than usual today. The boat, the Felicity, left Rudeshiem and started up the Rhine again. We sailed through the Rhine Gorge.  This is a stretch of the Rhine where the shores on either side are high cliffs. The river can reach a depth of 25 meters - about 82 feet.  It can be dangerous to navigate this stretch, so thank goodness for a good crew. The interesting thing about the Rhine Gorge is the number of castles along the shores. Throughout the populated history of the region, different lords or kings built castles along the shore to control the commerce travelling the river. They would rain cannon fire near the ships as a warning that they could be more deadly if tribute wasn't paid. I'll post some pics below.<\p> After lunch we sailed to Koblentz.  We did a 90 minute walking tour of the city, which was originally a Roman outpost, then had about a couple of hours to explore on our own. We stopped at a bakery for coffee and WCs (water closets), and an ATM to pick up a few more Euros.  It rained a little while we walked back to the boat. Fortunately, we were prepared. Walked back to the boat to see a classical music show from some local musicians and then some kind of show being put on by the crew. Though neither of us is a big classical music fan, we both liked the little concert the string trio put on tonight. They did a few " gypsy" numbers. Very enjoyable. The crew put on a little show too. Hokey, but fun. There was a little music and dancing, but we came back to our cabin. Looking out our window to the south there are city lights. Looking north, there are also very lights. Maybe village lights is a better description.

Day 4 - Mainz and Rudescheim - May 30 2012

So today started with a stop at Mainz.  Not too much going on in this town of about 200,000.  There is of course a Cathedral in Rudescheim and a square.  The most interesting thing happened this morning though.  Janice has not been feeling well. Sore throat, coughing, pus in her eyes.  She wanted to see a doctor.  We went to the Gutenberg Museum.  He was born here and printed most of his Bibles here.  We got to see a reproduction of the first printing press and some actual volumes that were printed by him.  That was the second most interesting thing about Mainz.  The most interesting thing was a trip to a local doctor's office.  Andrei, the tour director, met us at the Museum and then took us to a local doctor's office.  It was not a state run facility, which is the norm, but like a doc's professional association.  Three docs in the office who see all people.  The government insured and the private insured. Janice was seen by Doctor Irene Kohls.  Using Andrei as our interpreter, she examined Janice and prescribed 3 medications.  Which we then took to a Apotheke (pharmacy) and got filled.  The doc visit was 24 Euros, which we paid in cash.  The drugs were about 33 Euros which we charged.  While in the doc office, Andrei stayed with us, and we talked about the healthcare system in Germany.  I guess it's what we would recognize as Universal or single-payer.  They do have private pay options, which seem to be advantageous in the time arena.  Private payer probably gets services quicker.  The reason why is because even the private payer has 80% paid by the state and the medical provider keeps the 20%. Andrei kept saying it's not perfect, but it's what we're used to.  We came back to the boat and are sailing to Rudeschiem, our next stop.  It seems to be the heart of the Reisling wine region, so wine tasting.

We went to a really neat mechanical musical instrument museum. Very cool stuff. A gentleman named Vernon, or something like that, showed us around the museum and demonstrated some of the instruments to us. I had the opportunity to actually participate in a demonstration. I'll try to post a video clip.

The museum was followed by a visit and wine tasting at Georg Brauer's wine garden. They put out cubes of cheese and let us taste a couple of different white wines. There was a band playing. Very friendly atmosphere. We would come back later that evening for dinner.  While walking around the town, we were there when a Russian woman from NJ feel.

The band played H'vana Gilah, and a few people actually got up and danced a hora.

This is an easy way to type

Speyer and Heidelberg - Tuesday May 29 2012

When we awoke, we were docked at Speyer.  The day started off with a walk into town from the boat.  We followed Andrew, the cruise director, who had to mail a package.  We walked in through a small but immaculate park.  As the crowd was crossing a railraod track, a train actually came by.  Unlike in the US, there was no post coming down or flashing lights or bells to warn you a train was coming. Andrew had to yell at some people to move quickly, gently chiding them, "Have you never lived in a city!"
There was a Cathedral, imagine that, as we came to the main square in town.
At the other end of the square was a city gate.  Beyond that were some shops.
Also a church where Martin Luthor nailed up his articles of Protestations against the Catholic Church.
We bought a new backpack from a store called Jack Wolfskin - German made travel gear and clothes.
We were supposed to be back at teh boat at 11:00 AM.  We lost track of time and just made it to the boat on time.  Janice runs faster than I do!
Then back on the boat for lunch. 
Then we went to Mannheim.  Got to see some of the city by bus, because the bus took us to Heidelberg which is on the Neckar River.  It's not really deep enough for a regular passenger riverboat and the locks are not long enough.  Heidelberg has a ruined castle and a well known university.  Martin Trocki was there in 1976, just before Janice and I were married.
We had a good time visiting the ruins and walking around through the city.  Janice and I had coffee and shared a slice of Apple cake that was delicious.
I´'m writing this late at night at the computer in the lobby of the boat.  I have to publish it because I can't save it locally.  I'll come back to it late to fill in details and post pictures.
Tomorrow is Mainz - Gutenberg Bible, Rudesheim - Reisling wine tasting and mechanical instrument museum, and then an "authentic" German dinner in town.
Having a great time. 

Strasbourg and the Black Forest in Germany - Monday May 28

So, today we got up early. We had breakfast with some people we met on the trip. There's Lisa and Kevin McQuade from Suffolk County NY, and Brenda and Steve from Ontario.  We also met another couple from Paramus, NJ, named Jerry and Brenda Westheim. Also met a couple from Ellicott City - Bob and... forgot her name. There are people here from Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.  Very international group.
So about our trip...
This morning and evening were very French. Strasbourg is in France on the south, or maybe west, bank of the Rhine. We disembarked and got on a tour bus. Very comfortable and not completely full. The bus took us to another smaller tourist boat - my name for it.  It was like a long tube, the top of it being glass or plastic so we could get a good view all around. That boat took us along the Ill river through Strasbourg. We saw the seat of the European Council and a number of other very new and modern buildings along the river. At some point we crossed into the old city. A very marked difference in architecture. During the history of the city it went from being a Roman outpost in the BC era, through the Middle Ages, part of the Hapsburg Dynasty, Catholic, Protestant and a lot more history behind it.
The boat dropped us off near the Notre Dame du Strasbourg Cathedral. Very impressive. Pic below.
Back to the boat for lunch. After a short while we took another bus into Germany to the Black Forest. It was a beautiful drive to an open air museum. It was actually a little village with some buildings dating back to the 1400's. I have to admit my first step onto German soil left an impression on me. I couldn't help but think about Hitler and Nazis and the Holocaust. It left me feeling a deep satisfaction. The Third Reich is no more, and here I am a Jew, vacationing in the country that would have seen my people into extinction. I know it wasn't the whole country, but the feeling was there. I found the Germans we met to be very friendly. I guess one of the reasons people travel is to see things for yourself - to overcome your own ignorances and prejudices. It's a hard thing to do. We stopped at a gift shop that specializes in koo-koo clocks. Herr Herr was the proprietor. His family has had the shop for 6 generations. Nice old gentleman who asked if I hunted. He hunts in the Black Forest for deer, elk and boar. He keeps some and sells some to local restaurants. I liked him.
Back to the boat and dinner. There was entertainment tonight. An accordion player and a singer. Very French and very entertaining.
Tomorrow Speyer and Heidelberg.

Day Two - Zurich

Slept well last night. Today looks like another beautiful day. People tell us we are lucky with the weather. Apparently it was very wet the few days before we got here.
We just had a wonderful breakfast. Movenpick has a great breakfast buffet.
Getting ready to start our Pilatus tour in Lucerne.
OK. It's almost 11:00 PM.  We were out all day. Took a bus to Luzern, then a cable car to the top of Mount Pilatus. Then, a ferry back to Luzern. Really not into writing too much tonight, but I'll post some pictures. Well follow with more pics and descriptions.

Day One

It's Thursday about 3:30 pm.  We're at gate D11 at Dulles.  Our flight leaves at 5:45, but they start boarding at 4:55.  Considering all the stuff we went through for security, waiting another hour and a half shouldn't be too bad.

As it turns out we were delayed til about 7:45.  We all boarded the plane and tried again.  They didn't keep is on the tarmac too long.  It's now a little after 11.  We each watched a movie - or a part thereof , had dinner and are just settling in for the rest of our flight.  We are over the North Atlantic now, having traveled more than 1500 miles. We seem to be directly south of the southern tip of Greenland.  OK.  Enough of this boring stuff. Will continue after We land and get settled in at the hotel.
Just woke up from a not very restful 2 hour nap.  I wasn't going to write anything till we checked in, but...  Trans Atlantic flight is for the birds - and they are welcome to it.  I'm guessing we're about 20 minutes from flying over Paris.  If I want so tired, I'd be really excited.
We landed! One of the first things we saw at the airport was a smoking lounge.

Hollywood Beckons?

Jan and I have been into movie screenings for a long time. Somehow, Janice gets the passes and then we go to the screening. It's a free movie and a night out. Considering that we go to dinner, drive miles to get to the theater, and then spend literally hours waiting in line, it's questionable just how free the movie is.   But we enjoy it. I've brought along friends who enjoy the movie but say all the other stuff isn't worth it.  Oh well.  To each has own.

Recently, I had the opportunity to go one step further in my love for movies. I went to an open casting call for a movie titled House of Cards.  It was held at Stevenson University on Greenspring Valley Rd.  They took pictures of everyone.  4-5 weeks later, I got a call from a company named Central Casting. They asked about my availability to show up on the set for a movie titled Better Living Through Chemistry, starring Sam Rockwell. I had to be an extra, or what they refer to as background. I got a part as a cop ( see pic below).  I hope the scene(s) I was in doesn't get left on the cutting room floor. Maybe I'll have a few seconds of Fame.  :-)

Gotta run.  Look for posts from Switzerland starting Friday.

Testing blogging with my new tablet

OK. Using my new Asus tablet to input this new post on the blog.  Honestly, at the moment, I'm not too happy with this tablet.  It's definitely going to take some getting used to.  Whew, I've only had to reinput this 4 times!  Maybe I won't be blogging as much as I thought!
Will have to get back on that one.
Let's try adding a picure.

So, it looks like it works OK. And besides that, adding text content isn't as bad as I thought it would be - I'm able to use Swype, or at least an Asus version of it. If you've never Swyped, try it. You'll love it. I don't think its available on Apple products. At least not yet. It's now Sunday night. We leave for Switzerland on Thursday. We did some packing today. Getting excited!

SEDER

Sunday April 8, 2012.

We did Seder at our house last night. 17 people. It was me and Janice, Danielle and Pearce, Monica and Jason, Hinda and Jon, Heather and James, James' brother Peter, Jay and Judie, Stephie and Jay, Justin, and Robbie. Seems like everyone had a good time. Everyone seemed to like the food and the company. During the evening, Jon even mentioned to me how nice it was that all the kids (meaning the generation under 30!) got along so well. I agree. If there’s anything contentious going on, it’s not apparent.

By design, I like to keep the religious side of things on the lighter side.  Not everyone in the family is Jewish.  We respect that and they respect that it is a Jewish holiday.  We keep it more about family and enjoying our time together.  I do like to bring the reason for the holiday – Passover- to the table though.  The story of the Exodus is common to Judaism and Christianity, so I don’t imagine anyone minds doing that.  But of course everyone is waiting for the real highlight of the evening – the meal. 

That’s fine.  We have made the meal the heart of the tradition in our family and at our holiday gatherings.  When I was a kid, our Seders focused on the passages from the Haggadah.  The traditional readings and songs.  And then the food.  Before our own families started to branch out, Henry and I used to do our Seders together.  I miss those times when the two of us would sort of take over the Seder when we sang some of the traditional songs.  Even though we haven’t done that in years, having recently lost Henry, it was a poignant vacuum this year.  We always did such beautiful renditions of “V’hee shi’omdah” and “B’tsas Yisroel”. 

In recent years, I’ve just winged the telling of the story of the Exodus.  The Haggadah, the word means “The Telling”, is a codified prescription of how to relate the story of the Exodus – the seminal event in Jewish lore and history.  I got a nice Haggadah last year, so this year, we did it a little different.  I marked off passages, and we passed the book around.  People read the section and passed it on.  It sort of worked.  We had a little fun with it and basically, the story got told. 

Then we ate.  Gefilte fish, not the favorite among most of the non-Jews, was the first course.  As Danielle points out, if you didn’t grow up with it you probably aren’t going to like it.  Seems to be true most of the time.  We made a delicious Haroset (basically, apples, nuts, wine and some spices), then chopped liver, matzo ball soup, a couple different kinds of baked chicken (Soy Vay and a savory herb), orange burgundy brisket with mushrooms, kugel that Hinda made, a spicy carrot dish, salad (compliments to Judie), Moroccan spinach, and a slew of desserts.  We’ve come a long way from slavery baby!

We started about 6:30 and everyone was gone by 11:00.  The last couple hours was spent playing games and talking.  We do all like each other.  We’re fortunate that as the family grows, it grows as a family.  The kids loaded up on care packages, so there wasn’t too much left to worry about how/where to store the leftovers.  Janice and I cleaned up all the dishes and had the place pretty much back to normal before we both passed out in front of the TV in the family room.  Something gave us strength to finally go up to bed sometime before 2:00 AM.  This morning was the rest of the cleanup – putting furniture back, vacuuming, etc.  All in all, a great enjoyable night with the family.

A few highlights:

Justin read the Four Questions in English.

Justin helped clear the soup plates – he asked me to tell everyone to let him know when they were done.  I told him he could do that.  He said, “I can’t.  I’m too shy.”

Jay Downs helped serve and clear plates.

Jay Abramson always helps out in the kitchen and at the table.

We played a game called Mad Gab and Peter called me a racist – I was making fun of foreigners and their accents.  Jay A said that Peter had never heard my father’s accent.  It’s cool Peter – I would’ve said the same thing – even if it was an over reaction.

Heather’s gluten-free brownies were delicious.

Pearce made some home-made peppermint patty ice cream!  Wow - was that good!

We went through about 3 ½ bottles of wine.

Many more, but hard to remember the day after.

Follow the Money

So all this political stuff going on just makes me want to comment on it.  Actually, it makes me want to throw up!  That's me pretending I'm Rick Santorum reading stuff about JFK.  Can you believe that guy?  It's like we have an Ayatollah campaigning to be voted in as president.  Only this one is a "Good Christian" Ayatollah.  By the way, he also supported partial privatization of Social Security.  I'm sure Catholic Charities would have picked up the slack for retirees that would have lost just about everything right after Bush left office.

It's not like I consider myself such a staunch atheist like Bill Maher, but I do believe that faith is a matter of conscience.  You have your faith.  You have your beliefs.  Live by them.  Don't force other people to live by them.  (You might anger their god!)

A government, our government, had no intention of giving god a seat in Congress.  Well, I don't know that for a fact.  I wasn't there.  But I feel pretty confident that if the Founding Fathers did believe in god, it was more of a "I-hope-He-approves-of-what-we've-done" kind of belief.  They knew they didn't want a King, especially one with divine connections, to run this new form of government.  And I'm guessing since many of them were probably the one-percenters (or close to it) of their day, that they understood that money and finance was going to play a big part in their experiment (...a new nation conceived in liberty...) being successful. They were certainly right.  Money does grease the wheels of government.  That's not a bad thing, but it is at the heart of why we have checks and balances, and the three branches of government.  Oh it also is why we have a national road system, a military, the means to take care of our old and infirm, and many other "entitlements". 

But, who controls the money?  It's like every detective story you've ever read or seen.  Just follow the money! 

I could do some research and tell you who spent what to buy influence and votes - the super pacs, prior pac incarnations and every other way power brokers broker their power.  But I'm not going to do that. Instead I'm going to say this



WE BROKER THE POWER!

All politicians, left and right, all pundits, all media talk about how much this guy raised or that gal spent in some jurisdiction.  They are talking about how those politicians are buying votes.  We vote.  Is it too naive to think that despite the millions spent, that the voters can exercise their own minds to make these important decisions.  I know - it is too naive.  Large segments of the population just kind of wait for someone to show up on their TV screen, or on their phone, or in their mailbox and tell them what to think.  Smarten up America!

Who said
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Master of Propaganda, said it.  I think some of our politicians have been sneaking strategy out of this old Nazi's game plan. 

No... I'm not calling anyone a Nazi... I'm just saying...

Just testing.  I want to see if I know how to upload pictures.
This is Janice and me.  I believe we are at The Casbah restaurant, a Turkish place in downtown Baltimore.  I think it's my 59th birthday.

We were with all 4 kids and had a great time.

In the beginning...

So Janice and I have planned a trip this year.  Ostensibly to celebrate my milestone birthday - 60! (I tied Ruth, Maris, McGwire and Bonds) - we are taking a riverboat cruise in Western Europe.  My birthday is in April, but we decide May would be a better time weather-wise.
I have never actually participated in the blogging phenomenon, but I thought it would be a good way to stay in touch during our trip and a way of documenting it.  Who knows, if I feel comfortable with this blogging thing, it may branch out to just be a place where I can espouse my own take on things - regardless of who cares.
Monica went on a trip to Ireland and England last year with a friend of hers, Nicki.  Nicki apparently was up on the blogging thing.  She posted her thoughts, observations and pictures as they traipsed about the countryside or drove through the UK.  That's my inspiration for doing this.
I will need to learn how to upload/post pictures, but I don't think it will be a problem. 
===========
One more subject before quitting this first post. 
My brother Henry passed away in the early morning of Monday Jan 23 2012.  He was 65.  He left this world far too soon.  As we grow older, 65 seems to be pretty young.  Henry had been sick for many years.  Diabetes was probably at the core of all the things that went wrong with his body over the years.  When he died, it wasn't a surprise.  I think we had all been expecting that to happen - we just din't know when and had hoped for more.  Still, shock is still an appropriate word for how we all felt.
But he had come back a number of times.  His son, my nephew Neil, on more than one occassion remarked that his dad had taken 9 lives from one cat and was working his way through another one.  The will was strong, but the body was too ravaged. 
Henry, in recent months, told me that the thing that bothered him most, the thing that hurt him to the quick, was that his grandchildren had never known him really healthy and whole.  He had a loving wife, Eileen, loving children and their respective spouses, Neil and Dixie, and Robyn and Julio, and his grandkids - Eric, Marc and Nathan.  Just as Eileen and his kids were his anchor during his illnesses, his grandkids were the sparkle of his life through that time.  He was their "Poppy" and their love for him and his love for them is a memory and bond that I know will serve them well throughout their lives.
I am almost 6 years younger than Henry, my sister, Hinda, almost 12 years.  Not a lot of building social ties as children.  But we had a good family life.  I know we had our moments, good and bad, but we were family.  When our younger brother, Danny, was ripped out of our lives in 1973 when he was 19, I went through a sort of bonding with Henry then.  I was close to Danny.  I don't think I was so very conscious of it at the time, but in years after that, I came to realize that Henry shared the same loss that I felt at the time.  And as adults, the years difference mattered less.
I'll miss you Henry.  And I am proud to say that SO MANY people have told me the same thing in a heartfelt way that brings tears to my eyes.