Hello Canada, hey?

Today was the first day of our Canadian/Alaskan adventure. Joe, David, and I boarded our Air Canada flight yesterday at 5:45 pm and after a three-hour flight, we were visiting our northern neighbors in Vancouver, British Columbia. But wait! I've jumped ahead a bit. 

Let's back up to October 2022 during my 60th birthday. When I was 40, I had a big birthday bash. When I turned 50, I celebrated at Disneyland with my family. So when I turned 60, a friend asked what was I planning for this big year which started me thinking about it. After some contemplation and discussion with others, I decided on a Disney Alaskan cruise. I've always wanted to go on a Disney cruise with my sons and I've also wanted to go on an Alaskan cruise so no time like the present to combine the two dreams. Disney's Alaskan cruise sets sail from Vancouver. Well, that got me thinking even more! I have never been to Canada except for the accidental trip across the border documented in a previous blog post (but we aren't going to dredge those memories up right now). So in honor of living 60 years, it seemed appropriate to extend the trip and spend some time visiting Vancouver. So here we are spending 5 days in Vancouver before we board the Disney Wonder for a week of sailing fun. It's two vacations in one!

Okay, now back to today. We are spending our time in Vancouver at an Airbnb located near downtown. Aside from the hard mattresses and the very small sofa sleeper, it's a nice little basement apartment of a very lovely Victorian home on a tree-lined street. Our host left us some snacks. One was a bag of chips. At first, I thought they were barbecue flavored, but nope, they are Ketchup flavored Lays. Haven't tried them out yet, but I saw another brand with the same flavor in the grocery store, so when in Canada, we'll do as the Canadians do.

Today's excursion was to Stanley Park. Stanley Park is a gigantic park with much to explore and do, but we spent about 90 minutes walking on the famous Seawall that circles the island. We didn't make it all the way around the 10 km loop, so we didn't see all of the sites, but we did see Siwash Rock, Prospect Point, the beaches, Lions Gate Bridge, and assorted restaurants and points of interest. Siwash Rock is a tall rock stack with a native legend about selflessness and rewards as well as a more recent memorial to a young man who dived off the rock during low tide and died. Lions Gate Bridge looks a lot like the Golden Gate Bridge except it's green. Both are suspension bridges and both bridge the entrance into a harbor. At some point, we hiked into the interior of the park to find Beaver Lake. All we found was a marsh. We were getting tired and needed to find a restroom, so we didn't pursue Beaver Lake any further. I read that sometimes people can actually see beavers, but the only interesting wildlife we saw today was plenty of Canadian geese in and out of the water.

After Stanley Park, we drove over to the False Creek area and rode the Aquabus Ferries to different points of interest on either side of the inlet. There are eight stops, but we spent time at three of them Hornby Street (where we parked), Granville Island which has a huge public market, and David Lam Park. It was fun riding the water taxis and it was a nice end to our first day of exploring Vancouver.

Auf Wiedersehen

 I am sitting on the airplane flying back to California. We only have 9.5 hours left of the flight before we land in San Francisco. Then it's a two hour layover and a quick flight down to San Diego. The nice part about this flight is I have a window seat and no one is sitting in the middle seat. Joe is sitting in the other window seat of this aisle and I don't think he has anyone next to him either. So that is very nice for both of us. The not so good thing, is I don't think we are going to get an actual meal on this flight. I think we are going to get three snacks and we just had the first one which was pesto bread sticks.

As we fly west toward home, I have some time to reflect on our whirlwind visit to Germany and our time with Zach. We did a lot. We saw a lot. We traveled a lot. We walked a lot. We experienced a lot. My heart and mind is full of many memories that I will be able to take out and revisit over the coming days. Zach asked me the other day what was my favorite thing we did, and I said, "spending time with you." He guffawed at that comment, but it really is true. I treasure the time I get to spend with my sons, and it has been a long 20 months since I have been able to hang out with Zach. It doesn't seem like he plans to return to the States any time soon, so my mama's heart needed that connection time even if on occasion, we were both a bit annoyed with each other.

Aside from the mushy mom stuff and the amazing sights and sounds we experienced, I really enjoyed comparing and contrasting the little and the big things between Germany and the United States. Here are a few of my observations.

1. Whether we were in the city or in small towns, public transportation was the main mode of transportation. Of course, there were plenty of cars, but I saw so many people walking and riding their bikes or scooters everywhere. Many people had baskets on their bikes and this was how they got around.

2. In Frankfurt, many of the bike lanes were on the sidewalk. The sidewalk was divided into two different colored bricks. One color for pedestrians and the other for bicycles and scooters. I think this is primarily because the roads are so narrow and filled with cars and trains. Even the crosswalks are divided for pedestrians and bikes.

3. Can we talk about bathrooms? In Germany, the restrooms are labeled WC for Water Closet which they must have gotten from the British. But when you ask about them, they are called Toilette. One of the rules both Zach and Marylyn taught us was always be sure to pee whenever you have an opportunity, because public restrooms are few and far between. Toilets in restaurants and malls often cost money, unless you have purchased food.

4. Another thing about toilets in general are they take up less room. The tank is very narrow and the bowl is not full with water like in US toilets. There is just a little in the bottom. In addition, there isn't a handle or lever to flush. Whether you are in someone's home or in a public restroom, to flush the toilet, it is usually a big square button that you push on one side.

5. Bathrooms and kitchens are very small and compact. In fact everything, is small and compact. In the United States, we are used to buying things in bulk at Costco or Sam's Club. But when you go to the neighborhood market, you buy smaller portions of things. For example, you can buy a half loaf of bread and the paper towel rolls are half the size of what you would find in the States. Zach and his minimalist philosophy fit very well in Germany.

Hey! I think we ARE going to get a meal, so I'll continue this later...

6. Smoking, lots of smoking in Germany. Does anyone remember cigarette vending machines? They have them all over Germany. Smoking cigarettes, cigars, and vaping was a common thing to see in outdoor restaurants and walking up and down the streets by young and old. Smoking was not allowed on the trains or inside restaurants which I made me glad.

7. Recycling is a big deal. Zach had five different recycling bins - one for paper, one for glass, one for packaging, one for food, and one for all the rest. I didn't really see any cans being recycled. Most drinks came in glass or plastic bottles. Zach always checked the plastic bottles, because certain ones were worth 25 cents. You could turn them in at the grocery store and then you got a little coupon that you used at the register when you were buying your food.

8. Like most first world countries, Germany has socialized medicine. You can get private insurance, but there is also national health care available to anyone who is a German citizen or is employed by a German company. Zach pays for private insurance through the U.S. because GEM is not a German employer. But he is trying to find out what he has to do to get on the German insurance plan since it is so much cheaper. Zach's roommate, Jon wasn't feeling well one day, so he stayed home from work. I asked him if he got paid sick leave. He answered, "This is Germany. Of course I get paid." If he is out more than three days, he has to have a doctor's note, but there is no limit to the number of sick days. He did say that if you are out for 6 weeks or more, then your employer no longer has to pay you, and you have to file a claim with your insurance to receive your pay. Sounds a bit like short term disability.

9. In schools, the student to teacher ratio is 12:1. In preschool, it is even smaller. Jon works in a nursery school with 0-3 year old children. I asked him about staffing. He said their are four groups at his school with 12 students in each group. There are a total of 16 teachers who work with those 48 students. So that is a 3:1 ratio for the very young ones which makes sense since they require so much more care.

10. German history is much longer than American History. Frankfurt was established in 764. The buildings are older, and the stories and legends are many. Because so many buildings were destroyed during the World Wars, the Germans have had to rebuild a lot, but they take great care in preserving their past.

11. Germany has a ton of political parties. Their ballots are extensive and the debates heated and often controversial. With a wide array from left to right, there are many choices in political representatives in the government. Although the US also has other parties, they never have any power or representation. Our country has been split between the two extremes and I wish we had more viable options like in Germany.

I could go on and on about my observations, but it is time to bring this blog post to a close. I came to Germany with some preconceived ideas. Germany was always the aggressor in the history I studied. In fact, they were basically the pariahs of the world. But as we began our exploration of the German culture and history, my opinion changed. This is a country that has made some serious errors and followed the wrong leaders with devastating consequences. But they have owned their history. They are not proud of it, they do not erect statues of war criminals. Instead, they have created memorials for the victims of the atrocities they committed. They were basically stripped of all respect and power after World War II, but they have risen from their ashes and built a stronger society and they are once again world leaders, this time setting the example for human rights and democracy. I admire a lot about modern day Germany and would love to see our own country follow some of these examples.

I didn't take any pictures today since all we did was go to Römerplatz to buy some souvenirs. This is a large plaza where the city hall is and it has a lot of cute German style buildings and plenty of cafes and touristy shops. What I did do before we left for the airport was record a video of Zach's flat. It's about a 10-minute tour of where he lives. 

You can view it here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/LA16VuQv6eQHBD496

Also, if you want to see all of the photos I took on this trip, you can view them in my Facebook Album

It's Been Fun, Frankfurt!

 Today is our last full day in Frankfurt and tomorrow evening we will fly back home. So to finish off our visit we went to two Museums and walked around a lot.

We started the morning by taking a train to Mainz about 40 minutes away. Mainz is near the Rhine River (spelled Rhein in German). Mainz is considered the wine capital of Germany and every Saturday they have a Farmer's Market with food and lots of wine. Too bad I'm not a big fan of wine. This would be a good place to enjoy a little wine tasting. Instead we were on a mission to go to the Gutenberg Museum. Johannes Gutenberg was born and raised in Mainz. He is considered the man of the millennium by many and his invention of the moveable type printing press in the mid 1400's revolutionized mass communication in Europe. There was a lot of information about the history of printing and Gutenberg's life. Most of it was written in German and the museum was very dark to protect the manuscripts. There were some beautiful handwritten documents with gorgeous illustrations, but I wasn't able to read that much about them since I don't read German and the lighting made it hard for my old person's eyes to read the little bit of English.

Gutenberg printed between 158 and 180 copies of the Bible in Latin. 49 copies still remain. The museum had two complete copies and a portion of one. They are displayed in the "Strong Room" which is a fire-proof vault. The copies are displayed behind bullet proof glass and you are not allowed to take any photos while in the vault. Along with viewing the exhibits, we also watched a printing demonstration on a Gutenberg printing press reproduction. It was about 40 minutes long and the woman doing the demonstration spoke very enthusiastically in German. Fortunately, Joe and David had taken me to the International Printing Museum in Los Angeles for Mother's Day, so I had a good idea of what she was talking about.

We finished at the Gutenberg Museum and took the train back into Frankfurt and found our way back to our chosen museum along the banks of the Main, The Museum for Communication. This museum was fascinating. It had several floors with interactive exhibits about types of communication including letter writing, radio, TV, teletype, telephone, and the internet. We played with switchboards, listened to a variety of radio stations, read love letters from poets, and learned that fake news has been around forever. 

There was a special temporary exhibit about a well-known illustrator, Axel Scheffler. He is a German illustrator and animator who lives in London. He is best known for his drawings in The Gruffalo written in 1999 by Julia Donaldson as well as many other children's books. The exhibit was so much fun. Scheffler was known for sending his friends letters where he creatively drew all over the envelope often incorporating even the stamp into his drawings. We were able to view dozens of these amazing works of art.

We had an early dinner (6:30 pm) at Frittenwerk where everything is on french fries. I got Chili Cheese Fries, Joe got Pulled Pork Poutine, and Zach got Bolofritten which was lots of different veggies over fries with a chipotle type sauce. The chili in my chili cheese fries was more like a tomato sauce with onions and the cheese was similar to a nacho cheese but not spicy. Zach said the Bolofritten was the spiciest thing on the menu and that it ranked a 3 out of 10 for him. I guess Germans don't really like spicy food.

We are back at Zach's house now and the guys are playing some video games like Nintendo Switch Sports and Overcooked with Zach's roommate Jon. My suitcase is basically packed and ready to go tomorrow. 

We have had a good time with Zach exploring Germany. Joe checked his steps over these past few weeks, and each day we averaged between 13,000 and 15,000 steps except for the first day when we did the walking tour with Marylyn. That day we went about 27,000 steps. It's been some fun days filled with walking and riding numerous types of transportation. We have ridden buses, trams (similar to the San Diego Trolley), the S-Bahn (stands for Schnell or Street Train), the U-Bahn (stands for Underground Train), Regional Trains, and high speed trains. I now know how to read and understand "next stop" or "next station" although I still would not be able to find the right station or platform to get on the correct train!

Time to play Happy Little Dinosaurs and then head to bed.

Back in Frankfurt

It was another lazy morning so that I could rest up a bit after our late return to Frankfurt last night. I had trouble sleeping, so I wasn't ready to head out early this morning. After  breakfast and a bit of lunch, we headed down to the river to take a 100-minute cruise on the Main. On our way there, Zach took us to what he considers the best bakery in Frankfurt and we all got an Apple Cinnamon Roll. Zach's had almonds on top. It was delicious.

The boat took us up and down the river and a speaker pointed out various locations. We saw the financial district again, several bridges, harbors, and buildings on both side of the river. One of the buildings we saw the locals call the Apple Wine Glass, because it is a cylinder with diamond shapes and it looks just like a glass that they serve Apple Wine in. Apfelwein is an alcoholic drink that is common in Frankfurt. It is a bit like a sour apple cider. The cruise was relaxing and we got some nice views from the river.

The city of Frankfurt is on the north side of the river and on the south side is a district called Sachsennhausen. Sachsenhausen has about 13 museums along the river and we took a stroll to see what was open. All of the museums were closing within 30 minutes, so we picked one and made the decision to try to come back tomorrow. There is a quaint and older section called Alt (old) Sachsenhausen and we wandered through the area down narrow streets. There were lots of taverns and pubs as well as restaurants from many different countries, but we decided to stop at a German tavern and try out some more food well-known in Frankfurt. 

We ordered a bembel (pitcher) of Apfelwein and decided to share two dishes. One dish was two frankfurters with German potato salad and the other was cold hard boiled eggs and hot boiled potatoes with green sauce. I know it sounds really weird, but the green sauce was pretty tasty. Apparently, it is very popular in Frankfurt in the spring and the summer when the herbs used to make it are in season.

After our little dinner, we walked to a gelato shop that Zach recommended and had some dessert. The creamy gelato hit the spot. Then it was back to Zach's place. While we were walking around Sachsenhausen, we were discussing our favorite animated movies and books. Zach was adament that the best animated movie ever made was The Iron Giant, and he gave me his reasons why. I had never seen the movie, so now we are watching it. Then it will be off to bed for me. I am tired and we are going to be up early and headed to Mainz to visit the Guttenberg Museum tomorrow.

Berlin Day 3 - Museums

Today was our last day in Berlin, so we put our luggage in a locker at the train station and headed to Museum Island. This is a section of Berlin that has a number of museums including art and history. Our first stop was the DDR Museum. DDR stands Deutsche Democratic Republic or German Democratic Republic in English (GDR). The museum was all about what life was like in East Germany right after WWII until the Berlin Wall came down.

After the war, Germany was divided up among the Allies and the Soviet Union. It became four sectors controlled by the Americans, the British, the French, and the Soviets. Berlin, the capital was also divided accordingly. The Soviets formed the GDR promising freedom from the control of Nazis and power to the people. The philosophy was that everything was for the common good. And they promised the people a much better life as a result. They believed that once people experienced the satisfaction and reward of living in a socialistic society, they wouldn't want to leave. But things were not as rosy as the leaders promoted. Instead, people were leaving East Germany and escaping to West Germany, and that is when the Berlin Wall was constructed in 1961 to keep East Germans in and everyone else out.

The museum was filled with so much information from education, to food shortages, from sports to politics,  from housing to holidays. There was a common theme - everyone gets the same thing and the community is more important than the individual. The idea of collectivism was promoted in everything that was done. For example, it started in Kindergarten when children first went to school. There was a room with a bunch of toilets and everyone went "potty" at the same time. The children sat there until everyone was finished. I also watched a propaganda film that talked about housing construction and how quickly apartments were being built for the people and how happy everyone was to have a new place to live. In fact, there were only enough new homes constructed for about a third of the population. Families had first priority and they had to often wait years before an apartment was available.

A number of other facts stood out to me. No one went hungry. There was always plenty of bread and essentials available to everyone. People had plenty of money, but there was shortage of most everything else. There was rationing of common food items and when the word was out that something was on the shelf, the whole family would go to the store so that they could get their allotted amount before the store ran out. 

Voting was another interesting situation. Pretty much everyone voted, but there was only one set of candidates. Voting was supposed to be secret, but when you went to the voting booth, what was expected was that you would fold your ballot and turn it in. If you chose to go into a voting booth, people thought you had something to hide and your name was recorded. You could line out a name on the ballot, if you remembered to bring a pencil, but there were no other choices. If you chose not to vote at all, then they would show up at your house with a mobile ballot. If you refused, you were blacklisted.

One final item of interest was the value the Eastern Bloc placed on physical fitness. Children did sports in school as a regimen and everyone including adults were expected to choose and participate regularly in a sport. I have noticed while here in Germany, that there are very few overweight people. When I see a chunky person (like me), they appear to be tourists. People are active. They walk or ride bikes everywhere. I wonder if this is a cultural carryover from the Cold War.

We spent a lot of time in this museum, but finally we left to get some lunch. Zach had seen and read about a taco shop called Dolores California Burrito. It had been started by a guy from California and Zach has been looking for a good burrito. The boys each got a burrito and I got a quesadilla. Lunch was spent listening to the two sons discuss the quality of the food and how it compared to San Diego Mexican food. They decided it was pretty good. Not as good as a true Mexican taco shop from home, but better than Chipotle. Whatever...

We only had a few hours left before we needed to be back at the Train Station to catch the high-speed train back to Frankfurt. After having missed a few trains, I am a bit paranoid about being early. So we chose one more museum to visit and that was the Pergamonmuseum. It was a museum filled with antiquities that had been discovered by German archaeologists, in the early 1900s. One in particular was Baron Max von Oppenheim. There were statues and architecture from Babylon, Assyria, and Rome. There was a note on one of the placards that explained that there has been some concern over the acquisition of these artifacts. Although the museum and/or archaeologists have papers showing that they purchased the pieces from the Turkish and other governments at the time, it is questionable whether it was really about those with more power taking advantage of those without.

After a walk through the gift shop and and several souvenir shops, we were back at the train station with 60 minutes to spare. The boys rolled their eyes at me for wanting to be there so early, but we needed to get our luggage, purchase some dinner to take on the train, and find our platform. As it was, we got on the train with only about 4 minutes to spare. I have been typing this post for about 90 minutes and we still have over two hours left on the train before we arrive in Frankfurt at around 10:30 pm tonight.

With just two days left in Germany, I told Zach that I wanted to take a boat tour on the river in Frankfurt. I thought the river was the Rhine River, but Zach quickly and bluntly point out to me in true German fashion that I was mistaken. It is the Main (rhymes with Rhine) River. So my apologies to those I may have misled!

Berlin Day 2 - Films

 Once again it was another late night. It's crazy how late I am staying up, but the night doesn't feel like it
even starts until the sun goes down at 10:00 pm. We slept in and had a lazy morning so I could read and answer some emails. Around 11:00 am this morning we hopped on a train towards the Glienicker Bridge. For those who are Tom Hanks fans or history buffs, the Glienicker Bridge is the bridge of spies. Halfway across the bridge was the division between East and West Germany and it was used several times to exchange prisoners between the east and the west. I loved the movie with Tom Hanks about the prisoner exchange of Francis Gary Powers, the American pilot who was shot down while spying on The Soviet Union and Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, a top Soviet spy arrested in the U.S, so it was fun to walk over the actual bridge that was both used for the exchange and used in the movie.

Yesterday, Kate had told us we should go visit Potsdam if we had the chance. Potsdam is the city on the other side of Glienicker Bridge, so we crossed the bridge and caught a bus into town. We missed our planned stop, but serendipity allowed us to get off right in front of a film museum, so we went inside. Apparently, Potsdam is the home of Babelsberg Studios, a well-known film studio. It is the largest in Europe and is used to make many different movies and TV series. It has been around since 1910 and has survived through Germany's rocky history making films before during and after the World Wars for all political parties. The museum was filled with everything you want to know about film-making and Joe especially enjoyed this unexpected stop on our journey. Some of the American movies filmed at the studios included The Hunger Games, The Bourne Conspiracy, Bridge of Spies, Inglorious Bastards, some of the Avengers movies and more.

We had a late lunch at a restaurant near one of the train stops. One of the things I am noticing is that all of
these German restaurants offer homemade lemonade of many different flavors. I had Sweet Orange Lemonade, Joe had Watermelon Lemonade and Zach had Passion Fruit Lemonade. They were all very tasty. For lunch, I had Fruity Tomato Soup with some crusty toast and also a salad with a baked potato. The potato was covered with a thick white sauce called Quark. It tasted a lot like sour cream and according to Google it is a type of cheese made from warming milk until it curdles. Sounds delicious, right? It wasn't bad and it added flavor to the potato.

We took the train back to our apartment which was about 40 minutes away. Even though Potsdam is right on the border of Berlin, Berlin is a big city and we are staying in the city center. As we walked back to the flat, we stopped in front of the U.S. Embassy. We have seen several embassies around the Brandenberg Gate including the United States, British and Swiss Embassies. Gathered around there were a bunch of people wearing race number bibs in company shirts. A 5.5K race was about to start. It was the 20th annual Berlin Company Run. About an hour later, they various company teams ran past our apartment and we watched them out of the window while Zach called down to the runners "Schneller! Schneller!" which means "Faster! Faster!". It was strange to see a race happen so late in the day. By then it was around 7:30 pm, but it was also much cooler and definitely still light out, and after work.

Tomorrow is our last day in Berlin. We will take another high speed train back to Frankfurt in the evening. But before we do, we will be visiting the DDR museum as well as one or two others.

Berlin - Day 1

 We arrived last night at Apartments am Brandenburg Tor, the place we will be staying at for the next few days while in Berlin. We are renting a two-bedroom apartment not far from the train station and close to the Brandenburg Gate which is the only surviving historical gate was built in the 1700s by the Prussian king. Later it was was part of the division between East and West Berlin. It was inspired by Greek and Roman architecture and it pretty impressive.

It was a warm night and the apartment was especially hot with no fans or air conditioning, so we opened the windows as much as possible to try to cool everything off. Later in the middle of the night, it rained and that  helped lower the temperature a bit. The windows are interesting here. I haven't seen any windows with screens. The windows can swing wide open letting in lots of air as well as birds and bugs, or they can tilt back to only let in a little air.

Before we came, Joe had made a reservation for us at the Reichstag Building. This was also a historical
building that has gone through some destruction as a result of WW II, but  was rebuilt after the fall of the Berlin Wall. After reunification, Berlin became the capital of Germany again, and the German Parliament returned to the Reichstag. We attended a special lecture in the plenary hall since parliament is not in session this week. Germany is hosting the G7 Summit in Bavaria (where we just were). We learned about the history of the building and the German government including how Hitler and the National Socialist Party were able to turn a democracy into a dictatorship in just 5 short months and what the Germans have done to prevent that from ever happening again.

After the lecture, we walked up the Dome of the building which was pretty cool. The all-glass dome has a ramp way that takes you to the top. As we walked up the ramp, we listened to an audio guide that pointed out various buildings and landmarks as we traveled round and round to the top. The Dome has a cone in the center that is covered in mirrors. They reflect the light down into the building along with other cool engineering I don't completely understand, but the result is the building does not use any fossil fuels to heat or cool the building.

In the late afternoon, we met up with another GEM-mer who lives and works in Berlin. She is Zach's boss's boss or something like that. Her name is Kate and she has been with GEM for about 17 years. Her sister and family were visiting from Pennsylvania and they allowed us to join them on what Kate called a "ten cent walking tour." I thought it was great and told her it was more like a 100 Euro tour. She took us to a number of places zig-zagging around East Berlin where the Berlin Wall had once been. We walked by a large park (think Central Park in New York), a Memorial to the Murdered European Jews, many historical buildings, a number of cathedrals, Checkpoint Charlie, and we even stopped in a store to buy some German chocolate. It was three hours of fun and learning.

We said so long to Kate and family at a U-Bahn station that had a cool 24-hour clock showing the times around the world and caught the train back to our apartment. Dinner was a favorite Turkish food among the Germans called Döner Kebab. You see little cafes and restaurants that sell it all over Germany very similar to the many taco shops you find around San Diego. Right now, it's 10:05 pm and the sun is just setting. I hear the cars going by and people walking and talking through our wide open windows from our flat on the 5th floor of this apartment building. The city is still alive with activity below us, but I am ready to crash. 

Hopefully, my room has cooled off some and I will get a good night's sleep for tomorrow's adventure in Berlin.