Germany

During our two and a half days in Baden-Baden we did a couple of walks through the town and surrounding area. As a spa town, Baden-Baden attracted more than its share of major and minor nobility, and wealthy commoners. As the photos show, they built some pretty nice homes for

Wait, I’ve already done a Blood, Sweat and Tears pun in my Winston Churchill post. Forget that you read this title.

Today, we left Baden-Baden and drove south on Highway 500 right down the middle of the Black Forest (think cuckoo clocks) to Furtwangen. Should you find yourself here,

Remember the 007 movies where Bond would strip off a wet suit or something revealing an impeccable tuxedo underneath? Then he’d stroll into a casino that looked nothing like the ones most of us have seen.

Today we visited the casino at Baden-Baden, an old school German spa town.

We made the 26km drive from Vogelsburg to Würzburg in the rain this morning to have a look at the Rezidence, the opulent home of a series of Prince-Bishops starting in the early 18th century. I had low expectations. Once again life demonstrated that I am an idiot.

“Opulent” barely

Did I mention that we are in Vogelsburg on the banks of the Main River because we want to do a bit of cycling? Yes, I did. All that’s been missing is the sun. On a serious cycle tour, you ride rain or shine, wind or calm, hot or

Bzzzzzzt! We’re back in Berlin (not really, but for purposes of this narrative). Specifically in the former American sector of West Berlin at one of the largest buildings in the world: Tempelhof Airport.

If really big empty buildings are your thing, you are going to love these photos. The

As I’ve said before, I’m not a great photographer. I just snap what I see in order to share with you. But every now and then I manage to take one that I think is pretty good.

When my grandfather returned to Kentucky after living in France for two years, friends asked his impressions of life abroad. His reply, “If you’ve seen one cathedral, you’ve seen them all.”

There are days when I would agree with him, but today was not one of those days.

While in Rheinsberg, we had lunch at a fish restaurant beside the lake. For reasons that no one could explain, local artists have constructed a scene from the Odyssey along the lake shore. Here we see Odysseus struggling to resist the sirens’ song.

Let’s have a look at another way that private property was reused by the GDR.

The village oh Rheinsberg is best known for Rheinsberg Palace and it’s surrounding park. Like many palaces, this one has housed a lot of privileged people. The ones that most interest us are

I first met “little traffic light man” while cycling through the GDR in 1990. He’s the equivalent of the Walk/Don’t Walk signals at home. Amplemann is hard not to like, with his jaunty walk and his hat.

I was not the only one to take a liking

It’s easy to think of Germany as a single country. Reunification happened a long time ago, right?

Imagine your country forcefully divided, each half operating under very different forms of government. Children grow up with different values, different expectations. These differences don’t go away because a treaty was

You say you’ve dined at the Jules Verne in Paris? They know you by name at Commander’s Palace in New Orleans? You yawn when the duck is served in Beijing?

Bah. Your life is not complete until you’ve had currywurst at Curry 36 in Kreuzberg.