Thursday, June 29, 2006

Over for us....


Hey!

We made it home, a long flight from Madrid. It's been fun, wandering over Germany, seeing a lot of people in a very positive way, learning a lot about history and culture and football. The normal world intrudes, and the credit card bills will be coming due, and the beds need to be made. I'm a little sad, but it will be good to reconnect with the people that matter the most to us, and maybe share some more of this stuff in person.


Thanks for travelling with us! We've had a really good time with it!

Rob, Marilyn, Brad, and Kenny

Fans - Update 2

Too late perhaps, I realized I should be taking pictures of fans from every country that's here.

Here's an update on the faces we saw!







Ecuador, by far the favorite of our boys















Way cool, Ghana rocked



















Ohaiyo gozaimasu, from Japan













Croatia
...and you thought the Aussies partied hard!














Sunny smiles from Portugal













Buddies from Mexico








Spain, Argentina and Brasil





Happy to be in Munich!
Spain, Argentina, Brasil













In the gift shop at the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Team didn't qualify, but still supportive.










On the long path up to Fritz-Walter Stadion in Kaiserslautern.
There are Italians in there somewhere!
(I realized too late that I hadn't consciously snapped any as we went in, and we were pretty well separated during the game.)






Azzuri in the crowd at Kaiserslautern fan fest





And lots more Azzuri fans, at the festival in Kaiserslautern













Loyal fans from South Korea








guys from the Netherlands, with the mounted police





Doing what Dutchmen do







family from Iran





We're not in Tehran anymore!








Cote DIvoir





Cote D'Ivoir, en Paris








Swiss, say cheese!






Swiss, say cheese!







Brits all over, all friendly of course






Brits all over, all friendly of course







Socceroos






Socceroos, without Fosters!







football en francais






football en francais











Who's your Trinidaddy?





Who's your Trinidaddy?
She and her friends were actually pretty happy, but I missed the smile....











Brazil and USA





Brazil and USA








More USA




More USA









German






German, naturalische













Very happy Germans!








Real Saudi, Real German






Real Saudi, Real German












Fake Saudi  (Real German)






Fake Saudi (Real German)











Tunisian, of a rare variety







Tunisian, of a rare variety






This is what it's about, with apologies to those who get distracted by the game!

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Today on the Moselle, tomorrow...

We spent this morning up the Moselle River valley, as beautiful as the Mittelrhein in its own small way. It´s quieter (ie not so much boat traffic), and not so many castles, but the hills on either side are coverd with old vineyards, and ther´s still lots of history.

We went up to Burg Eltz on the little River Eltz, a little way from where it joins the Moselle. It was beautifully sited for the days when infantry and knights did battle, but when the Bishop of Trier lobbed rocks down into the castle (over there behind Kenny) around 1331, the defenses were not enough, and the family sued for peace. Diplomacy kept it out of the wars that destroyed most of the other castles in the area, and the original family still owns and maintains the land. I kept thinking how the technology of artillery made the location of so many of these castles, built to control the rivers, so vulnerable to attack from the heights above. What works for one generation may be the weak spot in later years.

This afternoon, it´s BRA-GHA on the TV in the room, then ESP-FRA after dinner tonight.

Then tomorrow ... it´s off to the airport. Can´t easily believe it....

On the Rhine

We headed out from Heidelburg yesterday morning, and headed toward the Rhine River valley. This isn't the longest river in Europe, but it's the busiest, I think. We stopped in the city of Mainz for cruise info and food, then met our boat in Bingen, perhaps not the most scenic little town on the river, but very friendly, and convenient for both boat and train connections. We boarded the Lorely of the Köln-Dusseldorfer line, and headed downriver. This section of the Rhine, die Mittelrhein, was the heart of German romantic history, with castles dotting thecastle on the ridge heights on both sides of the river, and pretty little towns along both banks. This was something Brad had specially requested, a cruise on the Rhine, and when we reached the famous rock of the Lorelei, actually asked to have his picture taken (!). I popped through close to 300 pictures, absolutely sure I would forget I was ever there, I guess! I lost track of how many castles and forts we passed, and of the towns we really wanted to come back and explore.

Interesting history for us was the contiuation of military history in the Rhine valley. Every castle on the river, save for the beautiful and well-protected Marksburg, had been destroyed at least once, most by the French in the late 1600´s.


The Marksburg. Wow.



We reached the city of Koblenz around 6:30, and took the train back up to Bingen for dinner at a little Italian restaurant. We had seen the red card in the ITA-AUS game just as we got off the boat, and our waiter explained with hand gestures and German that went mostly over our heads that the game had ended with a penalty kick. Boy, did we feel out of touch!

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Heidelberg Schloss

castle1
The castle in Heidelberg was a grand affair apparently, until a young prince went off and married a young English princess, and remodelled the fortifications into beautiful English gardens for his bride. The castle was captured the next time it was attacked, and was eventually razed by the troops of Louis XIV, campaigning in the Rhine River valley. By razed, we mean not just that they muddied the carpets, but that the stone towers were trashed, and the roofs caved in. The Princes attemted a rebuild in the late 1700's, but a lightning strike burned the new roof, and the grounds were abandoned. It wasn't until the early nineteenth century that the German Romantics fell in love with the place, and a French tourist inspired the local government to stabilize the ruins. Parts have since been restored, but it remains as a monument to the old Prince-Electors, and what they tried to build here.

Brad and Marilyn are both a little under the weather, so they're resting up in the hotel while I catch up on the posts. Off to Koblenz and the Rhine Valley tomorrow. We're actually looking forward to familiar beds back home....

In to Heidelberg

After the Zugspitze yesterday, it was back on the road, heading north past the Black Forest and Karlsruhe to Heidelberg. We were hungry and tired by the time we got in to town and checked in to the hotel up near the castle. Back down down below, the polizei had blocked the roads in to the old town, and it was it was impossible to get in for dinner. Germany had just defeated Sweden, and the town was crazy, cars racing up and down with horns blowing and flags waving out the windows. Germany is feeling very good about itself right now, which the papers say is rather unusual. The clelbration went on through the evening down in town, as we headed back up to the hotel for the 9:00 game between Argentina and Mexico and a little rest. With overtime in that game, rest didn't come early!

Up the Zugspitze in ten minutes, off into Austria

up the Eibsee-Seilbahnboys on the edgeThe weather was crystal clear the next morning (Sat 6/24), and was perfect for an expedition up the Zugspitze! The view from below was impressive, a stark craggy range of rock, with snow and ice still clinging to the north faces. In the little town of Grainau, we bought our tickets for the Eibsee-Seilbahn (cable car), for an ascent straight to the top. The cable car itself is a 2000m ascent, up to the peak at 2995m (about 10000 feet)! the first pylon is visible in the picture at left (the second one is hidden) then the cable shoots up in to the peak way the heck up at the top there. Ja, quite a ride!

out on the glacierUp at the top, the boys could walk to Austria on the other side of the ridge, and we could admire one heck of an Alpine view! There were skilifts on the glacier bleow, where skiing was pretty good until April, apparently. This has got to be one heck of a place to be in the winter!




family at the top

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and fairytales

boys on the Marienbrucke
We spent the night after the USA-GHA game in the pretty little town of Bielingreis, about an hour south of Nurnberg. (We missed the ancestral home in Furth, just too late to drag the boys around!) It was a long drive down to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, on the road in the Tirolon the border with Austria in the German Alpine region, and the weather was rather overcast for the planned trip up the Zugspitze. So, we were off to Neuschwanstein instead! This is the most famous (in America) of mad King Ludwigs castles, nestled up into the Bavarian Alps. We had a beatiful ride down across the Austrian border, then back up to the little town of Schwangau. From there, it was a nice hike up to the castle itself, and then another hike to the Marienbridge above, but the view was truly amazing. We toured through the castle, and held of on pictures of the interior at their request, instead supporting the local economy in the book store.


boys in the river
church near SchwangauWe spent some time afterward de-compressing down at the bottom, where the boys cooled off in a little river flowing into the Forggensee. The countryside is beatiful, in an old, civilized kind of way. We're definitely not in Kansas.

Game in Nurnberg

action in cornerWell, the seats were great! new Ghana fansIt was a different crowd than at the Italy game, a little less sure of itself, and nowhere near as rowdy. We had a great view of the action down in the corner in front of the US fans, and a nice view of the Ghana fans in the far corner, of which there were a lot of recent recruits! (The US showing in Kaiserslautern probably had something to do with that!) Their biggest banner read, "In God we trust." It was pretty easy to believe it, too. The Ghanese team was coordinated and tough, and did a nice job of wearing our guys out. It was a dumb thing to foul in the box, and we paid for it. End of US story for this year.
The celebration in downtown Nurnberg was pretty neat though, as the Ghanese (and the Italians, too) had a great evening. That was nice to watch, as they paraded through the street, and drove around with the horns honking. We were just tired, though.

Friday, June 23, 2006

Tough game in Nurnberg

Hey, you probably saw for yourself, but it was a really different experience in Nurnberg than it was in Kaiserslautern. We'll post a few pictures later. We're heading south to the Alps this morning, staying in Garmisch-Partenkirchen tonight.

Four more years!

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Strasbourg by water

Brad and Kenny along the River Illskipping stones in L'IllIt was a long ride in to Strasbourg from Paris, and we were glad to dump our stuff at a hotel very close to the main train station. From there, we wandered down to the river, which splits around the island where the old city was built. Petit France was a peaceful change from the congestion of Paris, and the boys were very happy to playBrad at the Gutenberg statue by the river. We peeked in to the cathedral, which is under a lot of external reconstruction, and stopped by the Gutenberg statue for Brad to say hello to his biography day subject from fifth grade.  at Le Baeckeoffe d'AlsaceWe were looking for Alsatian specialties for dinner, and found baeckeoffe at a little restaurant by the river. We let the boys wander after desert, while Marilyn and I just sat at the table and relaxed for a while. It's nice to be able to turn them loose like that!

It was interesting to find that the city was just jumping after sunset, lots of couples strolling along the river, college kids out for the evening, a Persian band pumping it out on the street. By far the loudest evening we've had, even in Paris!

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