Last night we had about 2 inches of snow. It's so beautiful! I must be getting more of the northern mindset, as when Hubs left the house this morning, instead of getting up to see the snow, I just burrowed deeper into the blankies on the bed. :)
Anyway - in Germany it is a law that everyone that lives in a free-standing house (as we do) must shovel their sidewalk when it snows. This is to cut down on the risk of anyone slipping on the snow and/or ice. Failure to shovel - if there is an injury - means we would be responsible for any medical bills incurred by anyone in their fall.
Our very elderly next door neighbors had already shovelled their driveway and sidewalk when I finally got up today. Both she and he speak no English, except things like "ok", "hallo!", and "byebye". She is of extremely broad stature, and I don't mean fat. She has shoulders like a man, and I have seen how she weilds her garden fork and shovel like I would use a dinner fork - no effort, no heavy breathing, - she is one very strong woman. Her husband on the other hand, appears to me to be much weaker than she. Hubs and I have watched him work in the yard before and have been praying that he will just take a break, just please let the strong wife do the hard work. He looks so frail, and has that elderly shuffle to his steps.
I didn't hear the ambulance today, so I am hoping that is a good sign that they didn't have to hurry up and get to them. When I noticed it outside of their home, all of the attendants were already inside.
What to do? In America, I would have gotten dressed and gone over there to see what I could do to help; perhaps I could have comforted whichever spouse was still ok, helped to distract him/her, etc. But here....I couldn't do anything but just watch (as I noticed every other neighbor was doing, peeking out of the windows.)
Eventually one of the attendants got the guerny and brought it to their back door. But there are steps, and they were covered with snow, so he left it there and after a few minutes, he and 3 other attendants slowly and carefully walked the man across his porch, down the steps and got him positioned on the guerny. They had already started an IV for him, and the job of one of the attendants was just to hold it up.
By this time I was outside, hoping to see the woman to ask her what I could do. That was kind of silly, as not only could I not ask her in German what I could do, but I couldn't do anything the medical personnel were not already doing. I did hear the man question what was going on, why was he being taken from home, and one of the attendants told him some numbers that were normal, and he was not normal, and he needed to be stabilized and go to the hospital where they would make him all better. (This was my understanding of the conversation, based on the few words I could pick out)
In Germany, there is a time limit for professional medical help to reach a victim. I think my German teacher told me it was at the most 10 minutes. He said they conduct tests reguarly to assure they meet this criteria, and if they find an area that takes longer than 10 minutes to reach, they will build a new ambulance center. Not only that....but ambulance services in Germany are free of charge.
I think no matter what one individual's point of view is on socialized medicine, America could learn a lot from the countries that already have it implemented.
I hope my elderly gentleman neighbor is ok. He is friendly, waves at us all the time, and I give him special treats for him to give my dog, because otherwise he will feed my dog their scraps, which isn't good for Harley. But he really likes Harley, and I don't mind providing the snacks to him. I hope he is ok.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Thanksgiving in Germany
With all the pork roasts and potatoes Germans cook, you would think their stoves and ovens would be really nice. But you would be wrong! For us Americans on Thanksgiving, if we want to have a turkey we have to either go to the chow hall (no thanks) or fix it somehow other than roasted in the oven. Even a 10 pound turkey in a roasting pan is just too big to fit inside these crappy ovens.
So this year (as in the past) we bought a 14 pound turkey, injected her with some marinade, put a rub on her and deep fried her outside. Damn, that's some good eats!
The first year we did this, our next door neighbor came right up to the fence to watch us and she asked us what we were doing. Now she is so used to seeing the Hubs outside frying turkeys during the holidays that she leaves us alone. :)
I had intended to light the grill and put a few side dishes in aluminum, disposeable pans to warm them up, but we had a slight miscalculation in the number of propane bottles we had, so I made do with the oven for the side dishes, and the top of the stove for a few other things. Whenever we do leave here, I will not miss these stupid tiny stoves and old fashioned range tops.
Friday in the early afternoon we took our dog Harley up to the hospital in Landstuhl to visit the wounded soldiers. Thankfully, almost every wing we went to only had a few people in it. Even so, by the time we stopped to talk to all the staff and the few patients, we were there for almost 4 1/2 hours. The Pet Visitation Program is really cool, and we all like it.
Saturday we went to the fairly close village of Homberg-Jagersberg for lunch. We had a great special pizza of the day, a greek one with feta cheese, black olives, peppers, garlic and mushrooms on it. Damn, that was good! I had a delicious German beer with mine. I didn't think I would like German beer when we came here, but now I'm totally in love with it.
In the village, there was a Christmas Market. We have some friends that work in the village, and they told us that it is really more of a Santa Claus Market than a Christmas Market. What? I don't think either of us really understood the difference.
All through out the pedestrian shopping areas, in front of every door of every shop were giant candles. The stores with double doors had two candles, one on each side. The smaller shops had one candle. The holders for the candles are square, about 18 inches per side and about 3.5 feet tall. They are filled with wax and a wick that is probably 3 inches in diameter. It looks very inviting and cheerful, and we discussed how in America nothing like this could be used for decoration because someone would either burn themselves or knock one over (even thought they are really sturdy) and there would be some ridiculous lawsuit and that would be the end of the giant, cool candles.
We walked further into the village over the cobblestone streets. In the village square lots of stands were set up and decorated with freshly cut pine branches and little white lights. There were hand made things, jewelry, soaps, candy, and lots of places that were selling bratwursts, fried potatoe pancakes with applesauce, the ever-present beer, but also the seasonal gluhwein. I'm pretty much a gluhwein whore, I love it! (It's a spiced red wine served steaming hot and you can request a shot of schnapps, rum, amaretto, etc in it to give it an extra kick. If anyone ever gets any, I always suggest a shot of rum, but not schnapps as German schnapps is WAY too strong for even me....and not the rum either if it's Stroh's. If you want to learn about Stroh's 80 (a.k.a. "blindness in a glass") a rum from Austria, click here My elderly neighbor gave us a bottle of this stuff 2 years ago, and I tried a shot of it. I couldn't taste anything for 3 days. After 2 years it is still contained in the glass, but the cork stopper is dissolving. Anyway, we had 2 mugs of gluhwein and then went to meet our friends at their special gathering spot they go to after work.
Their favorite spot is a little Italian delicatessen, hidden off the main street and down a few twisty alleys. Two brothers own it, and they and their families work there. They have excellent wheels of cheese, cured meats, wine, flavored olive oil, bread, and lots of other Italian delicasies. They close up at 2pm, but since our friends are "regulars" they let them in after the doors are shut and locked. There is a small bar inside away from the delicatessen area, and it is there that we all gather and drink wine together. This is one of the most excellent places, and the feeling in there of comraderie and friendships is almost visible in the air. One of the Italian brothers speaks a little English and a little German, his nephew (he looks like a very young Tom Cruise) speaks English very well. Of our two German friends, one speaks only German and the other speaks German and has a good command of English. Because all of us except Michael can understand English, when we are there everyone uses English, and Gunter will translate for Michael. We hung out there with everyone for about 2 hours, and bought 2 bottles of wine. One of the brothers told us that the bottle we helped to drink was no charge, on the house for friends of his friends. It was so cool, it was like a movie. :)
Sunday we had more snow but it was also mixed with sleet and rain - it was very sloppy and cold, so we huddled on the couch and watched a little tv under a thick blanket with each other.
And that was our Thanksgiving and our weekend! :)
So this year (as in the past) we bought a 14 pound turkey, injected her with some marinade, put a rub on her and deep fried her outside. Damn, that's some good eats!
The first year we did this, our next door neighbor came right up to the fence to watch us and she asked us what we were doing. Now she is so used to seeing the Hubs outside frying turkeys during the holidays that she leaves us alone. :)
I had intended to light the grill and put a few side dishes in aluminum, disposeable pans to warm them up, but we had a slight miscalculation in the number of propane bottles we had, so I made do with the oven for the side dishes, and the top of the stove for a few other things. Whenever we do leave here, I will not miss these stupid tiny stoves and old fashioned range tops.
Friday in the early afternoon we took our dog Harley up to the hospital in Landstuhl to visit the wounded soldiers. Thankfully, almost every wing we went to only had a few people in it. Even so, by the time we stopped to talk to all the staff and the few patients, we were there for almost 4 1/2 hours. The Pet Visitation Program is really cool, and we all like it.
Saturday we went to the fairly close village of Homberg-Jagersberg for lunch. We had a great special pizza of the day, a greek one with feta cheese, black olives, peppers, garlic and mushrooms on it. Damn, that was good! I had a delicious German beer with mine. I didn't think I would like German beer when we came here, but now I'm totally in love with it.
In the village, there was a Christmas Market. We have some friends that work in the village, and they told us that it is really more of a Santa Claus Market than a Christmas Market. What? I don't think either of us really understood the difference.
All through out the pedestrian shopping areas, in front of every door of every shop were giant candles. The stores with double doors had two candles, one on each side. The smaller shops had one candle. The holders for the candles are square, about 18 inches per side and about 3.5 feet tall. They are filled with wax and a wick that is probably 3 inches in diameter. It looks very inviting and cheerful, and we discussed how in America nothing like this could be used for decoration because someone would either burn themselves or knock one over (even thought they are really sturdy) and there would be some ridiculous lawsuit and that would be the end of the giant, cool candles.
We walked further into the village over the cobblestone streets. In the village square lots of stands were set up and decorated with freshly cut pine branches and little white lights. There were hand made things, jewelry, soaps, candy, and lots of places that were selling bratwursts, fried potatoe pancakes with applesauce, the ever-present beer, but also the seasonal gluhwein. I'm pretty much a gluhwein whore, I love it! (It's a spiced red wine served steaming hot and you can request a shot of schnapps, rum, amaretto, etc in it to give it an extra kick. If anyone ever gets any, I always suggest a shot of rum, but not schnapps as German schnapps is WAY too strong for even me....and not the rum either if it's Stroh's. If you want to learn about Stroh's 80 (a.k.a. "blindness in a glass") a rum from Austria, click here My elderly neighbor gave us a bottle of this stuff 2 years ago, and I tried a shot of it. I couldn't taste anything for 3 days. After 2 years it is still contained in the glass, but the cork stopper is dissolving. Anyway, we had 2 mugs of gluhwein and then went to meet our friends at their special gathering spot they go to after work.
Their favorite spot is a little Italian delicatessen, hidden off the main street and down a few twisty alleys. Two brothers own it, and they and their families work there. They have excellent wheels of cheese, cured meats, wine, flavored olive oil, bread, and lots of other Italian delicasies. They close up at 2pm, but since our friends are "regulars" they let them in after the doors are shut and locked. There is a small bar inside away from the delicatessen area, and it is there that we all gather and drink wine together. This is one of the most excellent places, and the feeling in there of comraderie and friendships is almost visible in the air. One of the Italian brothers speaks a little English and a little German, his nephew (he looks like a very young Tom Cruise) speaks English very well. Of our two German friends, one speaks only German and the other speaks German and has a good command of English. Because all of us except Michael can understand English, when we are there everyone uses English, and Gunter will translate for Michael. We hung out there with everyone for about 2 hours, and bought 2 bottles of wine. One of the brothers told us that the bottle we helped to drink was no charge, on the house for friends of his friends. It was so cool, it was like a movie. :)
Sunday we had more snow but it was also mixed with sleet and rain - it was very sloppy and cold, so we huddled on the couch and watched a little tv under a thick blanket with each other.
And that was our Thanksgiving and our weekend! :)
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
A Trip to the Drug Store
Today is cold and very foggy. Most of the snow has melted, but everything is still wet. I thought it would be interesting to blog about a simple task of life - going to the drug store in Germany.
It is possible to get this prescription on base, but it is a giant hassle. It falls into some class of drug that makes the pharmacist on base uncomfortable, so I would have to have forms and signatures and it's just nuts. So I take it off base to a Germany pharmacy to have it filled because they are much more laid back about it.
It takes about 7 minutes to walk to the drug store. By the time I could get my car out of the garage, drive it, park, get my prescription and come home, it's faster just to walk. Plus it's healthier for me and for the earth. Even in the fog, the cold, or the spring rains, I walk when I can here...like the other Germans!
I have been in 2 drug stores here, and they were both the same and very different from those in America. We have the giant drug stores, Walgreens, Eckerds, Walmart, etc that have much more for sale there than just over the counter drugs and prescriptions. That is not the case here.
The drug store in my village is very small. They have a few things for sale like hand lotions and Kleenex and chap-stick lip-balm stuff, but that is it. There are no chairs to sit in to wait for the pharmacist to fill a prescription. I'm not even really sure they keep drugs there - I know they do not keep the one I get, and so the routine is always the same. I take in the prescription, they tell me they must order it, and I go back for it either later on in the day or the next day. I'm pretty sure they have other medications there, just not this one. (Aren't you really curious now as to what I take? LOL!)
Yesterday I dropped off the prescription. Today I went to pick it up. Today was a little more challenging because the person I gave it to yesterday was not the person who waited on me today. I was able to say "You have a prescription for me, my name is Wynd" and the clerk was able to understand me, find the prescription, take my money, thank me - I thanked her and we said goodbye....all in German!
That probably sounds like a very small thing, but usually when a German hears how terribly I butcher their language, they will attempt to speak English to me if they can. It's considerate, yet it doesn't help my German get any better. So to have an entire conversation in German was pretty cool for me.
As I was walking home, I had to pass one of the two grocery stores in Waldmohr. I noticed my next door neighbor coming out of the store, and we waved at each other. She waited for me and gestured in the general direction of our homes, and asked "Haus?" She knows if she tried to ask me "Are you walking to the house?" I wouldn't understand her. But I understood haus, and said yes. She linked her arm with mine and we started to walk home together.
Germans are thought by some to be very nosey. I like to think of them as being extremely curious about things. She pointed to my little bag with my prescription in it and asked me what is that? Ha! Good thing it wasn't a box of tampax or a tube of some embarassing ointment! I pulled the box out and told her it was tablets for me. Then I thought if she could ask me what's in the bag, I could ask her what was in hers, so I did. She listed off vegetables like broccoli and potatoes and also bananas.
Then we talked about the weather. There is no more snow in the forecast for a while, and she is glad, she doesn't like the "schnee". I told her I love it, and here is where an understanding of the meaning but not the actual words comes into play. She laughed and said what gave me the impression of how I like to look at it from inside the house. LOL! This is absolutely true! She said "You no" and made gestures of sweeping and shovelling! Hahaha! Damn, she has me pegged! I told her that is right! I don't shovel, my man shovels! She thought that was funny and hugged me. She also told me it won't rain for a few days.
I told her tomorrow is American Thanksgiving. Ahhh! She knew that that was. We talked about turkey ("puten" in German) and potatoes ("kartofellen") and how we would have gross essen! (Big eating!) Then we were home, and she said tschuss (this is pronounced like "chews" and is the german term for bye) and then she surprised me by saying "byebye".
And that....was my trip to the german drug store. Quite different from start to finish than going to Walgreens.
It is possible to get this prescription on base, but it is a giant hassle. It falls into some class of drug that makes the pharmacist on base uncomfortable, so I would have to have forms and signatures and it's just nuts. So I take it off base to a Germany pharmacy to have it filled because they are much more laid back about it.
It takes about 7 minutes to walk to the drug store. By the time I could get my car out of the garage, drive it, park, get my prescription and come home, it's faster just to walk. Plus it's healthier for me and for the earth. Even in the fog, the cold, or the spring rains, I walk when I can here...like the other Germans!
I have been in 2 drug stores here, and they were both the same and very different from those in America. We have the giant drug stores, Walgreens, Eckerds, Walmart, etc that have much more for sale there than just over the counter drugs and prescriptions. That is not the case here.
The drug store in my village is very small. They have a few things for sale like hand lotions and Kleenex and chap-stick lip-balm stuff, but that is it. There are no chairs to sit in to wait for the pharmacist to fill a prescription. I'm not even really sure they keep drugs there - I know they do not keep the one I get, and so the routine is always the same. I take in the prescription, they tell me they must order it, and I go back for it either later on in the day or the next day. I'm pretty sure they have other medications there, just not this one. (Aren't you really curious now as to what I take? LOL!)
Yesterday I dropped off the prescription. Today I went to pick it up. Today was a little more challenging because the person I gave it to yesterday was not the person who waited on me today. I was able to say "You have a prescription for me, my name is Wynd" and the clerk was able to understand me, find the prescription, take my money, thank me - I thanked her and we said goodbye....all in German!
That probably sounds like a very small thing, but usually when a German hears how terribly I butcher their language, they will attempt to speak English to me if they can. It's considerate, yet it doesn't help my German get any better. So to have an entire conversation in German was pretty cool for me.
As I was walking home, I had to pass one of the two grocery stores in Waldmohr. I noticed my next door neighbor coming out of the store, and we waved at each other. She waited for me and gestured in the general direction of our homes, and asked "Haus?" She knows if she tried to ask me "Are you walking to the house?" I wouldn't understand her. But I understood haus, and said yes. She linked her arm with mine and we started to walk home together.
Germans are thought by some to be very nosey. I like to think of them as being extremely curious about things. She pointed to my little bag with my prescription in it and asked me what is that? Ha! Good thing it wasn't a box of tampax or a tube of some embarassing ointment! I pulled the box out and told her it was tablets for me. Then I thought if she could ask me what's in the bag, I could ask her what was in hers, so I did. She listed off vegetables like broccoli and potatoes and also bananas.
Then we talked about the weather. There is no more snow in the forecast for a while, and she is glad, she doesn't like the "schnee". I told her I love it, and here is where an understanding of the meaning but not the actual words comes into play. She laughed and said what gave me the impression of how I like to look at it from inside the house. LOL! This is absolutely true! She said "You no" and made gestures of sweeping and shovelling! Hahaha! Damn, she has me pegged! I told her that is right! I don't shovel, my man shovels! She thought that was funny and hugged me. She also told me it won't rain for a few days.
I told her tomorrow is American Thanksgiving. Ahhh! She knew that that was. We talked about turkey ("puten" in German) and potatoes ("kartofellen") and how we would have gross essen! (Big eating!) Then we were home, and she said tschuss (this is pronounced like "chews" and is the german term for bye) and then she surprised me by saying "byebye".
And that....was my trip to the german drug store. Quite different from start to finish than going to Walgreens.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Christmas Day with the Pope
Christmas Day we all got up early to go to the Catholic Mass at St. Peter's. Not being Catholic, we were pretty lost during the service even though we had programs to go by. It wasn't about being Catholic and going to church for us as much as it was about going to Christmas service at the Vatican just for the experience of it.
After the service was over, everyone went outside. The Square that had been mostly empty when we went inside (under heavy security) was then packed full of people. We listened to the Pope give his Christmas blessing, but couldn't understand most of it. Still, it was an awesome experience.
Here is a link to about 20 pictures (with captions) of the empty Square, the church, the Pope, and the crowds.
http://picasaweb.google.com/windburnd/ChristmasWithThePope02#
After the service was over, everyone went outside. The Square that had been mostly empty when we went inside (under heavy security) was then packed full of people. We listened to the Pope give his Christmas blessing, but couldn't understand most of it. Still, it was an awesome experience.
Here is a link to about 20 pictures (with captions) of the empty Square, the church, the Pope, and the crowds.
http://picasaweb.google.com/windburnd/ChristmasWithThePope02#
City of the Dead
Just outside of Rome is an entire underground "city of the dead". These are the catacombs, and are not for the claustrophobic. The grounds above were beautiful and well tended. The trees in the picture below are all olive trees. The gate was one of 2 entrances to the grounds.
We were prohibited from taking pictures inside the catacombs. The Italians consider it to be a sacred area, no loud talking, no joking around, no running, and absolutely no photographs. (Instead, they wanted us to buy postcards, calendars, etc for sale in the gift shop, so while they may consider the catacombs sacred, I guess it's still ok to make money off them.)
There is only a small door and stairway to get down into them, and I think we were about 3 stories under the ground when we stopped. We had to have a special catacomb guide to go with our group, because it is very easy to get lost down there. The catacombs go on for about 17 miles.
Folks were buried there because at one time, before Christ, (according to out guide) death was something to be feared and looked upon with dread and superstition. No one wanted to have a dead person buried around them, so all of the dead were taken to the catacombs. I believe our guide said that the rock underground was mostly limestone, so it could be scraped out without too much effort. Once the humidity and water from rain came down the rock, the limestone hardened. The lime also helped to preserve the bodies, and to keep the smell down a little. Some of the bodies were in their niches behind rocks but some were just laid to rest in plain sight. There were metal holders secured into the sides of the passageways for candles to light the way. Relatives of the deceased would go to visit sometimes and pay their respects much like we do when we go to cemetaries today.
The passageways were very narrow in some parts, and the scooped out resting places were usually only big enough for the body and not much more. It was cold and damp, and impossible to forget that we were surrounded by tons of rock.
Like Pompei, the catacombs are constanly being excavated and explored by those trained to do such work. There were several branches of the catacombs that our guide told us we were not allowed to see, as the bodies were still in place. The part that we were allowed to see had no bodies, only the empty spaces where the bodies had been. The guide told me that when they first opened the site up to the public, the bodies were left untouched and in place, but they had to move them eventually when they noticed that visitors and tourists to the catacombs were stealing bones as souveniers.
We were prohibited from taking pictures inside the catacombs. The Italians consider it to be a sacred area, no loud talking, no joking around, no running, and absolutely no photographs. (Instead, they wanted us to buy postcards, calendars, etc for sale in the gift shop, so while they may consider the catacombs sacred, I guess it's still ok to make money off them.)
There is only a small door and stairway to get down into them, and I think we were about 3 stories under the ground when we stopped. We had to have a special catacomb guide to go with our group, because it is very easy to get lost down there. The catacombs go on for about 17 miles.
Folks were buried there because at one time, before Christ, (according to out guide) death was something to be feared and looked upon with dread and superstition. No one wanted to have a dead person buried around them, so all of the dead were taken to the catacombs. I believe our guide said that the rock underground was mostly limestone, so it could be scraped out without too much effort. Once the humidity and water from rain came down the rock, the limestone hardened. The lime also helped to preserve the bodies, and to keep the smell down a little. Some of the bodies were in their niches behind rocks but some were just laid to rest in plain sight. There were metal holders secured into the sides of the passageways for candles to light the way. Relatives of the deceased would go to visit sometimes and pay their respects much like we do when we go to cemetaries today.
The passageways were very narrow in some parts, and the scooped out resting places were usually only big enough for the body and not much more. It was cold and damp, and impossible to forget that we were surrounded by tons of rock.
Like Pompei, the catacombs are constanly being excavated and explored by those trained to do such work. There were several branches of the catacombs that our guide told us we were not allowed to see, as the bodies were still in place. The part that we were allowed to see had no bodies, only the empty spaces where the bodies had been. The guide told me that when they first opened the site up to the public, the bodies were left untouched and in place, but they had to move them eventually when they noticed that visitors and tourists to the catacombs were stealing bones as souveniers.
Italy - The Leaning Tower of Pisa and Pompei
Italy - The Leaning Tower of Pisa and Pompei
The first day on the road on the bus was pretty much non-stop straight thru to our hotel. The bus did stop for breakfast and lunch, and also about every 2 hours for folks to get up and stretch, get a Coke, etc. German laws are very strict about the length of time anyone operating a commercial vehicle may drive without a break. Benny had a partner, Tina, and she would take over and drive for him on occassion. Each driver has a special plastic card that fits into the on board computer. It automatically records who is driving, for how long, and at what speed. That data is saved for 6 months. If a driver receives a ticket for anything, those records can be seized and viewed for any other violation. So if Benny was speeding at even one point 5 1/2 months ago, and was pulled over for something else, he could still receive a fine for speeding that was recorded by the computer even though he "got away with it" when it occurred. To me, that seemed a little too much like Big Brother. But Benny told us that Germans do not mind this at all. The reason is that when every driver of a commercial vehicle has to obey these rules, the road is safer for everyone. (Side note: Also no commercial truck are allowed to run on the autobahn on Sundays, but tour buses may still operate) It is intergrated into the lifestyle of Germans to consider what is good and fair for all people, unlike in America where our focus is mostly on ourselves and what is good for us individually.We arrived at our cool hotel around dusk. There were many life sized bronze statues both on the grounds and inside the lobby. By the time we were settled in our room, it was dark. This hotel was about 1 block from the beach, and we could hear the sound of the gentle surf.Our group met in the dining room and had a buffet dinner. It was ok, but nothing really memorable.After dinner a few of us walked to the beach with our flashlights. I was happy to see that there was not one piece of trash, or one discarded can on the sand. We wished that the light of the day was still bright so that we could have seen the water, which by flashlight looked crystal clear.The next morning after breakfast, we got back on the bus for a short ride to Pisa, where we saw the Leaning Tower and other very old and very beautiful buildings in the area. We learned that the tower was still under construction when the architects of the day noticed it was beginning to lean. They thought if they tried to sort of change the top of the building a little, it would straighten out, and if viewed from one certain angle, you can see that the top of the tower looks sort of like a many-tiered wedding cake that "fell" just a little in one spot. After they built it like that, they hoped for the best. Still, it continued to sink. In the 1900's (I think) a group of architects from all over - the tops in their field - all gathered at the tower to see what they could do for it. They knew that if it continued to sink, that one day it would certainly fall, and they wanted to do what they could to preserve it. They found that what was causing it to lean was an underground stream. The stream was undermining the ground and every year a little more was washing away. All of the architects put their minds to fixing this. First, they put a lot of very heavy weight - many tons - on the "high side" of the tower to try to keep it from coming up and out of the ground. Then they began to carefully dig down on the side that was sinking. They then laid down many pipes full of.....damn, I can't remember! Something very cold...liquid oxygen, perhaps? Sheesh, sorry I forgot this part, but anyway they laid down these pipes all in the underground stream and froze it solid. Then they waited to see if this had stabilized the tower...and it worked! Today the tower is still leaning (obviously) but it's progress to falling has been completely arrested. Architects and scientists continue to monitor it to make sure it will remain upright.Here are some pics of stuff to this point.http://picasaweb.google.com/windburnd/ItalyAtChristmas2007#Now I really wish I had written this all out as soon as we came home, because from this point on, I can recall what we saw, but the time on the bus starts to blur a little as do the different hotels we stayed in.One of my favorite places was Pompei. As we drove by the Mountain Vesuvius, Stephan told us about how volcanoes work, and in a respectful manner explained how they kill people. I had always thought that if hot lava was creeping towards you, you would just leave! Go to the ocean, go anywhere where the lava was not. But that is not what kills.Stephan told us that back on the day Vesuvius erupted, it was business as usual in the village of Pompei. It was a very modern city; they had paved roads, plumbing, banks, shops, and homes. The people had a great love of beauty, and used marble from the area to create beautiful mosaics on their floors and walls of their homes. Of course, they were used to seeing smoke come from the top of the mountain, but they had no way to judge or to measure what was going on inside of it as we do today. Suddenly, the top 1/3 of the Mountain Vesuvius exploded. What kills everyone in an eruption is the pyroclastic cloud of super heated gas that rushes out. This gas is much heavier than the air, and so it hugs the earth. Pyroclastic clouds are very fast, very lethal. They can move around 300 mph, so there is no way to avoid it, or to outrun it. When it comes upon you, and you breathe in that super hot gas, it sears your lungs, shuts down your respiration, and you are dead within minutes. Most of the people that were killed in Pompei died from this cloud.There were others that were inside that didn't immediately die. After the cloud passed, then the ash began to fall. It kept coming and coming. It filled the air like black snow. It was at first only 1 foot, then 2 feet, then 3 feet, and still it kept on coming. The people sealed up their doors and waited for it to stop, but it didn't. Eventually almost the entire city was covered. Then it rained, and the rain hardened the ash. If there was anyone left alive inside their homes, they found themselves entombed and unable to leave. The once thriving city of Pompei was now gone and only death remained.It was the encasement of the houses, streets, and bodies of the hardening ash that preserved the city so that we are able to see it in this time. It was a slow process to dig the city out, and only a little of it has been opened to the public even now as the excavation continues. As the bodies decayed inside the shells of ash, they left behind a perfect image of themselves. As these bodies are discovered, a mixture of some kind of plaster is carefully injected into the shell left behind, and once it has set and the shell of ash removed, we can see the face of the person who died so horribly, we can see their clothes...their sandals.Walking the streets of Pompei with our guide was one of the most eerie experiences I have had. I could almost believe that the very stones of the houses and the streets were still waiting for what used to be. I could almost feel the presence of a great sorrow composed of the souls that had once lived in one of the most prosperous and modern of Roman cities of the time.Here are some pics of Pomei.http://picasaweb.google.com/windburnd/Pompei#
The first day on the road on the bus was pretty much non-stop straight thru to our hotel. The bus did stop for breakfast and lunch, and also about every 2 hours for folks to get up and stretch, get a Coke, etc. German laws are very strict about the length of time anyone operating a commercial vehicle may drive without a break. Benny had a partner, Tina, and she would take over and drive for him on occassion. Each driver has a special plastic card that fits into the on board computer. It automatically records who is driving, for how long, and at what speed. That data is saved for 6 months. If a driver receives a ticket for anything, those records can be seized and viewed for any other violation. So if Benny was speeding at even one point 5 1/2 months ago, and was pulled over for something else, he could still receive a fine for speeding that was recorded by the computer even though he "got away with it" when it occurred. To me, that seemed a little too much like Big Brother. But Benny told us that Germans do not mind this at all. The reason is that when every driver of a commercial vehicle has to obey these rules, the road is safer for everyone. (Side note: Also no commercial truck are allowed to run on the autobahn on Sundays, but tour buses may still operate) It is intergrated into the lifestyle of Germans to consider what is good and fair for all people, unlike in America where our focus is mostly on ourselves and what is good for us individually.We arrived at our cool hotel around dusk. There were many life sized bronze statues both on the grounds and inside the lobby. By the time we were settled in our room, it was dark. This hotel was about 1 block from the beach, and we could hear the sound of the gentle surf.Our group met in the dining room and had a buffet dinner. It was ok, but nothing really memorable.After dinner a few of us walked to the beach with our flashlights. I was happy to see that there was not one piece of trash, or one discarded can on the sand. We wished that the light of the day was still bright so that we could have seen the water, which by flashlight looked crystal clear.The next morning after breakfast, we got back on the bus for a short ride to Pisa, where we saw the Leaning Tower and other very old and very beautiful buildings in the area. We learned that the tower was still under construction when the architects of the day noticed it was beginning to lean. They thought if they tried to sort of change the top of the building a little, it would straighten out, and if viewed from one certain angle, you can see that the top of the tower looks sort of like a many-tiered wedding cake that "fell" just a little in one spot. After they built it like that, they hoped for the best. Still, it continued to sink. In the 1900's (I think) a group of architects from all over - the tops in their field - all gathered at the tower to see what they could do for it. They knew that if it continued to sink, that one day it would certainly fall, and they wanted to do what they could to preserve it. They found that what was causing it to lean was an underground stream. The stream was undermining the ground and every year a little more was washing away. All of the architects put their minds to fixing this. First, they put a lot of very heavy weight - many tons - on the "high side" of the tower to try to keep it from coming up and out of the ground. Then they began to carefully dig down on the side that was sinking. They then laid down many pipes full of.....damn, I can't remember! Something very cold...liquid oxygen, perhaps? Sheesh, sorry I forgot this part, but anyway they laid down these pipes all in the underground stream and froze it solid. Then they waited to see if this had stabilized the tower...and it worked! Today the tower is still leaning (obviously) but it's progress to falling has been completely arrested. Architects and scientists continue to monitor it to make sure it will remain upright.Here are some pics of stuff to this point.http://picasaweb.google.com/windburnd/ItalyAtChristmas2007#Now I really wish I had written this all out as soon as we came home, because from this point on, I can recall what we saw, but the time on the bus starts to blur a little as do the different hotels we stayed in.One of my favorite places was Pompei. As we drove by the Mountain Vesuvius, Stephan told us about how volcanoes work, and in a respectful manner explained how they kill people. I had always thought that if hot lava was creeping towards you, you would just leave! Go to the ocean, go anywhere where the lava was not. But that is not what kills.Stephan told us that back on the day Vesuvius erupted, it was business as usual in the village of Pompei. It was a very modern city; they had paved roads, plumbing, banks, shops, and homes. The people had a great love of beauty, and used marble from the area to create beautiful mosaics on their floors and walls of their homes. Of course, they were used to seeing smoke come from the top of the mountain, but they had no way to judge or to measure what was going on inside of it as we do today. Suddenly, the top 1/3 of the Mountain Vesuvius exploded. What kills everyone in an eruption is the pyroclastic cloud of super heated gas that rushes out. This gas is much heavier than the air, and so it hugs the earth. Pyroclastic clouds are very fast, very lethal. They can move around 300 mph, so there is no way to avoid it, or to outrun it. When it comes upon you, and you breathe in that super hot gas, it sears your lungs, shuts down your respiration, and you are dead within minutes. Most of the people that were killed in Pompei died from this cloud.There were others that were inside that didn't immediately die. After the cloud passed, then the ash began to fall. It kept coming and coming. It filled the air like black snow. It was at first only 1 foot, then 2 feet, then 3 feet, and still it kept on coming. The people sealed up their doors and waited for it to stop, but it didn't. Eventually almost the entire city was covered. Then it rained, and the rain hardened the ash. If there was anyone left alive inside their homes, they found themselves entombed and unable to leave. The once thriving city of Pompei was now gone and only death remained.It was the encasement of the houses, streets, and bodies of the hardening ash that preserved the city so that we are able to see it in this time. It was a slow process to dig the city out, and only a little of it has been opened to the public even now as the excavation continues. As the bodies decayed inside the shells of ash, they left behind a perfect image of themselves. As these bodies are discovered, a mixture of some kind of plaster is carefully injected into the shell left behind, and once it has set and the shell of ash removed, we can see the face of the person who died so horribly, we can see their clothes...their sandals.Walking the streets of Pompei with our guide was one of the most eerie experiences I have had. I could almost believe that the very stones of the houses and the streets were still waiting for what used to be. I could almost feel the presence of a great sorrow composed of the souls that had once lived in one of the most prosperous and modern of Roman cities of the time.Here are some pics of Pomei.http://picasaweb.google.com/windburnd/Pompei#
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