A Pretty Sunrise This Morning in Hutschenhausen, Germany

A Trip to Paris

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yjBBfmBfAQ


Carol, Erica, Rob and Stacy went to Paris for the day on the high speed rail train.
I put their pictures together along with some music from DC Malone.

Cool stuff...

Erica and Doug went to Munich to See Stacy and Rob

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTYwVma5WXAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTYwVma5WXA


The youtube summary will give you some flavor of our trip.
We had a great time!  I even hit 90 on the autobahn.
The bad news is that it was only for a few seconds.
Erica could not help but notice Smart cars were passing me.

No worries...
Doug

Burg Eltz and Cochem City & Castle, Germany

We went to two great places to visit today.  The first place we visited was the Eltz Castle - Rick Steve's favorite German castle.  We then went to the city of Cochem and we also went to their castle.  Two contrasting castles, the Eltz, owned by the Eltz Family that have preserved the look for 500 years.  The Cochem Castle, rebuilt in the 19th century.  Both very beautiful but the Eltz truly gives you the feeling that you have really experienced the past.

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Amaya showing off her new kitty mittens - the kind with the long string running through both arms.  It was cold today and we needed to get her hands warmed up.

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One of the Cochem shops that has taken time to denote the flood levels of various Mosel River overflows over the centuries.  Only in Europe do you have a sense of history as you enter a building and determine that it has existed for 300 years or more.  (View the enlarged version of the picture and denote the flood levels.  Several floods in the 1700's were well above the light that is shown at the top of the picture.)

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I do not know German but I sort of know the outcome of this T-Shirt.

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Cochem is on the beautiful Mosel River - their downtown, or river front is definitely a bit touristy feeling but they have truly preserved portions of their past.

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A picture of Carol on a bridge over the Mosel river with the Cochem Castle in the upper right.

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Another picture of a architechural feature in Cochem. 

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The family in front of the Eltz Castle.  It was a half mile or so hilly walk from the parking lot.

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This little church was tucked into the side of the walkway on the way to the Eltz Castle.

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Most of the time, Amaya loves being on Michael's back in her carrier.  She was really cute when she decided to take a nap.  Her head was hunched over and I could not even get a picture of her.

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Some of the mold growing on top of the slate at the Eltz Castle.  I was trying out the near feature of my camera.  It appears to have about a 6-8" focal length at this apperature and shutter speed.

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The Eltz Castle has over 500 "priceless" (their word) examples of Gold, Silver, Ivory, Weapons, Glass, Porcelain and Jewely throughout the castle.  The most special objects are protected in their three floor museum, interesting plus warm!  Some of these pieces appear to be remarkable, although I claim to know nothing about these sort of artifacts.  The piece above was made in the mid 1700's.  I used my close up lense to get the detail as the perspective of the piece is that the men are sitting only 3-inches from each other.

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This beautiful painting was done on the side of a gold glass.  The child, in perspective is probably 1-inch tall.  Again taken with a close-up lense.

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Three fine, very old stain glass pieces found in the Eltz Castle Chapel.  

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This gold colored sculpture found in the Eltz Castle Museum.  Quite beautiful.

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Some of the attention to detail that I found interesting in the City of Cochem.

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More attention to detail at the Cochem Castle.  This was how they finished the railing ends.

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Picture of the family taken high above Cochem in the new Castle area.

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A view of Cochem and the Mosel River from the Castle.

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The Cochem Castle as you approached it.

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The Cochem Castle, surrounded by active vineyards.

Frosty Morning in Hutschenhausen, Germany

It was the first frosty morning of the season, thought I should try to capture it with the camera.  We went to the Base Swimming Pool - it is heated, sort of like a 2-million gallon hot tub.  Nice!

Kaiserslauten or K-Town (Army Nickname)

We had a nice walk late in the day - Erica is trying to train her new schnauzer.  The dog did pretty good with the exception of walking once between her legs and tripping her.  Ouch!!  Amaya was dressed in her Moscow boots and Pampolina French coat.  Quite stylish I must say.  It was sunny but quite cool today.

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 Erica went to K-Town today so I hitched a ride and rode the train home to Haupstuhl.  (It is a short 3 km walk home to Hutschenhausen from the train station.)  I walked around a bit in K-Town but because it was so cool, I spent most of my time in a nice, warm train station restaurant reading a book.  (Carol read it first: Change of Heart by Ms. Jodi Picoult)  On the walk home to our village from Haupstuhl, we walk by this nature area - apparently at the end of this road.  Carol and I have not explored it yet but we will.

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 I found this path down the hill from a nice, middle class neighborhood across-and-above the train station.  The path ended at a nice comfortable "Chicken Only" restaurant.  It opened just as I was walking by and quite a few people were waiting to go in so it may be a good place to eat.

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 I did not see any history for this church but it appears to be fairly modern as opposed to most of them in Germany.  Unknown denomination at this point but I will probably go by it again sometime.

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My friend Joe bought a car once that was officially painted "double yellow."  This is an apartment building being constructed across the street and up the hill from the south entrance of the train station.  It can only be described as having a yellow yellow paint job.

Notre Dame High School 40th Class Reunion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB11LkoW5iw

I finally got around to putting some music to the Class Reunion pictures.

Enjoy them, sorry they are sort of blurry for some reason.

Best regards,

Doug

A Trip to the Country: A Morning in the Village of Gerhardsbrunn

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ4K_noBU

MQ

We went to the Village to see a farm that also has a Pumpkin Patch.  I have attached a couple of pictures, a YouTube link is also attached to see a slide show of this wonderful outing.

A Visit to the City of Trier, Germany

The simplistic tourist fare from a guidebook: "The pedestrian zone has great architecture and shopping.  Once called the Rome of the North, it is the oldest city in Germany, famous for its Roman ruins.  The enormous, original Roman city gate, baths and amphitheatre are mustsees.  The interior of the Cathedral of Trier is stunning and houses the Holy Tunic of Christ."

One Hour Away by Car (Autobahn: 80-90 mph most sections)

Two Hours Away by Train from Kaiserslautern

Panama greets almost everyone by saying, "Hollow" just like the Germans say it.

Carol and Erica in front of the Kurfurstliches Palais Palace.

Carol and Erica in the traffic free one mile of fancy shops and open front bakeries.

This is the famous "Black Gate" or Porta Nigra.  This is a well preserved Roman gate, one of four, the others have been destroyed over the centuries.  Many of the original Roman walls of the original city are also still left, as of remnants of the baths, for which the city would have been famous in its time if they had been finished.   The conversion of the building into the Church of Saint Simeon in the 12th century probably "saved this gate" from destruction.

I thought that this was interesting.  The column "look" is created by a number of sandstones aligned with the correct column geometry.  Much easier, I assume than trying to incorporate an actual column into the individual stone architecture.

I went into a public water closet (labeled WC) and after paying my P-tax (50 cents), guess what I found.  I went into the end stall and it happened to have a common wall with the original Roman wall.  You can see that the gun portal was covered with plexiglass - note how the portal is shaped for maximum interior gun swing and minimum exterior bullet entry space.  Fun observation.  Do you think that is Roman toilet paper?  I suspect not...

One of the sculptures on the walkway surrounding the garden in front of the Kurfurstlichens Palais.

Erica and Carol in front of the beautiful Kurfurstliches Palais Palace, which is now a state administrative building and not available for tour.  This building is considered to be one of the best examples of Rococo Palaces in the world.

Detail of the upper architectural feature of the Kurfurstliches Palais Palace.

The Church of Saint Peter, started by Constantine in the 4th century and added onto in the 11th, 12th, 13th & 14th centuries.   At the same time that he commissioned this church, he commissioned one in Rome that he also called Saint Peter.  Of course, we know which church is more famous.

You will note that next to Saint Peter's, there is a Gothic Church built in the mid 12th century.  This church in German is: Liebfrauenkirche or the Church of Our Dear Lady.  It is presently being repaired so it was not open for viewing.  One observation, Saint Peter's has no stain glass, this Church appears to be full of beautiful glass work.

Next to the Church next to Saint Peter is a rectory of sorts obviously built at a later time.

Just a few of the Votive candles in Saint Peter.  Not sure if any of them have any other effect, but it certainly is warmer in this section of the Cathedral.

Note the lack of stain glass in this beautifully designed window setting.

The ceiling of the Saint Peter Church in the rounded section of the Church as you enter.

There is a row of garages next to the Pedestrian Walkabout - one of them has a huge painting of a compact folded up jet.   It is so realistic that people literally cross the street to see it there is really a jet in there or is it a painting.

On the Pedestrian Shopping Walkabout, there is a Douglas Store.   I was only vaguely aware that there was a famous European Store named after me, or should I say I was not surprised.  At any rate, the store specializes in women's perfume.  Ahhh, the wonderful smell of a woman enhanced by a product from the Douglas Store.

The aroma from this open front Bakery was wonderful.  I did not check for glutenfrei product but there was certainly alot of traditional German pastries... yummy.

One of the more unique shop fronts on the Pedestrian Walkabout.

A beautiful building on the corner of the Pedestrian Walkabout in the area of the Town Square, which makes it even more notable. Some wonderful apartments up above and a unique "McDonalds" on the first floor. That McDonalds organization is sure clever; they have unique property locations everywhere.