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.

The Ramstein AFB Breast Cancer Awareness Run

The Girls made the local Armed Services paper the Kaiserslautern American.

.

Rumor is that the Army guy running behind them easily identified in this picture took a lot of crap from his buddies.  He got beat in this race by two women pushing strollers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsVxSTCpq00

Erica, Amy and their toddlers ran in the local Breast Cancer Awareness Run.  I have attached a couple of pictures but the slideshow with Loyd's accompanying music can be accessed above.

Day Two Hike Around Town: Hutschenhausen

I decided to take a walk about even though it was a bit chilly (the day starts at 40 and ends at 60).  The town is beautiful - every house flows into every other house, especially downtown.  Often times it is hard to know which house owns which old barn as many appear to be connected to both structures.  It is wonderful the way that the Germans have kept the old structures alive even though they do not generally appear to be essential to daily life (many are empty or nearly so as opposed to full and functional).

We live on the northern tier of town - all of the houses along the northern tier border fields that sport crops of some sort in the summer (the growing season is over, the harvest is done).  I took this picture at the border of the houses and the country.  You can see that the leaves are changing at the moment.  Under high magnification, you can see the town name - odd that the sign show the town name as you are leaving it.  The 50 is the speed limit in kilometers.  They drive fast in Germany, even on the little main street through town.  Zoom, zoom, zoom...

This is the local Catholic Church, Saint Michael,  built in 1908-1910.   I will take some pictures of all of them in town as I run across them - I think that this is the oldest of all of them.

Another view of the Church.

Bubbles

Michael has been teaching Amaya to blow bubbles and we decided to try to get a picture of her chasing and collapsing one of them.  Easier said than done.  The camera has a hard time focusing on a bubble on the setting that I am using.

On this picture, at high magnification, you can see the trace of the original bubble.  The camera shutter was about 1/100 of a second too late to catch the collapse.

This bubble was about 5 inches in diameter for perspective.

If you care to look at higher magnification, the bubble is acting like a convex lens in this picture.  Michael and Amaya are on the left side, in front of the brown brick of the house.  I am right in the middle of the bubble, for some reason there are two sets of arms but only one camera.  We are having a great time getting to know the neighborhood.

Carol and Doug - We Made It Across the Pond

Our departure city: Atlanta has a big, new, beautiful "Terminal E" built just for International Travellers.

.

Our portrait in the cabin at midnight.  For anyone interested, I photoshopped this picture with the antique effect, we look good with that color of skin tone.  Too bad it leaves the wrinkles.

.

Absolutely everyone with a new camera has to take a picture of the clouds at 31,000 feet.

.

I love these inflight maps.

.

A really lot of blue between Canada and Ireland.

.

The kids got up at 5:00 am to come get us at the Frankfurt airport.  Here is where we were at exactly 5:00 am.  We touched down about 7:20 local time.

.

Ok, everyone with a brand new camera has to also take a sunrise picture.  Here is mine.

.

We stepped out of Customs and guess who we saw!!  Shy Amaya!!  (For about 4-minutes.)

.

Amaya playing with Kaiser out in the yard.  Playing? Wrestling? Taking charge and giving orders?

.

We have not met Hans and Wilma yet (wonderful next door retired neighbors) but they have a beautiful driveway garden that Amaya showed to me.

.

Amaya entertaining us on the drive home with Nana's gloves.

.

My first 2010 European Church picture.  Michael and I stopped here for a picture, and of course a moment-of-reflection-on-our-sins as we raced back to the car to meet the ladies.  They went sightseeing while we went to Michael's favorite liquor and cigar store where we picked up some wonderful homemade rum and Cubans.

.

Carol and Michael in downtown K-Town where they took us to get a flavor of the city.

.

We had 3 different kind of German sausages on our first evening here.  Also some glutenfrei German beer and of course an after dinner sip of rum (one rock) and cigar.  What a great arrival day.

.

Last Train to Nashville

.

On our last night in Nashville, Panama had a "goy party" (boy/girl party) in the library.  Nana and I dressed up a bit and enjoyed her hospitality.  She wore her boots and the outfit that Nana bought her for her birthday.  I determined that buying boots big is good as kids can interchange them for longer wear - sort of like rotating your tires.  Panama is learning thrifty little tips from Grampa.

.

 By the way, Grampa bought a new camera today before going to Europe.  Panama is giving Grampa a little pose in the library - she is looking pretty nifty.

.

Panama's Third Birthday Party

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NQ4upDegX

We had a great time at the Pumpkin Patch today.  Take a look at the youtube video to get a flavor of all of the things that we found to do there.  The link is shown above and should get you there.

Goodbye to Lookout Mountain Flight Park (for awhile anyway)

Went to Lookout for one last visit before going to Germany.  It has been 3-months since my two solo tow flights and my tandem with Rex was rough.  I had a second tandem that went much better but my 3rd solo had a rough take-off.   The transition bar pressure from tandem to solo is dramatic and I was overcontroling at takeoff.  It was too windy for a second solo and the rest of the week did not look good so I decided to book-it home.  No use staying around the flight park to watch everybody else fly.

. 

The good news is that it appears that my Falcon sold and I should be getting the check any day.  Note that in the picture, the 1340 foot mountain launch is to the right of the sunrise about 85 yards or so.

.

They say that they had a great "glass off" evening on Saturday - one day before my arrival.  Too bad as I took this picture last summer of a glass off that I also missed flying.  Maybe Europe, who knows...

Christmas Card 2010 Preview

Melissa took some great family pictures of us.  Carol and I picked one out for our Xmas card.  We will edit it to say "Happy Holidays", identify everyone with a first name and send them out.  Jeepers, our Xmas card is almost ready and the Xmas sales have not even started - boy are we efficient.