June 20, 2010

June 20

Here's our latest "blog" --

Here we are in Rothenburg, a medieval walled town on the Romantic Road in Germany. We had been expecting, well, not much, as this is Tourist Central around here, but we've been extremely pleasantly surprised, as we've figured out how to avoid the hordes ... and that's by exploring the town before and after the busses arrive, dumping hundreds of folks like us into the cobbled lanes. At THIS very moment, Donald is at a local church, taking in an organ concert. It had been my attention to join him, but after our long hike earlier today, I knew I'd be making a spectacle of myself, nodding off and probably falling into the aisle. So I've stayed behind to do a little catch up on our supposed "blog" which isn't, but will have to do.

So to catch up .. Two days ago, we took a tour to Dachau which is outside of Munich. What a fascinating experience ... not at all what we expected. Of course it wasn't exactly an upper, visiting one of Hitler's most notorious concentration camps, in fact, the mother of them all. However, it was extremely educational (we had a great English guide) and actually relieved me of a lot of race (or nationalist) discomfort around Germans. Having been raised in the '50s, we'd been exposed to a lot of propaganda about the war and anti-German books and movies were the norm in those days. Come to find out, the majority of the German people did not support Hitler. In fact, he only won the election with 37% of the vote and immediately upon taking office, he and his henchmen began consolidating power so that they wouldn't lose control. And thus began The Third Reich. We came to understand and believe that many of the German people were also victimized by these monsters. Having opposed war myself and having demonstrated and marched with hundreds and thousands of peace marchers, and having felt completely powerless against the powers that be, I can understand what it would have been like to be here then. And I didn't even have to deal with the Brown Shirts or the SS.-- only George Bush. I could go on and on about this but in the interest of time and space, I'll stop.

What next? The next day we made our way to the airport, picked up our rental car and began our journey through Germany and Austria. The first leg of our trip, yesterday, took us through absolutely lovely countryside -- along a river, fields of wheat and red poppies, wildflowers everywhere -- a truly beautiful world. We finally arrived here in Rothenburg yesterday evening and spent several hours in the town, wandering around, gazing at this extraordinary medieval environment -- and eating way way
too much food. Again.

This morning was a really wonderful walk down the mountain and along the Tauber river ... and now I MUST go find Donald before he thinks I've passed out in exhaustion and we miss each other in passing.

Later. So I found him, waiting patiently by the church and we spent a couple more hours, exploring -- including a long walk along the top of the ancient wall which surrounds the town. Next we must make a foray into the town again to find an internet cafe and a bank.

Tired but happy, we send our love to you all.

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