Kathryn
It was on fire when I laid down on it.
Here are a few (OK, a lot) of the pictures from our recent vacation to Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany, and Austria.
We had a fantastic time - and for once, things actually got a little cheaper each day on our trip, "thanks" to the economic upheaval in Greece which went down within the first few days of our jaunt.
It was the first time I've been back to Europe since the EU has been in full swing, and that aspect was interesting on a lot of fronts. Honestly, I don't see how the Euro is going to work in the long run, but maybe it will. I was very relieved to see that each individual country has maintained it's own individuality - I would hate to see a vague sort of European blandness begin to permeate the EU, and I didn't see any evidence of that.
One very interesting thing - I lived in Germany twenty years ago, when the country was chock full of US military bases, and GIs. Our base was closed down while we were there - in fact, the joke was "Which of us is in charge of turning off the lights?" Our housing was turned over to the state of Bavaria shortly after we left, and it was used to house immigrants, mostly from Turkey and from Eastern Europe (the Berlin wall had been toppled during our stay). So - the last time I went back, fifteen years ago, my former home was a bit slummy - which was frankly depressing.
Now - it's slated for demolition. Yep, those big, spacious apartments which once housed German military officers in WW2, and then later housed US military officers for fifty years, and then the wave of immigrants created by the collapse of communism, are being torn down and replaced with big, shiny new businesses. "My" windows were boarded up, and the grass in the playground was high. The American school, where my little kids attended classes every day, was closed and shuttered.
I thought it would make me sad - but instead, it felt good. It felt like, "Mission accomplished - now, move on." It was great to see Germany doing so well.
When I lived there, the American presence was very widespread - English was spoken nearly everywhere, tours were in English at least as often as other languages, and it was easy to pick out the Americans in a crowd. Now - that's all changed. I noticed that English was much diminished, tours in English were very limited, as was literature about sites in English, and I didn't notice a lot of Americans in the crowds.
And that's all good too. Time marches on and nothing remains the same. My visit back to a country that I love was filled with memories of four small children - who I half expected to hear call my name at any time. But they never did. You CAN go back again - you CAN relive some experiences, like the burst of flavor when you bite down into a bratwurst covered with mittlsenfersharpf! But some experiences are always, poignantly, just out of reach...
Germans are still the same - they still "cut in line" and don't really understand the American concept of "personal space." They still drive like bats out of hell. But they also still keep their streets and villages incredibly clean, they still put on the best breakfast spread in the world, and they still have the consistently best beds and bedding in every hotel!
It was a great trip. Thank you to my husband, who humored me at every turn - and thank you, Belgians, Austrians, and French, for sharing your beautiful countries with us!
I removed the photos and reposted them later in the thread - apparently the program I was using doesn't work with this one.
We had a fantastic time - and for once, things actually got a little cheaper each day on our trip, "thanks" to the economic upheaval in Greece which went down within the first few days of our jaunt.
It was the first time I've been back to Europe since the EU has been in full swing, and that aspect was interesting on a lot of fronts. Honestly, I don't see how the Euro is going to work in the long run, but maybe it will. I was very relieved to see that each individual country has maintained it's own individuality - I would hate to see a vague sort of European blandness begin to permeate the EU, and I didn't see any evidence of that.
One very interesting thing - I lived in Germany twenty years ago, when the country was chock full of US military bases, and GIs. Our base was closed down while we were there - in fact, the joke was "Which of us is in charge of turning off the lights?" Our housing was turned over to the state of Bavaria shortly after we left, and it was used to house immigrants, mostly from Turkey and from Eastern Europe (the Berlin wall had been toppled during our stay). So - the last time I went back, fifteen years ago, my former home was a bit slummy - which was frankly depressing.
Now - it's slated for demolition. Yep, those big, spacious apartments which once housed German military officers in WW2, and then later housed US military officers for fifty years, and then the wave of immigrants created by the collapse of communism, are being torn down and replaced with big, shiny new businesses. "My" windows were boarded up, and the grass in the playground was high. The American school, where my little kids attended classes every day, was closed and shuttered.
I thought it would make me sad - but instead, it felt good. It felt like, "Mission accomplished - now, move on." It was great to see Germany doing so well.
When I lived there, the American presence was very widespread - English was spoken nearly everywhere, tours were in English at least as often as other languages, and it was easy to pick out the Americans in a crowd. Now - that's all changed. I noticed that English was much diminished, tours in English were very limited, as was literature about sites in English, and I didn't notice a lot of Americans in the crowds.
And that's all good too. Time marches on and nothing remains the same. My visit back to a country that I love was filled with memories of four small children - who I half expected to hear call my name at any time. But they never did. You CAN go back again - you CAN relive some experiences, like the burst of flavor when you bite down into a bratwurst covered with mittlsenfersharpf! But some experiences are always, poignantly, just out of reach...
Germans are still the same - they still "cut in line" and don't really understand the American concept of "personal space." They still drive like bats out of hell. But they also still keep their streets and villages incredibly clean, they still put on the best breakfast spread in the world, and they still have the consistently best beds and bedding in every hotel!
It was a great trip. Thank you to my husband, who humored me at every turn - and thank you, Belgians, Austrians, and French, for sharing your beautiful countries with us!
I removed the photos and reposted them later in the thread - apparently the program I was using doesn't work with this one.
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