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| At Play in Europe Like many American military families in Europe, we enjoyed being able to travel to places we'd only read about before. Even though it's very expensive nowadays if you're paid in US Dollars, and the Europeans tend to be as reserved as stereotyped, it's still a big benefit. Let me show you some of the places we had fun seeing when we were stationed 'across the pond!' No, that's NOT Lance Armstrong...it's me with Clara, Eyal and Ma'ayan enjoying a summer's day out in Germany. Some days, it seems like everyone in Germany bicycles, although they usually go screaming down the autobahn in their BMWs to get to and from their favorite cycling grounds! Oh, well... When I came back from five months downrange in the summer of 2006, I took the family to Italy. My daughter, Ma'ayan had been whining for some time that she wanted to go to Venice. Well, as you can see we did make it to Venezia, where the kids gave us this foxy pose! The enjoyment in their faces made the entire trip worthwhile. On the way back from Italy to Germany, we stopped in Switzerland, where Clara, Eyal and I posed on the waterfront at Lucerne. Here, the kids are fooling around at a cafe in Frankfut's Innenstadt. The kids posed straddling where the Berlin Wall once stood. Despite the happy grins in the picture, the crosses memorializing the many who died trying to flee to freedom were sobering. This building was a bit sobering also. This is the Oranienberger Synagogue, where I was participating in a Beit Din. It's a magnificent edifice, but it's hollow; the actual synagogue behind the front survived Reichskristallnacht, because the city's police chief prevented the mob from burning it. But it didn't survive the Allied bombing during the war. We've also visited Paris. Here at Les Jardins Toullieres adjacent to the Louvre... ...and here crossing the Seine with the towers of the 15-eme Arondissment behind Clara and Ma'ayan. We took a little time out to visit Prague. This was February, but the weather was almost spring-like (how apropos). The day started out a little chilly... ...but turned nicer in the afternoon. This is the famous zodiac clock on the front of the cathedral. Yes, 'The Diva' is a diva on every continent!  In the spring, Clara and I went to Bratislava, Slovakia (this picture and the one immediately above it). This was a working trip. Yeah, I know...looks like we're enjoying it a little too much, but in fact the purpose of this trip was to participate in a Beit Din. But the kids were home, so we took some time to 'kick back' and do the tourist thing also... Here we are in Brussels, Belgium. They had a kind of participatory circus in the city's central square.  From the kids' eagerness to pose as workingmen (here at World Heritage Site Ferrodromo in Voelklingen, Saarland, Germany), one wouldn't guess how difficult it is to get them to clean their rooms.  And here they are at the Technischesmuseum in Speyer. Clara and the kids in the Altstadt, Heidelberg. Yes, in Germany you don't wait for good weather to travel...or you'll seldom go anywhere! We climbed to the castle, seen in the upper left of this picture... ...and were actually rewarded with a few minutes of sunshine! In addition to a bit of bicycling, while in Germany we've enjoyed a little Nordischeswanderung (Nordic Walking). The kids don't need no stinkin' poles, but they are willing to join us for a hike...after the mandatory protests that "We don't like hiking!" (Ma'ayan tells me it's in accordance with The Rules; kids are supposed to whine about doing things their parents want to do!) While we were in Germany, my older brother Rich and his wife, Patty came to visit us and their old stomping grounds. They lived not far from Ramstein, in Zweibrueken on the French border, when Rich was stationed in Germany in the 1970's when he was in the Army. Here we're strolling at the lake in Kindsbach. This is a view of the nearby city Kaiserslautern, which most of the Americans (and many of the Germans, too) call "K-Town." It's a very nice small city of about 100,000 souls. Here's where we lived - typical American military "stairwell" apartments in Germany - at Ramstein Air Base. | |
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