Keep Your Fingers Crossed

Greetings from 35,000 feet in the air.  Ireland is behind us, the Atlantic below us, and stops in Charlotte, Chicago, and Marquette still await.

Actually, if you’re reading this, it means that we made it at least to Charlotte, in the midst of what will hopefully be *only* a 22-hour day.  That’s one aspect of international travel that’s not so great, although if you think back to the weeks- (or months) long journey that our ancestors made to immigrate to the US…

Well, 22 hours really isn’t that bad.

I promised pictures & stories that we didn’t get to during the our actual fast-paced stay, so here are a few, starting with the story about the scooters–

In both Frankfurt and Kaiserslautern you see rental scooters everywhere on the streets, in the case of Frankfurt literally thrown on the sidewalks–

While in K-Town we saw one of the scooters lying 25 feet down the side of a hill.  It’s one of the ways in which people get around on an environmentally-friendly basis.  You download an app, find a scooter, attach your phone to the scooter, and ride it away.  You then, apparently, just leave it wherever you feel like until the next person needs it and rides away.

Unless, of course, it happens to be sitting 25 feet down the side of a hill.

I have not yet written anything about my one of my favorite things in Freiburg–the Stadt Garten–

This is a park (the name means “city garden”) right in the middle of the hustle & bustle.  You can walk through there, enjoy the ponds–

The college students playing all sorts of games–

And even come across a few ducks with an attitude–

It’s just another reason Freiburg is so cool.  Another?  These red things you see on top of everything–

That’s from a stool in our hotel, but you can also see them all on sorts of tourist souvenirs, as well as plastic ducks floating in the Bachle.  I had no idea what they stand for; luckily, I’m married to one very smart women, who informed me that they’re actually symbolic of the cherries on top of the Schwarzwalder Kirshtorte we had for lunch two days in a row.

Who knew?  Good thing Loraine was around to inform me.  It's even better that I never did end up stepping into a Bachle, which means we get to stay married to each other.

8-)

Let’s see…what else is there?  How about a street sign that struck me as, well, musical–

One more gratuitous shot of a sandstone building--

A few classic movies you can pick up in a German bookstore–

And, just for kicks, one more dessert–

I think we ate a LOT of dessert this time around.

None of this would have been possible, of course, without all the hard work Loraine puts into researching, planning, confirming, and double checking all the the cool stuff we get to do.  So if you’ve enjoyed following along with these ramblings as we travel, remember that I just write about it.

Loraine’s the brains behind the outfit.  And she rocks!

We hope you did enjoy following along.  We’ve gotten a bunch of nice comments from many of you, some even sharing your stories of travel through Germany, and we do appreciate them, as well as the fact that you’ve decided to travel vicariously through us.  We have no idea what or where is next, but we hope that you’ll join us again once we head off again.

So, from somewhere over the North Atlantic, until next time…

(jimkoskimqt@gmail.com)