SUNDAY, 9/13:
Wow. There are so
many signs here in English that you’d think we were still back in Germany.
Greetings from O’Hare Airport, where we’ve made it through
20 hours of the scheduled 23-hour epic journey home. The flights from Munich
and London, both on British
Airways, were superb, and you know what?
Our luggage made it here over with us. See?
Some airlines actually DO know what they’re doing!
When we first started doing these trips over a decade ago,
it was quite the piece of culture shock to step off a plane from Germany
and suddenly be bombarded with signs, ads, and instructions in English. After all, when you spend a week and a half
(or more) immersed in another language, seeing & hearing your own takes a
little getting used to. But not any
more. You see so much English in
Germany, and hear so much English being spoken in Germany, that the transition
when you get back isn’t that of total culture shock; it’s more akin to walking
out of a movie theater after watching a 90-minute foreign language film.
It’s just not the same.
Don’t believe me?
Take a look at just a few examples of what we saw in Germany
this time around...
Heck...even the bathroom stall graffiti is in English!
So while it’s still a little bit of a shock, it’s not longer
THAT big of a shock coming home.
Those of you who’ve been reading this trip blog forever may
be happy to know that I’ve continued my geeky tradition of bringing my niece
Mallory along for the ride. For those of
you who don’t know what I’m talking about, I have a bookmark with a picture of
my niece Mallory on it, taken when she was four years old. I took the bookmark with me on my first trip
over here, and took a picture of it, showing her that she went to Europe
with me. Ever since then, I’ve done the
same thing, and with Mallory now turning 18 next month (yikes!) I don’t know if
she still looks at the yearly picture with the same wide-eyed wonder as she did
the first time, but I’m gonna keep doing it.
So once again here’s Mallory, this time at the grave of our
old friend Sophie Scholl—
Now that this epic journey is almost to an end, there are a
few people I have to thank. Four would
be my parents and Loraine’s parents, who consented to getting dragged
along. We wanted to show them a bunch of
our favorite places, and even though lost luggage and bad weather threw several
monkey wrenches into our plans, they still had a great time. And we had a great time showing them a great
time.
So thanks for coming Mom & Dad, and Mom & Dad!
Next, we need to thank the world’s best tour guide, Tony
Cisneros of Alpventures. He keeps
telling us that we can tour Germany
on our own, like we do France,
and I’m sure we could. But you know
what? It wouldn’t be the same without
him! Besides, if he didn’t come, who
else would sweet-talk a German police officer out of a parking ticket—
Or do the world’s most amazing job of parking a van?
I can’t recommend Tony enough as the world’s greatest tour
guide. Visit his website (www.alpventures.com) to find out more!
And finally, I have to make sure I thank the mad scientist
who had the idea to throw all of us together, and then came up with the itinerary. That, of course, would be Loraine. I’m constantly amazed by what she puts
together, and this time, she put it together for six people. So, as always, we must bow down in her
presence and thank her without end—
Well, that’s it for this year. If you’re curious as to what’s coming up
next, just let me leave you with this.
In 2016, it’ll be four years since we’ve visited Normandy. And I’m thinking that may just be a year or
two too long.
So until then,
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