Trip to Germany, Day 1, June 11

Carol and I went to Germany with my brother Bill and his wife Sonya in mid-June, 2010. None of us had been there before. Bill and Sonya are great travel companions, fun, intelligent and good with figuring out things to do. They live in Idaho Falls, Idaho and had to change planes a couple of times. Carol and I left LAX the evening of June 10 and flew non-stop on Lufthansa to Munich. We arrived late afternoon of June 11, ten hours after Bill and Sonya arrived. They spend the time visiting downtown Munich, including the famous gluckenspiel at the City Hall. We rented a Mazda6 station wagon diesel manual transmission and drove to Garmisch. It took as about an hour to get there, but then finding the condo took several minutes because the addresses were not necessarily on the building but, rather, on the fence around the building.

The condo, loaned to us by Wilf and Meka Voge was super nice, comfortable and had a beautiful view of the German Alps and the river that runs through Garmisch.

I was very happy with Lufthansa. There is a little more leg room in the plane and everyone got a pillow and blanket. Further, they did not charge extra for anything. The gate attendants and the crew were professional and seemed to want to help. I took a pill and slept most of the way. The opposite from Lufthansa is Delta.

The top photo is the view out the living room of the condo.

The next photo is edelweiss, planted in front of the Edelweiss Lodge which is on an airforce base. We caught buses for our various tours.

These are the mountains right by the condo and the lodge. The Zugspitze is the highest mountain in Germany.

Here we are chilling out after a hard day touring. Carol on the computer and Bill and Sonya putting together a puzzle.

Trip to Germany, Day 2, Neuschwanstein

One of the advantages of traveling with Bill and Sonya is that he is a veteran. Assuch, he can get us on military bases. InGarmisch there is a wonderful base, the Edelweiss Lodge, designed as an R and R facility. The base had great bus tours and Bill signed us up for several.

On Saturday, June 12, we took the first bus tour and went to Mad King Ludwig's second castle. The name is "Neuschwanstein" which means "new swan castle." This is the famous castle after which Disney's

Cinderella Castle is modeled. You have seen photos of it. Ludwig's symbol was the swan, and there were plenty around the castle. The castle was unfinished as Ludwig was declared insane and his money tied up, such that he could not finish the castle. He then died under mysterious circumstance shortly thereafter. The story of his death is that he and his physician drowned in shallow water in a lake near Munich. Both were good swimmers.

The bus took us to the bottom of a hill and we could walk up, take a shuttle, or ride in a horse-drawn carriage. Bill, Sonya, and I walked up, dodging horse meadow muffins, and telling jokes about the flies. Carol was the smart one waiting for us at a nice cafe.

Inside the throne room of the castle is a painting showing another castle Ludwig would build after he finished Neuschwanstein. Ludwig was essentially the king of Bavaria and had a very large treasury when he started building. The treasury was amassed over generations of kings. Ludwig spent nearly all of it on his castles; that spending, along with his probable homosexuality, and his preference for sleeping by day and wondering around at night, was the reason he was declared "mad."

Photos could not be taken inside, so these are all from the outside of the castle. The top photo is a general view of the castle. We could take pictures out some windows, and the second photo if of a bridge nearby. We had to wait until our scheduled time and we took this picture of the entrance and of Bill and I waiting. The bottom photo is another view out a window and shows the castle where Ludwig was raised. This was purchased by his father, Maximilian II, and remodeled into Schwantstein. Ludwig was not born here, but spent much if his youth in the castle.

Trip to Germany, Day 3, Passion Play

On Sunday, June 13, we went to the "Passion Play" in Oberammergau, the play is really an opera about the life of Christ. Admission is expensive and the seats are padded but uncomfortable and close together and arranged in rows and columns such that you look at the back of the person in front of you. In order to see, you have to lean right or left. Cameras were not allowed, so no photos of the production. You sit there for three hours, take a three hour break, and then return for the final three hours. Finally, the play is in German, and we all know Jesus spoken nothing but English.

We went back to the town a few days later and visited the museum and took these photos. The first is Carol by one of the costumes used in the play and me by another one. During the play, the action would stop and a tableau would come on showing a bible scene, generally one of the Old Testament stories that lead up to Christ such as Abraham's sacrifice. These tableaus are stunningly beautiful, use brilliant colors and are in still life.

The play has been going on for a very long time and those who have produced it are Catholic; however, there has been concerns about the text of the play from time to time until it was finally approved by a group of scholars. The play is fictitious and introduces many characters not in the bible. The third photo shows the oldest know text of the play.

The fourth photo relates the oath taken by the village elders four centuries ago. Here is my oath: having seen the play once, I swear to never see it again.

Trip to Germany, Day 4, Rest

We wanted to do very little on Monday, June 14, as we were very tired from spending six (6) hours sitting on uncomfortable, small chairs at the Passion Play. We suffered too. We spent the day looking for candy and cookies for Kristen (Bill and Sonya's youngest daughter) who had recently gone to Germany and discovered the amazing variety and quality of their sweets. No wonder the Germans are almost as fat as we Americans. My favorite was a lemon flavored cookie that looks like a vanilla wafers we have here.

Here is a picture I took out the window of the condo that day.

Trip to Germany, Day 5, Zugspitze

On June 15, Bill, Sonya, and I went to the top of the highest mountain in Germany: Zugspitze. From there, we heard, you can see much of Bavaria, and into Austria, Switzerland, even Italy. We took a train from a nearby station that took us to the top of one peak and then we took a cabled tram up the rest of the way. We could tell we were very high in altitude, but the weather was very bad, cold, rainy, and we could not see anything, anything at all. We then took a different cable car down, then caught a train to the car.

The top photo is a view out of the tram on the way up. It was raining on top as you can see from this photo of Sonya. The third photo is a shot toward the valley. We took a cable car down and the angle of the cables were close to 45 degree. Looking forward and down, this photo shows us headed toward a fog covered valley.

Trip to Germany, Day 6, Lindonhoff Castle

On June 16, we went to"Mad King Ludwig's" first castle. He build this to honor King Louie XIV, "The Sun King," who Ludwig had befriended and adored. Ludwig modeled this castle and gardens after Versailles, Louie's castle. Lindonhoff is smaller, but very ornate. The main entry is an homage to the Sun King. This is where Ludwig lived when he spent almost his entire fortune on this and his unfinished Neuschwanstein (Disney) castle that we visited a few days earlier.

The bottom photo is the entrance and, yes, it was raining. Above that is a statue of Louie XIV, a photo I was not supposed to take, but did not know that when I did. There are no photos of the inside, except this one. From the entrance you can see the pond with the golden statues and that is where Bill posed. On the way out, we came upon some swans that hissed at Carol creating a nice photo op. Ludwig's symbol was the swan.

Trip to German, Day 7, "Three Countries"

On Thursday, June 17, the four of us went on a bus tour advertised as the "Three Countries." The three countries were Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. That evening we ate in a really nice restaurant.

Trip To Germany -- Dachau

On Friday, June 18, we went on a bus tour to Dachau. Apparently, every school child, every soldier, and every police officer must go to Dachau. Germany accepts its history.

We noticed, though, that the tour guides seemed to want to downplay what happened there. The guides called it a "work" camp, not a concentration camp, and tried to tell us the ovens were not used. They did admit, however, that prisoners who could not work were sent on hikes and were forced to walk until they died.

The camp opened shortly after Hitler took office, 1933, and continued until it was freed by US troops in April. 1945.

The prisoners were brought in by rail. After deboarding, the prisoners entered through the gate shown. The sign on the gate reads "work will make you free."

A famous photo was taken of the prisoners and others at the time they were freed.

If only.

Trip To Germany -- Eagle's Nest

On Saturday, June 19, the four of us took a bus tour from the military base to the Eagle's Nest.

Trip To Germany -- BMW

On Tuesday, June 22 and, again, on Friday, June 25, Carol and I went to the BMW factory and museum in Munich. The first visit was to the factory where we took the tour in German, as the English tours were filled. We watched 3 Series being made. The tour guide was very good and gave her spiel in German and then a summary to four of us who speak only English. Even in German, the tour was amazing. No pictures were allowed.

On the 25th, we went to the museum which is next to the factory. Photos were allowed. The first thing one sees in entering the museum is four (I think it is four) cars each representing a year Germany won the World Cup. I wonder if they will need to add another car this year?

One of the amazing things at the museum is a moving art piece that forms various shapes. It is now featured in a BMW television commercial. I should have taken a long movie of it, but here it is at the bottom of the page. I added the music thinking, at the time, such music was appropriate. Maybe it is not.

BMW has been in business for a long time, including building aircraft engines during WW II, using some slave labor, a fact they freely admit. They built motorcycles, then small cars and now some of the finest cars out there. The museum probably had one of everything, too many to include here.

Top photo is me next to a very valuable 507, then Carol next to a car older than either of us. Next is a photo of an homage to the original M1, then the original M1. Finally, the seal of Bavaria (a state within Germany) from which the blue and white BMW logo comes.

Trip To Germany -- Mozart

On Saturday, June 26, Carol got to pick where we went; only fair since we had spent two days at the BMW factory. She decided to go to Salzburg, Austria to see the birthplace of her favorite composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. We had a Garmin Navigator that thought there was a particular street in the center of Salzburg that was not there. As a result we did several long laps through town before we found a place to park. We had to walk a long distance along a pedestrian street and then up three stories into the house where the great man was born.

The museum was disappointing in that there was not much there but, we did learn something interesting that made us compare him to Michael Jackson. Both men were very talented and in both cases, the families lived off that talent. As a result, neither had a childhood, neither grew up, and both died young.

Trip to Germany -- The Autobahn

Driving on the autobahn is an experience all should have. First, the quality and discipline of the German drivers is wonderful. The left lane is used only for passing; once done the driver immediately pulls out of the left lane. Second, there are areas where there is no speed limit. There is a sign, round, with four diagonal strips, that means no speed limit. Here is the something important: the autobahns in Germany are the safest roads in the world. The Germans have not bought into our "Nanny State" way of thinking that has led us wrongly to believe that speed itself is unsafe. (What is unsafe is following too close, weaving in and out, texting, and so on). The German word for "exit" is "Ausfahrt."

We rented a Mazda6 diesel that I took up to 160 KPH a few times. That works out to about 100 MPH. I did not want to go any faster. Further, even the Porsche Turbos and S Class Mercedes were not going much faster.

Trip to Germany -- The Meadow

Another way Germany is different from the U.S. is how clean it is. There is virtually no litter, and they have been able to control growth and building styles in a way to insure the beauty of their countryside. They even stack their firewood neatly. Many beautiful little villages are protected from the noise of cars and trucks by tunnels built for the sole purpose of quiet.

In Garmisch, within easy walking distance, is a meadow. This meadow is used by various farmers to graze their milk cows. They cut the grass, dry it, and store it for the Winter. The meadow is also shared by people walking, jogging, riding bikes, and para-gliding. The little buildings out in the meadow are used to store the dried grass, farm equipment, and firewood. The fourth photo show three peaks. The middle one, which appears to be lower than the two outside peaks, is actually the tallest and is the highest mountain in Germany. It is Zugspitze. I pronounced (mispronounced) it near a German couple who turned and looked at me as if I had blasphemed their religion.

Here are some photos and movies.

Innocence Network Annual Meeting

I was honored to be asked to go to Atlanta to represent the University of California Irvine Innocence Project there. We learned the latest in the science of forensics, including DNA, matching latent prints and determining whether fires were arson. A few years ago the National Science Foundation published a great report debunking a lot of bad science and suggesting ways to help judges understand what evidence should be admitted. Judges are coming around. Slowly.

A very emotional highlight of the conference was the introduction of 64 exonorees. These men and women, black, white, hispanic and asian, had been convicted and the Innocence Project proved they were innocent. This is generally done with DNA. I talked to two of them at length. The photo here with me and one fellow is Juan who was one month away from being executed. The photo with four of us is a mother with her son and daughter. The son was convicted of a rape murder in upstate NY and served twenty years, with his mother visiting him every Saturday. She learned about the Innocence Project, contacted Barry Scheck, and got the evidence tested for DNA. Science proved it wasn't him. The story is very dramatic. They are a typical middle class family with college educations doing everything right. The story should be turned into a movie.

I got to meet Barry Scheck and some other hardworking talented people. Thank you UCI for sending me.