Pictures from Mecklenburg - Early days of the trip

The second farm where I stayed - A nice little log house










These pictures are from early on in my trip when I was in northern Germany.
A very quaint little cafe in a sleepy village.

Images of Switzerland

Finally, after literally months of blogging void, I have put up a few more pictures. All of these pictures are from the French-speaking part of Switzerland. For a better, more detailed look, click on the pictures to enlarge them.


Better than any guard dog.
Driving in Switzerland takes place above, and below ground.


Care to go shopping?


Ahhh! Those narrow, winding, charming little roads get my every time.

The Last Offensive: Nürnberg to Paris

I must say, the trip has gone relatively quickly. Of course it has had its boring moments and its exciting moments but I really have to say, it has been the best summer of my life.
Now I`m on the victory lap visiting friends and relatives. Last Wednesday I finished wwoofing and took a train to Nürnberg. Exiting the old east Germany for the last time this year and seeing a bit of the west. Traveling on Wednesday, which was the day after the supposed terrorist catchings in Germany my train car was privileged to a visit from the German ``Polizei`` in their black leather jackets and white caps. They asked one asian looking lady for her pass and on the train platform checked 2 other men probably from the Chezch Republic. In Nürnberg I visited my great uncle and aunt,who I just met for the first time. Got a tour of Nürnberg (great city wall), and after a short but excellent visit headed off to the Saarland (Near france). The Saarland is a small Provence in Germany near France, where my Opa comes from. After the Saarland, I took a train to Switzerland to visit a family we know who live here, and that`s where I am now. This Friday I`m heading off to France where I`ll meet some more relatives and then take a plane from Paris, changing planes in Amsterdam, and flying home..............

Assorted pictures: Checzh Republic - Erfurt - In the village

''Checzh'' it out... eh?
Cheb sieht so schön aus!
From up in his tower the hunchback only wished he could live among the city people dwelling under the warm red rooves.
To the battlements! Man the Cannons! Don't look down!
OhH! and you thought the all-seeing eye on the all-mighty dollar watching you was creepy!
LARGER than life in Cheb

Erfurt - Capital of Thüringen... note those tiny little buildings... looks like and accordian ...doesn't it?

Loose hay. This is the real thing. None of this squished together stuff.

Checzhing In - Part two

We drove from Sachsen Anhalt into Thuringen, then into Bavaria, and then to Sachsen. We passed hills, fields, and forests, and forests and fields on hills. In Sachsen we drove down through an area that knifes into the Checzh Republic. It's a really thrilling feeling to be traveling off to some new unknown place and even border check points are exciting places... well at least, I think so, unless of course... they're the type of places with men with huge guns wearing ugly faces. I prepared to present my passport and we pulled up in front of the window. The blond girl and whoever else was hanging out inside the guard house didn't seem to concerned about us and we actually had to ask her to stamp my passport. She went somewhere back in the office and appeared with the stamp which she banged down on one of the pages, closed my passport, pressing it back together with her hands. At the first gas station we saw (which was a shell station, yes apparently they even have shell in the CR) we stopped and changed some money. 1 euro (worth about 1.40-1.50 cad.) got us 26 krona (The Checzh currency) so 20 Euros was over 500 krona. Previously, I'd never used money so badly inflated.... it was really fun to have these bills of such denomination in my hands. What was further amusing was the fact that the one of the further gas stations after the first one past the border was offering more krona per euro. Those dudes right past the border sure know their location. From the highway I saw the selling stands of the Asian people that are near the border with that busy look of all their wares for sale. At these places there are no prices. You simply ask the price, and then see how low you can bargain the price down. They sell pirated dvd's and music, clothes, cheaper cigarettes, knives, food...etc.. We pulled in front of one of the stands and parked. As soon as I walked out to the first stand an Asian girl waved a pack of open cigarettes in the air at me asking ''zigaretten??'' ....'' nein danke,''
Among the dvd collection was the new pirates of the Caribbean movie ... not on store shelves yet ( mind you filmed in a movie theater.... ) ... this is what you call a ' film of a film... or second hand'. At one point one of the people manning a stand told me he had more and procured a key which he then proceeded to use to unlock a door to the back of the stand. Inside was a whole room of dvd's and cd's!!!!It was Insane. Man, are their more of these rooms?? And if so , what's in them?? Black market Russian Nukes from the 60's??? The whole place was an interesting experience for me, but man it must be all mafia work or something.... lol. Another thing people do, which I saw, was bring gas cans from Germany and fill up with Checzh gas as it's not as pricey as German gas and so naturally you can also buy gas cans at this ''price-debating-market''. In fact, it seemed like there were a lot of people from Germany In the area after the border. As for the rest of the afternoon, we spent in a town called Cheb. This town looks a little scratchy on the outside, but the more central part is fantastic with nice cobble stone streets, old buildings, a partially ruined castle, and old monastery of sorts, and fantastic old church with an inside so massive that it might be called cavernous. When I went to the grocery store to purchase perhaps 8 euros worth of stuff it cost over 180 krona!! Really, quite amusing actually to pay such a huge number... I handed the lady at the ''Checzh-out'' a 200!! All in all I think this afternoon trip to the Checzh Rep. was really actually ONE OF the most fun and interesting things within this trip to date.
We excited the Checzh republic without problems, and once again had to ask the border police (this time German) to stamp my passport. Aber ya, dieses kurzes reise hat richtig spaß gemacht!!

Checzhing In (Part 1)

She was blond, young, and wore a gun on her hip. No this isn't Hollywood people, that was the Chezch border police. What was I doing at the checzh border you may ask? It's really quite simple. Collecting passport stamps. Such pretty ink designs - Well actually there was a better reason than collecting stamps for the sake of collecting passport stamps... though that could be an pleasant pastime... collecting passport stamps... My more logical reason was actually because I was nearing the end of a 90 day period permit free to dwell in several of several European countries in a certain agreement. I actually was finding it amusing that I only acquired a stamp in Amsterdam and got no stamp, questions, or dirty looks in Berlin.... It was like, ''heh! I just walked in here... and how do they even know I'm still here.... who cares if I stay longer than 90 days without getting one of these permit thingies?'' I was ignorant enough not to realize that that one stamp in Amsterdam is my entrance stamp to this entire area and so it wasn't not necessary to double stamp me in Berlin. Most wonderfully, the sister of the mother of the family where I'm dwelling right now happens to have for a sister a bundesgrenzshutz employee! That would be the German border police. Think, Federal border security when you read bundes-grenz-shutz ... those Germans and their compound words. Anyway, nothing like hearing the word on the street from the horse's mouth.... The verdict was: By leaving this area of countries in this agreement, receiving a stamp on the way out, and one on the way back in you are clear for another 90 days... or ... at least that's the idea. Where is the closest country not in this agreement??? Checzh Republic. Yes, formally Checzhoslovakia, behind the iron curtain, now divorced from Slovakia, and is now the place with the cheaper gasoline and perhaps not so many laws as Germany.

We set off from Germany cruising down the autobahn heading towards the Czech border.
Out of One Bundesland (Provence) and into another... by forests, hills, and fields.

More to come ( and pictures too )

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