Hey everyone, here are some pics from my trip. Hope it gives you a bit of an idea of germany.

-Samuel

And still more pictures.

The nice pathway beside the old mill stream.

Wuh-oh - reflections from Germany 'groans'

Time to trim the wild greenery before it gets out of control and swallows all of Germany.

My current residence

An old tractor at a 'Dorf-fest'

DDR Kultur

Nach Mehr Bilder

Part of Sunday afternoon at a small, local airport. Note the windtowers.

Sachsen landscape as seen from Waldenburg

Part of Bachfest in Leipzig

Breakfast time

Dresden

Dresden

Bilder

The Problem With Old Bikes

Last time I updated my blog I slipped in the little details that it was warm and, well, that I had biked perhaps 10k to the Internet cafe in the "Stadt" of Altenburg (city). Please, let me share with you the expanded and more comprehensive version. You see, that day I decided to bike to Altenburg , (that town over 10 k away). It's actually more like 13, and thankfully, I had the loan of what appeared to me to be a rather ancient bicycle from the family. That saved walking (which I wouldn't have done), a bus ticket, or not going at all. The bike itself is of a sky blue colour, with curved handlebars and a good sized seat wrapped in an old sock - for additional comfort I suppose. On the right side is a singe hand break as an extra to the pedal breaks. This particular bike also sang. It ground out a tune of age and abuse as the pedals make their way around in a clockwise manner. Somewhere, perhaps behind the privacy of the chaingaurd something scraped and ground about every so often. Also, after some section of road or side walk that was very bumpy (or perhaps going of a curb with a good bang) , the chain guard was knocked loose allowing the chain to strike it with a 'ping ping ping ping' until you landed a good kick on it banging it back free of the chain. (that didn't always work either) So I set off from the village talking a shortcut over a narrow non paved lane lined in some places with trees. Hardly had I gone far when with the usual clanging I no longer had any resistance from the pedals. Frustratedly I reattached the chain to the rear gear smudging my fingertips with black grease. Setting off over the bumpy lane I managed to get about as far as the end of the lane before the devilish chain came off for the second time. Once more, I was able to make things operational again while picking up more grease and I biked into a little village which I found my way out of onto a more of a main road. Scenicly the route is wonderful and pleasing to the eyes, as the road winds and stretches itself through little villages, up and down hills, beside forests, and by farmers fields. Of course a nice paved shoulder would have been nice, as the cars, trucks. and drivers, didn't always make me feel at ease. But Kilometer after Kilometer I cruised through the countryside with no helmet, no extra gears to choose from, and my old bike. It was when I was part of the way there I noticed that the front tire was sitting not in a normal upright position, but rather was slightly slumped to the left side. Perhaps it even wobbled about. Right before the city I climbed a long hill with the bike, exerting myself, and using my arms as levers on the handle bars to help me turn the pedals - probably too much stress for an old bike. After visiting the Internet cafe I set off again with the bike for the market place in Altenburg. It was when I was coming down a hill that the chain came off for the third time, this time I didn't stop, but allowed myself to simply coast down the hill until I ran out of speed. Pushing the bike a bit further, I came to another street which sloped down towards to the market place. Here I decided to sit on my still chain- detached bike and let gravity do the rest. The single hand break on the right handle bar was a kind design feature for the reason that the pedal breaks have no power to stop the bike with the chain off!! As I coasted down this last hill all of a sudden I had a new handling sensation (and perhaps new sounds) which I had priorly not experienced and with a bad feeling I realized I had to stop the bike as it was now very, very sick and not safe!! It turned out to be that the right fork had broken!! Fortunately I was able to impede my speed and come to a halt. Seeing as the bicycle was not no longer in a good state I began to push it; all the while the jagged edge from the metal on the broken fork clacked over the spokes setting of a racket which sounded in the street heralding my arrival. I locked the bike against a fence and later after phoning the family I am staying with on my handy (cellphone) went to take the bike to the yard of a nearby church. As I pushed the bike through the street it set off the awful ruckess again of 'clang clang clack clang' which was very hard NOT to hear . I passed a man on a bench and another walked by me probably wondering what in the world this guy with this loud bike was doing projecting this nasty noise in the marketplace where the shops were closed and most of the people had left. To make matters more amusing, I was having a very difficult time keeping a straight face as I wanted to laugh at the hilarity of the whole situation. Briefly I thought I could use the bike again as I was able to get about one street over on it before something went wrong again and I had to dismount. This time a I dropped the bike with a resounding crash - the man who passed me earlier was several hundred feet further and he looked back to see where the crash had come from! I abandoned the idea of using the bike, if the fork hadn't been completely severed before, dropping it probably didn't help. Leaving the bike behind the church, the next bus left shortly before 9 - more than and hour away and I had to decide whether to take the bus and wait, or to try to do it on foot. What I decided was the later and about 1 hour and 50 min and more than 13 kilometers later I arrived back in the village after traversing the route I had earlier biked. It is with a feeling of confidence that I say, old bikes are not always reliable.

Somtime I'll try to get some new pictures on and a couple more posts. But now I'm off.

Replay

So a fast overview. I have been with three different families so far (now being my third). I have been in lots of nice little villages, I've been in Berlin visiting my great great cousin, In Dresden, the Baroque city that that was made into a giant fireball, including the beautiful old historical section. ( Bómbing non-industrial areas is very wonderful) Thankfully much has been restored and it's very beautiful. Leipzig I have also been in, in fact I was able to take in a bit of Bachfest 2007 where I heard a beautiful choir in a wonderful old church where Bach had been in and played one of the organs, and an open air orchestra! To get from where I was in Mecklenburg to where I am now , I hitchhiked most of the way with three different rides! ( over 200 k ) . Right now I am in a nice farmhouse with a timber frame, and buildings which are all arranged that there is a courtyard in the centre and a gate to enter in by car through the 'Turhaus'. The small farm is situated in the little village which has 2 pubs and one small store. Scenery wise, it's wonderful, little villages hear and there, green rolling hills, church spires, and in a couple places along the roads (which are mostly narrower than in Canada) are cherry trees which I have been up!! I think being a Canadian, the differences here are very quaint, scenic, and attractive, such as how things are closer together (like the sides of the roads). My impression is that Germans would love to go to places like the Rocky Mountains, and see beautiful big, open, wild areas. The grass is always greener on the other side isn't it, but only because we've gotten used to the colour of our own grass.

My, I need to get a new pictures up, it looks to warm for summer... doesn't it just make you sweat looking at it... having a jacket on and all....

A little history

Hey again everyone, I have just recently biked a nice little section of road (maybe at least 10 k) to come from my little village or 'dorf' of Frohnsdorf. It's hot too! With biking up ... and down.. it makes on sweat. Right now I am in Altenburg in Thuringa. I just uploaded a map of Germany so you can all have an idea of where I am over the Ocean. First I was near the top in 'Mecklenburg' and now I am in Thuringen! My trip is so broad in experience and deep in culture... musically, historically, architecturally! Well, I guess what I should do is give you an overview... or shall we say the highlights and the re-plays.

The part of Germany that I am in right now and have been in for almost all of my trip so far is the former German Democratic Republic... don't let the name fool you though, it wasn't much of a democratic republic. It was the former east Germany, behind the iron curtain! I recommend scanning a wikipedia article if you're not familiar with the history. But from 1949 'til the reunification of east and west Germany you had East Germany. In order to keep all their citizens in the East German Government had to build fortifications such as barbed wire, mines... etc... on their border... a rather large cow pasture with greener grass on the other side of the fence. If you take a look at the map, the provinces of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Sachson Anhalt, Brandenburg, Sachsen, Thuringen, and part of Berlin were all East Germany. In Berlin there was actually a part that belonged to west Germany and thus you had the Berlin wall. Picture an island of land behind the iron curtain! The east Germans were spied on, their mail was opened, some of their telephone calls were recorded, and some dissenters were imprisoned, while some people were shot while trying to escape. It is very amusing that the GDR told their people that the wall, (or the border fortifications) were to keep the west Germans out. The goal was socialism and the result was collapse. The government played God, and you had to wait many years just to receive a car! But most wonderfully enough people had had enough and events took place that In 1989 east and west shook hands and now they are together. However, some of the scars still remain. In some places are abandoned factories, houses, and buildings in need of repair. I have been a few of these buildings. As I understand it there are a few factors; people moved to the west leaving houses behind, factories couldn't keep up with the west, in the East people were forced to charge very low rent and so they couldn't afford to keep buildings up and I've also heard that factories would come to the west and buy up the cheap factories to cut out the competition. Unemployment is also very high in the former East. Anyway, It is very wonderful that things are back together and more freedom has prevailed. Living in the east many people had the same consumer goods as the guy next store, such as the cars (when you got one). You lacked the diversity that we have in a more free market, and I was told beautiful things were rare. Adding to the problems, was that the church also suffered under the Government. It must have been so exciting to escape from the east to the west!!! In one case 3 brothers all at three different times made it over! The last one being picked up by his brother in a very small airplane painted with Russian decals on the wings!