Rawley

So I got new batteries for my camera, and all is well. The weather continues to cooperate as I ride out my last week here. 15 July: Love Parade. The first one since 2003. The event had imploded as the techno/rave culture faded around 2001 or so. During its heyday, one million "dancers" would clog the streets of the Tiergarten...I was at the LP only for its first couple of hours, so I didn't see its peak hours. At any rate, it was like the World Cup Fan Mile, but instead of screens every so often, there were about 30 "floats" (a la Mardi Gras) but they threw out beats instead of beads. Even with earplugs, the noise was a bit much. One time I actually felt the sound waves, which was a bit disturbing. Lots ... read more

Germany's penalty-kick expulsion of Argentina, along with France's astounding outclassing of Brazil, has left the 2006 World Cup with four semifinalists from the same continent. This has not occurred since 1982. England lost in typically English fashion, and Italy breezed by an outmatched Ukraine. So, England and Argentina join Switzerland as teams to go home undefeated (a "loss" or a "win" from penalty kicks is technically a tie). Switzerland may be the only team ever to leave a World Cup having never conceded a goal (and perhaps also the only never to score in a penalty shoot-out). Italy is clearly the "evil" team remaining, given their penchant for diving, which means of course that Germany might go home...er, stay home. One of Germany's best midfielders might be suspended for participating in the mini-brawl that followed the ... read more

So the USA lost to Ghana in a cynically-played game, with the winning goal coming from a bad call to give a penalty. Wretched. Sweden had its best defender sent off in the match against Germany for doing, seemingly, nothing. Tunisia did not have a penalty awarded for a handball, yet Ukraine (who defeated them) was awarded a penalty after Shevchenko tripped himself. Whatever. The USA-Italy game was inspiring stuff. Perhaps the Aussies will do the same thing...without the red cards. The Bruce Arena era of US Soccer is now seemingly at its end. What will he do now? Coach in Europe? Probably not. Return to UVA? Concacaf and Asia are already out of the tournament...and Oceania and Africa seem doomed for a quick exit. The Argies look mortal after the Mexico game. Germany continues to ... read more

So for 2.5 weeks I went around the Veneto, Slovenia and Croatia with Melissa. We each had a camera, so there are some big gaps in this JPG record. Aside from some unseasonable wintry rain in Dalmatia, the weather was quite lovely. The whole trip we took was Padova-Venezia-Ljubljana-Bled-Zagreb-Plitvice-Split-Solta-Hvar-Korcula-Mjlet-Dubrovnik. The mode of transportation went from train to bus to ferry to catamaran. Venice is always a highlight, and Padova was in my opinion an excellent base of operations (and much cheaper). I recommend all of Slovenia; it is such a pleasant place. And it will be on the Euro as of January 1st, which I predict will double prices. In Croatia, there is more to do--full points for Plitvice and Dubrovnik, and a passing grade for Split--but the tourist industry seemed rather jaded, and sussing out ... read more

When we left the Rhine, we headed ESE to Franconia, which is now part of Bavaria. "Now" means for the past 200 years. Dad did very well with the autobahn traffic. We stopped for lunch in Speyer, one of the first cities to side with Luther. We ended the day in Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber, which is very postcardy. Driving in a medievel city is not fun. Eric, Mike and I had been to R-burg in 1999, and it really is too touristy. But the gates and homes are nice, and they have a "treasure" church (there aren't too many outside Italy). One day we hiked a couple km outside town to the village of Detwang, which I recommend doing. We returned the car in Nuremberg, one of the biggest medieval cities and "most German" of all cities during ... read more