Day 28 Monday July 28 I sipped my coffee, grabbed a knife and spread a healthy pad of creamy butter onto a piece of freshly baked bread. The table was neatly set. Nothing special. Nice. The coffee was strong. Just as I like it. Mid-sip, I gazed up at our hosts’ doddling about the kitchen. The retired couple appeared to be in their early 60s. They were quite reserved, conservative people. The pictures in the buffet include those of young children whom I presume to be their kids. The year is 1995 thus simple math would place them as mere toddlers back when the city earned its’ historical prominence. While I presume these kind folks were still slobbering on themselves in 1940 their parents would not have been so innocent. Berchtesgaden was a Nazi Town. The ... read more

Day 27 - Bertchtesgaden

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Berchtesgaden July 28th 1997

Kidcarm

Day 27 Sunday July 27, 1997 I sucked in that fresh mountain air. Ahhhhhhh. It was beautiful. Fantastic. My lungs were singing with appreciation. I felt like hyperventilating, just to give the two sacks of airy goodness a little treat. With the chilly refreshing mountain air and the experience of the past two days, I woke with this awareness that I am not the same young lad who arrived in Europe less than a month ago. I am different. I’ve changed. When I started out, I was an insular, shyish young man. I enjoyed watching others have all the fun, taking all the risks, enjoying all the fringe benefits of carefree philandering. Like the proverbial pigeon, I was content to peck away at the odd scraps tossed my way. But as the sun set last night, ... read more

Day 26 - to Bertchtesgaden

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Berchtesgaden July 27th 1997

Kidcarm

Day 26 Saturday July 27 Waking with a smile on your face is always a most welcome occurrence. I found one plastered on mine this morning. By the time I decided to emerge from my cot, all of my fellow roommates were congregating around the cheese and hard-boiled eggs in the adjoining cafeteria. Laying back and staring into the plywood ceiling above me, instead of getting up I just recalled over and over again the image of a young lady disappearing into the darkness. It was a pleasant thought to wake to. When I finally decided to join the others I was greeted with a cacophony of inquisitive looks and was instantly prodded for juicy details of my successful adventure with a certain local female. It seems that after leaving the disco pub last night, James ... read more

Day 23 - Rothenberg ob der Tauber

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Rothenburg ob der Tauber July 24th 1997

Kidcarm

Day 23 (Wednesday, July 24) Yesterday, I gave myself with a civics lesson in “Understanding Germans and Germanic culture”. As I consider myself an educated tourist, I endeavour to learn as much as possible about the people and places I visit. I don’t just want to buy the brochure, I want to touch and feel the real things. My second day in Munich was extremely educational. I started by wandering around a camp that was created by Germans to torture and kills Jews, Gypsies, POWs, probably anything that once had a pulse. Following that inspirational stroll through Hun-story, I treated myself to an opportunity that accentuated the gaping difference between my obscenely insignificant wealth and a bunch of delicate prissy Bavarian aristocrats. My afternoon ended by allocating a few torturous hours getting myself cultured? The prognosis ... read more

Day 21 - Munich

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Munich July 22nd 1997

Kidcarm

Day 22 (Tuesday, July 22) Located just 20 kilometers north-west of Munich is a sleepy Bavarian town. The quaint city streets are lined with mature trees forming a dense canopy over the span of the roadway. The town is situated just far enough away from Munich to be away from all the hustle and bustle. It is an everyday town. Normal. Average German men, women and families go about their lives in an average fashion. My bus ride from Munich took about thirty minutes. The scenery blurred by as I stared out the bus window. The ordinariness of the ride later proved to be the definition of irony. Fifty years ago, young men the same age or younger than me would have travelled down the same ordinary roads, passed through the same sleepy town and had ... read more

Day 20 - Munich

Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Munich July 21st 1997

Kidcarm

Day 20 (July 21, 1997) Beer. Is that enough of a reason for one to visit a city? People decide to visit places for all sorts of reasons. Some go to New York to see a statue of some lady holding a flashlight. Others travel to China to walk on a wall. Many tourists come from across the world to my hometown, Toronto, just to see the world’s largest phallic symbol, the CN Tower. Why not travel to a city because they are known to serve a good pint of ale? Sure there were many other reasons to include Munich on my itinerary. This was the place where the Beer Hall Putz, Adolf Hitler first tried to take over the world. I think that most of the patrons just thought he was a drunken loon and ... read more

Brief history of Germany

As Europe's largest economy and most populous nation, Germany remains a key member of the continent's economic, political, and defense organizations. European power struggles immersed Germany in two devastating World Wars in the first half of the 20t...more history

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