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Published: July 17th 2013
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Tyler Sleeping On Train
He is resting up for his "close up" in some future photo. I want to start out by thanking those of you who have been sending angry emails and texts demanding a new blog. Its been a bit of a wait, but here it is.
For those who have not been following along, I have been traveling with the Stone Family (or parts thereof) for the last several weeks. If you are interested in those adventures I urge you to take a look at www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/The-Stone-Family/
So I am in Brussels (yep the one in Belgium) and yesterday I sent Allison and Tyler Stone home.
What a weight off my shoulders. I don't have ninos of my own, and frankly I don't know how those of you with ninos do it ... I am exhausted. I am sure its not true for all ninos, but these two were a constant burden.
I am not one to complain, but I will make a couple of observations:
1. In London (Watford actually) there are some very old and historic tapestries I wanted to see, but Allison and Tyler had other ideas, so we never got to see them (Please see the The-Stone-Family Blog "Get Out" for details).
2. And the
Random Photo
Uncle Jeff ... Please take a picture of us in front of this random sign for the Brussels Central Train Station photos, my God the photos! Every time I turn around they are screaming for me to take a new photo of them ... a photo of them standing in front of SOMETHING. And these SOMETHINGS are rarely objects of wonder or beauty. As often as not its a sign or some ridiculous flowers. And speaking of photos, those are my photos in The-Stone-Family Blog, but do I get a mention? Nope. It was as if I was not even there. Sometimes, when they cannot avoid it, I am referred to as the "videographer." Nice! And speaking of The-Stone-Family Blog, didn't someone do a "spell-check?"
3. Tyler ate all the grapes.
4. I do not understand Allison's support of "paying for bathrooms" and men's capri pants. If she told me once, she told me a dozen times that (and I quote) "paying to use bathrooms is a sound economic model." She is also hopeful that American men adopt the capri pant fashion of their European cousins.
5. When I trave in Europe, I blend in. The combination of my hoodie/cargo-shorts fashion and my language skills allow me to pass for a local. That was a lot tougher to
do when dragging along two blond teens in their All-American Gear who consider the ability to count to 10 in French as "language skills."
6. Finally (and maybe this is a bit of a complaint), I love dance clubs. When I arrive in a new city, all I want to do is find the best club. You would think a couple of young people would be up for that right? Wrong. We were in 4 different countries and visited nary a dance club. This was especially disappointing in Paris, where a waiter (at a cafe where we had the best meal of our trip) recognized my natural dance skills and recommended an awesome club. Did we go? Nope.
So, now that I have rid myself of these burdensome children, we are off, on what I hope will be (for both me and you) an exciting exploration of the great dance clubs of Eastern Europe.
Day One ... My trip to Berlin
I start with a discussion about trains. Europe has two types of inter-city passenger service. They have the regular "city-to-city" service, which, on its worst day, moves people between urban areas better than the best
American service on its best day. And then ... oh yes ... and then ... there are the other trains. The other trains have cool names like "Eurostar," "Ice" or "Thalys" ... but they are all commonly and collectively referred to as "Fast Trains." First of all, I love, love, love that they are called Fast Trains. Fast Trains move people from city to city at speeds in excess of 200 mph, and they are AWESOME! They generally require a 4 Euro "reservation" fee to make sure you get a seat, but otherwise you can ride Fast Trains using your EuroRail Pass.
Now the German Fast Trains are called "Ice," which, let's admit it, is a cool name.
My experience has been that European trains are very clean and comfortable, but Ice Trains are ridiculous. Its like you stepped onto a moving apartment designed by IKEA. Lots of glass, steel and light wood finishes. I did not want to get off.
I was in Berlin back in November, so I arrived with the intent of staying a day or two. I stayed five. What a great city, which, as near as I can tell, is still trying
Merange
I could try to spell this sweet (made out of egg whites) a hundred times and I would not get it right. desperately to define itself.
I arrived at Central Station, which is the first or second largest train station in Europe, depending on how you are counting (more on that later). I checked into my hotel and jumped on a S-Bahn for Tuefelsburg, a large park north of the city (for reasons that remain unclear to me (but I suspect it may be an "East"/"West" thing), Berlin has two underground train systems, the S-Bahn and the U-Bahn ... nope, they are not different lines, they are different systems).
My visit to Tufelsburg needs a bit of a set up, so bare with me.
When I first visited Berlin, I was exploring the city, and I knew, in my gut, that something was amiss, something just was just a bit different from every other place I had been. Eventually, it hit me. Everything ... and I mean EVERYTHING is new.
I am not talking about the new buildings constructed in the "no-mans land" between the now-demolished Berlin walls (I will talk abut that in a future blog). I am talking about the fact that almost none of the buildings were there before 1945. With few exceptions, there is not a building that has been around for more than 68 years. That is amazing!
Despite the war damage that occurred in other European capitals, Berlin is the only place where there was street-to-street fighting. I was told (and have no reason to disbelieve) that Russian artillery used on the city during the last 10 days of the war exceeded the explosive power of all bombs dropped by US and British bombers on all of Germany during the entire war. Needless to say, the city was gone, and as such, a new and disconcertingly young city grew up in its place. When you come upon an older building (and it happens) it is almost startling.
Which in a round about way brings us back to Tufelsburg Park.
You can see the park's wooded hills on the horizon from the "East" part of the city. This is notable because Berlin is among the flattest cities in the world. The topography of eastern Germany is not unlike the topography of Nebraska (wonderful place, but elevations are measured in inches, not feet).
So you might ask, where did all these hills come from? The hills came, of course, from the rubble. In the 20 years following the end of the war and the utter destruction of the city, 20 giant rubble piles were built on the outskirts, to clear the city for new construction. The largest of these now comprises a large part of Tufelsburg Park. A huge and hilly forest and green space. An island of topography in a sea of flatness. Anyway it is a lovely space with dark history.
Berlin, we will find over the next couple of days, is full of "dark history."
Stay tuned.
Before I leave, just a couple of notes:
1. I would love to make this interactive, so please leave comments.
2. On a completely random side note, for those of you who are Jacksgap fans, Finn goes solo this week (which is remarkable, because it almost never happens). Anyway, Finn indicates that there will be a "big announcement" next week. I am going on the record right now, as predicting that Jack/Finn are going on The Amazing Race. Let me know if you have any other ideas.
JJF
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Tim Nikolai
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luggage
I heard that the only reason you invited the Stone kids for an extended time was to have them carry your extra luggage! That's the real reason they could only bring one small back back.... so they could also carry your bags with the extra dance shoes!!!