The Car Museum

"In autumn 1948, the Horch factory began work on the Pionier tractor, based on a pre-war design. On May 18th, 1949, the first of five prototypes was completed; in the summer of 1950, series production began. The Pionier was the most used tractor in GDR agriculture at the beginning of the 1950s" {slightly paraphrased from the original text}


Today James and Sten and I went to a car museum!!!  Fun ensued!!

The car museum is housed in an old car factory and takes up a lot of space, which meant that we were there for hours and hours. But I didn't mind. Because cars!

The (in)famous "Trabant"

The (in)famous "Trabant" was manufactured in East Germany from 1957 through 1990. It was a one-piece steel chassis with a plastic (compressed paper/cotton) body, 2-cycle, 2-cylinder transverse engine, front-wheel drive, independent suspension. Required the owner to use a combination of oil and gas, like 2-cycle lawn mowers. Polluted like crazy. Took forever to get one -- there was quite a queue of eager buyers. Years of waiting, in fact.

And now it's a serious collectors item. Which is why Grandpa Gerd has one!

Trabant with a Trailer! Very popular in the GDR!

We also saw some variants of the basic Trabant. My favorite was the one with the attached trailer. A lot of these trailers were home-built by enthusiasts.  Mainly because it was impossible to afford a commercial model! And the wait list was far too long!

Another famous German car

I was disappointed that there was only one or two Volkswagens, but there's probably another museum specifically for them somewhere else. They weren't manufactured in the GDR, that I recall. I think it was a West German thing. But it was still fun to see at least one of them!

After a wonderful morning/afternoon of browsing through the cars, we went back to the Becher's for some dinner at the big covered table in the backyard (which was our tradition).

A Visit with the Großeltern

Hmmm ... I wonder who this could be?

Today we started with a bit of a hike, just James and I, to see the vast and lovely countryside which he has talked about so much.

It was beautiful!

We hiked through the deep and lovely woods, crossed meandering streams, hiked on farm roads, climbed rolling hills, crossed busy streets, wandered past ancient (abandoned?) buildings, and enjoyed amazing views. All before lunchtime!

Then it was time for a trip to the Grandparent's House in the country!

Oh, look! Großvater Gerd and James!

Grandpa and Grandma (Tabea's mother's parents, aka Opa and Oma) have a lovely country home up in the hills that looks like an Alpine cottage, lovingly crafted by Gerd himself (!) and full of unique and beautiful architecture. I would show you pictures of all the wonderful things inside, but frankly I was too busy oohing and aahing over them to take any pictures, so you'll have to go there yourself and see them.

We had a lovely (and tasty) tea-time with them.

Opa (Gerd) and Oma (Seigrid)

Cheryl enjoys Tea-Time with die Großeltern

To cap off a thoroughly wonderful afternoon, Opa Gerd took us for a ride in his Trabant!

Famous East German Automobile!

(Opa Gerd could probably do well at the Indianopolis 500...)

Later that evening, we went to town for a concert at a local church. They had quite the pretty ceiling:

The Hebrew letters are for "Yahweh"

and quite the entertaining concert. Although the temperature inside the building - and the lack of air movement - was a challenge for those of us who struggle with asthma.

During the intermission, we took a stroll around the grounds:

Stretching the legs during intermission

OK, I guess we're done walking!

After all that entertainment, we were ready to go home and relax.

Aue Church Tour

Cheryl peeks out the window

This has got to be the biggest church in Aue, certainly an outstanding architectural achievement in the area. It was certainly impressive to me.

We left after breakfast to go back to Aue and tour a handsome church. We were actually allowed to walk up the stairs all the way to the top! And it had an absolutely stunning view from up there.

Truth be told, I felt a little nervous being up so high. Especially when I had already walked through the main sanctuary and see how high the ceilings were ...

The view from the sanctuary

... and then proceeded to walk up to the area above the ceiling ...

The "attic" above the sanctuary

... and then proceeded to a little room at the very top above where the bells are hung...

Cheryl and James look out over the city from atop the bell tower.

... which had an incredible view of the town and the surrounding countryside.

The red arrow points to where we were!! Way up high!!

And here is what it looked like:

Bird's-eye view of Aue

After all that adventuring, we had to soothe (my) nerves with some ice cream!

Rob relaxes with a cool treat

Touring Annaberg

James poses with a local historical figure.

We were going to do the tour of the mines first, but when we got there, we had just missed the scheduled tour; so we decided instead to head over to Annaberg and tour the town.

We looked at the building, the church, and had lunch, toured another church, and then suddenly there was this huge rainstorm! Which lasted about 30 seconds. Just long enough for us to purchase umbrellas which we probably won't need the rest of our vacation.

Then it was time to head back to the mines for the tour. It was awesome! We took the little train cars into the entrance through the cold, dark air and when we got out, it was wet and cold and dark. Good thing we had raincoats on!

Listening to the tour guide, when not mugging for the camera.

Riding the cave train!

After a lovely tour of the beautiful and haunting mine, we took the little train back outside and found, to our surprise, that it had hailed while we were gone. Didn't realize it was that cold!

We went back to the Becher house for tea-time (coffee and apple cake) and then dinner (pizza) and then shopping (Cheryl and the girls) and then games ("Concept"). And then it was time for bed. Finally. After a fun but tiring day.

First Day in Germany

Seeing the Berlin (Tegel) airport for the first time, after coming from such a huge airport like Chicago O'Hare, was odd. I was expecting a huge facility; after all, this is the capital of a country, right? Shouldn't the airport for a capital city be absolutely huge?

I didn't realize at the time that Tegel was only the fourth-largest airport in Germany. And that it has been scheduled for closure for many years. That explains a lot!

The fun part about flying in to an international airport in a different country is knowing that no matter how preparation you've done, you're still a foreigner and will never speak the language well enough to make yourself understood. And I didn't do any preparation at all. 'Cause I'm a 'murrican and don't have any time for such trivialities as studying foreign languages!

In truth, it was very frustrating to have been studying for a couple months prior to our trip, and still not be able to formulate sentences any more complex than, "Guten Tag" and "Wo sind die Toiletten?" Even if you have that ability, you have to be ready for the sudden rush of German which results from asking questions in the native tongue -- and my ears ain't nearly proficient to handle that little chore!

Luckily for me, most of the people understood English passably well, so we didn't have much difficulty navigating our way through the airport and out to the front area where we were able to call up the hotel shuttle and get picked up. We just had to wait awhile.

The Hotel Shuttle!

The hotel is only a short hop, skip and jump across the road from the airport, so it didn't take us long to get over there and find our room and get settled down for a quick night's sleep before hopping up early in the morning to grab some coffee and soda before jumping back on the shuttle to take us back to the airport where we were supposed to pick up the Flix bus which would take us to Leipzig.

The All-important Morning Coffee

Supposed to.

Seems there was a problem with the Flix bus route that day, and there was no service to/from the airport, so after waiting a while -- past the appointed pick-up time -- we discovered (through the miracle of eavesdropping) that we would need to catch a local bus to the main bus terminal where we could actually connect with the Flix bus we were trying to catch. But we would have to act fast because we had tickets on a specific bus which traveled at a specific time.

So off we went on our first little language adventure, trying to figure out which local bus to take ... asking people ... not really understanding them ... looking at the numbers on the bus schedule/map and trying to make sense of it all ... asking more people and hoping we got the gist of what they were saying ... using the kiosk to buy tickets and hope it was correct ... finally getting on what we hoped was the right bus ... riding past all these unknown stops and not sure which one was ours -- then finding out that we'd missed our stop and had to jump off at the next stop and then do a little back-tracking ... finally arriving at the central bus station and trying to figure out the overhead signs ... which didn't have our Flix bus number on them -- no, wait, they do have our bus on there, it's just that the routes are scrolling through the boards and we have to wait a minute to see ours ... then there's construction going on so we can't tell which platform is the one where our bus will be ... hey! There's our bus! Then running to the bathroom (which requires coinage to operate) before the bus takes off without us ... getting our luggage aboard ... getting our tickets scanned ... getting on the bus and finding our seats ... and -- whew! -- relaxing at last and enjoying the sights along the way from Berlin to Leipzig.

The Flix Bus! At last!

Relaxing on the Flix Bus

It was a very nice ride on the bus, watching out the window and seeing the countryside, linking up to the free WiFi and perusing the web when not otherwise distracted. Only a couple hours down the road, and then suddenly we were pulling into the Leipzig station and seeing this charming young couple waiting on the platform for us with big smiles.

It was so nice -- and so weird -- to see them again! And realize once again that we were in another country, and there was so much adventure to come!

We took a little side trip to the mall nearby to pick up a few things -- I wanted some new shoes suitable for walking a long time, as it was expected that we would be doing a lot of it in the coming weeks -- and then we jumped on a train or bus or something and rode it/them to a place near the apartment where James and Tabea are living. That was so cool! And we finally got to see the street where they live! Which reminded me of some streets back in New York where there's barely room to park a car.

Cheryl & Tabea in the apartment

We had a tour of their apartment and (finally) got to see all those things that show up on the screen when we're doing weekly Skype sessions with them. It's a nice place. Although during this part of the season, it's hot and stuffy and they have to keep the windows open to get any kind of air movement. And if the air isn't moving, you're just sitting and sweating.

James with his plant friend

We had a nice lunch with them, and then everyone packed up their stuff in Tabea's car and we headed onto the road again, aiming in a general south-east direction towards Aue and Bad Schlema where we would be spending the next couple of weeks.

After another couple of hours -- and a lovely view of the German countryside! -- we arrived in Bad Schlema where the in-laws live, and after greeting us warmly, they put us up in their guest apartment, which is an adorable little place that felt very cozy and comfortable. And we spent the rest of the day getting to know everyone and enjoying their marvelous hospitality and eating lots and lots of yummy food!

The Lovely Table in the Apartment

Note that I didn't get a lot of pictures taken once we arrived there ... because I was too busy yapping and eating.

Off to Germany!

We're all packed and ready to head down to Chicago to catch a plane which will take us to Stockholm, Sweden, and then catch another plane which will carry us to Berlin, Germany, and then catch a bus which will take us to Leipzig where we will connect up with James and Tabea who will then drive us down to Bad Schlema where the wedding festivities are going to begin.

Three weeks in Germany! I can't believe it. I haven't ever had a vacation this long. Especially one with so much activity packed into it.

Normally when I have any length of time off, there's a huge list of things to do around the house so that there isn't much time for really relaxing and doing nothing. I can't remember doing absolutely nothing (except maybe reading) since those long-ago days of high school when our family went down to Nag's Head NC to hang out at the beach and play in the sand and surf with brothers Craig and Kelly.

[Actually, if I count the times when the family - or just my dad and sister and I - went back to California to visit Grandma and Grandpa or go to Bible Camp - we may have spent three weeks doing it, but all those memories are a blur now.]

I'm really looking forward to the trip, although it makes me nervous to go someplace where my native language is not the primary language (although it is generally the lingua franca in much of Germany); I wish there had been more time to learn at least some basic German, but things have been too utterly crazy around here to allow that. I apologize to my German relatives in advance!!

Today we're driving for three hours to a hotel near O'Hare which will allow us to park our car in their parking lot; then we take the shuttle to the airport where we will catch our flight to Stockholm. There, we have a six hour layover before boarding the plane for Berlin.

Once we get to Berlin, we're staying overnight at a hotel next-door to the airport, then getting up early in the morning and catching the shuttle back  to the airport, where we'll catch a bus to Leipzig. Hopefully, James and Tabea will meet us there at the bus station and take us to their apartment. From there, we'll be taking a car down to Bad Schlema where the in-laws live, and hanging out there for a couple weeks.

I hope we don't run into a lot of traffic on the way!

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POSTSCRIPT

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It was a long drive, and then a seemingly longer wait in the airport before our plane was ready to board. But we finally made it! Now we're going to just kick back and enjoy the flight. Hopefully they'll have good food and good movies to distract us from being completely bored. I usually fall asleep in the first half hour of a flight, anyway. I really like being on planes (except for the lack of sufficient room and the stuffy, dry air).

See ya on the other end!

Reunion 2018

Jeanne and Brendon arrived in Kalamazoo on the 11th, riding the train like it was still in style (and I fervently wish that it was). The station was like something out of a 70s police drama: trash everywhere, homeless and drug-addled people sitting in benches or sprawled on the grass, the building full of stale, smoke-tinged air and poorly lit, a sparse crowd of waiting customers inside the dark wood-paneled interior clutching to their few bags or suitcases (mostly bags) with hope and dread written across their weary faces. The other side of the station was a bus platform, bringing the desperate emigrants to the waiting trains -- or dispersing the incoming train passengers to various destinations far from the rail lines. Either way, it was a bit depressing.

But that was all of little consequence after J&B showed up. We quitted the place quickly, walking across the street to my waiting car, and drove the short distance from Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids, so that we could all rest from our travels in our very accommodating house.

The next day, a Thursday, we ventured together to the Lake to show our guests from Tucson the wonders of (seemingly) limitless supplies of water at the Holland beach. It was a beautiful place to be on such a delightfully warm and sunny day; we walked along the concrete pier and saw ducks (and ducklings) playing among the side-strewn rocks. We sat at the end of the pier and watched the boats ride out toward the sunset. If only I'd been able to get a good picture.

Jeanne and Brendon at the Lake

The following day was a bit of an emotional one, as Cheryl and I took Deb to Chicago to catch her outbound flight to Berlin for the beginning of her Study Abroad; and we had to take our leave of not only Jeanne and Brendon, but also Adam and Mary, who were all heading down to Bloomington for the Downs family reunion.

Cheryl and Deb at O'Hare

It's always discomfiting to watch one of your precious children walk down the gangplank (or security corridor) towards worlds unknown, with little or no control over future events; sending them to school for the very first time; watching them board that Trailways bus for the inevitable first field trip; dropping them off at the dorm in college; and then, finally, that moment when they get on the airplane for the Continent, leaving you behind to wallow in your inability to speak German.

"Warum kann ich auch nicht gehen?"

Even worse is when you have to drive to Chicago to do it. Oh! The traffic we suffered!

But enough of that. Suffice it to say that Deb successfully made it to Berlin to begin her studies, and we survived -- barely! -- the traffic in Chicago, arriving in Bloomington a mere twelve hours (!) after leaving Grand Rapids.

(I get tired just thinking about that...)

J&B had kindly secured for us a nice little AirBnb and we had a delightful couple of days -- well, actually, I had a delightful couple of days hanging out there; Cheryl and Mary and Adam only got to spend one night because Mary needed to be back on Sunday work. And Cheryl needed to drive her. And Adam wanted to go with them. So after a lovely day of hanging out with family at the park, chatting with fathers and mothers and sisters

Jeanne and Brendon at the Reunion

and brothers and aunts and uncles and cousins and second cousins and all those other relations, hiking up to (and through) Wolf Cave and splashing like an idiot in the Big Pool with Mary and Craig and Jenece, then back to the bnb to enjoy leftovers and delightful conversation with the immediate family before retiring to get a bit of sleep.

Because the next day was Sunday.

We had a good morning worship followed by a very yummy leftovers lunch, and then (unfortunately) it was time to head back up north again; but it was all right, because I was in the very fine company of Jeanne and Brendon and their very comfortable rented car. And they had a GPS. Which meant that I'll my clever misdirections were wisely ignored.

And after a very short -- well, maybe not quite that short -- we arrived back in Grand Rapids, safe and sound.

Ready for our next adventure.

Study Abroad with Deb!

Today we dropped Deb off at O'Hare so that she could catch her flight to Berlin. She's doing a Study abroad for 5 weeks! Yay!

While she's out there, she'll be able not only to study German (and some other courses), but also take a few days to zip down to Leipzig to witness the wedding of her brother, James, and her new sister-in-law, Tabea!

It's going to be an interesting time. We'll be coming out at the end of the month and staying for three weeks. At the end of our time there, which coincides with the end of Deb's time there, we'll hang out with Deb in Berlin and see a few touristy sites. Three American babes-in-the-woods, not being able to speak (much) German, floundering our way through the (wonderful) transit system and not being able to ask anyone for directions! It is sure to be a lot of fun.

Meanwhile, Mason is watching the cat (Lola) and making sure that the apartment stays clean and orderly. I think. Either that, or he's going to be doing a last-minute whirlwind cleaning rampage on the day before she returns (which is what I usually do when Cheryl is away on a trip).

I can't wait to see everyone out in Germany. Because this will be the first of many, many trips to Europe for the entire family.

Now if I could just convince the girls to do a Study Abroad trip to Paris ... and London ... and Madrid ...

A Sad Week

As if it wasn't bad enough that we lost our little kitty (actually an 18-year old grown-up cat) this week, one of our good friends and neighbors lost her husband of 34 years after a prolonged struggle with carcinoma.

What irks me most about his death is that he was, up to a certain point in time, one of the most health-conscious people I'd ever known. He ran daily; he ate all the right foods; he was not subject to a lot of work-related stress (although, as a house-husband, he may have dealt with a lot of home-related stress); he had a wonderfully calm and friendly demeanor; he volunteered at the school to be able to spend time with the kids; and he and his wife were madly in love.

According to his original diagnosis, based on the spread of the cancer and the fact that his kidneys had failed, he wasn't supposed to live this long; but we were all grateful that he lived far longer than the doctors expected, at least on a scale of weeks. Because of this, his family in North Dakota was able to come out and spend some good quality time with him. And he was doing well for at least a month afterward. Then, although he was feeling good up until last Friday, things went downhill over the weekend. Still, he managed to hold on until this morning.

We mourn his loss but treasure the memory of his life, for all that he did for others, for all that he meant to his friends and family, and for the wonderful person that he was.

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Losing a pet isn't quite on the same plane as losing a friend, but for our little immediate family, even though it was expected, it was a difficult loss. Erin had been with us for eighteen years, as long as Mary, and even though she lived in the shadow of Alfred for quite a long time, once she came into her own as Master of the House (as I'm sure she always deemed herself), she left her mark on the family. And the carpets. And the upholstery.

We saw the signs of age creeping up on her: the hairs turning gray, the weight loss, the slowing down of her movements, the creakiness of her joints. Her habits changed, too. Suddenly, it wasn't enough to get her water from the kitchen; now, she wanted it more and more from the sink in our bathroom (which was "cute" every once in a while, but became quite irritating when it was a daily occurrence). Then she decided that she needed a litter box in our bathroom because (as we later surmised) it was impossible to get from our sink to the litter box in the laundry room in time. So, for a long while, she was waking me up at 5:30 in the morning for a sink-drink and a quick potty break before heading down to the kitchen for breakfast.

It wasn't until her aroma changed that we suspected something more serious was going on. Cheryl googled the symptoms and realized that something was amiss with the internal filtering mechanism, so we took her into the vet; and, sure enough, their diagnosis was kidney failure. Unfortunately, they had no way of knowing how long she had to live.

We tried to make it as comfortable for her as possible. After some time, she could no longer get up the stairs, so she stopped getting drinks (or using the litter box) up there; she stopped using her thermal blanket and decided to hang out in the bookshelf next to the fireplace; and then she demonstrated that she was no longer able to make it from the water bowl (which we had replaced with a water fountain) to the laundry room, so we rearranged things so that she only had to travel as far as the kitchen/craft table (we put the litter box next to it), and that seemed to be working.

Sunday morning, she was sick to her stomach and constipated and having all sorts of issues. Not looking well at all. Cheryl ended up sleeping downstairs to keep an eye on her.

Then on Monday morning, I awoke to the sound of the cat scratching at our bedroom door. I opened it, and there she was, somewhat unsteady on her feet, trying to walk across the carpet to the bathroom so that she could get a drink, which she had not done in over a month. I picked her up and placed her in the sink and turned on the water. She drank for a long time, her head wobbling in and out, spilling some of the water across her cheek. When she had seemingly had her fill, she was unable to extricate herself from the bowl of the sink, so I lifted her up and carried her down the stairs and gave her some breakfast, which she tried to eat but could not. Instead, she went back to her shelf and lay there, looking tired.

At this point, she had not eaten for well over twenty-four hours, and the drinking didn't seem to be doing her any good. Cheryl called the vet and we made an appointment for later in the day. We informed the kids that this was probably it. Obviously, she couldn't keep up like this.

At four o'clock, we went to the vet, Adam and Mary accompanying us. The vet took a look at her and she was extremely dehydrated -- no matter how much water she was drinking, her system just wasn't getting it into her body; there was nothing else that could be done. So we all said our good-byes to her, the vet gave her the appropriate sedatives, and we stood beside her while she passed.

She lay on the coffee table in a kind of wake during the rest of the afternoon, with a fresh, new kitty blanket that Cheryl had lovingly sewn together, while I dug the grave out in the front yard. For dinner, in her honor, we had salmon (her favorite).

And then when we were all ready, we all went outside into the front yard and laid the little box with the new kitty blanket her in it and stood around it while Adam read a very moving poem he had written, then each of us in turn dropped some dirt on the box and said our final farewell.

Afterward, we watched one of our favorite cat movies, "Milo and Otis", and reminisced about our little friend. And ate ice cream, in her honor. Because she liked that, too.