The Fake Roman Ruins

 In Vienna's famed Schloss Schonbrunn (the palace on the west end of town)....there's this nifty thing in the far remote part of the gardens there, which most people end up missing.  It's a fake Roman ruins.

Yeah....fake.

It's generally referred to as the "Ruin of Carthage".  In actuality, it was planned and erected in 1778.

If you were looking for it....it's on the far southeast point of the gardens....maybe a thousand feet from the magnificent fountain in the backyard of the palace.

The Hapsburgs tended to be a bit obsessive over art, culture and anything Roman in nature.  So it simply made sense to build this fake ruins into the garden.

I would imagine as guests and visitors came up....there'd be some story told by the Hapsburg escort and they'd indicate how this piece relates to this Roman story, and that piece relates to another story.

I stood there for around five minutes observing the planned ruins.  It had to require an awful smart guy to sit there in 1778.....plotting the design and intended impact of the ruins.

Anyway.....if you get to the palace.....ensure you take ten minutes to walk over and check out the ruins.

Vienna and Public Transportation

Traveling across Europe, you occasionally come across methods of improvement that most people simply miss and never notice.

In Vienna....they run a slightly different method of public transportation.  I came to note on day one of my trip....that the subway stations are fairly clean, without beggars, and you don't have homeless guys continually around the stations.  There's a simple reason.

At the top of the stairs or escalator.....there's a machine to buy your ticket.  Then you turn around, and face the stairway or escalator....seeing this blue-colored validation machine.  You have to validate your ticket.  And after that.....you cross this mythical line.  Once past that line....audit checkers can stop you at the stairway or escalator....in the subway station....or on the train. No valid ticket?  You get fined.  You act hostile...they call the cops and you get real jail attention.

Over the week there, I noticed the audit folks on several occasions....once even at the bottom of the escalator....waiting on me and asking me to show the ticket even before I got on the subway car.  That's a bit different from the German or Dutch methods.

It forces you to have a valid ticket and a purpose for using the subway tunnel.  Just going down to stay warm or urinate for the pleasure of it....as some do....won't happen in a Vienna.

I kinda wondered how many audit checkers are on the payroll in Vienna.  There's probably dozens, and they probably roam their territory seven days a week.  In return, I have to say that I rated the Vienna network of subway traffic one of the better ones in Europe....not just for service and clean conditions.....but freedom from the beggar crowd or nuts.

Historic Building in Bierstadt

Down on Venatator Strasse (10) in Bierstadt (a "burb" of Wiesbaden).....there's the historic Evengelische Church.

If you were looking around for historic building in Bierstadt.....it's one of the top ones....built in 1733 time period.

They aren't exactly open on frequent periods.  Basically, it's Friday afternoons (1400-1600) that the door is swung open, and on the last Sunday morning of each month for services.

Hessenpark

 About thirty minutes northeast of Wiesbaden is the Hessenpark.  If you find Neu-Anspach, it's about two miles outside of the town and numerous signs will lead you onto the park.

It's an odd deal.  Somewhere in the 1970s....Germans were tearing down old houses and storefronts at an alarming rate to replace them.  Folks got peppy and invented various laws and regulations that made it more difficult (citing historical concerns).  To get around this situation....you could donate the house to the state.

The state in turn....would bring in some old-fashioned carpentry experts....dismantle the house....and reassemble at this area near Neu-Anspach.  It's hard to say if there was some kind of real master plan in the beginning.  They wanted to preserve history, and there was going to be a cost associated with this deal.

In the beginning, it was laid out with different sections of a "village", and today....there's roughly three villages in the park.

As you arrive, there's ample parking, and you basically walk around 500 feet to enter the free area of the park.  There's a number of storefronts laid out....selling brooms, cheese, etc.  If you want coffee and cake, there's a shop for that.  And there's a restaurant with a decent menu.

There are a number of displays, and if you were into history....it'd make for a good four-hour afternoon.  Kids?  Well....I have my doubts that any kid under ten years old would find this interesting.  There is a kid's upscale playground deeper into the park (the section where you pay around eight Euro to enter). About sixty percent of the park lies in the paid section, and if you time this around 4PM (they stay open to 6PM in the summer), then you pay half-price.

Teenagers?  If they have an interest in history and architecture.....it might make for a good afternoon trip. Otherwise, I'd leave them at home.

There are three things which you might want to taken note of.....as you walk into these buildings which were erected originally in the 1700s/1800s.  First, the ceilings weren't that high.  They didn't waste space.

Second, the kitchen was the all-in-one room for eating, leisure, entertaining guests, and family moments.

Third, you see an awful lot of master carpentry efforts in almost every house....something that you rarely see today.    

I should note this.....around the backside of the whole park is this collection of sheds with rails, boards, and leftover pieces.  Yeah, it's kinda obvious that after the houses were taken down and reassembled....there were some things left over, and they just didn't want to thrown them away, so they just kept those pieces around.  Guys....you know....always end up with leftover pieces when assembling something.

There is a fair amount of walking....especially over cobblestones.  So be aware of that fact and wear appropriate shoes.  I also wouldn't go on an extremely cold day because it's all outdoors.  And if you have height issues about narrow stairways....avoid the windmill climb to the third floor.  It's a good place to go on a summer or fall afternoon (avoid rainy days).

On the Topic of Water

I went to a local wine fest two weeks ago in the Wiesbaden area.  Oddly enough, they offer free water for folks who might be getting a bit dehydrated.
There's three choices.....kinda like wine selections: Taunus water, Schierstein water, and Hessen water.  You'd think all three would taste the same but that's not the case.....each has a slightly different taste.

A catchy thing?  Yeah....I stood there for a minute....trying to figure which I'd try first.

Eating in Vienna

 I came across this virtually unknown restaurant while in Vienna and think it's worth mentioning.  The name?  Zum Blauern Esel.....the blue donkey.  Yeah, I know....it's a strange name.

If you find the Schloss Schonbrunn on the west end of town....there's a major street running east-west in front of it (northside of the schloss), and it runs into Hadikgasse Strasse (street).  So about five hundred feet down Hadikgasse...heading west....there's this dull colored building on the street, with one simple sign over the doorway.  Yeah, it's likely that you might miss it on the first time.  The neighborhood looks like something out of 1955....I admit....but that keeps the tourists away and makes it a bit more interesting.

The restaurant has a open garden in the back, with thirty tables laid out.  It does look marginal in terms of appearance, with tables having pretty severe weathering, and the chairs maybe on the last year of use. You'd almost think about leaving.

So you gaze over the menu, and find a couple of interesting items, and there's this listing for ribs.  That's what I ordered.  It came out to be a five-star ribs dinner, and I was shocked at how much better these were than regular ribs from Alabama or Tennessee.

The gulush?  Five-star as well.

Tourist trap?  No.  I doubt if more than three or four tourists end up there on most evenings.  In the spring and summer, the garden sitting area makes a great place to sip a beer or two after the meal.  Pricing?  Remarkably competitive with most other places you might encounter while in the city (remember, nothing is cheap in Vienna).

So, if you were looking for a decent dinner, away from the crowd and a curious location.....it's all within a ten-minute walk of the schloss.  Note, the subway station is only 300-feet away and you easily make your way to any hotel in town.

A Structure Story

In some villages....you will see this building on the side of the street and kinda wonder about it's purpose.  It's the central electrical station that was usually put into place during the 1930s/1940s for smaller towns and villages.

You'd have one electrical connection leading into the building, and individual cabling leading out.

There's not a lot of explanation over who ran the community electrical grid.....which might make it kinda interesting to know how you added cables or managed the whole thing.

As for the number of buildings left around today?  Some have been torn down, and some still remain.  This one here?  It's from the Hessenpark, about thirty minutes north of Wiesbaden.

Vienna Trip

I spent the past week in Vienna.  There are a number of observations I can make....but I'll limit them to fifteen.

1.  You go to Vienna for three reasons: to get a healthy dose of history, or to get some culture, or to just spend money (everything costs a heck of a lot).

2.  The city can't be seen in less than three days.  If you think you can do one of those bus tours that arrives on Saturday morning and heads back home by Sunday afternoon.....it's just not possible.

3.  The public transportation deal operated by the city.....is probably the best of any city in Europe.  Buy the 72-hour or 24-hour ticket and travel by subway or trolley car.

4.  Don't worry about crime.  Cops are always out and it's hard to find any part of the old city (the tourist area) where you'd be unsafe.

5.  The Schloss (on the west end of town) is the number one attraction that you have to see.  Expect to spend an entire day at the estate and park connected to it.  The food offerings there are marginal and you'd best bring along some fruit to get you through the mid-day and afternoon.

6.  There are two companies offering the hop-on and hop-off deal.  Basically, they both do the same deal......twenty-five Euro.  One makes a bigger trip up into the hills over the city.....but there's only a brief scenic view on that tour that makes it worth the seventy-minute part of that tour.  I'd strongly recommend doing the hop-on deal on day one to see the big picture.

7.  The Weiner Prater is a large dual purpose area to the north east end of town (across the canal).  One part is a huge natural park area (you can walk for hours), which was originally a hunting area for the royal and elite of Vienna.  The other part is an amusement park, which connects closely with a U-Bahn station.  It's worth seeing but you will do a heck of a lot of walking.

8.  When you get off the plane.....there's four ways to get into town.  Taxi, bus shuttle, S-bahn, and CAT. The S-bahn connection is the cheapest but you'd have to settle in for a 30-to-40 minute ride, and change at least once.  The CAT?  A first-class sixteen-minute rail ride into the city center with no stops.  The taxi ride will be a minimum of fifty Euro.

9.  Don't expect to find any fantastic hotel discounted deals.  Unless you stay way on the outer fringes of Vienna.....there's no way to avoid paying their rates.

10.  Museums?  Well.....yeah, there are a minimum of sixty different museums in the city.....the vast number of a waste of time and effort.  It's best to do your research ahead of time and limit your travels to just one or two.

11.  Food?  Schnitzel is the number one offering by all restaurants in the city.  You will find some McDonalds around town, along with a fair number of pizza shops.  At least half the restaurants will cost a minimum of twenty Euro per person for the dinner.  So don't be shocked.  I'd strongly suggest you bulk up on the breakfast buffet at the hotel....buy some fruit for lunch at some grocery....and do the four-star dinner experience each evening.  If you look around.....you can find the twelve-Euro dinner options still possible.

12.  There is old Vienna and new Vienna.  You could be walking down one street with modern architecture and suddenly find turning the corner....an area of town that looks like 1955.  Riding the CAT out to the airport?  You will find new urban neighborhoods built up in the past thirty years and a modern city that lays out toward the airport.  Within the city?  It's a mixture of what's left from before the war, the Soviet years, the rebuilding years (1945 - 1970), and what's been put up over the past two decades.  It's an odd mix.....I will agree.

13.  The horse show.  The lipizzaner show is daily....Monday through Friday....ten to twelve in the morning.  It's practice only.....so don't go expecting much.  Cost?  Fourteen Euro for an adult.  Is it worth the deal?  If you really get into horses and coordinated riding.....go for it.  Otherwise, you might not really get into the deal.

14.  I'd strongly recommend you read at least a fifty page history piece on the Hapsburg family and their little empire.....before arriving in Vienna.  It helps to explain the history, why the Viennese people are peppy about art and culture, and why Vienna exists today.

15.  Finally.....if you go in July or August with temperatures up....drag along at least a one-liter bottle of water for consumption throughout the day.  You can always find water for sale on the street....sometimes at a good price.....sometime hefty (I paid three Euro at the hotel for a one-liter bottle of water....way over the norm).

The Wall or Non-Wall Era

Over the past week....there was a minor party of sorts in Germany...twenty-fifth anniversary of the Berlin Wall falling.

A big celebration?  No.  It's noted by newspapers and TV journalists, but frankly....it's not really celebrated by anyone much.

There are three versions of the current feeling about the wall having gone down and East Germany getting absorbed back into plain old Germany.

Version One?  If you are over forty and from West Germany.....most would quietly tell you that the wall should never have gone down....absorbing East Germany was costly and stupid......and there's nothing gained.  This is the same group who'd be happy to be referred to as "West Germany".

Version Two?  Younger folks under the age of twenty-five who don't know much of anything over East and West Germany.....don't care about any lesson lesson.....and frankly are more bothered by too many Muslims, Russians, or oddball foreigners in Germany today.

Version Three? This group of 35-to-40 year old Germans who have some fascination with the wall coming down.....love a united Germany....and will have several books on their shelf to cover the period, with dozens of photos of the event.  This group makes up around two percent of the population.

I'm an American simply observing things and trying to grasp why three versions of this remarkable event exist.  Older Germans think they got taxed to hell on fixing the old DDR infrastructure.  The same older Germans made more per month on their pay, and hint that life was better with the wall up.

Will this ever get resolved?  I think around 2040....as enough Germans simply pass away.....it might start to change, and history be totally forgotten.  Sadly, that's about the only way that it gets resolved.

Joining the Bundeswehr

After almost a year, around early June....I convinced my son (he's German) that his unemployment episode wasn't going to fix itself, and that maybe it was time to consider joining the German Navy or Air Force (no, I didn't suggest the Army).  It took around thirty minutes to convince him.  Long term unemployment makes you consider odd options.

With the Bundeswehr all desperate to get people since they went to a volunteer program....I figured OK....the kid would be contacting them....paperwork filled out...and in two to three weeks he'd be shipped off to German boot camp.

Well....things don't work that way.

He spent around a week trying to get the one recruiter for the entire region to meet up with him at the unemployment office there in Kaiserslautern.  Meeting went well....but it was just the initial meeting, and it'd be two weeks before anything would move onto the next step.

You see.....there's a long process to getting into the German military.  They run bootcamp only four times a year.....the next episode was 1 October, and the truth was.....he had missed the window by a month (yeah, this is early July that we are talking about this moment of the process).  So the paperwork might be excused and somehow this would work out for 1 October, but if not.....then 1 January.

I got the impression that they weren't meeting their quotas and would find some way to waiver to meet the October date.

For an unemployed person.....it's impractical waiting till January, and for that matter....even waiting for October.

So the kid went full-speed ahead, but at a snails pace.  Meanwhile, the unemployment office after an entire year of marginal effort....finally got around to a potential job, and this week.....a company offered the kid a contract.  By the end of next week....he'll likely sign the paperwork.

The Bundeswehr?  He'll thank them for considering him.....but frankly.....they just couldn't move in and sign the kid in time.

I sat there and thought about my experience with the Air Force.  I could have met the recruiter on a Monday....made the decision on Tuesday....got on the bus to the station on Wednesday.....done the physical on Thursday....and gone to Basic Training by Friday.  That's the way that the US system works.

The Bundeswehr scheduling?  I think after watching this unfold....you'd have to think four months ahead of time, to lock in your name for boot camp or basic training.  A practical method?  Well....I'm guessing that they lose a quarter of all the people thinking about a military career....because of the long-paced trail to boot camp.

Stimmungsmacherei

It's a German term that you rarely come across.  It generally means.....someone or a political figure or a news media organization that is making or developing a story to be in a certain way.....to be interpreted by the public and create a particular vision by the reader or viewer.

The word has been around for than a hundred years....in case you think it's modern and part of modern TV journalism.

It got tossed around in July of 1914.....by various German newspapers....preparing the German for the upcoming war in August.

Stories were drafted to make the Russians sound "evil" on their intent to help protect Serbia.  The French later were figured into stories.....labeling them as "evil" for helping the Russians.  In a matter of days.....various stories were formed with a few facts and then have a few quotes thrown in to show a real person connected to the story.

How widespread was Stimmungsmacherei?  Most all German newspapers were engaged in the activity during the summer of 1914.

Did it repeat in 1932?  Yes.

Did it repeat again in the early 1960s with an anti-US dialog on the Vietnam war involvement?  Yes.

Does it repeat today?  Yes.  You can watch the 8PM nightly news on state-run Channel One (ARD) and find the same type behavior.

The curious thing that they developed the practice over a hundred years ago, knew it was widespread, and generally have accepted the practice even today.

Wine Fest

If you didn't have much to do in the afternoon or evening hours after work....the Wiesbaden Wine Fest is in full swing.

Food, wine, and beer are in ample supply.  The crowds are hectic after 7PM on Fridays and Saturdays.  It'll end this coming Sunday.

The Bus Tour

I always point these efforts by Europeans to "go cheap" on vacations and cut corners....which usually ends in disaster.

Well....these Brits operate a cheap European bus service....going from London to Paris for like forty Euro, or Frankfurt to Berlin for sixteen Euro.

So, there was this London to Spanish Rivera bus run...over the weekend.  You get onboard....pay a cheap price.....and fourteen hours later you cross over the Channel and are at the location of this beachfront town in Spain.

On this episode.....as they stopped at some interstate gas station for everyone to get out...stretch their legs....grab a soda and give the driver some rest....something occurs that isn't normal.  Cops walk up....ask questions....check the driver's ID....and arrest him.  No discussion with the passengers....just taking the guy and gone.

You can imagine these folks.....having gone on the "cheap"....standing there and finally calling back to London to the company.  According to the news folks.....it took around twelve hours for the bus company to find a driver, and get him to the location.

So the passengers quietly sat there....by the bus....laying out as much as you can under the circumstances.  There's probably ample situations for a movie here, but I doubt if it'd really have much to tell....other than a bunch of cranky folks talking negative about going cheaply on a bus, and how their whole vacation was spoiled (never mind the fact they were likely staying at a two-star hotel with cockroaches.

Local Bus and Realities

 There's six spots in my village to be picked up via the local bus deal.  Five of the six don't amount to anything.  The sixth spot....is a curious and entertaining spot.

The village doesn't have a vast number of travelers on the local Wiesbaden bus system....so we only qualify for one single ticket machine.  It's housed in a cubby-hole type covering area, with a dynamic painting of the town's one single church in the background, with a pretty simple wooden bench to sit and rest your weary bones.

For safety and security....there is one single light above the bench.  Necessary?  Well....we don't exactly have robbers or assaults in the village.  It's mostly for folks to find their coins if they drop them while hunting for change to pay tickets with the machine.

The most modern part of this dynamic bus stop?  The new bus arrival system put up around four months ago....telling you the number of minutes before bus twenty-one or bus twenty-two arrive.  It's tied into some modern technology network and tracks the buses in some fashion.  Cost?  I'd take a wild guess that the whole thing was in the range of four-thousand Euro to buy and install.  Necessary?  Well....we had a paper schedule on the wall, and ninety-nine percent of the village would tell you that it wasn't really necessary, but forty-percent would tell you that they feel delighted with this modern marvel of a warning system concerning the buses.

The bus traffic from the village?  Well....there's only three places you go go.  Ninety percent of the traffic likely goes to Wiesbaden....particularly if you are of the ages of sixteen to twenty and without a car.  If you want excitement, partying, beer, and fun.....you pretty much have to leave the village.  If you had the other two directions....it's to go shopping at a grocery or hook up with a S-bahn run to Frankfurt.

The reality for an American is that you get used to bus travel and start to live comfortably without using a car for things.  Yeah, it means you kinda have to watch the schedule.....discuss connections....and run a complicated schedule.  It also means you think a bit over tickets (buying the one-way ticket or the all-day ticket).

If you'd asked me ten years ago about the idea of living without a car....I would have laughed.  Today?  I could almost buy into the idea entirely.  There's some limits....but after a while, you start to accept things and enjoy life without traffic jams or having to look for parking spots.  It's a little thing that you simply accept as being more practical.

Wiesbaden Spa

Near the end of Langasse Strasse on the shopping district of Wiesbaden....hidden to the side of things is an impressive building....known as the Kaiser Fredrich Therme....the Irish-Roman Bath.

It's a fancy spa, which draws visitors all year round in Wiesbaden.

It's got a heated indoor pool that has a unique history tied to it.  Toss in a number of various options (massage and sauna), and you've got a four-star operation.

The costs?  Well....figure 4.50 per hour.  Yeah, it's a bit hefty.  Parking?  You'd best find a parking garage nearby or just take the bus to the district and walk to the building.

The Only Church in My Village

My village of roughly four-thousand residents....has only one church....a Lutheran operation.  No Catholic church.

There just were never any Catholics in the village....if you go back three-hundred or five-hundred years ago. Maybe they got run-off during the Thirty-Years War, or it just wasn't a popular place for Catholics....I don't know.

So this church?  It was built in 1730 and is noted by the locals having a unique feature with the organ right above the altar.

Size-wise?  I've never been in the church....but I'm told you might be able to squeeze 350 people into the oddly shaped building.  Yeah, it is six-sided, which you don't see that many buildings like this.

Summer Vacation

We are into summer now (at least by Hessen standards with the school system now a week into the off-period).  What you tend to notice as you walk around various villages.....guys with RV trailers have pulled them out  of storage and cleaning them for the big summer RV camper trip.

Germans with a bit of extra cash and thrill for "adventure"....will go and buy a used RV trailer, and then find a spot to park it.

The family will go through an entire week of preparation for the trip.  Chief activities will include cleaning the trailer after it's been sitting there for year....buying and storing the essentials for the trip....and checking the tires to make sure they are capable of a seven-hour trip at excessive speeds (100 kph).

The biggest worry in this whole RV trailer trip?  Guys will typically overload the trailer with weight.  Toss in various cases of beer and soda, along with bikes and tons of food.  So you have a trailer that is probably anywhere from 500 pounds to a 1000 pounds overweight for the vehicle you are using for the trip.

This all leads to the fear of the cops stopping you as you enter for gas at some autobahn station and wanting to weigh your car and the trailer.

Once the cops reach the conclusion of a overweight car-trailer combination....you are screwed.  They will dictate you unhook the trailer and leave it there until you've got the proper vehicle to tow it.  This usually means you call up some trucker company and pay them hundreds of Euro to tow the vehicle the final four hours to the camp site.

An overweight car?  It means you need to remove either people or items in the car.  I've watched news reports where the husband told the wife to leave him and various cases of beer at the rest stop.....taking the kids on, and she's supposed to return hours later with an empty car to pick him up.  Pretty dramatic decisions to be made in the midst of the first leg of a trip.

By the end of the first week of September.....summer vacation is finished (at least in Hessen).  Folks will brag about their tan, their big bike adventure in the Swiss Alps, the RV trip along the Rhine, and do some minimum cleaning of the RV before they put it away.  The cops add up their tally of traffic tickets and fines, to proudly note they potentially saved X number of lives.  And RV maintenance folks get peppy because now is the time that folks realize their RV trailer has issues and needs repairs.

Yeah, it's a pretty active season and everyone is happy over something.

German Wreckers

As an American in Germany.....German wreckers always fascinate me.  I've probably watched them pick up at least a dozen vehicles in my life.

There are two methods of pick-up.  There's the traditional method where they put the steel bed down at a slanted level and pull the vehicle up onto the truck.  And there's the crane operation where they arrive to pick-up an illegally parked car and basically hoist the car up and onto the back.

I sat one day years ago in Frankfurt and watched them load an illegally parked car onto the vehicle and some irate lady came along yelling at the guy.  He didn't waste a minute....simply handing her a business card and indicating where the car would be stored until she paid the illegal parking fee.

In Wiesbaden, I'd take a guess that at least twenty cars a day get picked up for illegally parking somewhere.

On weekends, they make a fair amount just by sitting by the phone at night and answering for a pick-up related to an accident.  I'd take a guess that thirty-percent of their weekly income comes from these off-hour pick-ups.  A German wrecker guy....can't be picky about his hours or the income levels.  He might clear four thousand Euro in one week, and one thousand Euro the next week.  Business goes up and down.

So if you are new around Germany and see this truck with a crane-like device on it.....it's a wrecker. And hopefully....it's not there for your illegally parked car.

The German Police Station Attack

Islam war has come to Germany.  I know.....it's probably forty stages down from war, but  Germans haven't really felt a situation like this in decades.

What the news folks in Germany have been trying to tell for a story for the last two or three weeks is that there's big trouble brewing in Iraq with ISIS, and all of this goes back to the US involvement in Iraq and it's failures.

Yeah, I know.....it's a bit slanted, but this is the German version of reality.  The British have a slightly different version....as do the Russians....and even the Cubans probably have their version.

For days, things have been going up on the stress meter of Muslims living in Germany.  A lot of this went toward Israel and it's efforts against Hamas.  In this news slant.....children of Palestinians were always hurt or killed.  The storage of Hamas missiles in the Palestinian school?  Well.....that was kinda missed on the stories.  The tunnels?  Yeah, that was lost too.

So yesterday came this curious episode up in the Hannover area of Germany.  The Kurd Muslims were going up against the ISIS Muslims, toward the end of the day....there's big unusual episode that brews.  Some Islamic gal ran over to a German police station and said she was going to be forced into a marriage with a Salifist Muslim guy.  She didn't desire this....so the cops kept her at the station for her protection.

Last night....friends of the groom arrived.  Maybe 200 of them total from what the news folks say.  A riot broke out, and they attacked the police station.  I'm not sure if this was more than thumping on the door, or just some yelling.  What the cops say is that no one was injured, and that the band of disturbed Muslims eventually all left and returned home.

The gal?  No mention.  I'm guessing she's in protective hands, and won't go back to her family who were arranging this forced marriage.

Where does this lead Germans?

Well....if you ask a hundred Germans over eighteen years old about ISIS and this Muslim stuff....barely a dozen will be able to state four simple facts over the whole developing Iraq episode.  Most Germans will say they know nothing.

Attacking a cop station?  Pretty stupid, and ninety-percent of Germans will get aggravated about some foreign Muslim group doing this.

The forced marriage business?  Pretty negative on the German scale.....with around ninety-nine percent condemning the practice.

All of this leads the typical German to grit their teeth and go one-ounce down on the negativity scale against Muslims and their religion.

You can always find a political group....usually the Greens....to side with Muslim politics.  So, there's still some enthusiasm to stay positive and friendly with Muslims in Germany.

The expected trend?  Summer usually works wonders with riot participation, and as fall arrives with rains and cooler temperatures....folks start to stay home.  Sadly, we've got at least a hundred days left for some bad stuff to occur.

The Russia Ban?

As part of the Ukraine and Russia epic soap opera.....Russia has finally reacted to the economic limitations that the US and Europe put down.....by banning for a year a number of food imports. The hit?

Well.....it's hard to say for sure.  The German news folks tend to say that Russia imports thirty percent of it's food (fruit/vegetables), although I'm not sure how they get to this number and if it's even accurate.  Meat?  The same journalists said that roughly fifty percent of Russia meat requirements are imported.

One might sit there and ask for 2013 (a year without the conflict).....if Russia was importing a significant amount of fruit, vegetables and meat from Ukraine (something it probably isn't doing today because of the civil war).

With so much territory....one would think that Russia ought to have the ability to grow all of it's needs.  I suspect up to the 1990s....that probably was true.  People have gotten this odd attitude about desiring grapes, apples, strawberries, and such....in non-season periods.  It's possible now with the type of logistical arm that's been built in the world.....to grow various crops in South America or Africa, and push them rapidly to customers wanting fresh fruit all year round.

The meat angle to the story?  Russia just isn't known for beef herds or massive hog farms.

The Germans even admitted that this ban might hurt Germany in odd ways......roughly 130-million Euro of chocolate-related items are usually imported into Russia.  That market, based on the ban, means that the chocolate manufacturers are in for a tough period.

Where does this all lead?  I noticed from the statement that various countries are untouched....like China, Turkey and all of Africa.  I kinda doubt that China might suddenly develop beef or pork exports....but fruit and vegetables might occur.  Turkey's place in this mess?  They might be able to pick up a huge amount of trade in a short period.  Brazil or Columbia?  Same story.

Who bought all of these European and US imports in Russia?  That's another part of this story.  It's the Russian middle-class or upper-class that really participated in this type of market.  Walking into their upper-scale market in the next month.....some will come to find shelves with Turkish chocolate....which they will say it doesn't measure up.  Chinese fruit?  It might be there....but will it be the same quality?  And if they don't buy these....will they find some black market operation going on (like it was in the 1960s and 1970s in Russia)?

My general belief is that Russia will find this was an easy ban to force, and they will hook up with Turkey in major ways to make up for the losses.  I also think the Russian mafia will quickly find ways to get German products into Bulgaria or Turkey....then reroute them into Russia.  I'd also suspect that Russia might finally find some way of encouraging cattle ranching within it's border.  It'll be a tough year, but the Russians are hearty people and they will survive.  It's not like all of their vodka was produced by the EU or such.

Why World War I Isn't Well Known

In high school, I can remember the entire section of the history basically devoting a total of two pages to World War I.  A brief paragraph covered the assassination of Crown Prince Ferdinand.  A six-line paragraph covered Austria-Hungary's threat to Serbia.  There's around four lines to cover the war period from August of 1914 to spring of 1917 when the US entered the war.  Toss in two paragraphs to explain the US participation.  Add a six-line explanation for the peace treaty and how it was screwed up.  And then add twelve lines to explain Wilson's grand "League of Nations", the Nobel Peace Prize for Wilson for his grand effort, and then an explanation on how the evil Republican-led Senate in 1919 voted down US participation with the League of Nations.

Yep, that's it.

It's a lousy history lesson, which would usually drag on for three days.  There were always sixteen different terms or dates that were driven into you to remember for the marginal quiz that followed days later.

From the various events of American history over the past hundred years....I'd generally rate World War I and it's understanding on Americans.....as the second most unknown event of the century (with the Depression as number one).

 Why?  It comes down to three unique features.

First, for two entire years....President Wilson (Democrat)....from August of 1914 until November of 1916....went on a absolute political policy of non-participation in World War I.  It was one thing to sell hardware or food to the British, French or Russians.....but we simply would not be part of a European war.

The entire election period going up to November of 1916.....was built on the central theme that Wilson was going to keep us out of the war.  The win for Wilson?  It was roughly a four-percent margin win for Wilson in popular vote, and around twenty electoral votes over the edge for Wilson.  A difference of roughly five-thousand votes in California, and the state's thirteen electoral votes would have gone onto the Republican contender and Wilson would have lost.

The truth is that Wilson wasn't that popular on a nation-wide scale in November of 1916....except he did avoid putting the US into the war, and that probably was a big deal in selling his marginal administration to the public for an election.

An odd thing happened within two months after the election.....after a US vessel or two were hit by German torpedoes.....an attitude change occurred.  By April of 1917....six months after the election, the non-involvement of the US was coming to an end.  We were to enter the war.  For a number of individuals who voted for Wilson....it was a bitter negative.  Some Wilson historians have attempted over the years to lessen the pain of this change of attitude....but it's best to forget everything rather than clean up the mess.

Second?  Once we entered the war.....it took roughly eighteen months to conclude it.  It was roughly 116,000 US troops who did not return from the war.  Congress raced in to conclude a number of "gifts" to various states, Senators, and to the troops themselves.  The promise of the gift-money to the troops?  It came quickly....but was attached to a timetable that set to be paid twenty years in the future.  The typical American GI from the war would have gotten between $100 and $700 depending on his months of service and if he was overseas (a higher rate).  Hostility over the bonus deal being two decades away really got people hyped up and negative.  Most Americans of today are totally unaware of the bonus deal.

Third?  The treaty was marginal one-star episode and was more for theater, than actually concluding a war itself.  Wilson would arrive and participate, but found himself in the midst of negotiations that went in circles and would simply create the conditions for World War II.  Few historians want to tell this part of the story and indicate that Wilson's participation guaranteed a second war.

Fourth?  All of the peace efforts led to some concept of the League of Nations (the current UN), which US political figures (Senators in particular) were amused by the paper-tiger that Wilson was to create.  Wilson would get a Nobel Prize for the League concept....but no one believed it'd work as intended.  Historians rarely want to talk at length over this because it simply diminishes Wilson's record.

Years after finishing high school....I'd be sitting in a History 102 class....where the war was again covered.....this time going for five pages.  Same type information....maybe a few more names and some explanation over the Czar, Rasputin, and the demise of the Russian Empire.

The trouble is....if you really want to know of World War I.....you'd have to sit and read over at least a dozen books....discussing German history back to the mid-1800s, the French Revolution and Napoleon, and a five-hundred page description of the Hapsburg Empire (to include the delightful Sissi and the mysterious death of the Red Prince).

You'd have to sit down and understand the 1912 election....why Taft lost, why Teddy Roosevelt jumped into an election that was guaranteed to fail, and how third-party candidates generally screw up an entire election outcome.

You'd also have to read up on newspaper coverage of the period, and how editors slanted the news to benefit one particular party or candidate.  You'd have to grasp the general economics of both Europe and the US.  And you'd have to read to some degree over technology developments for the military going from the 1860s to 1914.....war and massive casualty counts changed in a dramatic fashion once we crossed a certain boundary of science and technology.

When you have some historian or media person try to simplify World War I, and limit blame or the triggers to three items....you can basically get up and walk out of the room.  There's a minimum of fifteen triggers to World War I, and there's probably just as many triggers created at the end....thus inviting World War II to occur.

All of this....over the route of Crown Prince on a military Inspector General tour of Sarajevo, and meeting up with misfortune as some dimwit anarchist kills him and his wife.....when the driver took the wrong road and realized he needed to back up and get back on the right road.

The Soccer and Cop Episode

Over the past couple of decades, if you follow German soccer.....there is an escalation of cops being dragged out to various games to act as "enforcers" of civility and peace.  From the three leagues of play.....it's guaranteed to be a significant cop presence at top league of play, lesser of a presence at the second league of play, and just a minimum show at the third league.

The cost of this?  Well.....it's generally paid by the city or state.  No one would say much if it were just ten cops, for four hours.  Over the past decade at the major league of play.....there have been games where two hundred cops had to be trucked in from various points of the region....put into armor gear, and forced to deal with a bunch of drunk hooligans who were pretty violent.

Last year....one particular game ended with a serious amount of police action against a pretty unruly crowd.  The game consisted of one German team and one Greek team.  The Greeks brought along some pretty dynamic fans, with significant enthusiasm, and a tendency for physical contact.  All of this lead to the German cops at the episode....using some methods that came to be questioned later as abusive or violent beyond necessity.  The investigation got all of the cops being negative about the whole deal of supporting this soccer protection business.

So this past week, a German state accidentally released some documents which put up the idea of declining to offer maximum cop protection at the games.  An evaluation would occur, and definitely at games for the second and third league....there would likely be lesser cops used to protect the fans.

All of this has gotten some soccer enthusiasts to be a bit negative....feeling they ought to be protected at these games.

Naturally, residents of various towns, cities and states are a bit hyped anyway because they don't think they should have to pay for the cop protection over these overly enthusiastic fans.

Personally, I can't understand why they don't throw a twenty-Euro ($25) fee onto each ticket and force the fans to pay for the cop protection or hire out a private security firm to handle episodes.

What will eventually happen?  Some game will occur where two thousand fans will charge up on a thousand fans......heads will be bashed in.....and fifty people will be carted off to some hospital.  The chief reason for the injuries will be that the cops lessened their show of force and barely twenty cops were used at an episode where normally it'd be a hundred.  Then the national government have to step in....act important and demand that the cops reverse their attendance rule and show dynamic force at all games.

For an American, it's a pretty comparable event to NFL football.  There's probably two hundred cops at every Baltimore Ravens game, along with a hundred private security guys within the stadium itself....to make sure people stay somewhat polite.  Sometimes, it works.....sometimes, it doesn't.

Kinda silly, I admit.  But you just can't get the normal behavior of golfing fans or bowling fans.....at a soccer or football game.  Dont' ask me why....it's just the way it is.

Declining Lack of Respect

For decades in Germany....around major urban areas.....they've run public transportation and had ticket audit individuals continually on the prowl to examine tickets and ensure compliant travelers.

There's a general process when this guy enters a subway car or bus. He or she....will pull out a badge and this is a ticket check.  You will pull out your ticket.....show it.....and they move on.  If you fail to have a ticket....you then produce your passport-ID card and they proceed to write up a form for a fine to be mailed to you.     The current fee is forty Euro (fifty dollars).

For decades....Germans who violated the ticket deal simply complied and showed some respect toward the ticket audit guy.

I came to notice last fall that on Wiesbaden buses now....it's a thirty-percent chance that the audit guy will be accompanied by a state policeman.  I'd never noticed that type of situation before and kinda wondered the necessity.

This past Saturday....we had a big episode over in Mainz onboard one of the buses to drive home the reasoning.

Two brothers (twins in fact) were onboard a bus and were confronted by an ticket-audit guy.  One brother had a ticket, and the other one did not.  The ticket-audit guy motioned the one brother to move to the side and asked the second brother to show an ID so a fine report could be done.

A struggle ensued here with one of the brothers jumping the ticket-audit guy.....putting his hand around the guy's neck....and starting to bring harm to the guy.  The passengers around this ruckus.....got suddenly peppy and involved themselves in the defense of the ticket-audit guy.  The attacker....pushed back.....released the ticket-audit guy....and eventually spat on the passengers.

Cops naturally arrived....as did an ambulance which had to tote away a pretty shocked ticket-audit guy.  The two brothers were arrested on charges of assault.  For something like this....if convicted (better than a ninety-percent chance).....you'd likely get a minimum of twelve months in a local state prison.

This brings me around to the declining lack of respect for individuals of authority in Germany.  I'd suspect that the cop escort that I've seen....is a necessity because of other attacks similar to the one in Mainz on Saturday.

Attacks like this are a shock to most Germans.  They wouldn't expect that type of behavior or dramatic chaos.

So when you board a bus and the ticket-audit guy appears, and there's a cop behind him with a pistol on his belt and staring hard down on you....it's nothing negative or such.  It's just that some people have created a very negative impression of compliance and won't comply with simple rules of travel....namely.....you pay one way, or another.

The Bag Story

I'm typically amazed at how Germans sit and ponder upon a problem....coming to a creative and rational solution, then getting foiled in some manner as the solution just won't work in a practical manner.

Today?  There's an interesting story from Der Western (a German newspaper) that talks over this older German guy (in his seventies)....who was going to Bavaria by train for a week.

Train travel usually means that you have to have some family member or taxi drop you off at a local station....where you drag a forty-pound suitcase with you onboard a train.  The older trains were more "friendly" in terms of bags, storage, and getting through the train hallways.  The newer trains?  They were made for riders....not necessarily for bag-carriers.

So this guy considered the trip.....likely taking train A to a certain point.....dragging the bag around from this point to another point....boarding a second train, and possibly repeating this effort to get onto a third train, before getting to a vacation hotel.  The bag drag....frankly....is a problem.

The solution?  He found that DHL (our local version of Fedex).....would take the bag for 13.50 Euro (roughly $16) at his local post, and deliver to the hotel in Bavaria.  They kinda warned him....it'd take at least a day or two.  No problem....he'd actually send it on four days prior to his arrival in Bavaria.

So X-day came as he arrived in Bavaria and the hotel hadn't received his bag.  This is the 4th day, since he shipped it....thinking that four days in Germany were enough for such a delivery.  Naturally, this is a minor problem for a guy who hasn't brought any underwear or socks with him.

The chat between this guy and DHL?  Kinda limited.....they were designed for emails and such....which he hadn't brought a laptop with him, nor did the hotel offer such service.  Eventually he was able to communicate with DHL....which didn't help apparently.  The best we can say is that it was twelve days after he shipped the bag....that it finally arrived.  He'd already spent roughly 150 Euro on underwear and clothing to "survive" the episode.

No one from DHL can really explain why issues arose....but they did come to agree that they owed him something and paid up the 150 Euro that he'd spent.  The final six-odd days of the vacation went well enough.

What happened at the conclusion of the vacation?  Well....Der Western didn't say nothing much about that part.  I'm guessing the old guy was pretty peeved and just dragged the bag with him through the train stations...refusing to ship it back via DHL.

A common practice?  Twenty years ago....I would have said it was rare.  Costs have gone down on rapid transport within Germany, and this ship-the-suitcase practice is fairly common now....if you were going on a trip within Germany.  I won't suggest forty or fifty percent of people doing it....more likely to be ten-percent.  It does make sense.....shipping three days ahead of time and just assuming the bag will be at the hotel waiting on you.

The final part of the story?  It would be curious where exactly for ten days....this bag was sitting.  Everything is swiped and scanned....so the database ought to know the precise location of sixty-eight thousand items being shipped today via DHL.  Losing something?  It ought to be impossible.  So this is the one part of the story that I'd be curious about....where did the bag reside for ten days?  The coast of France?  Some brothel in Berlin?  A shipping hub in Poland? Or did it remain in the original DHL shop where it started....for nine of the ten days? There's a curious story here, but we'll never know the real ending.

Berlin Airport Tour?

I admire Germans at times....for being creative....even in the midst of a chaotic mess.

This week, it came out that a mini-tour of the new Berlin Airport (BER) is now possible.  Yeah, the one that is still closed, four years after it was supposed to have opened, and it might be 2017 before they fix all the problems.

The mini-tour?  By bus.  It's roughly eleven Euro, and leaves out of Schonfeld (the nearby airport that has existed for more than fifty years).  You basically ride out to the edge of the airport...get a chance to climb a tower that gives you a 360-degree view, and then the bus makes a round-circle of the complex.  It's apparently all in German.....not enough English visitors to make it worth the time.

The bike tours?  Well....you can ride your bike up to the BER Airport (they won't supply bikes apparently)....pay fifteen Euro (it gives you a box lunch as part of the deal), and some guy will lead you on a tour of the incomplete airport.  Days?  Well...presently only Saturday and Sunday....around 2PM each day.  Based on the description....it appears to be a two-hour ride around the airport.

A Hundred Years Ago

It was a hundred years ago today....that Prussia (Germany) entered into World War I. For the most part, people had heard rumors for almost a month over negotiations taking place.  What was generally believed until the last couple of days prior to the war starting....was that it'd be strictly a Habsburg Empire/Prussia situation against Russia, Serbia, and France.  Based on a fair amount of reading that I've done on the topic....the Kaiser came to some moment of shock finding out that England would also be in on the conflict.

The general perception on this day by the Kaiser and his Prussian military staff.....was that the war was destined to be six to twelve months long.  Prussian strategy and strength would quickly overcome the Russians....maybe in a matter of three months, and then they'd turn the mighty force quickly from the eastern front to the western front, and take down France quickly.

The objective with the short war?  Simply blunt force....get people to the table to talk over the war, and then sign over property to Prussia as the winner.

The public sentiment in Prussia?  Nationalism went into turbo, and I doubt if you could have found anyone pushing a peace agenda.

On this day in Wiesbaden a hundred years ago?  The wealthy aristocratic visitors from Russia, England, France and so on....were desperately being told to vacate the area....get on the train....and head out of Prussia ASAP.  Some could not believe the speed at which things were progressing.  Those who took their time....quickly found their wonderful hosts....were not so wonderful.  A number of British citizens caught in the middle.....became prisoners and spent months in some Germans prison.

The Kaiser's mental attitude?  What most will say from a historical perspective....is that by the sixth month of the war....he began to realize that it wasn't going to early easily or quickly, and his mental attitude started to slide in a dramatic fashion.  He was not a guy capable of handling this type of situation....nor easily capable of grasping when it was time to fold on the situation that had developed.

Wiesbaden in general....would suffer greatly from the effects of the war.  The foreign guests who were chased away.....really never came back.  The vast sums of money that built a lot of the mansions in town?  It peaks out in the summer of 1914.  Economically, it would never return to that level of capital generation....even today.

Whatever the Serbs felt would be gained from the murder of the Crown Prince....I doubt if they understood the players in this conflict or where it would lead onto.  As for Russia?  Standing beside Serbia was a pretty stupid move, without any real payback.  If the Czar had simply told the Serbs to cooperate to some degree with the Hapsburgs....the war is avoided, and the world is never changed by the chaos and events of World War I and II.

So a hundred years have passed since that day.