Epilogue... "Repatriation"

We were met by Belinda, Ben and Connor at Louisville airport...a surprise welcome home by the family.  William and Brittany showed up the following day.  It was a party weekend with family and friends.  

I told John that he needed to develop an "elevator speech" to ease the pressure on him to answer the onslaught of questions.  Pick his favorite place, be able to say why...a 30second monologue, the same every time and everyone will be happy, especially the teachers :).  Speaking of teachers, John did very well on his two-days of math testing.  In fact, he was back in the swing of school immediately (though briefly...two days then Christmas break!!).  John exited the adventure and was repatriated like a champ.  I could not be more proud.

Belinda and the rest of the guys seemed to have excelled while we were gone, so John and I were careful not to foul things up, except we were eager to pitch in with the chores we had escaped for so long.  Home is a beautiful thing.  Our adventure was a huge success, and without any collateral damage or crises !!  Praise the Lord.  I am thankful for this opportunity to expose, teach and guide the character development of a son, personally and by example.  I am thankful for the understanding and support of the rest of the family in this endeavor.  The teachers and principal were supportive, that could have gone either way, yet they chose to be helpful.  Our preacher provided a superb study plan on character.  The HQ and in-country support from some of the travel agents made a huge difference on "ease of logistics and change management."    Our local teachers, the guides, tutors and specialists made the learning fun and deep compared to what is in the textbooks.

A final thank you to you, the loyal readers following this blog.  I was encouraged by your feedback and interest in our developing story.  Merry Christmas, and all the best for a safe, successful 2018.  Lots of love from me, John and the rest of the Blankenship family.

John and his Local Pets

In no particular order, see what I had to put up with every stop we made ?  John made bee lines for the local dogs and cats at every opportunity :)

This little guy was hiding in the bushes near our lunch stop...John fed him and named him Puck.  This was the favorite.

Even the holy cat hair of a monastery cat still makes John sneeze.

Momma dog and her puppy in the road at Nafplio.

Stretching during the changing of the guard at tomb of unknown soldier.  John divided his time between the lecture, the ceremony and the dog :)

This dog liked John so much that he followed us quite a bit of the way on the road to Delphi...

This guy was named peanut...not the most friendly name for John, and he almost tripped the waiter in Krakow twice.

This little guy belonged to a street vendor in Ronda

Closing Arguments from Greece

There is always a risk in learning something.  It might offer some new insight that changes the way you think about other things.  It may call into question things you hold dear or cause you to unlearn something.  In the case of Greece, we were told to forget all the teachings that the Romans brought culture and technology to the Mediterranean and Europe.  In fact, they borrowed/stole all of Greek culture and technology.  Took their Gods, their customs, their laws and architecture.  Sure, they changed some of the names.  In defense of both sides, the cultural achievements of all impressed both John and me.

And a final thought about populations.  If the government is a democracy or a republic, the goal is to educate and refine the understanding and academic capability of the people…they have an obligation to be informed, thoughtful and engaged in the future direction of their country.  On the contrary, if you have a totalitarian state, be it a kingdom, empire, oligarchy, feudal state or whatever, you don’t want the population enlightened or engaged—that is a liability.  You prefer them distracted and “entertained.”  Should we have a Theater or a Circus?  It depends.  The Republic of Rome, the theater flourished.  As Rome morphed into an empire, enter the circus.  I am a new theater enthusiast.

Halfway Between Heaven and Earth

The rock formations are 60 million years old, formed by weathering similar to the Grand Canyon.  The formations and peaks offered secure solitude to monk-hermits seeking the opportunity to develop spiritually without worrying about invaders.  They arrived in the 9th century AD and grew to a total of 24 Greek Orthodox monasteries in the 16th century.  Only 6 remain active.  The dedication to solitude was impressive, but it wasn’t only about the solitude. During Ottoman Rule, the monks taught each new generation Greek language and kept the church traditions alive.  Greece is 97% orthodox and the church enjoys significant support and engagement from the population.  The church has performed heavy lifting during difficult times in history to support the population in need, and the recent financial crisis is no exception. 

As we were leaving, an attendant heard us speaking in English, he said thanks for coming and Merry Christmas!  I said to John- that was nice, and he said, yes, what do you expect from a man of God?  Oh yeah.

The Monastery of Great Meteoron required many steps, passages, twists and turns to visit.  It is quite the operation supporting but a handful of monks.

The view is worth all the winding roads, the steps and difficulties associated with the trip !

The Oracle at Delphi

As we approached the hillside, I tried to think of the right question to ask the Oracle.  I had heard they were tricky, always covering themselves with a phrase that rhymed and had at least two meanings so that no matter what, they were correct in their prediction or advice. In ancient times, there were three priestesses that rotated duty sitting on a tripod over a chasm that released gases from deep in the earth.  The original prerequisite was to be a virgin in your 20’s, until one year a warrior fell in love with one and took her away.  After that scandal they switched to old women to avoid such a controversy.  They swore an oath not to reveal the methods and mechanisms of the Oracle, and the last one took the secret to her grave. 

Thousands would make pilgrimages from 1400BC until Christianity came to Greece and all Pagan temples were either abandoned or converted to churches.  Whole cities would raise collections to produce a statue or other offering for Apollo and the Oracle.  The custom was to give 10% from a successful military campaign plunder back to Apollo.  Those that gave early and often ensured a pass to the front of the line during high season.

All kidding aside, as a crossroads of the ancient world where many gathered, the purpose of the place became the exchange of information, the pursuit of knowledge and more humane ways of life.

The sacred way, entering into the holy ground of the temple of Apollo.  It was lined with statues-- bronze, marble, ivory, gold...all offerings of thanks to Apollo.

Numerous kingdoms, and then city-states built "treasuries" to contain the many gifts that the people would send.  If it was a big statue, it was mounted outside, a small gold box, inside.  The left wall that is bare now, used to contain a huge display of captured Persian weapons and chariots to celebrate the great victory at the Battle of Marathon where Athens prevailed over the Persians in 490BC.

The Temple of Apollo at the Oracle of Delphi.  The Oracle had left the building.  It was a beautiful kind of quiet. 

The block that looks like a domino of sorts was the original perch of the priestess.  The 3 legged stool indents and the hole for the gasses can all be seen.  It was raised up on its side for better viewing.  Catly Catbert stands guard.  Steady.

To free a slave, you carved the name in the "register" on the wall at Delphi, it was a final transaction for freedom.

On the way down from Delphi, olive trees as far as you can see.

Finishing at the beginning

Welcome to Greece.  It is sunny and mild, blue seas around us and ancient ruins to be investigated, with new levels of meaning to the words ancient and antiquity.  One of our guides in Vienna had said that no European historian would make the itinerary we did.  They would start with Greece.  Everything started in Greece.  After they said it, sure it made sense, but I can't think of doing it differently now!  Next time?

In preparation, John and I read a graphic novel summary of the teachings of Plato, with some cameos by Socrates and Aristotle.  While they were asking some excellent questions, the places they looked for answers did not necessarily lead to satisfaction. However, with regard to morality and ethics, I like Plato’s view that morality is not relative, it does not change with the times, the individual, the situation.  It is absolute.  I asked John what he liked about the book, and he said it really made him think about justice, good and bad.  What they are and what the words really mean.  We were both a little offput at his view that the state should take care of everything and make sure that everyone has enough, but no one has more.

Athens is a city of 1.5M people and it is the capital of Greece.  In ancient times it was not a capital city, it was not the biggest or the most cosmopolitan.  We did find our way to the first capital of liberated Greece, Nafplion (1821-1833).  Our car broke down there and we were able to get more steps in than we would have otherwise!  Greece is turning out to be a favorite of John’s…there are cats and dogs literally everywhere.  They are not really stray, they just belong in the places that they hangout.  Everyone feeds them.  John included.

Greece is so dense with archeological ruins, you can’t dig a ditch without finding something.  A guy bought some property back in the 1970’s, and decided to change the contour of his backyard, and he uncovered an ancient amphitheater.  The government said that he would have to either become the caretaker of this thing or move out.  He spent the rest of his life as the caretaker.

It is challenging in the moment, to keep all the history straight.  We are studying the Mycenaeans (bronze age 1600-1100BC), the classical era (510-323) and then we sporadically deal with the Romans, Byzantium, the Turkish (Ottoman) occupation and liberated Greece. Simultaneously, and in order of geographical occurrence instead of linear in time.  Killing my linear sensitivity.

We walked the grounds of Olympia.  It was eerie, it felt like more temple than stadium.  It felt like religion as opposed to sport.  The first written record of the Olympic games is 776 BC.  The games required a 3 month sacred truce for all warring nations.  It took a month for all the warrior-athletes to get to Olympia, 1 month to enjoy the preparation and competition, and then a month to return home, or to the battle lines.  Sometimes, the warring parties forgot why they were fighting and the truce became treaty.  I was wondering to whom we should propose reinstatement of this requirement for the 2018 winter games??

The Parthenon...built as a temple for Athena, the God protector of Athens.  Pericles started the major construction project on the Acropolis in the 5th century BC.  The strategic location had been a citadel in the bronze age and inhabited in some way since neolithic times.  The temple was turned into a church after Greece converted to christianity, but the Ottomans turned it into a mosque,  It was mostly destroyed during the war of Greek liberation from the Turks.  The Athenians thank the preservation initiative for their clear skies and healthy breathing.  Factories and other sources of pollution were moved far outside of the city center and a underground metro was constructed. 

The theater of Epidauros is the most perfect and renowned monument of its kind, combining superb acoustics and physical symmetry.  It was built in the 4th century BC, and it was not modified during the Roman era, which is unusual.  Our guide made us climb to the top and listen to the acoustics.  It was amazing how the lowest spoken words could be understood, especially from the center position.  You could even hear rustling clothing.  No microphone required!

Jumping to the Middle Ages for a moment, this is the Bourtzi water castle, built by the Venetians who held Nafplio off and on.  We are standing on a high promontory, that has water on both sides.  the next picture is looking at the sea from the other side.

Looking out over the other side.  People were sunbathing and swimming below, so we could not throw rocks as we originally intended...

The city square in Nafplio, yes the whole thing is marble.  All the mountains are made of the stuff.  They use marble like we use plywood.  If you want to impress with extravagance in Greece, use wood.  Everyone has marble to spare.

Olympia was the site of the Olympic Games for 12 centuries.  This are was for wrestling competitions.

The Temple of Zeus.  A 40 foot high statue of him sitting in the temple was made out of gold and ivory.  It was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.  Here is an interesting thing about temples to the Greek Gods-- the temple is for the God.  All celebrations, offering and praying happens in the area around the outside of the temple.  kind of like a church picnic without the service beforehand, I guess.

John is sizing up the competition on the race track.  There were no stands, the spectators sat on the ground.  Women were not allowed to compete, or to watch,  under penalty of death.  After one mother dressed as a man to watch her son compete, the rules were changed so that not only the athletes were nude...spectators as well from then on.

Back in Action...walking wounded

4 Extra days in Krakow.  It is a really nice city.  And the Hotel Copernicus is a wonderful place.  But the staff started to know us a little too well and it seemed like we might never leave!  As John got his strength back and we prepared to move- I started to feel the symptoms.  I am 4 days behind John, I can’t wait for the fever, aching and chills to subside.  We scrapped Warsaw altogether and half of our Gdansk itinerary.  John knows Gdansk as “Danzig” from his strategic video game.  In the first partition of Poland in 1772, Northern Poland became East Prussia.  It remained part of Germany until 1945, more or less.  In fact, if you book your flight on Luthansa, they will probably still call it Danzig.  The train took 5 hours, but it didn’t seem that long at all, a very civilized way to travel.  We arrived at 3:15pm, and to our surprise, it was getting dark already.  Our main objective was to study the Teutonic Knights and inspect their biggest, most famous castle, Malbork. In all, they built 15 castles in Northern Poland.  Our guide explained a lot of things about the Teutonic Order—I can summarize as follows: they were invited to help guard borders by various monarchs, they killed a lot of people, confiscated a lot of loot and became very rich.  Some Kings invited them to guard other countries’ borders after they saw them in action.  A very surprising thing- for a time, the order switched from Catholicism to Lutheranism…and back.  We remembered that we strolled by the current (65th) Grand Master’s house when we were in Vienna. The order has about 1000 members currently—nuns, priests and associates.  They are engaged exclusively in charitable work, and their motto remains: Help, Defend, Heal.

Malbork Castle is the largest brick building in Europe and the largest castle in the world in terms of area -- 42 acres.  This section shows the Blessed Virgin Mary Church

Gates, towers and administration buildings on the side opposite the Nogat River.

John sits on the throne of the Grand Master in the public confession hall

How do you heat the largest brick castle in the world ?  build some big fires and send hot air in pipes to the various rooms above.  Instead of a thermostat, temperature was regulated by how many pipe caps you remove !

An inner courtyard of the castle, with strategic well and secret underground tunnels that led to the city center on the other side of the river...probably resulting in more of the serious confessionals, as it is rumored that these were used for visits to the taverns.

A simple chapel, renovated in a way that preserves many chapters of its history rather than returning it completely to how they think it looked in its original condition.

This is a picture from 1945, the castle was bombed to pieces.  It took decades to rebuild, and money came from many places to achieve this remarkable renovation.  After Poland entered the EU, they were able to get Norwegian oil money to make some final restorations that had yet to be completed.

Man down, but not out !!

John came down with sore throat, cough and fever.  We hit the pause button, letting him recover and working our logistics options.  Our contingency plans revolve around the assumption that our itinerary operates at a fixed rate, what we miss, we miss.  Except Math.  Math never stops or pauses, you have to keep going—we are on proportions and distance/ rate/ time problems.  Good practice for the current situation.  If a train travels north from Krakow at 100km/hr, and another train travels south at 90km/hr, when will they be 100km apart ?  John can do that :). We are calculating what point makes the most sense to rejoin the movie in progress, along with a backup option, or two. 

Let’s close with a joke, and it really happened.  A guy walks into a bar.  He (I) asks for a ginger ale for his son who doesn’t feel well.  The bartender and the waitress and a short order cook all argue with each other in Polish, ask questions, then return with a dish of finely minced fresh ginger, very proud of their effort.  The guy thanks them profusely but says he is looking for a drink. There is more commotion and discussion in Polish.  Then they ask for the recipe—the guy clarifies that it is a drink like coca cola that you buy, and everyone gives up.  The guy takes a glass of coca cola to his son, but wonders if it would have been better to put the fresh minced ginger into sparkling water and add a bit of sugar.

John is a trooper, he will be fine and we will get back on the ride soon!  Stay tuned.

The Trumpeter of Krakow

Well, we found another hotel with bell towers aimed with acoustical accuracy at our room!  Just proves how light a sleeper I am, and John doesn’t seem to care.  They sound 1 bell at :15 past the hour, 2 bells at :30, 3 bells at :45 and 4 bells PLUS a clang for each hour on the hour.  And then the trumpeter plays the hejnał in each cardinal direction.  The hejnał is an blaring melody (2/3 of the way from cavalry charge to taps) that does not end on the right note.  The legend says that the trumpeter, whose main job was to lookout for fire and invaders, played the hejnał to alert the town of approaching Mongol invaders in 1291, but an arrow to his throat cut it short.  You should read the book to decide for yourself if you like the legend!  John and I did.  We saw the present day performance at noon.  It was way cool, he waved to us after he finished.  To this day, the 6 trumpeters are full-fledged members of the fire brigade. The US soccer team cited the trumpeter as a reason that they did not sleep well and lost a match to the Polish team.  I am not alone in my disdain for loud, clanging and somewhat surprising night time noises :).

We went into the church after the musical performance and listened to an amazing story about the altar.  St. Mary’s Basilica is a Gothic church built starting in 1221 on the site of a Romanesque church, and completed in the 15th century.  It has a 3-aisle basilica nave, which mutes the feel of the usual cross floor-plan inside.  We sat down in front of the main altar and our guide told us the story.  Veit Stoss was a German hired by the city council of Krakow to carve a magnificent altar piece in 1477.  He used oak for the structure and Linden wood for the carved figures.  The wood was over 400 years old then, which makes it nearly 1000 years old now.  It is the largest Gothic altar in Europe.  It took him 12 years to finish, and the council was so happy with his work that they gave him a bonus equal to the entire city budget for one year.  It is a national treasure.  Altars such as this were aimed at the common people, as they could not read the Bible, nor could they understand the Latin service.  The pictures of main Bible stories helped them relate to their faith better.  The centerpiece is Mary falling asleep and ascending into heaven.  As the Nazis troops were expected, the altar was disassembled and hidden in pieces in the countryside.  All the pieces were found and sent to Berlin.  Eisenhower returned it at the request of Polish officers attached to the allied forces after liberation. 

Krakow University was founded by King Kazimir III in 1364, the second oldest in Central Europe—after Prague, but before Vienna!  The university was saved (economically) by King Ladislaus the Jagiellonian- the founder of the dynasty and the namesake of the college major (Collegium Maius), largely with the jewels bequeathed by his wife Queen Hedwig (Jadwiga) in 1399.  She is John’s favorite queen, as she is in command of Polish forces in his medieval Europe strategy computer game.  Not only a beautiful academic gallery, the library and professorial residence and lecture halls reminded me of Thomas Jefferson’s vision for an academical village where the professors and students would interact and explore the world around them.  Nicholas Copernicus was a student there 1491-1495.  After his studies in Poland and Italy, we all finally agreed that the sun is at the center of our solar system and the planets revolved around it, not Earth.

We did a whirwind tour of Wawel castle, in the mist and the snow.  The royal apartments, treasury, armory and cathedral.  We saw it all and made good time, even with a half-time coke and coffee.  As we walked into the cathedral, John took off his hat and the guide said, “congratulations, for showing your respect…this is a working church, you have no idea how few people recognize this.”  John and I looked at each other and thought to ourselves- yes we do.  We have seen a lot of lack of respect and lack of consideration for others.  As we travel and see it all…the education of a gentleman continues! 

The trumpeter slid the window down facing us and played the hejnał.  I don't see how that kept a soccer team up at night!  this tower is 81 meters high, and the other tower is 69 meters high.  Another legend says that they were being built by two brothers.  The lower brother was gaining on the higher brother and had plans to surpass him.  The higher brother stabbed the lower brother in desperation to win the family challenge.  The knife from the incident is hanging in the square as a lesson to those that would let family squabbles get out of hand... 

The Veit Stoss Altar in St. Mary's Basilica-- 1000 year old wood carvings designed for the worship of St. Mary.  The artist used real people for models of each character except Mary- you can see many of the maladies of the day in each figure.  Modern doctors have diagnosed each person's condition..  Very realistic.

Wawel castle.  It is a wonder.  Cave with a dragon.  A fortification of some sort has been here since ~960.  After many incarnations of a growing and evolving medieval castle, it was completely refurbished in Renaissance style at the requirement of a new queen moving in from Milan.  Gothic was so last century!

The Royal Cathedral at Wawel Castle

A 15th century celestial globe on display in the Copernicus room.  There were also sextants and an astrolabe from Cordoba circa 1050.  A photo of the Earth taken from Apollo 11 and signed by Neil Armstrong hung on the wall.  The guide said that the students probably weren't allowed to use the very delicate and one-of-a-kind instruments, they probably had to get by with wooden proxies.

Medieval KFC!! -- our guide said that it is easy to tell the medieval buildings in Krakow, the corner walls are not vertical.  See how the base on the left corner is further toward the street than the first floor?  Exactly.  Medeival KFC.  We saw Medieval McDonalds and Medieval Starbucks!   

Evil

The snow falling did not lighten the mood at Auschwitz-Birkenau.  Nothing could, or should.

We leave here quietly with more questions than answers.  We are not exactly glad we came, but we agree it had to be done.  How could a leader plan this diabolic and horrible business.  How could so many people in so many different positions go along with it? 

The desperation by German SS soldiers to destroy the evidence as the Soviet shock troops approached was clear.  The scale of the operation would partially foil their efforts.  Although only a small percentage of personal effects and documents remained, it was enough to tell the story.  There are always survivors, witnesses or evidence to any atrocity.  In this case, the will to pass along the story for generations was and remains strong.  There were many secret notes, pictures, documents-- some hidden, some found recently, some passed along, handed down.

There were many school kids walking together on field trips.  We saw them walking past the selection point and towards the memorial at Birkenau.  Taking pictures along the tracks.  Not much older than John.  The standard Polish curriculum requires students to tour the grounds at age 14-15, during the first year of their high school.

In the 1990’s and early 2000’s around 100,000 people toured the sites per year.  In 2004, after joining the EU, they started to experience over 1 million visitors per year, and so far in 2017 they have hosted over 2 million visitors.

The old Schindler Factory in Krakow is now a museum featuring a timeline of Krakow 1939-1945.  Nazi forethought of organized destruction is self-evident.  First the intellectuals, leaders of the resistance, and the potential leaders of resistance were rounded up and placed in the work camps.  Due to working and living conditions, most would die within 6-18 months. All the schools were closed.  No need for culture or learning, the Poles would be good for one, maybe two generations as laborers. The master race would resettle these lands and prosper as a full-fledged member of the Thousand Year Reich. The Jews were herded into a ghetto, then transported for extermination.  There is no delicate way to talk about this subject.

The infamous, paradoxical phrase over the main gate at Auschwitz, "Work will set you free."

John and our guide are standing at the selection point in Birkenau next to an authentic box car.  While Auschwitz was a form Polish army barracks, and thus relatively comfortable, the Auschwitz prisoners built Birkenau camp 4X as big and shelters were made to the spec of the German horse stable, barely able to keep the weather out.  80% of the Jews that arrived went straight to the gas chamber, only the strongest, capable of work and surviving the conditions were sent to real showers and issued striped camp clothing.

Monument at Birkenau.  The approach they used at Auschwitz was to create a museum environment with articles, personal effects, etc.  At Birkenau the objective was to leave it entirely as the Soviets found it when they liberated the camp.  With so many visitors coming, they felt like there should be one place where visitors can pause, reflect and collect their thoughts.  This was what the came up with.  There are tablets written in more than 20 languages at the base of the monument.

"Forever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women and children, mainly Jews from various countries of Europe.  Auschwitz-Birkenau 1940-1945

At the very end of the Schindler Museum there were two books.  Our guide kept saying how extreme times brought out the best and the worst in people...on both sides.  Many examples of evil and good were recorded in the respective books. 

Our guide had John look through the directory for two particular names.  Their stories were amazing examples of love for their fellow human beings, demonstrated at great danger to themselves and their families.

80,000 shoes.  And these are just the ones that were not already sent back to Germany as the normal course of weekly business, or destroyed as the Soviets approached.

Lessons from Abdullah

You never know when you are going to meet someone, receive a gift, and really reinforce something important. John and I were on our way to the Vienna airport to catch our flight to Krakow, and we were picked up by a very congenial taxi driver.  Sort of the polar opposite of the guy that threw our luggage in his trunk with malice and drove us from the rental car return to the hotel on our arrival to Vienna.  We almost bought it as he swerved to avoid a truck and the tram with not much physical solution to the problem except inelastic collision.  As I said, this guy, Abdullah, was different.  He was interested in us, so we became interested in him.  He has been in Vienna for 5 years.  He said, “this place is like heaven compared to where I’m from.”  He was born and raised in Mogadishu, Somalia.  The civil war is over, but the terrorists (Al-Shabaab) and pirates are a constant threat to public security.  The government was weak after the war and these bandits remained strong.  There are 10 million people in Somalia, and 3 million expats like Abdullah.  Since the parliament is completely corrupt, only bribes influence elections of the top government officials.  The expats and countrymen interested in progress raised a collection, a lot of money, to bribe the parliament to vote in a capable president, who happened to have spent his last ten years in the US.  The government is making progress, but there is a lot of work to do, like build military strength, capability and armament to provide public security and reduce corruption.  It is difficult to eliminate corruption on the continent.  Somalia has improved its standing from the world’s most dangerous country to just the third most dangerous.  Abdullah was proud of this seemingly small step.

Abdullah plans to finish high school and then attend college.  He told John- “Now is your time, John.  You have to study and learn.  Work hard.  Don’t play video games…or you will end up driving a taxi!!”

Although this picture does not really go with the story, it is the last photo I took of Vienna.  The gilded Johan Strauss statue in Stadtpark (City Park) is the most often photographed monument in the city, so I wanted to be sure to keep the rate trending upward.  It is in a park created on what was the glacis outside the city walls (open field of fire on the approach to the city).  The city walls turned out to be of little practical military use, so Emperor Franz Joseph decreed that they be torn down and a Ring road built in their place in the late 1850's.

"Eins, Zwei, Eins, Zwei…"

Our guide’s father was a German speaking teenager in the Sudetenland in 1940, just miles from the Austrian Border.  After the annexation, he was lined up in a formation and the German officer went down the row saying “eins, zwei, eins, zwei…”  His father was "zwei," and went to train as a tank driver for deployment to North Africa and then Italy.  All the “eins” went to the Russian Front.  Our study of WW2 was personal today.

We started with a tram ride south to the Imperial Armory which houses the Austrian Military Museum.  It was built in the middle of the 19th century, as a combination fort, barracks and armory.  It was built outside the city by Franz Joseph after citizens took over the arsenal in the city center and had too much success with armed rebellion.  It is a clue that something is not going quite right if you have to prioritize relocation and fortification of your national defense FROM your people.

Our guide was so impressed upon learning that John just completed his study of Adventures of a Simpleton by Grimmelshausen (the definitive, semiautobiographical novel of the thirty years war), that he actually ran us through the entry hall, up the stairs and into a room with a painting celebrating the Hapsburg and southern (Catholic) forces victory at Nordlingen.  We saw a fabulous display of period armor, weapons and personal effects.  It was a nice compliment to John’s literary studies.

We studied the events leading up to the start of WW1 and charted the changing battle lines and participants through each year of the war.  A gruesome display of carnage.  And strategic blunder.  As we all know, the stage was then set for WW2 with the Treaty of Versailles.  John and I were treated to an inside story around the Austrian chancellor’s assassination that made way for the annexation of Austria by Germany (the Anschluss).  Incredible new information for me.  And it is clear why Austrians like to claim that Beethoven was Austrian and Hitler was German, even though the opposite was true.

Some of the uniforms looked more like hunting outfits, reminding John and me of Simplicissimus as the Huntsman of Soest.  

John in front of the Archduke of Ferdinand's car...what a series of miscues led the car to be within pistol range of Serbian radical Gavrilo Princip.  See the bullet hole in the left rear quarter panel- this was the lethal round that hit Sophie.

Although the Soviet Red Army liberated Vienna from the Nazis at a cost of  20,000 killed in action, the city was divided into zones governed by each of the 4 allies, similar to Berlin.  Our guide showed us his parents ID cards that were in English, French and Russian and stamped with each country's seal.  The allies agreed to pull out if the Austrian Parliament would declare themselves to be a neutral country.  Austria is now one of 5 European neutral countries along with Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland and Finland. 

On a very long walk from the museum back to our hotel (14,000 steps that day), our guide took us to see one of the three pairs of anti aircraft towers protecting Vienna in WW2.  Each pair consisted of a radio tower and an AA battery.  The three towers were arranged in a triangle with the city center in the centroid.  The towers were also used as bomb shelters for the inhabitants lucky enough to be on the list.  Local companies had places reserved for their employees.  There was a Siemens factory near this site and there were specific places allocated to the Siemens team.  The efficiency was remarkable, as Hitler Youth would read out lists of addresses destroyed by bombs at the conclusion of each raid so the people would know whether they were returning to a home that we intact or not.  There were 53 allied bombing raids on the city of Vienna. 

The First Viennese School

Our guide kept saying, “as you know, The First Viennese School blah-blah-blah,” so John and I pictured an actual school, but we didn’t really know, even though we nodded our heads and smiled.  Upon further review, it is a virtual, historical description of the time when Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven were resident in Vienna.  They were producing music for the court and other noble patrons willing to contribute to their stipends.  So much was accomplished during the period 1750-1830: modern music theory, as well as structure of the forms concerto, symphony, sonata, trio and quartet were invented and still apply today.  We saw homes where these guys lived, presented operas, played music, begged for more money and died.  Haydn was the resident maestro, Mozart was the gifted class clown, and Beethoven was the underappreciated, socially awkward genius with a desperate problem…hearing loss starting in his early 30’s.  Much earlier than I thought.  We exhausted John’s appreciation for classical music with excerpts from symphonies, concertos and sonatas as we walked and visited the places of interest.  The final straw was Mozart’s Missa solemnis, C-Dur, KV 337 (solemn mass in C-major, Mozart's last complete mass, written in 1780) with an orchestra and the Vienna Boys choir on Sunday morning.  Early. Not just music, but the full regalia, yes-full on Catholic Mass.  In Latin.  And German.  The last paragraph of the homily was repeated in German, Italian, French and then English.  I understood a little more from each reading!

The contradiction of Vienna in the late 18th through the early 20th centuries as I see it is the backward-looking monarchy holding onto the ways of the past vs. the cultural intersection of a sprawling empire and its allies.  Vienna was a place to be for culture, not exactly Paris or Rome, but surely the cultural center of Central and Eastern Europe.  When Teddy Roosevelt asked Emperor Franz Joseph what the role of an Emperor was in the 20th Century, he answered, “to protect the people from politicians.”  Classic.

Herr Proferror Reinhardt plays a little Mozart on our way from the hotel to Mozart's apartments.  We were standing in the square where the current leaders of the country are trying to form a coalition government.  The conservative party has the chancellorship, and their tea party is trying to form a coalition government with their democrats.  Wishing them luck with that !

The Vienna Boys Choir, a 500 year old institution in Vienna performs a final song in front of the congregation in the Imperial Chapel.  During the rest of the mass the choir and orchestra are in the thirds balcony behind, so not visible.  I was glad we had a chance to see AND hear the singers.

An early piano model used by Beethoven...the dimensions weree not yet modern, and there were 5 foot pedals!

The Spanish riding school is another nearly 500 year-old tradition in Vienna.  The Lipizzaner Stallions were presents from the Spanish Habsburgs to the Austrian Habsbergs.  These horses can really dance the dressage.  For all you Crimson Tide fans, these are the horses from Spain, not Portugal.  Denzel Washington was right after all.

Through the fog

I drove and my navigator slept…through fog so thick that we could have been anywhere, if it weren’t for the occasional glimpse of the Danube River.  The Wachau Valley is a beautiful place, when you can see it. Its early fortunes were based on river, wine and taxes.  The Babenburgs, celebrated as the first rulers of Austria, capitalized on this and they built a castle on the hill above the Danube to defend their territory in 976.

Leopold I was the first of the line, a margrave.  His offspring would grow their holdings and stature into a Duchy and become Dukes.  After the line died out in 1246, the Habspergs would follow after some bit players not worth mentioning, and grow Austria into a kingdom and then empire through a brutal combination of marital and martial arrangements.  Their sign of the double eagle has so many meanings.

Durnstein is the second smallest town in Austria and is almost completely reliant on tourism to survive these days.  As such, it is a ghost town in late November.  The fog added to the deserted and eerie feeling.  The 5-star hotel was closed for the season, as were all the shops but one.  We stood on the bank of the Danube and looked uphill into the fog.  If we could see it, the ruins of a castle would be just above the visible rock face…but we had to take the guide’s word for it, or Google it!  Richard the Lionhearted was held there by Leopold V, as they had a disagreement during the 3rd Crusade- evidently, Richard stomped on the Austrian flag and took full credit for the victory in the Holy Land.  A king’s ransom ensured his eventual release.  In an odd turn of events, Leopold was excommunicated because it was evidently an offense to the Pope to detain a crusader.

We raced the setting sun through the relentless fog to arrive in Melk and experience the most splendiforous example of Baroque architecture in Austria.  We were not disappointed.  In the first room was an introduction to the Benedictine rules by way of an 800-year-old manuscript.  It was in a temperature and humidity controlled container, so we could only read page 1…but I liked the first rule—“listen with you heart.”  We read the Latin phrase in the manuscript and we saw the German phrase projected on the wall.  What a coincidence.  Listen in German is höre or hörch…in Latin it is, of course, some form of audi. Déjà vu Ingolstadt.  When August Hörch had a falling out with his CFO and Board (this happens), he started a new company but did not have the rights to his name.  Thus, he chose the Latin translation of his name and we have Audi!  But I digress.

We learned about “the Season of Reason,” 10 years of the reign of Joseph II, where everything needed a purpose in society.  He introduced a stunning number of progressive policies.  He demanded that the monasteries contribute to society by educating children, taking care of elderly—or else be closed and put the monks to work elsewhere.  Abby Melk was spared closure because of the relatively large school onsite.  The country was not ready for his pace of change, and many of his reforms such as freeing the serfs, religious tolerance and reformed justice system were reversed upon his death. 

John and I were a little weirded out by all the "relics" on display, you know, St. so-and-so's arm or finger, or guts.  I guess my Presbyterian upbringing and current non-denominational bias was on display.  The church had an interesting flanking arrangement of two corpses, and our guide said no one knows who they are so they are referred to internally as Friederich and George.  We felt better about the local sense of humor :).

John and I just finished a study series on Joseph, one of the heroes of character in the Old Testament.  What an example.  Great servant leader.  Resilient.  Resourceful. Loyal. Blessed by God.  

Our guide tells John, "if we could just see a little higher, that wall leads up to the castle ruins...trust me when I tell you this..."

The main façade introducing the feeling that everything you are about to see will be Baroque...

The outside of the church in Melk Abbey, viewed from a balcony that swings out overlooking the town of Melk.  The fog had lifted just as it became pitch black outside.

The beautiful baroque interior.  This concluded our private tour of foggy, deserted Dürnstien and equally quiet Melk Abbey.  I am sure it is bustling, bright and warm in the summer- they have more than a million visitors.  However, I think we saw something special, all by ourselves in the cold, wet, November evening. 

The password is…ludwigsdorf71

We didn’t have much cell signal, so we wanted the wifi password.  Easy, spell it just like it sounds, if you are a local!  John and I enjoyed rumpsteak and weiner schnitzel, respectively at a random tavern on our way to Schloss Durnstein and Abby Melk.  We took the opportunity to stay warm, eat well and meet some genuine country folk like ourselves.  We set up school on the dining room table and made ourselves at home reading the Trumpeter of Krakow and practicing dimensional analysis and unit rates in Chapter 6 of his math book.  Dimensional analysis brings back incredible memories of my Mom’s favorite way to teach ANY math or chemistry problem.  “If you understand how the units are supposed to work out, you can figure out all the numbers later,” she would say.   She was mostly correct!  I can still picture her unique handwriting, the unit abbreviations, and her victorious cross-outs when it all worked like it was supposed to. 

Studying in a tavern.  I asked the owner if we could hang around for a bit and do some school work, and he said sure, no problem, like that happens everyday around here!

Salt and Souls

Salzburg is just as I remember it at Christmas time.  There is no Thanksgiving barrier, so Christmas markets are in full swing, even in late November.  Salzburg was the site of many people throughout history, Celts, Romans, you know, the usual suspects.  It was reborn in the 8th century with a series of Prince-Archbishops as rulers, and salt as the main currency.  Salt and souls.  Salzburg enjoyed the status as an independent city-state for centuries, and chose to remain neutral in the 30 years’ war.  This was an odd stance to take for a catholic principality ruled by a bishop, but this bishop understood that behind the guise of religious war, it was just war and destruction, and he refused to join the melée.  This was a Godsend to the population, since the rest of Europe was decimated, though the black death that followed observed no neutrality.  World War 1 was a misadventure with the Austro-Hungarian Empire focused on the Eastern Front and then the Italian Alpine front.  World War 2 was just as disastrous. 

The cathedral was built in 774.  A fire destroyed it twice.  It was rebuilt in 1628 in its current footprint and early Baroque splendor.  In 1944, a US Army Air Corps 500lb bomb impacted the dome and transept of the Cathedral causing substantial damage.  The local train station was the target, and even with the Norden bombsight, it seems that bombs intended for the railroad junction (Munich-Salzburg-Vienna) landed wide of the target. No one was hurt, but one major casualty was Mozart’s organ where he played and composed in the service of the Archbishop. The church renovation was not completed until 1959.  The three front gates display the three dates in gold: 774, 1628 and 1959, as well as statues of St. Rupert with his scepter and salt barrel, St. Peter with his keys and St. Paul with his sword.  I thought Peter was the disciple with the sword, but the catholic symbology refers to Paul’s death by beheading.

We were fortunate to meet the Domorganist/professor, and he agreed to brief us on the technology and tuning of each organ, the size and number of pipes and the tuning scheme for each. There are 5 organs in the cathedral, all mechanical linkage systems built by German and Italian workshops, 3 with “equal temperament” tuning and 2 with “Valotti” temperament- an attempt to create more nearly pure thirds in the home key of F, C and G major, and their respective relative minors (of course).  You have to be careful of key choice for your music in this case, the other keys’ thirds can be quite distant giving rise to the term “angry thirds.” John cringed at these demonstrations!  No matter the instrument, tuning is always a compromise.  Especially with an organ, apparently.  We really enjoyed his enthusiasm for the instruments and their history.

Father Joseph Mohr composed the words to Silent Night (Stille Nacht) in 1816 and the melody was written by Franz Gruber in 1818, all in a small town near Salzburg.  Next year is the 200th anniversary of this Christmas favorite.  By chance, when John and I were taking a study break, we walked by a Korean Church Choir that was singing Christmas Carols.  They were arranged in a semi-circle in front of Mozart’s birth house (and diagonal from Starbucks!). Their version of Silent Night was beautiful!

We spent much of a day walking through Salzburg and visited two Mozart houses, studying his life and listening to the music of this prolific genius.  He left us way too early (age 35), but as our guide said, he was exhausted.  Had he lived longer, we still might not have gotten any more music.  As many know, Mozart and his father had a difficult relationship. Our guide asked John what he would think about having his father as a full-time instructor instead of attending school...without knowing our current arrangement.  John artfully dodged answering!

Salzburg as seen from the Prince-Archbishop's castle on the hilltop.  The Danube was the autobahn of the day, they would send salt downriver in three boats, break up and sell two, then bring wine and silver back up river in the one boat by horse power (literally).  The cathedral in the foreground is surrounded by church administrative buildings and borders St. Peter's monastery, found by St. Rupert.  We walked through the ancient, yet still active graveyard.

John prepares to play the copy of Mozart's organ at the original pillar station in the cathedral, under the guidance of Herr Professor Domorganist.  

Herr Professor treats us to a magnificent mini-concert on the Salzburg Cathedral main organ-- 3 manuals, 58 stops and over 4000 pipes.  Amazing sounds, felt and heard.  

John and I celebrated Thanksgiving at the Christmas market in the cathedral square.  We had an oreo waffle for an afternoon snack before playing the organ (dessert first), then wings and potato chips afterwards.  Perfect!

They said there would be a lake...

We walked out of the lodge toward the mountains and along the stream with confidence.  "Follow the yellow signs," they said.  When we rounded a corner to a small village and we decided that we followed the wrong yellow sign!  But, we were getting our steps in and enjoying nature!  We got back on track, and enjoyed the crunching sound of our feet in the snow.  It was wet, good packing, snow ball kind of snow.  John capitalized on the situation a few times.  We kept a look out for the yellow signs that said “Ferchensee” on them, which I had originally transposed in my mind as Friedrichshafen (from MTU days), and that was 190km in the wrong direction!  Way more steps than we bargained for.  Even heading in the right direction, we wondered if we were really headed toward a lake.  There seemed to be no evidence that we were.

We eventually arrived at the lake, elated to see the guest house, entertaining dreams of coffee, hot chocolate and a roaring fire.  Too bad the place is closed between October 31 and December 22.  Crushed, we turned around and headed back to our local home. We were happy to arrive at the retreat in Schloss Elmau, a fantastic place tucked into the Bavarian Alps.  It is now a new favorite of mine.  We logged ~7 miles that day.  The luxury of our accommodations and the quality of the food fortified me.  John, not completely.  He still wanted to protest the long walk with apparent lack of purpose.  I logged a small victory in the physical fitness department!

Trudging along with a mile or so to go, we think. 

We found the lake, but didn't stay long.

The civilized Alpine hike turned into a barbaric, every-man-for-himself snow ball fight with no warning.  I had to take this picture quickly then duck and return fire !!

After 15,000 steps and an all-out snowball fight, snacks by the fire seemed appropriate.

Two Days of Autumn

We have really been lucky with the weather, so far.  Our entire trek through the Iberian Peninsula contained only a half-day of rain.  It was unseasonably warm, as we found ourselves in short sleeve shirts, sunning ourselves and collecting our vitamin D.  Finally, in Porto, it felt like autumn... the kind of days that are too hot in the sun and too cold in the shade.  We were there for two days.  We studied the 12th-18th centuries, monarchies in search of treasure and guarantees of independence…although Napolean and the Kings of Castille would foil their intentions from time to time.  We received another dose of Harry Potter inspiration, and John made sure we climbed to the top of the highest tower in the land.

We completed a whirlwind tour of Ingolstadt and Munich, engaging in studies of the Bavarian military, Audi and BMW museums.  John will write a compare and contrast essay on BMW vs. Audi, and I know which way he is leaning!  John humored me and joined me for dinner with a dear friend and colleague.  He had read up on our escapades to date and was prepared to discuss the nature of EU and regional dynamics, which was good for John to hear.  We had fun reminiscing about difficult negotiations as well as sharing the latest in family news.  I think John understood that sometimes the best business outcomes can be achieved if people care about their companies—and each other.

We drove south, entered the Alpine region and a European winter wonder land.  It was a beautiful, if not sudden change.  With no Thanksgiving, Germany is in full preparation mode for the Advent season and Christmas.  And now, so are we.

Full disclosure, I am a BMW guy...so I found that the coffee device they used to put the 4 circles on my café americano as the highlight of the Audi museum.  Just kidding!!  it was cool, I admit it.  I did not know that the 4 circles represent the 4 companies that came together to form Audi between WW1 and WW2.

Outside BMW headquarters, gallery and museum, there appears to be a cosmic force of conflict between me and German parking garages.  I had a problem when Belinda and I first went to Bavaria in 1992...I did not know the German word for exit.  While everything is marked with symbols nowadays, and I know the word, I lost the parking ticket in a purge of pockets and car compartments...and the payment machine froze up on me.  Luckily there was another one.  John didn't seem to mind, he was watching an episode of "Top Shot" on the iPad.

One of the famous / (in)famous BMW Art Cars.  This one was painted by Andy Warhol.  He was not satisfied with the pattern and transfer that they had done long distance so he came to Bavaria, walked onto the factory floor and painted this car in 28min.  It achieved 6th place in the 24hrs of Le Mans.  Many of the other Art Cars completed their tours with a crash or other ignominious end.

This bubble car took the prize for unusual, and unexpected.  It may well be the only "front opening" car to enter serialized production.  It was one of two models in the 50's that saved the company!!  They sold 180,000 units...unbelievable.  And our guide Philip asked about where the inspiration for the door, and the entire car came from...his hint was, the handle!  I immediately said refrigerator (of course) and he said yes.  It was an Italian appliance company that branched out into automotive, and BMW bought the design.  They added a 4th wheel and made sure that the 12 horsepower engine was reliable.  They even had a special camper trailer that this thing could pull over the Alps.  There was photographic evidence of this feat.  It is yet another example to me that I don't understand consumers.

Winter is here.  

John throws the first snowball of the season, and it is a direct hit!

One More Month

Time has flown.  We have covered some serious ground in Western Europe.  We have averaged greater than 10,000 steps per day.  John has studied Spanish with tutors for 20 hours.  He has completed 5 of 9 books.  We completed the navigation sections with some trigonometry, vectors and piloting skills in addition to celestial navigation.  We are preparing for a test on Chapter 5 in math—here are the highlights for that-- Combine like terms, isolate the variable, multiplying or dividing by (-1) requires flipping the inequality sign and dividing is the same thing as multiplying by the reciprocal…now you are ready for the test too! 

John uploaded his essay on Roman civilization to Google Docs for his social studies class.  He was able to answer the learning objectives and describe first-hand what the ruins were like in each place we visited.  I am only one book ahead of John, so I have to get back to it!  We start our faith, music and physics of sound subjects at the end of this week.  Lots to do and see, still.  We enjoyed the sun and warmth of Southern Spain and Portugal, now to colder, northern, central Europe with Bavaria and Austria up next.

This amazing map showed the treaty of Todesillas, which divided the new world between Spain and Portugal.  One funny thing- longitude was critical component of the treaty, yet hard to determine.  One suspicious thing, Portugal kept arguing for a specific bias to the west, and it just happened to cede them most of Brazil.  They probably had been close enough to see that something was there before finalizing the treaty. With this visit to the monument to the explorers and maritime museum in Lisbon, John completed the explorer section !!

Monument to the explorers, a journey much worse than flying coach :)

Go West Young Man

There we stood, on the westernmost bit of land on Continental Europe.  Cabo da Roca is 9deg 30min west of the prime meridian.  I have looked at countless maps in my life and I never quite gained the perspective of how far west Portugal is compared to England, until now.  How did I not know that Portugal had a dictator for more years than Spain?  And that their Vietnam occurred in the early 1960’s in Angola and Mozambique as the last Europeans to hold onto their colonies? John and I experienced some extremes- steep hills made our steps logged on smart watches under-report our exertion, but we also sat fat and happy at Pastéis de Belém.  We had some of our best meals so far as well as a couple of duds.  One interesting meal we had was on a free day.  We executed our PMM plan.  Pastries, Museu de combatante and Mercado.  Mercado is the city market down by the waterfront that has food stands like we have seen in many cities, but also some interesting places cooking food for lunch and you can eat in a common area in the middle.  John saw a sign for “mocktails” at a bar in the middle, so he suggested we buy food then sit there and enjoy a “drink.”  I started a discussion with the bartender in earnest about the various red wine choices and what mocktails were available using my best Brazilian Portuguese.  Halfway in, he answers his cell phone in perfect Londoner-English.  When he was done we agreed that English would be more efficient for both of us!  He fixed John an awesome Cuba Libre without the liberation.  John and I decided that we liked Lisbon. 

Here is an amazing fact- Portugal is really the oldest western European country when you consider that its borders have remained largely unchanged since the completion of their “Reconquista” of the Muslims in 1249.  That was set in motion when Afonso defeated his mother Countess Teresa and her boyfriend in 1139, kind of an unfortunate step that was required to turn him from the Count into the King.  He convinced many Knights Templar to join in the cause and bring resources to bear against the Muslims.  They had quite a role in the Reconquista, so when they were abolished by the Pope in 1312, King Denis I of Portugal welcomed all to join a new order founded to get around the Papal decree.  The cross can be seen on everything from the sails of the explorers’ ships to modern Portuguese military buildings and vehicles. We visited one of the oldest universities in Europe, in Coimbra, founded in 1290.  The library is an amazing spectacle of 18th century splendor, and the books are guarded by bats that eat the would-be book-destroying insects and the cats take care of the mice.  Low cost labor.  Numerous aspects of this university and features of neighboring Porto found their way into JK Rowling’s Harry Potter.  When we saw a student that had just defended his doctoral dissertation, he looked like a Harry Potter-wanna be, black cape and all. 

We stopped here at Cabo da Roca on our way back to Lisbon from Sintra, where the Royal summer palace was built in the mountains.  

The Belém Tower, built in 16th century in Manueline style (Late Gothic plus other mixed in).  It has features such as the cross of the Order of Christ, Armillary spheres and nautical themes such as ropes.  It was farther from shore until the earthquake of 1755 rerouted the river a bit!

Carlos and João prepare to say good bye to Portugal.  These white and black blocks are the norm for sidewalks.  We walked a lot of steps on them, uphill, downhill and flat!