Getting lost in Krakow

I went for a run this morning and got lost. While being a bit nerve racking as no one spoke English on that side of town I got to see a part of Krakow that most do not. You can check out my run and see where I stopped running in a circle.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http:%2F%2Ftrail.motionbased.com%2Ftrail%2Fkml%2Fepisode.kml%3FepisodePkValues%3D8367679&ie=UTF8&ll=50.057139,19.95203&spn=0.012895,0.037422&z=14

Krakow is a great city with a beautiful old city square that is lively 24 hours a day. The square is surrounded by many churches. I also went to Pope John Paul II church. I'm off to Auschvits in about an hour.

Flying at Neuschwanstein Castle

Pretty butch picture huh? I could not resist posting this one. Today I flew off of a perfectly good mountain. What do I mean? I went Paragliding. This is where you are attached to an instructor and you soar off a mountain and go gliding in a parachute 2000 feet in the air. We did this at Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria. This castle, as you can see from the pictures was built by Ludwig II, and is the basis for the Cinderella castle from Walt Disney.




Paragliding was amazing. I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I am so glad I did. There is nothing I have ever done that felt the same way. First you take a tram to the top of this huge mountain. You then get the chute all set up, get in my suit and harnness and practice takeoff. Before you know it you are ready to go. The first several pictures of today are me flying. My instrucure was Tiger, and he has flown over 5000 times. My knees were shaking so bad when it was time for us to run off the side of the mountain. Before I knew it we were sailing in the air and climbing up higher. We flew over the castle and around the mountains for about 20 minutes. We even did some acrobatics on the way down. Landed safely, and din't even fall to the ground. Just amazing.


The rest of the day was fantastic as well. I went down an alpine slide, hiked up a waterfall, and then visited Neuschwanstein Castle. The castle is amazing, built by a crazy gay monarch - Richard Wagner's lover -- back in the 1860's. It cost about a billion dollars to build.



I am beyond exhausted, still need to eat dinner and pack. I'm up at 4 tomorrow.


The pictures:
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=615690002/a=21881784_21881784/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=comcast2/
To see a great video on what paragliding is like, click on this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFI9qyiRHvY&NR=1

How visiting Dachau can change your life

I spent the day at Dachau concentration camp today, and to call it a moving experience would be a great understatement. The camp is now a museum to show the atrocities of genocide.




It is a place that you see the worst behaviors of human kind, and understand that we continue to have the possibility of this in the present and in the future. It is too easy to state that this could not happen again. Instead it takes place today. Over the past 15 years we have had ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, Rawanda, and still today in Darfur. As we did 60 years ago, the majority of our population turns our back on this until we can no longer deny and save face without contributing to ending the atrocity.





The practice of indoctrinating young impressionable youth that do not have other opportunities was put into place by the National Socialist party (Nazi). They did this better then most and trained the elite at Dachau to stip the prisoners of their identities, possessions and their dignity. Fortunately dignity is not something others can control. Many prisoners showed the utmost dignity for their fellow prisoners. Many gave their lives for others. The SS gourds were trained at Dachau and then sent off to open up additional camps. This was the main teaching place for the extermination of over 6,000,000 jews and another 1,500,000 non Jews. (Including over 150,000 gays, but I will get to that later) Today this practice takes place by terrorists, gangs, Somalian pirates and many others. Were there are oppressed despaarte folks, there will be others who will look to take advantage of them for the wrong reasons.





To understand the scope of the camp there were 250,000 prisoners that came through Dachau. 45,000 were killed at Dachau and burned at the crematorium. Most of the rest were sent on to other camps and killed there. Only about 4% survived. This included the 14,000 prisoners liberated in 1945 by US troops. Unfortunatly, even after liberation another 3,000 died due to malnourishment and disease within the first 6 weeks of being free again.





To see the gas chambers, the torcher rooms, the barracks and the crematorium is devastating. The barracks were designed for 200 prisoners each. By 1944 there were over 2000 people in each barrack. During the last few months Germany ran out of coal. This was needed to fire the crematoriums. When the US liberated the camp there was a pile of human bodies as high as the building. The building is about 20 feet high. In addition there was a train car fuill of dead prisoners as well. This constituted 4000 bodies, dead but not cremated that the US found. This was one of the first camps liberated and uncovered the extent of the atrocities of the Nazi party.





Right before I left I unfortunately experienced something that has me truly rageful and despondent on human nature. In 1968 there was a three part monument erected to promote tolerance. One of the pieces is an abstract of all the different badges that the prisoners had to wear. The artist included all badges. The Board of Directors, comprised of former prisoners, German officials and camp preservationists, instructed the artist to remove the pink triangles and the black triangles as homosexuals and criminals should not be represented. So, the people who should promoting tolerance discriminated against gays and criminals. A big "GO TO HELL" from me to them on this one. It just goes to show how much work is still left to be done.





There are a few pictures from this trip. The most important is the sign built into the front gate that states that "Work will set you free" This was obviously not the case here at Dachau. It is now my hope that the continued efforts by those who work at this camp, and those who visit this camp, will work to ensure that this type of atrocity will not take place in the future, and that this work will set us free from genocide.

More pictures:

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=610782002/a=21881784_21881784/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=comcast2/

Salzburg

The Hills are Alive!!!

I went to the home of Mozart and the Sound of Music---Salzburg Austria. It was a rainy day, but Salzburg still proved to be a beatiful place and an artists dream. Salburg's favorite son, Mozart rules the city. I saw his birthplace where they have a nice museum on him and his family. I also went to his home later in life after he had made some money. He was a crazy man, one with God given mastery. It was so nice to see so many people interested in him. I took the train from Munich listening to his piano quartets (Thanks Joe!!!) on my iPod. Great train and great music.

There are a few pictures from the abbey where Maria came from (true story) and pictures of the house they used in the movie(Not their real house). I even sang the music at the top of my lungs with a few folks that had been imbibing a little too much on the local necture.

My favorite part of the trip was climbing to the top of the Hohensalzburg Fortress. This fortress was constructed in the 1100's and improved over time until the start of WWI. It was quite a hike up, but well worth it. I have not run in a few days so it was good to get the workout. The view of Salzburg from there is amazing. A very old town with great buildings nestled right in the Alps. I could still see snow covered mountains in the distance.

Due to the rain I headed back into Munich an hour early and enjoyed a great Goulash dinner with Spatzel.

Most of my pictures may need explanations, but alas, it's dinner time, so that will have to wait.

The link:
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=607447002/a=21881784_21881784/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=comcast2/

General Observations about Europe and US

A few random thoughts:

Dear Europe:

• We invented something about 60 years ago, it's called an ice machine, you should invest in one. I'm not sure why it takes an Act of God to get ice in a drink.
• You could increase productivity by 25% by learning how to jaywalk. It's really not a sign of disrespect, it's a sign that you are busy and have things to do.
• People in Germany drink way too much beer. Maybe that is why everyone smokes here.
• Britain did not understand that everyone should have voted for Susan Boyle. She does have talent, but the british don't have a clue if they voted her second.

Dear America:

• The fruits and vegetables in Europe kick ass. They are tasty and real. The US needs to stop putting hormones in our food and get back to basics.
• Fix the train system. The train system in Europe rocks. It is reliable, comfortable, quick and reasonable. It beats airplain travel any day of the week.
• No matter what we do, we will never be able to match the history and beauty of the 1500-1700 architecture in Europe.

Greetings from Munich

Arrived here last night. I took the train into the city saving myself about $60. Hotel is right by the traiin station.

Nothing will make you feel more like a long trek traveler than haiving to do laundry on your trip. I went down the street this morning and just did my own wash. The hotel was going to charge 50 Euro, I did it myself for 5 euro.

I'm off site-seeing this afternoon. I'll bring the camera and post pictures later. Munich is a huge city, I'll have to see what I run into......

By the way two things...John and my anniverary yesterday (16 years) and Jim Zagres birthday today (I think he's 62, just kidding.) Happy birthday Jim, and John I can't wait to celebrate next Thursday night.

Berlin Follies

I have spent a very education couple of days in Berlin. I learned a lot about Germany, how it was unified, what lead to WWI and WWII and post WWII life in Berlin. This city has an amazing history.

Most of the city is new, as an overwelming amount of building were lost in the battle of Berlin. The architecture over the past 50 years has been relatively drab. I expected this in East Berlin, but really both sides were not too different in architecture. The older buildings that survived are amazing. The Nazi army had also build a few remarkable buildings, but these were all destroyed by bombings, or were taken down by the Soviets after the war.

Some fantastice pictures from last night of a beautiful rainbow over Brandenburg Gate. Also went to the Reichstag (the German Parliament) as well as the Monument to the 6,000,000 Jews and the monument for the Gay persecution by the Nazi's. Both monuments were very thought provoking.

Today I went on a 4.5 hour walking tour. We hit all the main sites to see, lead by a very knowledgable Chicago native who has now lived in Berlin for 5 years.

I'm kind of tired, so I may write more later.

The pics:
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=579291002/a=21881784_21881784/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=comcast2/