Saturday, November 22, 2008


This morning looked way too much like Valdez. We had about four inches of fresh snow down, and from the feel of the air temp, some of it will be here tomorrow. It makes the walking outdoors for Roz too risky, so she hasn't ventured out much today. She also is suffering a little from perhaps too much yesterday, trying to stay out and away from her husband.



John feels pretty good today, so he went out for a walk, first around the cement pond where the neighborhood children came to use the gentle hills for sledding, then around the middlstat (middle of town, town center) to take photos for Roz. Although compared to Valdez, there wasn't snow to speak of, it was slippery enough Roz wasn't invited to come along.




John went to the train station where he picked up a city map (he had left the one Hans had marked in the room), then across to an apotheke, pharmacy, foe some hydrocortizone cream to help Roz's reaction to the bandage adhesive. It seemed to work.
Then it was on to the city center. Waiting at a light, something the Germans do most patiently, he heard "John!". It was the American cohort, Joyce, Jennifer and Diane who had joined together for some retail therapy. It must have worked, they were there for several hours. John stopped to photograph some bronze statues and they were gone into the small shops that surrounded them. He has that effect on women.



John ventured forth, bravely, with no desire to ask anyone for directions, into the maelstrom of Bremen. He began taking photos randomly as is his nature, when he realized he was where he wanted to be. What a surprise, dumb luck had once again prevailed to show him the way. He was at the old city hall, a beautiful building that is not only covered with gargoyles and statuary, but houses Ratskellers, a fine restaurant according to Good hands Hans.


He got a photo showing the entrance to the downstairs restaurant. This entire area was surrounded with beautiful architecture.









In every direction there were more beautiful things to photo. Thank goodness he had the camera Ian and Erin bequeathed Roz earlier. Big lenses make better photos and lots of photos allow dumb luck to rise to the surface. Electrons are free, so he took mucho photos all around the square, which isn't square at all.













John was looking for one particular statue, the original "Musicians of Bremen". It's not too old, but one that Roz wanted to see. He wandered, which is his fashion, until he decided to check his map. Then he wandered some more. Every direction had more way cool stuff. He bought small items to bring home. He found wasabi crackers that Roz loves. He wandered some more.

Then, there it was! About 50 feet from where he started looking, 45 minutes prior. John has an incredible locating ability. The statue really isn't that big, maybe 10 ft tall on top of a 4 ft base, he had to have passed it 5 times in his wandering and looked right past it.













John spent another hour looking for stuff around the market and generally trying to need help finding his way home. He was able to get back the old fashioned way, walk a loooong way and say you're just getting exercise.

He even found this windmill twice. He knows it really is wind powered, he watched it long enough to watch it stop and start back up. Doesn't he have anything better to do?

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