c_&_c_v_ii_p

COUNTRIES and CULTURES of the WORLD, THEN and NOW, VOL. II

Excerpt, Countries and Cultures, Vol. II, P. 216-236]

TRAVELS. [n Germany] In 1983 to 1995 I visited Germany 14 times. In 1990 my wife and I first visited WEST BERLIN. The Museum of the Wall, near The Wall, had exhibits showing how people escaped or tried to escape. Vendors sold pieces of The Wall, I bought one, with grafitti. The nearby Reichstag or House of Parliament, suffered from a great fire on February 27, 1933. Nazis blamed the fire on communists, but many scholars believe the Nazis set the fire. Nazis are also believed to have flooded the Reichstag late in the war, killing many young soldiers. A short distance away many underground concrete bunkers were found, connected with government buildings such as the defense ministry, by tunnels. Hitler and his wife Eva were believed to have committed suicide in one on April 30, 1945 as Soviet troops fought for control of Berlin. Also in West Berlin we saw the black bell tower, Congress Hall (rebuilt after the roof collapsed in 1980), the river with tour boats, Bellevue Palace, Potsdam Square, and the tall Victory Column with a gold statue, honoring Bismarck's winning of the war against France, in 1871. The Soviet War Memorial has the two Soviet T34 tanks that were the first to enter Berlin in April, 1945. Charlottenburg Palace was the home of Frederick the Great and other Prussian kings.

The Egyptian Museum has much loot from archaeological diggings, including the original bust or head of Queen Nefertiti. Charlottenburg University of Technology and the Free University had many students. Berlin has long attracted youths of the counterculture. For many years in the 1960s and 1970s West Germany rewarded young men willing to live in West Berlin by an exemption from the military draft. During World War II 65 percent of Berlin's buildings suffered damage. Most houses have been rebuilt in West Berlin, the large Lutheran church ruins were left as a memorial to the war, but its chimes still work. We stopped at the stadium where the 1936 Olympics were held. Nazis used the stadium and the adjoining "Square of the Nations" to show the might of the new Nazi Germany. Our guide showed us Heerstraße, used by Napoleon on his way to Russia. The modern International Exhibition Center has a monument made of concrete, with two old Cadillac cars imbedded in it. A monument honors the 1948-1949 airlift. Kurfürstendammstr. or K Damm was "the cultural center of Europe," with many popular cafes, from about 1900 to 1939. It now has shops, theaters, movies, "girlie shows," and other entertainment. The entrance to the zoo in Tiergarten (Animal Park) is Chinese-style. The nearby busy street has many bookstores and other shops. The park in May had many young sunbathers, many men and women were nude.

In August 1992 I returned to West Berlin with my class from Weimar. Near Tiergarten Floh Markt (Flea Market) vendors sold new Soviet Army equipment. One of my classmates "became" a Soviet Army officer, another became a Soviet Air Force officer, by buying complete uniforms. They had much gold braid. Even medals were sold for a few D-Marks. Some Soviet military personnel had taken them from warehouses.

In 1990 my wife and I attended a language school for six weeks in STUTTGART (the Garden City) to study German, living with a local family, Frau X. Stuttgart, population 650,000, has fields near the suburban area where we lived. More than 70,000 people in the area were employed by Daimler-Benz (Mercedes). The paved paths are great for hikers, strollers, and bicyclists. Lucky people ride a bicycle on the paths to work or school. Germans, like Americans, love automobiles, despite bike paths and their great public transportation. Gasoline is cheaper than in much of Europe, only about 3.50 dollars per gallon (1.4 DM per L.) We took a cogwheel train up a hill, to a TV tower, with a restaurant and great view up high. Like many German cities, forests almost surround the city. Another day we paid five Marks to ride the elevator in the concrete TV tower. We saw the Black Forest southwest, the Schwäbian Hills southeast, and Switzerland in the south. Hills and towns are named on brass plates. Stuttgart has several walking tours, guided by maps available at the tourist office. One tour took us to the "Hospital Church," built in 1493. The monastery became a hospital when the Dominicans left, as much of Germany became Lutheran. The University of Stuttgart has an elaborate sun dial, the sun makes a shadow dot to show the day of the year, hour and minute, all year long.

In our house windows were left open, Germany is without window screens, some insects came in. Each evening in the early fall we had a fireplace fire during dinner. Germans eat the main meal at noon. On TV we watched the Tageschau or news daily. Later we watched Explosion, a program patterned after 60 Minutes in the U.S.A. Germans were aghast that a local man sprayed swastikas on Jewish tombs in a cemetery. West Germans were getting daily bad news concerning how much it would cost to bring public facilities (railways, roads, pollution, buildings) in East Germany up to West German standards. Taxes in the West were being raised to pay for the costs. West Germans criticized their eastern "cousins" for wanting the West's high standard of living immediately. Westerners typically said "they'll have to work hard, the way we did for 45 years after the war. They can't have it all now."

The 15-year-old daughter was not permitted to watch TV except the news weekdays, and about two hours on weekend evenings. She had much homework and studied tough courses--German, French, English, math, physics, biology, history, music, and religion, in the public Gymnasium. She had three sports afternoons weekly, and classes every Saturday until noon. She had only six weeks of summer vacation, plus three other weeks during the school year. After four or five years of Grundschule German students attend either a Hauptschule for five years or a Realschule (mostly technical subjects, job training) for six years, or they have nine years in an academic Gymnasium. Unlike some European countries, it is possible to transfer from one type of school to another.

The house, built after World War II, was designed to last several hundred years. It had thick walls and doors. The heavy windows were double-glazed. Bath and kitchen radiators, some two meters (7 ft.) tall, had many horizontal bars for drying clothes. Like most of Europe, German cities prohibit the construction of wooden houses because of the danger of fire. Several hundred years ago many European cities had big fires. Europe would have a shortage of lumber if most homes were built of wood. Small wooden weekend cabins, often with a small garden, are common in and around many European cities. Our family's telephone had a digital dial that shows all charges for the month, and a dial to show the cost of the current call. Local calls cost 23 Pfenning for up to eight minutes or 12 minutes on weekends. Long distance calls were quite expensive. We followed the custom of our family in taking off shoes at the entrance door. It kept the house much cleaner. Our bed had the typical mattress on a wood platform, no springs. Bedding was a comforter inside a sheet sack. Pillows were soft and wide. I found none of the three automatic washing machines in the basement to be as good quality as those made in the U.S.A. Dryers are rare, people hang clothes to dry. However, it is considered to be rude to hang clothes outside on Sunday. West Germany had a serious housing shortage. When Frau X advertized in the local newspaper a small attic apartment for rent she received more than 350 letters from people wanting to rent it! Germans were pleased to hear that many American military families would return home, their apartments and houses would become available. Homes often have a fenced-in yard. Prefabricated fences that expand like a letter X are popular.

Frau X had a poster reading:

Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks are French, the mechanics are German, the lovers Italian, and it is all organized by the Swiss.

Hell is where the cooks are British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, the police German, and it is all organized by the Italians.

click for larger picture

Denmark, space-saving flower pot Copenhagen, Little Mermaid

We enjoyed Königstraße, Stuttgart's pedestrian street, lined with attractive shops and little restaurants. The Hauptbahnhoff or central railway station was at one end. Nearly every day there was street entertainment, often classical music. One day we watched musicians from Bolivia playing their traditional instruments. Many youths have Iroquois or punk rock hair. Younger boys often had neat short hair but with a few long hairs left at the rear. Girls with punk rock hair often dye it red or orange. Some girls wear patterned or old-fashioned hose with miniskirts. Couples sometimes kiss in corners, since few young people have access to a car. We read a local newspaper daily, with the help of a dictionary. Classified ads included nearly a full-size page of men looking for a female mate, or females looking for a male. A photograph was often enclosed. Some ads were by agencies representing East German women looking for a richer West German mate.

We regularly asked for tap water but always received bottled water. Germans rarely drink tap water even though they spend billions of D-Marks to keep city water pure. Eventually we found two public drinking fountains in Germany, one was on Stuttgart's Königstraße. A monument honors local Johann Schiller, as a military surgeon he went A.W.O.L. from his local regiment to see the performance of his first play, in 1780. Schiller was arrested by the Duke of Wurttemberg and ordered to publish nothing except medical treatises. Luckily for the world, Schiller left, to become a great writer elsewhere. The 13th Century Duke's Castle has an inner courtyard. The museum has local Stone Age artifacts. Local people lived in long houses made of tree limbs woven around vertical posts, coated inside and out with mud. During the Ice Age some locals lived in tents made of animal skins. During the Bronze Age needles were made by letting hot liquid bronze drip from holes in a stone mold. Nearby is the parliament building for Baden-Wurttemberg, fountains, and statues. The Lowentor ("Lion Gate") Natural History Museum has a good collection of fossils. Many bones are assembled to show animals or dinosaurs.

We took a modern tram to and from school. Each Monday morning our German teacher asked what we did on the weekend. One Monday the immigrant girl from Thailand said she cooked a big dinner for her family. The teacher asked what she cooked. "I cooked a dog and a cat," she replied. The teacher asked where she found the animals. "We buy them from a Thai man. He finds them around, in the street," she explained. When we reported the dinner to Frau X she said "My cat disappeared a few days ago. I'll bet they ate it."

In our suburb men used a small bag with "claws" at the end of a long pole to pick ripe plums from a tree. Not far away a Jugendfarm had riding horses and ponies, plus donkeys, goats, sheeps, and pigs for city kids to pet. Germans are well disciplined most of the time. Streets are usually free of trash and grafitti. We felt safe walking in the evening in most areas. However, parts of some cities, such as Hamburg and Frankfurt, have litter, grafitti, and petty crime. Many European public buildings have an outside door that opens inward--they are usually banned in the U.S.A. because of the risk in case of fire. Two-thirds of the movies shown in Germany were made in the U.S.A., usually with German spoken words dubbed in.

On October 3, 1990, Einheit Tag, we had no classes. We wandered around downtown with others, not knowing how to celebrate the unification of the two Germanys. Some people carried the black-red-yellow flag. The night before there were a few firecrackers and rockets in our suburb.

We walked to the village of MÖHRIGEN, with many old timbered houses and ancient barns. Half an hour north of Stuttgart by the S-Bahn is LUDWIGSBURG. There we walked on cobblestone streets, past the main square, to Solitude Palace, one of Germany's largest, with 50 rooms. Built on a hill by King Ludwig about 1704, in Italian baroque-style. It has an outer court and row of buildings, and a huge inner court. The gardens, on two levels, are extensive, with hedges, a pond, and a Japanese garden. We could see only a little of the rooms, since the palace closed early, at 4:00 P.M. It was for many years the home of the president of Baden-Wurtemburg. Nearby are barns for horses, and a forest with trails popular with hikers. Signs in many of Germany's forests warn not to touch little wild animals, they may have rabies.

We took the fast S-bahn (streetcar train), past Bad Canstatt, with hot mineral baths, popular before Romans arrived, southeast to ESSLINGEN. A friendly older man, speaking only German, volunteered to serve as our guide for several hours. The town, built before 1300 A.D., is well-preserved. The Kessler House is typical, with timbered walls and a high gabled roof. In the attractive cobblestone main square the town hall has a glockenspiel or clock that has figures of little men that move each hour, along with a big hawk that opens and closes its wings mechanically. The canal has old waterwheels turning stones that once ground wheat into flour. The Minster (Monastery) St. Paul Church, City Church, and Frauenkirche or Womens Church, are well-preserved, though around 600 years old. The Womens Church has gargoyles for rainwater of roosters and dogs. Many German cities have a Womens Church, but men could also attend. Around 36 percent of Stuttgarters are Protestant, 30 percent are Catholic, and the others are not religious. In Esslingen, an ancient stone stairway climbs the city wall, built in 1303, passing vineyards on the steep hillside. Many towns like Esslingen could not afford to build city walls that enclosed the entire town. They built only stone walls to enclose a place of shelter for all residents, in case of attack. Free entertainment on Saturday included Greek folk dancers. When we asked directions local people often said that it is sieben Minuten (seven minutes) away.

Another day we took the S-bahn to BAD (Bath) CANSTATT to see the annual Volkfest. Germany and several other European countries have many towns with baths built around hot mineral water. They are popular with the young, but appeal more to the elderly. There was no admission charge to the Volkfest, but four lanes filled with shops, restaurants, games, and rides, make it easy to spend money, like a fair. The only animals were huge horses pulling fancy old wagons with kegs of beer from the local Hofbrau. A group of men and women from Bavaria were colorful. Men wore pants with Lederhosen and green hats with a feather or medal. Women wore embroidered blouses and traditional jumper dresses. While watching bands play we ate tasty herring sandwiches, and Amerikanische Eiscreme (ice cream). Several places were "American saloons," with pictures of cowboys and Indians. Turkisch Honig (a kind of caramel candy) was popular--there have been many Turks in Germany since the 1950s, bringing their tasty food. Kartoffeln Puffers or fried mashed potatoes, sometimes with applesauce, sold well. We rode the "world's highest transportable ferris wheel," 61 m. (200 ft.) tall, for a good view of the Neckar River, hills, and the city.

We rode the S-bahn east to SCHORNDORF, passing fields of vegetables, the nice paths for bicycles and pedestrians, and suburban train stations with covered racks for commuters to leave their bicycles. In vineyards the rows often run up and downhill. Doesn't it cause erosion? Why don't the rows run parallel to the hill? Schorndorf has 15th and 16th centuries timbered houses with low arched doorways, the people were shorter then. The castle built in 1538 is still half-surrounded by a moat filled with water. The "new" town hall is 18th Century. The Heimat Museum is in a big half-timbered building. The Protestant City Church, built in 1477, has a tower with a clock. In a park children played on swings each with a big tire suspended horizontally, the child stands on the tire and holds onto the two chains.

We took an S-bahn west to the village of WEIL der STADT, passing the usual garden patches with weekend huts that surround many European cities. The main square is bordered by timbered houses, it has fountains with statues of little men, a monument to local Johannes Kepler (16th Century astronomer), and the Peter and Paul Church, built in 1492. The Rathaus or City Hall, is now a museum. The narrow cobblestone streets are fun to explore.

We rode with Frau X and her mother east one weekend to the Schwäbian Alps. Romans called them Albi or white, which became Alps. We rode past fields of cabbage, onions, potatoes, and corn. Wheat and other grains had already been cut. We continued uphill, following a river through rolling hills with clumps of evergreen or deciduous trees with yellow leaves. Many hills had a castle or its ruins. Villages often had Bad (Bath) in their name. One village has an annual wine festival. Germans are drinking more dry white wine, less sweet wine than 20 years ago. The neat picturesque houses often had window shutters and flower boxes. The big stone, hollow clay tile, or dark wooden barns sheltered cows, sheep, and chickens. Near HOCHSTEHT we walked on a gravel path through the forest, with hunter's blinds in towers. One kind of mushroom is said to be safe to eat unless one drinks alcohol. After some 5 km. we arrived in the pleasant village of LAUTERTAL, in a pretty valley with a clear stream. After dinner in the Gasthof we visited ruins of the Hohengundelfin Castle at the top of the hill. Upon returning to the car we rode to the village of ZWEIFALTEN, where the mother of Frau X lived as a little girl. During World War II young city children lived in safer country villages, the big hospital had a red cross painted on the roof to be safe from Allied bombing. The Zweifalten Minster, built in 1739, is considered to be "Germany's most important baroque church." The colorful ceiling and walls are painted with Biblical scenes and figures.

One weekend we took a train south to visit friends in Zurich. The picturesque towns have big houses with red tile roofs in small, neat yards. Horb, in the Black Forest, was especially appealing. When we left Stuttgart we spent a few days hiking in the BLACK FOREST. We chose a small hotel in WILBAD, with a stream running outside our room. Hills rose high on two sides. Each day we took a Bergbahn or inclined railway some 400 m. (1312 ft.) up to the plateau, where trails are built through the forest. Every few kilometers a small shelter makes a good rest stop. Trees often blow down, the straight paths funnel the wind, making it stronger. However, we saw no damage to trees caused by air pollution. Loggers with chain saws have little gypsy huts to store their equipment, lunches, and wine. We returned in 1994 for a week of hiking in the Black Forest. We watched the May Day parade with a band, prancing horses with riders, kids in wagons or walking, wearing old-fashioned Black Forest costumes, and the May Tree, on a long pole. Later the May Pole was set in the main town square, with symbols of local civic clubs, such as Lions and Goodfellows. On a dirt road we met an old restored wagon with varnished wood and flaring sides. An exhibit of local bath houses shows the popularity in the 1500s of mixed bathing of men and women in wooden tubs like hot tubs. Today they must wear bathing suits. In some periods facilities for men and women were separated.

We entered Germany from the Netherlands in 1983 on a bus tour. The Ruhr has many coal and nuclear plants producing electricity, and many steel mills and factories. COLOGNE, population about 900,000, has Germany's largest church, 137 m. (450 ft.) long, with twin towers 157 m. (515 ft.) high. It was begun in 1248 but not finished until 1880. We listened to a choir from the Phillipines sing in the huge room. In 1991 I made a tour of the Dom, or cathedral, taking an elevator up some 115 m. (377 ft.), then we walked on catwalks to towers for great views of Cologne. During World War II Cologne had 365 air raids and 98 percent of the buildings suffered damage. Like all of West Germany's cities, it was rebuilt. A cable car carries passengers across the Rhine, along with three bridges.

I lived with a local family in COLOGNE while studying German in a school in 1991. Just inside the entrance door they had a Schuhschrank, a cabinet to store shoes. We never wore shoes in the house. I returned in 1995 for a refresher course, while living with another family in the Hohenhause neighborhood. My second family wore shoes in the house but umbrellas were always stored in a stand near the entrance door. Our classes were all in German. I always spoke German with my families, except during my first school when I knew only basic German. Twice each day I rode streetcars across the Rhine. On one visit I took a city tour with a busload of Germans. The remains of St. Albans Church will not be restored, as a memorial to World War II. Three city gates remain but the city wall was torn down more than 100 years ago to make a ring street around downtown. St. Maria Church was built in the 11th Century on top of ruins of a Roman temple. The Neumarkt Square was used in the 11th Century as a place to trade cattle. The "No. 4711" building, with a glockenspiel, is headquarters for a firm that has long made cologne for a bath perfume and a drink. Today's ground level is seven meters (22 ft.) above the ground level when Romans built a round tower. We crossed the Rhine on one of Cologne's three bridges, to the buildings for expositions. Cologne, like Frankfurt, has more than 20 international fairs each year. Hotels fill quickly then. The Schnutgen Museum has boring relics from old local churches.

Cologne's City Museum has good exhibits on wars, with the theme "war destroys everything." Displays include advertisements and uniforms for Hitler's youth movement, the Jude Star of David emblem that all Jews had to wear, and models of old Rhine boats. I liked to walk in the big park and greenbelt, with a small zoo, not far from where my first family lived in Cologne. The Walruf-Richarts Museum has Roman and other artifacts found near Cologne, including mosaic tile floors, stone statues with removable heads, a reconstructed stage coach, and bronze or glass objects. The Ludwig Museum has a good collection of paintings by local artists, mostly 14th to 20th centuries. Many old paintings show nude maidens who were slowly and meticulously bathed by priests during the baptism ceremony. The priests did their job thoroughly. One popular painting is Nude Descending Staircase. The Rautenstrauch-Joest (ethnography) Museum has a great collection showing how peoples in Indonesia, Pacific Islands, and South America lived. Indonesians slept on wooden pillows, like Africans.

My first family in Cologne had two small children, the five-year old girl was a good teacher on the correct pronunciation of words. One of my teachers asked the 14 students from 10 European countries in our class whether children are hit during displine. She said it is common for German parents to strike small children when they misbehave. The students from all of the other countries said that hitting a small child "isn't done" or it is even unlawful in their country.

German beds are usually single wide, though two may be next to each other. There is a mattress but no springs. The pillow is big and soft. The bedcovering is a comforter wrapped in a sheet. Germans, like many Europeans, often sleep with the window open, even in winter. Making the bed each morning is simple, little more than folding the comforter in half. Toilets usually have a shallow place in the center. When flushed everything goes forward and down. Some toilets have an electric grinder so a smaller outlet pipe can be used. The bar of soap often has a magnet attached to it, so it hangs from a small support above the sink. Showers throughout Europe usually have a handheld shower head on a flexible pipe. Some newer bathrooms also have a fixed shower.

Germans are romantic, though they are more practical. Recent polls show that young Germans want to be a forest ranger and live with mother nature. Germans like fairy tales, including those by the Brothers Grimm. Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood are popular. Many fairy tales feature a giant and a dwarf. The tales are said to warn little girls that men are dangerous, whether in the form of a man, a wolf or an evil witch.

Another student living with the same family in Cologne said that in France they never eat apple or potato peelings. Germans eat apple peelings but not potato peelings. The French student regularly dipped his bread or toast into coffee. My roommate at another German school was a youth from Switzerland. His only breakfast food was several cups of hot chocolate. Both Swiss and Germans eat a lot of chocolate. When I was a farm boy in the U.S.A. in the 1930s we sometimes dipped cornbread into milk. Students in my language school often ate lunch in the cafeteria of a music school, and we returned some evenings for their concerts. I often ate lunch with students who worked for their foreign ministry or who were negotiators for the GATT organization (Tariffs and Trade). (It was replaced in 1995 by the WTO--World Trade Organization.) Most of the students, in their twenties and thirties, were from Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Poland, or the Czech Republic. A few came from many other countries. We saw a few skinheads wearing heavy boots, jeans, leather jackets, with shaved heads, but they never bothered us.

One of my schools made an excursion to MALBRONN, an 11th Century monastery in hills near the Black Forest. It is a walled town, with round guard towers. The cloisters, library, church, and living and eating quarters for monks are well restored. We also made a tour of Cologne's WDR broadcasting studios for radio and TV channel 1. I often listen to their shortwave broadcasts in the U.S.A.

BONN has been (West) Germany's capital since 1949 but the capital will be returned to Berlin. Bonn was selected as the capital because it was one of the few German cities that was little damaged during World War II, and the first chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, lived nearby. Bonn's German Historic Museum has a great collection of artifacts, photos, and other exhibits about Germany from the 1930s to date. Information about the Nazis is fairly objective. Until about 1991 West Germans didn't like to talk about the Nazis or World War II. East Germans, under Soviet influence, were taught more about the horrors of Naziism and the war. However, recently West German newspapers often have objective articles about the Nazis and the war.

Vineyards grow along the Rhine and the Moselle Rivers. Dragon Castle is said to be the model for the castle in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. One castle is on an island in the Rhine, the castle owners stretched chains across and charged all boats a stiff toll to pass. REMAGEN had the only bridge across the Rhine not destroyed by retreating Germans in 1945. Germans had planned to blow it up but the connections to the explosives were bad. American troops used it to cross, beginning March 7. Ten days later the bridge fell, killing 28 soldiers. I stayed in a hotel in Remagen a few days in 1990, a museum exhibit shows that during all of World War II Britain had 74,000 tons of bombs dropped on it, while Germany had 1,350,000 tons. KOBLENZ, a busy "wine city," where the Moselle meets the Rhine, has a 10th Century fortress. Many French aristocrats, fleeing the Revolution in 1789, moved to Koblenz, bringing their skills with grapes and wines. On the Rhine's northeast bank, the Max Brook is the oldest castle not damaged in wars. At a sharp bend in the Rhine a beautiful maiden was said to wait on Lorely Rock, causing boat captains to run aground as they stared at her. Long narrow boats take tourists on the Rhine for a few hours or several days. RUDESHEIM is the main "wine village" on the Rhine. Our hotel with beautiful carved wood stairways and decorations had a dance band playing waltzes, polkas, the "Chicken Dance," and others. Many wine bars have their own vineyard in the rear. In October pickers put grapes into wicker baskets. On sunny summers little sugar need be added to make wine. German sparkling wine is called Hinkel. Not far away is the tall monument Germania, honoring the unification of Germany in 1871.

HEIDELBERG claims to have Europe's 2nd-oldest university (after Bologna). The university and a castle, built of red sandstone, were begun about 1386. The Old Bridge across the Neckar River is about 200 years older. The picturesque town with many students has cobblestone streets and flowers in windows. Several prisons were used to hold students who protested against the government. Heidelberg is Germany's only city not damaged during World War II, some smaller towns were also undamaged. I returned to Heidelberg on an excursion with my Cologne school. Students live in co-op buildings while attending classes for three months, and are off for three months, two times a year. The old castle has big wooden wine vats each holding 200,000 liters.

FREIBURG, at the southern edge of the Black Forest, was founded by ancient Romans. During winters farmers weave baskets and make cuckoo clocks, plates, and other wooden objects. A ski jump brings winter tourists. Near TITISEE (Lake) in the Black Forest a restaurant serves delicious but rich Black Forest cherry cake.

I asked several Germans to recommend their favorite small city to visit on a weekend. They recommended TRIER, Germany's oldest city. It was established long before Romans built the arena about 100 A.D., the Porta Nigra or city gate in the 4th Century, and the thermal baths later. Romans made it, called Augusta Treverorum, the capital of Gaul. It has Germany's best collection of old timbered buildings. The Simeonstraße and Hauptmarkt are among the most pleasant in Germany, with attractive shops, fountains, monuments, and plenty of room to people-watch on the pedestrian street. The big home where Karl Marx was born and grew up is near the town center, his father was an attorney. Friedrich Engels, a wealthy owner of a textile mill in Manchester, England, financed the writings of Karl Marx. Engels also changed Marx's pedantic writings into a more readable form. Several of Germany's most beautiful wine villages are downstream from Trier on the Moselle.

MANNHEIM, south of Cologne, is a rail center where I often change trains. It has long been a transportation center. The Neckar, flowing from Heidelberg, meets the Rhine at Mannheim. The old city wall and moat is now a ring road around the Old Town. Each block in Old Town is identified by a letter and a number. The huge 18th Century palace, with more than 500 rooms, is now the main building of the university. The Reiß Museum has a model of the first automobile, patented by local Karl Benz in 1869. It had three wheels, somewhat like cars used in Germany immediately after World War II. It led to the Daimler-Benz company, maker of Mercedes-Benz autos. Mannheim, like most German cities, has pleasant shopping streets where autos are usually banned.

Leaving the Black Forest in 1990, we rode trains east to AUGSBURG, population 250,000, in Bavaria. In the Schwäbian Alps castles on hills once protected the towns below. During a short stop in ULM I took a picture of the world's tallest church spire, 161 m. (528 ft.), built 1377 to 1890. I returned to Ulm in 1995, staying in a hotel near the huge gothic Münster. In Augsburg the market sold huge cabbages and pumpkins of all sizes. Bicycle lanes are well marked, cyclists are required to have a bell to warn pedestrians. Our city tour of Augsburg began in the large cobblestone square, with a monument of Roman Emperor Augustus, who founded the city in 15 B.C. The pine cone, ancient Rome's symbol of fertility, is Augsburg's symbol. In 955 A.D. the bishop led a battle to chase out Hungarian horsemen. The city hall has twin towers with onion domes, common in Germany. Its Golden Hall has beautiful carved decorations, and paintings on walls and the ceiling. We passed the MAN factory, making diesels invented there by Rudolph Diesel in 1893. We passed a small paper mill, and the old city wall and gates, with water towers, still in good condition. Messerschmidt had a factory making planes in World War II, the city was heavily bombed in February, 1944. The St. Ulrich Church, built in 1457, has round domes. Part of the cathedral was built in 1006. Five of the stained glass windows made in 1200 are preserved, only France's Chartres Cathedral has older stained glass windows. The heavy bronze 11th Century doors show the Story of Creation. A statue nearby shows a husband with a whip but the wife has the purse with the family's money. We passed the home of Leopold Mozart, who moved to Salzburg, Austria before his famous composer son was born.

Augsburg's Fuggerei was the world's first housing developement for the poor. It is still owned by a family of bankers. Built in 1519 of brick, remodeled after World War II, it is still in good condition. Each of the 144 apart-ments of about 60 sq. m. still rents for less than two dollars yearly, plus utilities! A resident must be poor, a city resident, Catholic, and pray daily. The man must be at least age 55. The waiting list is long. The project's gates are locked from 10:00 P.M. until 5:00 A.M. Anyone wanting to come in then must pay the watchman almost half a dollar. The museum unit is furnished as in the old days. Cooking was done on top of the brick fireplace. A bed had painted scenes on end panels. A fountain once provided all water, now each unit has a bathroom. Will public housing projects in the U.S.A. still be in excellent condition after nearly 500 years?

In Augsburg we passed the Puppet and Handwork Museum. Maximillan Street is called "Germany's best-preserved Renaissance street." It has magnificent old buildings carefully painted, including the Weaver's House. A fountain has a statue of Hercules fighting the Hydra. A plaque shows where Martin Luther debated with Cardinal Cajetan in October, 1518. The 14th Century St. Ann Church has many paintings and exhibits about Luther, and the room where he lived in 1518. Only 20 percent of the people in Augsburg are Protestant, most of the others are Catholic. The city hall's Golden Hall has ceiling murals and much gold gilt. The nearby Perlach Tower of the church provides a great view, 72 m. (236 ft.) above the main square. Skies were clear, we saw the Alps some 100 km. (60 mi.) south.

The Maximillan Museum, with ceiling frescoes 400 years old, has many carved statues of wood. One shows Saint Ursula being thrown into the river by Huns at Cologne, Germany in the 4th Century. Carved bronze jewelry boxes, book covers, elaborate sundials, and a clock made in 1589 are shown. A big table and other furniture was made locally from pure silver.

My wife and I first visited MUNICH in March, 1986, arriving by train from Salzburg. Foothills of the German Alps had birch and evergreen forests, and big farm homes of white masonry on the lower floor and brown wood above. A barn was often attached, in an L shape. Munich, population 1.3 million, is Germany's 3rd-largest city, the capital of its largest state, Bavaria. The hotel-pension where we stayed five nights, in the breakfast room, had a plastic container on each table for empty jam containers and wrappers. They are found throughout Germany, a custom that should be adopted elsewhere. On a city tour we passed the Womens Church, built in 1488, with twin towers, it is Munich's symbol. A bronze obelisk was dedicated to soldiers killed in Russia in 1812, for awhile some German states were allies of Napoleon. Munich has the Technical University, several attractive city squares, and many museums and theaters. The Schwabing District in the north has older rows of apartment buildings, five floors plus the attic. They are popular with the 100,000 university students, plus artists and bohemians. The tall golden Angel of Peace monument was erected in 1896, dedicated to 25 years of peace with France--peace lasted only another 18 years. We passed the large home of Conrad Roentgen, 1845-1923, physicist and inventor of the x-ray. In Maximillan's Palace Emperor Ludwig (Louis) I courted Lola Montez, the Irish dancer. Ludwig was forced to abdicate the throne during the Europe-wide revolution of 1848. The "mad" Ludwig II lived there while he planned the construction of "fairyland" castles. He was declared insane and committed suicide in 1886. His castles are now great tourist attractions. Part of the old city wall and its gates remain. In Marienplatz the 15th Century Town Hall has a tower with a famous glockenspiel or clock. Each hour, in the upper part, lifesize figures--a trumpeter, drum player, and two knights on horseback--in the upper part go around in opposite directions, to music. One knight knocked the other off his horse. Then the lower set of figures, men doing a folk dance, begin to move in a circle, twirling. The nearby cathedral has twin towers with domes. The Munich area has many large industrial plants and corporate headquarters, including Siemens AG, Audi, BMW, Deutsche Aerospace, and many book publishers.

Not far from Munich's Town Hall there are rows of residences built in the Medieval Age. Each October some seven million guests come to the Oktoberfest, drinking beer and having fun. Sonnenstr. is a main shopping street. Karlplatz is "Europe's largest underground shopping center." In summer the huge Englischer Garten park on the east side is filled with people and activities. On a warm summer Sunday I saw hundreds of nude sunbathers of all ages and both sexes lying on the grass to get a tan all over. The Hofbrauhaus is Germany's largest beer hall, seating 5,000. One evening we saw the show at Platzl am Platzl, another beer hall. During a traditional dinner with beer we watched dancers--men wore lederhosen short pants, suspenders, knee stockings, and pointed hats, often carrying a walking stick. Women wore wide bright skirts, embroidered white blouses, and aprons. In many of the Bavarian dances women twirled, men slapped their thighs and stomped their feet. A buxom woman sang, yodeled, and rang cow bells.

We rode the S-bahn about 20 km. (12 mi.) to DACHAU, the first of Nazi Germany's 26 concentration camps. Hitler established it in April, 1933, only two months after he took control of the government. The S.S. men soon filled it with anyone suspected of opposing the Nazis. Communists, gypsies, and homosexuals were among the first victims. The museum has photos of the rounding up of opponents and of prisoners, copies of letters, and newspaper articles. Prisoners were punished by flogging, hanging by the neck for hours, standing still for days at a time, cutting off food rations, and being put into chains. Medical experiments included giving prisoners malaria and testing drugs, putting them into icy water to see how long they could live, and by seeing how long they could live without oxygen. At one time Dachau and its sattelite camp had 37,000 prisoners. Hundreds died by starvation, sickness, exposure, daily shootings, or by being gassed in a castle in nearby Linz, Austria. The movie on Dachau included some of the Nazi films. We walked around on the big grounds, mostly gravel with a high chain link fence, guard towers, and many one-floor wood barracks, with bunk beds or cribs three tiers high. In the crematorium thousands were burned each week with coal. The gas chamber, disguised as a Brausebad or shower, was apparently not used.

In Munich we stayed all day at the Deutsche Museum, "the world's greatest science museum," on both our 1986 and 1993 visits. The 5th and 6th floors have astronomy exhibits, including a planeterium. Agricultural exhibits show the development of the plow in Europe since about 3500 B.C. An old Alpine dairy hut has cheese-making equipment. A lifesize model of a cow shows how she produces milk. Another model shows a brewery in ancient Egypt. Many waterwheels powering mills and windmills are shown. Ancient grains are displayed, some are not now used. Others are being revived. Round bread loaves from 2500 B.C., made of whole grain, were some 20 cm. (8 in.) in diameter and 2.5 cm. thick, much like bread baked today from Morocco through Pakistan. A McCormick reaper of 1831 is displayed. The family lived in one end of a big barn, they separated grain from stalks with two-piece flails.The physics section has hundreds of exhibits that children of all ages can play with. A car, 1922 vintage, was streamlined. The aeronautics and space floors have early and World War I planes, including a Fokker D VIII, and the large JU 52 tri-motor transport of 1932. Planes of World War II include the ME BF 109, the Dormnier DO 335 (the fastest propeller plane of 1943, 735 km. or 448 mi. per hr.), and the first jet, the tiny ME 163 B, of 1944, it could fly 950 km. or 580 per hr. The first twin jet plane, the ME 262, at 840 km. or 512 mi. per hr., was much faster than any plane of the Allies, but many 262s crashed on landing because Hitler insisted upon a tiny nose wheel. The V1 or Buzz Bomb long harassed Londoners. The V2 or Vengeance Weapon 2, launched October 3, 1942, flying 5,400 km. (3,354 mi.) per hr., is shown. They were built in a salt mine in Poland. The two-stage guided missile Rheintofer R1 was also launched in 1942. A museum attendant said all of the swastika symbols had been removed from warplanes because "it is a sensitive matter." Other exhibits include Europe's new rocket designed to match the Saturn rocket of the U.S.A. An exhibit shows how ceramic heat shields protect space ships. The museum has many kilometers of industrial and transportation exhibits, equal to the Smithsonian in Washington. We walked down several levels, through tunnels, in an old coal mine, a modern coal mine, an ancient mine for other minerals (a big fire was built to melt low-heat minerals), a potash mine, and ancient and modern salt mines. The energy rooms include models of human treadmills for producing power, used in 19th Century British prisons. Another treadmill was powered by two oxen.

We rode a tram to the Alte Pinakothek, Germany's largest art museum, for early European paintings through the 17th Century. It has 140 "masterpieces." It has the usual religious paintings, and one showing two orderly rows of knights in armor, each waiting to have his head chopped off. The museum has the world's largest collections of Rubens, many by Rembrandt, Bruegel, Durer, Murillo (including his "street urchin" series), the two Cranachs, Holbein, Da Vinci, Van Dyck, Hals, Titian, Velasquez, and El Greco. Many fascinating Bruegels show the life of the village people 400 years ago.

The Neue Pinakothek, across the street, has European and American paintings of the last 250 years, including Manet, Monet, Degas, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Corot, Gaugin, Gainsborough, Delacroix, and Goya. The ground floor had an exhibition showing an execution by a firing squad. An exhibit shows how Claude Monet's paintings became more impressionistic as he became almost blind--that is how he saw the world. He lived 1840-1926. We liked both museums so well that we returned to them during our visit in 1993.

On our first visit to Munich we left by sleeper train through Innsbruck, and Brenner Pass through the Alps, to Rome. Our comfortable compartment on a Voiture Lits car even had a chamber pot. We returned to Munich by train from France. We stayed in a private home, eating some dinners in a Bavarian tavern-restaurant. Soon we were sharing Prosts (toasts) with our Bruders.

We took trains southeast from Munich to BERCHTESGADEN, near the Austrian border. The little Alpine valley towns have many tourists in both summer and winter. In Berchtesgaden we found the tourist office, with good maps of hiking trails. We had great views in late April of nearby snowy mountains, including Mt. Watzman, elevation 2,713 m. (8,900 ft.). We walked past two ski jumps used in the Winter Olympics, they had green plastic "snow." Some men on the trail wore a green felt hat, boots, and leather or corduroy shorts with suspenders. Spring flowers were out. Due to heavy snow we couldn't hike all of the way to Kehlstein (Eagle's Nest), elevation 1,834 m. (6,016 ft.), popular with Hitler and his friends. The U.S.A. military has recently stopped using the resort, it will be available to many others.

We took a train from Munich to NUREMBERG, population half a million. We crossed a moat, entering the Old City. Some of the city wall's square gate towers, and the old Nassauer house remain. Part of the Town Hall was built in 1340. The Meistersingers set standards for music and poetry in Nuremberg in the 14th through the 16th centuries. Wagner wrote an opera about them. Nuremberg had the War Crimes trials by many nations of 22 Nazis in 1945 and 1946. Twelve were given death sentences, seven were imprisoned, and three were acquitted. Rudolf Hess was sent to Spandau Prison. Later the U.S.A. had trials in Nuremberg in 1946-1949 for some 185 additional Nazis.

The German National Museum has local artifacts since 500,000 years ago. Ancient Romans used a brooch with a swastika symbol, like that of ancient Buddhists, slightly different from the Nazi swastika. German surgeons as early as the 16th Century attached artifical hands with moving fingers and thumb, and arms and legs. Women at that time wore a band around the head which held a big magnifying reading glass down over one eye. Typical living rooms of well-to-do families of 1591 and 1603 are shown, with stained glass windows, and a big ship model. It has realistic big doll houses. The museum has many paintings by the Cranachs, including nudes from Bible stories. An exhibit shows a 16th Century military camp, with wagons circled, tents pitched inside, as in the later Old West of the U.S.A. One wagon had a cage for carrier pigeons. The museum has a huge collection of armor, both complete armor and chain mail. Many models show old farm buildings with thatch roofs. Ceramic stoves replaced open fireplaces by the close of the 16th Century. Many people wore wooden shoes. Women had a hand muff sewn into the front of their coat. Married women often wore black, as if in mourning. However, spring and summer clothes were white or brightly colored. Leaving the museum, we walked around in the picturesque city. The first pocket watch was invented in Nuremberg. Albert Durer, 1471-1528, lived in Nuremberg, he was court painter for Emperor Maximillan I. We left on a new express train with a speedometer in some cars, showing that we travelled at 255 km. (158 mi.) per hour. It is faster than the Japanese Shinkansens, not quite as fast as the French TGV, but it is wider and there is less sway than in the TGV. At the Munich railway station we rented a Koffer Kuli for one Mark, getting the coin back when we returned the baggage cart. We also took the fast train to Frankfurt, Hamburg, and return.

We took the Europa bus on the Romantic Road, with many Japanese tourists in 1990. Leaving Augsberg, going northwest, we were soon in flat fields of potatoes, radishes, turnips, and sugar beets. We passed a big base of the U.S. A. Air Force, and towns with mostly new buildings. DOUWORTH is a picturesque town on the Danube River, rebuilt after many wars. We saw a huge castle on a hill, then a crater 25 km. (16 mi.) across, made by a meteorite 15 million years ago. NORDLINGEN, surrounded by city walls, has cobblestone streets, half-timbered buildings, and a church tower rising 90 m. (295 ft.) high. WALLERSTEIN has a monument to the 14th Century Black Death, or Plague, with nodules on the granite, like nodules on the skin of victims. In DINKELBUHL, "the best-preserved German medieval town," we stopped a few hours. My wife and I walked completely around the town wall, usually on a platform just inside the wall. The wall is five to nine meters (16 to 30 ft.) high, covered with red roof tiles, like the 1,000 year old half-timbered buildings. The wall has many round or square towers with slots to shoot arrows. A moat extends part-way around the wall, and a small river passes on one side. In 1632, during the Thirty Years War that devastated Germany, Laura and several other local children persuaded the invading Swedish Protestant army commander not to destroy the Catholic town. Laura reminded the Swedish general of his own daughter of the same age. Most of the old houses have a roof beam extending over the street, to attach a pulley for lifting furniture in or out of the big windows.

ROTHENBURG ob TABER (on the Taber River) was 40 percent-destroyed during World War II, but it is well-restored like a medieval town. Our hotel, just outside the old city walls, assigned us to room number 13. People in most countries don't believe 13 has any special meaning. My wife and I walked around the old city wall, on an inside platform. The other half of the city wall is in good condition but has no walkway. There are many round or square towers, one has old cannon and a wagon. Hot tar could be poured onto attackers at the Castle Gate. In 1631 a Catholic general captured Rothenburg. The mayor offered to drink 3.25 liters (nearly a gallon) of beer without pausing for breath if the general would spare the town. The mayor saved the town but is said to have been sick a few days. The city hall's clocktower has a likeness of the general and the mayor, who raises his big beer mug on the hour. We crossed the old moat outside the high brick city walls that still surround the town. Cobblestone streets are bordered by half-timbered buildings up to 1,000 years old and the ancient city hall, with the tourist office.

The Puppet and Toy Museum has old carved wooden toys, including jointed pull toys. Most of the dolls of all sizes are dressed in traditional clothes, including lederhosen, still common in Bavaria. Elaborate three-dimensional stages with with puppets were designed for a particular Shakespeare or other popular drama. Before TV and movies puppets were a common entertainment. Doll houses up to four floors high plus a basement are realistic, in one the laundry dried on lines in the attic. Displays include complete stores or shops, one sold fish, another sold dry goods, there is a grocery, and a blacksmith's shop. Children like toys that mimic what adults do. Schoolrooms have benches, slates for lessons, wood pencil boxes, and a dunce in a corner--he wasn't required to wear a hat. We put coins into slots to watch the ferris wheel, merry-go-round, and other toys move.

Rothenburg's Criminal and Justice Museum has several floors of exhibits. Before 1300 there was little punishment except that administered by the courts. Thumb, finger, and foot screws put pressure on minor lawbreakers. In the public square men and women were put in pillory (with holes to lock the head and hands), in stocks (with holes to lock the ankles), in a cage, or in a drunk tank, often wearing a mask of shame or a violin around the neck. Some people had to sit in a chair with sharp hardwood spikes. For perjury a hand was chopped off! Politicians must have been more honest then, or there were a lot of one-handed politicians. "Immoral" women had their hair cut off. Married women were required to wear a bonnet when outdoors, like many of today's Islamic and other countries. Will women in fundamentalist Islamic countries have freedom of dress in 600 years? When the husband went out of town for a few days he locked a chastity belt on his wife, some were reputed to have a pass key. "Guilty" men and women were stretched by hanging from a hook, with weights attached to the feet. A heavy stone wheel was rolled over and over a convicted murderer, to break all of his bones. They were said to be broken by the wheel. "Bad" animals were believed to have a demon inside, after a trial they were punished like people. In taverns each customer had a stick, with a notch cut for each beer. When the stick was full he had to pay the bill. The museum has the second drinking fountain we found in Germany, it is labeled so Germans can know what the strange thing is.

Vaults in Rothenburg's Town Hall have relics of the Thirty Years War, including cannon, weapons, and soldiers' uniforms. An exhibit shows the mayor drinking wine in 1631 to save the town. A drama, Meistertrunk, was written about the event. The basement dungeon has three dark cells, used as a bomb shelter during World War II. The Imperial City Museum, (Reichstadt Museum) in a Dominican convent used until 1524, has local Stone Age artifacts, Roman ruins, and famous old religious paintings. The convent's kitchen, with an open chimney, hearth, and tools, all 700 years old, is still usable. We left Rothenburg on another Europa bus, the Romantic Road ended in Frankfurt.

We have stayed in FRANKFURT many times, its airport is the busiest on the Continent. We like the good train service from the airport to downtown, common in several European cities. Our city tour provided "a free frankfurter." We saw St. Paul's Church, "the cradle of German democracy," where leaders met in 1848. Like nearly every public building in Frankfurt, it was destroyed in World War II and painstakingly rebuilt. It has a plain curving front of red brick. The railway station claims to be "the largest in Europe." Leipzig's station has more tracks but fewer passengers or trains. Frankfurt has only 620,000 people but it has 550,000 jobs, many come from the suburbs. It is Germany's financial and commercial headquarters. The tall twin towers of the Deutsche Bank and other skyscrapers are not far from a city park shaped like a horseshoe, replacing part of the old city walls torn down by Napoleon. We saw the Old Opera House, the Bank of Trade Unions (they are powerful but usually cooperative with management), the red sandstone Hotel Frankfurter Hof with carved stone figures, and the financial center, with the busy stock exchange and some 372 banks. More than half are foreign. An 1840 monument and fountain with water coming from mouths of animals is dedicated to German unity. In Romerberg Square we stopped to look at the 19th Century City Hall. Several buildings on the square are of half-timbered construction. We saw a wedding party at the City Hall, the bride wore black, was she mourning already? German emperors were crowned since 1356 in the cathedral, leading to problems with the pope, who wanted to crown them. Charlemagne lived awhile in Frankfurt in 768 A.D. The Kaiser's Imperial chambers were used for banquets, it has paintings of all the German emperors. Napoleon abolished emperors for awhile, after 1815 they were crowned in Berlin, until World War I. The Main River was in flood stage during our visit in April 1988. The tall round Henninger stone tower, built in 1428, was used for protection if an enemy invaded. Palm Garden has a lake and several large greenhouses. One is like a tropical rain forest, with tropical flowers, other plants and birds. Another greenhouse, dry, has cactus and other desert plants. Frankfurt University has some 30,000 students. The city is clean, with many cans for trash.

Frankfurt's trades exhibition building is large enough for international fairs, popular in German cities. In 1995 I attended its Buch Messe, along with nearly 400,000 other visitors. I had hotel reservations, hotels are filled for a 100 km. (60 mi.) radius. Book publishers and buyers come from all over the world. Tourists and business travellers to German cities often find that there are no hotel room vacancies because of a big exposition.

Goethe's wealthy family, wine merchants, bought two houses when he was only six, remodeling them to make a large house. The second floor has large old wardrobes with two "feet" at the rear and three in the front to support the heavy clothes. The family had so many clothes that they did laundry only three times yearly. The reception room has a ceramic tile stove, a chandelier, and Chinese-style wallpaper, popular in Europe in the 18th Century. The third floor has a huge eight-day clock, with the date, sun, zodiacs, phases of the moon, and a bear who falls down weekly six hours before the clock runs down. Goethe's mother wrote the famous letters to her son on the desk in her room. The fourth floor has a linen press, used (as in old Korea) rather than ironing to remove wrinkles. Goethe's room and his puppet theater are on the fourth floor. He wrote dramas for that theater. The kitchen has a water pump, then rare and expensive, with a stone sink and drain, and metal foot food molds. A bronze cover rested on the big stove, the cover was removed and used as a warmer for feet. The candle lantern had two candles. By law anyone out at night was imprisoned if not carrying a candle. A two-candle lantern indicated a wealthy person, the one-candle people had to yield the right-of-way to them.

The Volkerunde or Ethnology Museum near the Main River had many exhibits about Java, Indonesia--its rice culture, Buddhist and Hindu temples, shadow puppets, wavy kris daggers, and batik cloth. Kaisterstr. is a popular pedestrian shopping street, almost free of automobiles. The Zeil, a few blocks north, goes to the Hauptwache, Germany's busiest shopping area. The Frankfurt Zoo is small but one of the world's best. It is known for treating wildlife unusually well, and for the number of baby animals and other creatures born there. The nocturnal building has dim blue lights during the daytime so visitors can see New Zealand kiwis, various cats, and other creatures that are active at night. The monkey house has many varieties, it and the apes house are popular with families. The Exotarium is heated, with wildlife of tropical jungles and deserts.

We took a fast Inter-City Express train from Frankfurt north to HAMBURG, population 1,600,000, Germany's 2nd-largest city. We saw windmills with four big sails, mounted on round stone towers. We chatted in German with the other passengers. Several of the elderly women passengers said they had a relative living in America. They said "America is so big. Germany is so crowded." Germany has few elderly men, most were killed in World War II. Hamburg is Germany's "most British city." We ate in a Turkish restaurant. Near the railway station there is a McDonalds, but we saw only a few hamburger restaurants in Hamburg. Hamburgers were not invented in Hamburg.

The next morning we took an S-bahn to Alster Lake for a cruise. The lake was formed by building a dam on the small Alster River. Big old hotels line the lake, with swans, ducks, and other birds. We took another tram south to the harbor. Hamburg, the "Venice of the North," has 2,556 bridges, more than any other European city. Only Suzhou, China, has more. Hamburg is on the wide Elbe River some 130 km. (80 mi.) from where the river flows into the North Sea. Some 13,000 ships each year find their way up the 11-meter (42 ft.) deep river to Hamburg's harbor. The city was swampy, the tallest building has only 28 floors. Our boat wound around on canals among huge red brick warehouses. Hamburg was badly damaged during World War II bombing but the thick brick walls remained largely intact. A drydock had painted murals of old sailing ships.

We took a tour on Hamburg's Hummeltrain. It starts at the railway station, passes the Museum of Arts and Handicrafts, art gallery, crosses the Lombard Bridge at Lake Alster, passes the old Town Hall, TV tower, and the banking and insurance district. Not far from the waterfront we rode through the Reeperbahn and St. Paulli district with night life and some 2500 licensed "working girls," displaying most of their assets in windows, as in Amsterdam. The Beetles in 1962 got their big start at the Star Club on the Reeperbahn. The Köhlbrand suspension bridge is almost four km. (2.5 mi.) long. We looked at the museum ships, including the sailing ship Rickmer Rickmers. Nearby we ate tasty herring with pickle. We visited the big fish and flea market and explored the St. Michael Lutheran Church and a nearby cobblestone street. The Old Elbe Tunnel went under the river, leading us to the fenced-in free-trade port area. Germany's large weekly newsmagazine Der Spiegel, is published nearby. Thirteen more of Germany's largest magazines are published in Hamburg.

Warner Brothers of the U.S.A. in 1996 is building a large theme park in Hamburg. The Auto Museum has old cars from about 1903 to 1960, German, French, British, and American. Three-wheel German cars of the 1950s include the Messerschmidt Kabinroller, the Heinkel, and the Fulda-Mobil. It also has three-wheel bicycles and old motorcycles.

We took the U-bahn train northeast to VOLKSDORF to see the rural farm village museum. It has some 12 buildings with steep roofs, built from about 1650 to 1850, which were moved from the Holstein highlands north of Hamburg. Big barns had stalls for animals, which provided some winter warmth for the family, living in one end of the building. Inside walls are usually horizontal tree limbs, attached to vertical studs, with plaster on both sides. In a typical home the kitchen sink, drainboard, plates, and eating utensils were made of wood. An egg beater was made from a birch stick with many small limbs. Wire prongs to shred flax, spinning wheels for flax and wool, and looms, are shown. The blacksmith's shop has a big bellows in the attic, operated by a pull cord through the ceiling. A Gesselschaft Wagen (for a business firm) of 1652 has three seats, each with springs. There are other wagons, carts, a sleigh, and a hand-pushed wagon for deliverying milk to homes. The well sweep has a weighted boom. In one home the family lived in a large room, with fireplace at one end, and enclosed sleeping cabinets, with beds of straw covered with linen and blankets. The cabinets with doors gave the parents and children some privacy. The second son, who could not inherit the family farm, often entered the milk trade.

HANNOVER has long been a center for transportation between north and south Germany and east and west Germany. With around a million people in the city and nearby, it is a major industrial center. The tourist office has established the Red Thread, or red paint on sidewalks that lead to important places. A booklet and map available for only 2 DM provides a guided tour. The huge New City Hall, built in the early 1900s on 6,026 piles driven into the soft ground, looks old. Inside are models of the city at various times. In 1689 it was surrounded by moats and the Leine River, the city walls had many corners to shoot at invading troops. In 1943 some 70 percent of the buildings were damaged by bombing. Britain's royal family from 1714 to 1901 were closely related to the family that began to rule Hannover in 1235. Thus, England's George III used many troops from Hannover in his war with the American colonies. Hannover has several blocks with some of Germany's best-preserved half-timbered houses. Its oldest house, four floors high, was built in 1566.

[Excerpt, Countries and Cultures, Vol. II, P. 252-253]

Italian Republic (Italy)

Population 58 million (including Sicily 5 million and Sardinia 1,700,000) (0.1 % per year natural increase); area 301,600 sq. km. including Sicily and Sardinia (116,000 sq. mi.); GDP $999 billion; average income $17,200; literacy rate 97%

Population of Rome 2.8 million, Milan 1.4 million, Naples 1.1 million

History. (See Ancient Civilizations for the Etruscans and Roman Empire. Also see Vatican City.) The Roman Empire became weak and disorganized. The Visigoths pillaged Italy in 410 A.D., the Vandals in 455, and the Ostrogoths in 488. Lombards occupied much of Italy in the 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries. At the request of the pope, the Franks Pepin and Charlemagne fought and defeated the Lombards. When Charlemagne died Italy separated into many city states. Muslims controlled much of Sicily. Normans captured part of southern Italy in the 11th Century. In the 11th through 13th centuries various German rulers attempted to conquer much of Italy. Several towns formed the Lombard League and defeated Frederick Barbarossa (Redbeard) of Swabia in 1176. Cities that supported Germans were called Ghibelline, those supporting the pope were Guelph. The Guelphs split into two groups, the Black and the White. Whites opposed the pope. Dante Alighieri was a White, he had to seek shelter, partly in Verona's Castel Vecchio. He wrote the Divine Comedy to express his anti-pope sentiments. In the 14th and 15th centuries various cities in Italy fought each other. Despite the rivalries the Renaissance in literature, art, science, and new ways of thinking began, first in Florence. France invaded, then Spain. In the 17th Century Francesco Boromini, who had experience as a stone mason, designed thin and other unusual bricks. He used them for innovative architectural designs.

The pope crushed the popular Protestant movement in the 16th Century with the Inquisition. After the War of the Spanish Succession, 1714, Austria replaced Spain in the control of much of Italy. Later, Napoleon invaded. When he was defeated, the Congress of Vienna, 1814-1815, gave part of northern Italy to Austria. A strong desire to unify Italy developed. In 1848, the year of great protest movements in Europe, a Sardinian army seeking independence fought Austria but lost. Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II led armies that liberated most of Italy by 1871, finally defeating the French and Austrians. The Kingdom of Italy had been proclaimed in 1861, with Emmanuel as king. Last to be conquered was Rome, defended by the papal gendarmes and army. There was much rejoicing in Rome when the army of the cruel pope was defeated.

Italy was humiliated by defeat in a war against Ethiopia in 1896. In 1882 Italy signed the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria. However, they began, without consulting Italy, fighting that led to World War I in 1914. Italy in 1915 denounced the Triple Alliance and declared war on Austria. When Germany and Austria were defeated Italy acquired from Austria territory in the northeast--Trieste and the southern Tirol. In 1922 the Fascists led by Benito Mussolini took over the government. In 1935 and 1936 the Italian army occupied Ethiopia. In the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939, Italy fought alongside Nazi Germany. Italy invaded Albania and attacked Greece but was pushed back.

During World War II Mussolini and Hitler were allied. In July 1943 American and British troops landed in Sicily. They had been informed by members of the Mafia where German and Italian troops were stronger and weaker. The Mafia started more than 200 years ago as a method to avoid paying taxes to the Spanish government. Under the Fascist government the Mafia had become weak. Mussolini was forced to resign and the king took over the government. The king negotiated an armistice with the Allies on September 3, 1943. The Allies crossed into mainland Italy the same day. The Allies announced the armistice on September 8. German troops then began strong defensive fighting. Allies landed at Anzio, south of Rome on January 22, 1944. There was fierce fighting for more than a year. Germans tried to keep Italian soldiers in the northern Fascist army but many escaped and became partisans. Partisans captured and killed Mussolini.

After World War II ended the American government gave much financial and other help to Italy. On June 2, 1946 Italians voted in a referendum to end the kingdom and become a republic, also voting for delegates to parliament. In 1948 the U.S.A. gave much help under the Marshall Plan. Aid was tied to the Christian Democrats ruling, not the communists. The pope announced that anyone who voted for the communist party would be excommunicated. There are 630 members of the Chamber of Deputies (Camera) and 315 members of the Senate. The president, elected by parliament, is a figurehead. The prime minister is elected by a majority of parliament, he needs a majority to govern. Italy has many political parties. Each special interest group has its own party. It is rare that any party has a majority, so alliances are formed to organize a government. Italy had nearly 60 governments between 1945 through 1995. The Christian Democrats (D.C.), nominally Catholic, governed most of the time, with one or more allies. The Socialist Party (PSI) was its usual ally. After many charges of corruption, the D.C. and the P.S.I. parties dissolved themselves late in 1993. The Communist Party, later called the Democratic Party of the Left (Partido Demo della Sinistra), has been one of the larger parties, despite early opposition by the pope and the U.S.A.

[Excerpt, Countries and Cultures, Vol. II, P. 285-293]

French Republic (France)

Population 58 million (0.4 % per year natural increase); area 546,600 sq. km. (210,000 sq. mi.); GDP $1.05 trillion; average income $18,200; literacy rate 99%

History. Man has lived in France for more than 55,000 years. Hunters who lived partly in caves painted some of the animals they saw, in places like Lascaux cave. In Brittany near Carnac big stones or menhirs were lined in rows before 2,000 B.C., shortly after England's Stonehenge was built. They were used by Druids. Julius Caeser conquered Gaul in 52 B.C. The people of Gaul spoke a Celtic language and smelted iron. Franks, a Germanic tribe, began to settle in Gaul in the 3rd Century. As the Roman Empire weakened Vandals, Visigoths, and Huns arrived. Attila the Hun was defeated in 451. A series of Frankish fighters controlled much of the area, beginning with Clovis in 481. They were called the Merovingians, but by 742 Pepin the Short was the real ruler of the area. Charles Martel ("Charles the Hammer") united most of France in 719. In 711 the Moors (Muslims) had conquered much of Spain. They headed north to conquer the Franks, and perhaps all of Europe. Martel soundly defeated them at the Battle of Tours in 732, stopping their advance and driving them back. Pepin III was the son of Charles Martel.

Carcassone Mont St. Michel, Normandy, France

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In 751 Pepin III was approved by the pope as king of France, he began the Carolinigian dynasty. Pepin's son Charles, known as Charlemagne (Karl der Große in modern German) was a great fighter who extended his rule over much of western Europe. He practically lived on his horse, leading his army. After he helped the pope defeat the pope's enemies he was appointed emperor in 800 A.D. When Charlemagne died in 814 his son Louis I the Pius became king. After some quarrels, in the Treaty of Verdun in 843 the sons of Louis divided up the empire: Charles the Bald got the western part that became France, Lothair ruled over a middle part, and Louis the German got the eastern part. However, all of the kings became weaker, local rulers became stronger, and feudalism spread.

Hugh or Capet became king in 987 A.D., he and his male heirs were the Capetan dynasty. They ruled until 1328. Normans (“Northmen”) began to raid the northwest coast in the 9th Century. After many fights and raids, in 911 Charles III (“the Simple”) agreed that Norman king Rollo could have a large area if he acknowledged Charles to be king. Louis VII in 1137 married Eleanor of Aquitane, getting additional territory larger than his kingship. However, Louis had his marriage dissolved, Eleanor regained her lands, and married Henry. Henry in 1154 became Henry II of England, and his descendants claimed what had been Eleanor's lands. The French kings had considerable power and a civil service. The last male Capetan died, and in 1328 Philip VI became king, establishing the Valois dynasty. The Hundred Years War between France and England began around 1337 when the English king Edward III and the French king Philip VI claimed the same territory, the lands that had been Eleanor's. France lost a naval battle, and in 1348 the Black Death or plague killed about one-third of the people in France. The French kings had established the pope in Avignon, it was not until 1417 that the French accepted a pope in Rome. (See The Vatican.) In France the Duke of Orleans and the Duke of Burgundy quarreled. Henry V of England defeated the French at a battle in Agincourt in 1415. The English in 1428 laid siege to Orleans. However, Joan of Arc, a peasant girl, believed that she had a divine mission. She persuaded other French to attack and drive away the English at Orleans, and to have Charles crowned as King of France, as Charles VII in 1429. (He had become king in 1422, but was weak.) Charles spent much time with his beautiful mistress, Agnes Sorel. Later the English bribed Burgondians to capture Joan and give Joan to their control. The English occupied much of what is now western France. Joan was tried and convicted for heresy under the Inquisition. She was burned at the stake in 1431. Later Joan was rehabilitated, and made a heroine. After losing other battles the English left in 1453.

Louis XI began his reign in 1461. He expanded the bureaucracy and centralized control, weakening the Dukes of Burgundy and others. His son Charles VIII invaded Italy in 1494. France fought Austria's Habsburgs under Charles V. By a settlement in 1529 France agreed to leave Italy. However, Charles' son, Henry II, re-entered Italy, fighting Spain there, at a great cost in money and deaths to both countries. Henry's thoughts were mostly how to please his beautiful mistress, Diane of Potiers. He died young. Protestant Calvinists or Huguenots had become powerful in France. Henry's queen, Catherine de Medicis, daughter of Italy's Lorenzo the Magnificent (see Italy), attempted in a council in 1561 to conciliate the differences between the Huguenots and the Catholics. However, she later ordered that the Hugenot leader be assassinated. When this failed, she ordered that all Huguenots in Paris be killed. On August 24, 1572, in the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, some 20,000 Huguenots were killed. There were several battles between Huguenots and Catholics. The third and last of Catherine's sons who ruled as her puppets, Henry III, was assassinated in 1589. Henry of Navarre, a Protestant, became king in 1589, as Henry IV. He decided that "Paris is worth a mass," and converted to Roman Catholicism in 1593. In 1598, by the Edict of Nantes, Henry gave the Huguenots full religious and civil rights. France prospered, although inflation was a problem, caused by the great wealth that Spain brought into Europe from its colonies in the New World.

Henry IV was assassinated in 1610. Louis XIII, young son of Marie de Medicis, became king. Cardinal Richilieu, the secretary of state, increased the power of the king, at the expense of nobles. In 1629 Richilieu took away the rights of the Huguenots, many left France for England. He became allies with northern Protestants in fighting Germany in the Thirty Years War. Richilieu raised taxes, enlarged the navy, and developed colonies in the Americas and Africa. Louis XIV became king in 1643. During his reign of 72 years he used his "divine rights" to become more powerful, build an expensive palace at Versailles, increase the military strength, and to regulate commerce to increase manufacturing and exports. He spent most of the rest of France's resources in the War of Spanish Succession against the Habsburgs of Austria. The Treaty of Utrecht, 1713, permitted his grandson to be king of Spain.

After Louis XV became king in 1715 Parliament increased its power and weakened the king. One of his official mistresses, Mme. du Barry, caused a lot of money to be spent on literature and the arts. France was again the cultural leader of Europe. Another official mistress, Marquise de Pompadour, persuaded the king to spend a lot of money in the War of Austrian Succession, 1756-1763. In the war France lost many colonies to Britain. Under Louis XVI France spent much money trying to "get even with Britain" by helping the American colonies in their revolution against Britain. Much money was also spent on roads and schools. However, the gap between the rich and the poor in France continued to widen. Taxes of the poor were used to support the government and the Church.

The ancien régime and the "divine rights of kings" ended in 1789 with the Revolution. A mob attacked the Bastille prison in Paris on July 14, 1789, releasing prisoners, and tearing it down within weeks. Voltaire had been a prisoner there for a year, 1717-1718. He learned that there was no right of free speech. He was released upon condition that he leave France. He spent several years in England, where he had more freedom to write poetry and plays that criticized some governments. His Candide is my favorite. It tells of a gullible young man who finally sheds his illusions and learns to quietly "cultivate his own garden." Bastille Day, July 14 is a national holiday, honoring the triumph of the people over bad government.

Members of the Estates General were elected in 1789: the First was the Church, the 2nd was the nobles, and the 3rd was commoners. Members of the 3rd Estate decided to write a constitution. The Assembly passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The Assembly confiscated the property of the Church to pay for changes. On October 6, 1789 the royal family were removed from the palace at Versailles and brought to Paris. My wife and I were in France several months in 1989, the bicentennial year of the beginning of the Revolution. In 1790 the Assembly released the clergy from their vows, ended Church control by the pope, and required that priests and bishops be elected. The rich monasteries were abandoned all over France, the monks disguised themselves and hid.

Some members of the Assembly used the Jacobin Club in Paris to spread their views on equality and changes needed. On June 20, 1791 King Louis XVI, his wife Marie Antoinette, (daughter of Maria Theresa, the Austrian Queen), and children left Paris in a stagecoach, going toward Austria. They were captured at Varennes and brought back to Paris. On August 10, 1792 a mob attacked the palace, taking the royal family as prisoners. War was declared between France and Austria. Marie Antoinette is said to have notified Austrians of France's military secrets. France was proclaimed a republic. Louis XVI was killed by guillotine on January 21, 1793. Marie Antoinette was executed on the guillotine 10 months later.

The Committee of Public Safety was created, assuming great powers. The Reign of Terror began, killing 40,000 or more people who were believed to oppose the views of some revolutionists. There were many disagreements between various factions leading the Revolution, including the Girondists, Montagnards, and Jacobins. Many supporters of the Revolution died on the guillotine. George Danton, an attorney who voted for the king's death and a member of the Committee for Public Safety, died in 1894 on the guillotine. Jean Marat, a physician and radical Jacobin was tried by the Girondists but he was acquitted. A few months later Charlotte Corday, a Girondist, assassinated him in his bath. She was executed. Maximilien Robespierre, a Jacobin, who caused the death of Danton and many others, died a few months later on the guillotine. His death ended the Reign of Terror. Kings throughout Europe feared that the Revolution in France might spread to their country. They sent armies to attack France.

Napoleon Bonaparte, a general, abandoned his army after its defeat in Egypt by the British. Napoleon was welcomed in Paris as a hero in October 1799. He gradually took a dictator's powers. At times the French want a strong leader, they did particularly after the anarchy of the Revolution. Napoleon's army defeated the Austrians in 1800. A Concordant in 1801 recognized the Roman Catholic Church as the religion of the majority of Frenchmen, but it also paid salaries to Protestant ministers and permitted civil marriage and divorce. Napoleon was popular in France. In 1804 he crowned himself emperor, independent of the Church. He established the Bank of France, increased taxes, established a livret or identity for workers, increased tariffs to protect French industry and agriculture, and drafted the Code Napoléon. It modernized all of France's civil and criminal laws, and was put into effect throughout Europe occupied by Napoleon. However, the progressive code of laws was not put into effect in Spain, which remained agricultural and backward. England had the equally-progressive common law.

Napoleon's army was well organized, with a written manual of instruction for each level of officers. The French had learned to store food in bottles and boil it in water awhile, then the food would keep without spoiling. The supplying of food and materials for an army on the go had never been better organized. French engineers and workers built many roads and bridges in France and much of Europe as his army invaded. Napoleon planned to invade Britain but British Admiral Nelson's victory at Trafalgar in 1805 ended the plan, as Britain's defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 had ended plans of the Duke of Parma to invade Britain from Dunkirk, and defeat of the Nazi Luftwaffe in 1940 and 1941 would end Hitler's plan to invade.

Napoleon took over Switzerland and much of Germany and Italy. When Pope Pius VII excommunicated Napoleon in 1809 the pope was put into prison. Napoleon's army invaded the Netherlands and the former ally, Spain. In 1812 an army of 600,000 marched into Russia. As winter approached a fire destroyed much of Moscow and shelter for the French army. In the severe winter the French retreated. One of the bestsellers in modern France is Histoire d'un Conscrit de 1813 (Story of a Draftee in 1813). Erckmann-Chatrian wrote a popular version, published by Librarie Hachette. Based upon a diary kept by the draftee, he tells of his training, camping in Europe, the hardships, his being wounded, and return home. Napoleon became very unpopular with defeat. He abdicated in 1814 and was exiled to the tiny island of Elba. He escaped, secretly arrived in Paris, then organized another army. He was defeated at Waterloo on June 18, 1815, and exiled to St. Helena, where he died six years later.

Louis XVIII was restored to the throne. His successor, Charles XX, dissolved Parliament and ordered an end to elections in July, 1830. A revolution forced him to abdicate. A law in 1833 established primary schools. The revolution of 1848, spread throughout Europe, forced out the government. The 2nd Republic was established, but it did not last long. Louis Napoleon, grandson of the general, won elections. Later he became emperor, building great new avenues in Paris. Industrial and agricultural production increased rapidly in France. In elections in 1869 France voted for the "Liberal Empire", with more power for Parliament.

Bismarck of Prussia trapped France into declaring war against Prussia in 1870. The French army was quickly encircled and defeated. (See Germany.) France lost the Alsace-Lorraine region. Paris mobs demanded that the monarchy be abolished. The 3rd Republic was declared. The republicans advocated dignity for the individual, freedom from harassment by the State, and reducing the influence of the Church.

On August 1, 1914 Germany declared war on Russia, then on France. After four years of war involving many countries, World War I ended with the Armistice of November 11, 1918. France insisted upon more sanctions against Germany than America or Britain asked for. Germany, suffering from inflation and other hardships, defaulted on some payments of reparations. France and Belgium then occupied Germany's Ruhr district. In the mid-1930s Nazi Germany took several central European countries. When it invaded their ally Poland, France and Britain on September 3, 1939 declared war against Germany. In late May, 1940 the German army quickly approached France, going around the "impregnable" Maginot Line. Germany had also gone around France's defensive army in 1870, trapping it. France fell on June 22, 1940. France was forced to sign an armistice in the same railway car in which Germany signed the armistice ending World War I. The Vichy government was set up to administer part of France. Nazis began to force young French men to fight for Germany. Some hid and became guerrillas in the Underground. American and British troops landed in Normandy, France on June 6, 1944, and slowly pushed back the Nazi army. Americans and British permitted French General Charles de Gaulle to govern liberated France. When it appeared that communists had considerable power De Gaulle resigned in 1946. The 4th Republic was established, but it was much like the 3rd. The Marshall Plan of the U.S.A. helped France to recover.

France abandoned a war in Indo-China (Vietnam) after it was defeated at Dien Bien Phu in May, 1954. De Gaulle returned to power in June, 1958. In a referendum in September, 1958 voters approved a new constitution and the 5th Republic, weakening Parliament but making a strong executive. In July, 1962 France left Algeria, after a long war and a vote in Algeria chose independence. In the next few years France, like other European countries, lost most of its colonies in Africa. In 1968 there were protests in France by students wanting many reforms. Some protests became violent, with students at the barricades. The year 1968 was a year of protests, like 1848. Protests by students and others occurred then in several European countries and the U.S.A., triggered by opposition to the war in Vietnam. De Gaulle agreed to reform and democratize the public schools and universities. De Gaulle resigned in 1969 and died the next year. French since then have voted sometimes for Socialists and sometimes for Conservatives.

Background. [France] Some 32 percent of the land is arable. There are 332 people per square km. of arable land. France has 21 million cattle, 12.4 million pigs, and 10.6 million sheep. The annual fish catch is 813,000 metric tons. France produces and exports more food than any other country in Western Europe.

France has long had a military draft of young men. Recently they have served 10 months active duty, although many worked in industry at least part of that time. Early in 1996 France announced plans to end the military draft within a few years, and to have only volunteers in the military. A military draft triggers opposition to a regime if young men are required to serve in an unpopular war. A military force of only volunteers is less likely to trigger protests.

The French are among the most independent people in Europe. Their constitution has been rewritten so many times that government and laws at times seem to be irrelevant. If there is no oncoming traffic a Frenchman may go through a red light. It is merely a guideline, but "individual rights are more important." A city's law may require that a dog owner clean up the mess the dog makes on the sidewalk, but laws are only guidelines. A law requires that cars have yellow headlights to avoid dazzling other drivers, but the law is often ignored. France has a law effective in 1993 banning cigarette advertising and smoking in public places. Will it be followed and uniformly enforced? French TV programs about police and detectives are popular, but their police make a lot of errors. They are often shown as being incompetent. Do the French enjoy making fun of authority? Or do they have a better sense of humor than the rest of us?

France has suffered long strikes, by postal workers, transportation workers, and other government employees. Truck drivers have at times blocked main roads for weeks at a time during a strike. Many French cheered when army tanks were finally used to remove the trucks. Farmers have had political power to get subsidies so they can then sell wheat and other products at or below world market prices.

Most hotel rooms with a private bath also have a bidet for washing the "private parts." Some have a stopper and are filled with water, another type has a spray of water that shoots upward. Hotel registration is simple, as in Germany. Identification or a passport is rarely requested--quite a contrast to Italy, where the hotel needs a passport to prepare a report for police. Visitors often see people carrying the long baguettes of delicious bread, or the narrower and smaller ficelles of bread. Sometimes several loaves are carried crossways on the carrier of a bicycle. Bakeries get rid of unsold bread at the end of the day, sometimes by giving it away. It is always sold fresh. Many women in cities now work outside of the home. They no longer have time for fancy cooking. Supermarkets are becoming popular. Even frozen food is sold. Food in French restaurants is nearly always tasty. I was surprised to learn that Paris, a city with great food, has at least 38 McDonalds restaurants. All that I saw were busy, many guests were local young people. Short-order restaurants of a French chain, Quick, also seem to be busy. French eat the big meal at noon, usually with wine. Many businesses in Paris are closed about two hours for lunch, in the south they may be closed three hours. Tipping is common in France. Cashiers in a restaurant or grocery store often have a plate for tips, which they rattle so it will be noticed. There are few large department stores to compete with small shops. Prices are usually high in France. There is a stiff VAT (Value Added Tax) of about 18.5 percent. Foreigners from outside the European Union can ask about getting a refund.

The minimum wage in France in 1989 was 5,000 Francs per month for full-time work. At that time the exchange rate was about 6.8 Francs per dollar, in 1995 it was about five Francs per dollar. Thus, France's minimum wage was equal to about 735 dollars U.S.A., the same in 1989 as the minimum wage in the U.S.A. for a 40 hour week. In France health care is free. In the U.S.A. it is extra and expensive. Many French claim that Algerians use the system to get expensive care. French also complain that Algerian men "never work, they just sit around and drink coffee or talk with friends." The cultures are much different. Some three-fourths of the French buy additional health coverage, since physicians have the right to charge more than the government pays for services. France has since the 1930s paid a monthly allowance to a mother of a new baby to stay home. A monthly allowance is also paid for each minor child. A survey showed that 75 percent of adults own an apartment or a house--one of the highest rates of home ownership in the world.

Christmas trees are common in France. On the evening before Christmas they open presents. At midnight many families eat an oyster dinner. French do not send Christmas cards, they phone their friends. The post office does not have a big Christmas rush, July is its busiest month. Most private industry vacations have not started then but many postal employees have a July vacation. Most people have a vacation the entire month of August. They rarely send birthday or other greeting cards. Telephones and phone calls are expensive in France. Some of our friends said they pay about 200 U.S.A. dollars per month for only local service--it is based upon how long they talk. Most adults buy a telephone card with magnetic information, used for a stated number of "units" of local or long distance calls. Any telephone has a window that tells the value of the card that remains. Most pay phones use the cards, the phones are vandalized less than coin phones.

France has long been considered to be a place for refugees. That attitude is changing. In 1992 France had almost four and a half million immigrants, or eight percent of the population. In 1992 West Germany had about 4.8 million immigrants and East Germany had about 200,000. Around 6.3 percent of Germany's total population was immigrants. The number of immigrants in both countries has increased considerably since then.

French students have five years of primary school, starting at age six. Next, they have four years of collège or secondary school. During or at the end of the four years they take an important exam, the Brevet or BEPC. Based partly upon results of the BEPC they study in a lycée either (1) two years and get a BEP, or certificate of aptitude, CAP, or (2) three years in (a) a technical program permitting them to continue another one or two years for a superior technician's certificate, BTS, or (b) an academic program in one of eight broad areas, when they finish studies they take an exam for a baccalauréat or BAC. A recent study showed that only 74 percent of the students who complete the academic program earn a BAC. A BAC is required before entering any higher education program. The government pays part of the expenses of students in church schools if they meet certain requirements. Some students cram for two years in a special lycée, equal to the first two years in a university. Many students with a BAC attend a university, but a recent study show that 40 percent drop out after the first year. The places of higher learning are 70 or so universities, a few grandes écoles, and a few poly-technical schools. After two years in a university a student may earn a diploma in general studies or DEUG, after another year a license, and still another year la maîtrise. A student may continue another three years of advanced specialized studies for a doctorat or DESS.

The French may not smile much, but they do have a sense of humor. They tend to be more cynical than many other Europeans. They do not directly criticize someone who makes a mistake. They do not get personal. Like Austrians, Italians, Spanish, and some other Europeans, they are usually formal when addressing an adult. They use monsieur often when talking with a man, and madam often when talking with a woman.

The president is elected for 7 years by popular vote. He has considerable power and appoints the premier. Jacques Chirac, Conservative, was elected in 1995. His decision to test nuclear weapons in the South Pacific was very unpopular. François Mitterand, Socialist, had served two terms but did not run as president. He later died. Parliament consists of the Senate and the National Assembly. The Cabinet is responsible to Parliament. France's 22 administrative regions are divided into 96 departments.

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