This next post is a bit long. It was a very full week! Sadly, photos cannot compete with experiencing the sights and smells and tastes of Deutschland.
I have now finished studies at the Goethe Institute. All went well, but I feel like I am even closer to actually feeling competent with the language. The hardest part for me remains understanding language on the street, as well as remembering the articles. If German had no articles (die, der, das), it would be incredibly simpler to learn. At the end, we had a little test, and I did the worst in Grammar, the best in conversation. So, that means that I must study the Grammar more.
In the last week, I did a short trip down to Köln in order to run up to the top of the Kölner Dom.
It is difficult to describe in photos the massive nature of this church, standing as the most prominent edifice on the Köln skyline. The bell itself was about 16 ft high, with four other surrounding bells.
I had finally started to get to know most of the classmates, so it was a little sad saying goodbye on the last day of class.
Photo shows Fatima (Libya), Anna (Italy), Ela (Poland), Shigi (Japan), Nazim (Turkey), Aliraza (Iran), Evana (Uraguay), Elana (Russia), Nadia (Russia), Tseje (Japan), Mia (Japan) and our teacher Roman Truhlar.
I decided to walk home after the last class, since the weather was so nice. It was about 8 km and it took me about 50 minutes to complete. That same last evening, a number of us from the school went out to the Füchschen for dinner. I tried the Eisbein, as no such thing can be ordered in Amerika.
It tasted great, far more than I could eat. All in all, it was a great time, with lots of food and beer, and yet not terribly expensive. Most of the group then went out for Salsa. Me? No way, José! Ich bin nur ein alter Knacker. Staying up way into the ungodly hours just doesn’t suit me anymore, unless I’m forced to do so, or am climbing Mt. Rainier, or ….
After touching base with Herbert, we headed out to Würzberg the next day. Our destination was a close couple of Herberts’, Katja and Hannes. They live in a small village close to Würzberg, so from there, we were able to see the Altstadt of Würzberg. This included many nights of chatting, mostly in German, about Alltag in Deutschland.
Much of Würzberg was not destroyed in the war, so many of the old buildings were still intact. *Correction: Würzberg was heavily damaged in the war, owing to an absolutely pointless and idiotic bombing raid by the Brits, in spite of the fact that Churchill had studied in Würzberg and should have known better than to bomb the town, achieving zero military advantage. It was at the end of the war, when there was no question as to the end of the war. It leaves me always wondering about who the most evil character was in WWII: perhaps it was Churchill and not Hitler or Stalin. You can read about the damage (in German) athttp://home.arcor.de/christoph_rose/wuerzburg/zerstoerung_von_wuerzburg.htm.We went on a tour of the Residenz. Würzberg has an archbishopric here, and the Residenz was the home of the the Archbishop. It was probably nicer than many of the palaces I saw in Europe. The Altstadt also had the place where Röntgen discovered x-rays (sorry, no photo), and the many churches in the area.
The next day, we went to Bamberg, also a city with an Archbishopric, and not heavily damaged during the war. There we saw the Altes Rathaus, which has river flowing on each side of it.
We also walked the streets, went up to the Bamberger Dom, where King Heinrich II and Queen Kundigunde were buried in the early 11th century. Awesome. There were many art artifacts, including the Bamburger Reiter (seen in the top-most photo and below).
We also had dinner in a quaint restaurant, and drank the beer unique to that area, which was a dark beer with a smoky taste, called Rauchbier, or Smoked Beer. It actually tasted incredibly good. Of course, we also ate Bamburger und Nurnberger Wurst with sauerkraut. Like I said in previous posts, the food doesn’t get any better than this.
Finally, we had to say goodbye to Katja and Hannes and headed up to Leipzig. Leipzig was not in our original plans, but instead, we were going to visit Hille in the Rothalmünster area, but she had a case of the Grippe (flu). So, plans were quickly aborted, the internet searched, and new arrangements made. From Leipzig, we will be going the Nürnberg, again to Katja und Hannes, and then back to Krefeld. Shown below is the Kakelofen in their house, typical for Germany, and their dog, very gentle like a Golden Retriever, but a bit larger, and behaves more like a watch dog.
By the way, I have in the title “Franken”. Northern Bavaria is a region of people that are called the Franken, and do not like to think of themselves as Bavarians. In fact, they have been to Oktoberfest only once or twice, and then, did not enjoy themselves. Nürnberg, Würzberg, and Bamberg are all in Franken. There is also a small region called the Spessart, close to where we are made famous by the story about the Wirtshaus in Spessart by Wilhelm Hauff. Unfortunately, I’ve never seen it translated into English.
Leipzig. The road to Leipzig was on a new autobahn, that included 5 very long tunnels, the longest being 7800 meters. It was snowy.
We arrived in Leipzig at about 3 pm, so didn’t have much more expected daylight. We first ran to the Volkerschlachtdenkmal, built to commemorate the victory of the German people over Napoleon, at the battle of Leipzig. It was a massive slaughter, but started the end of the “French Hitler”. Oddly, Napoleon is still adored by the French.
That evening, we went to the St. Nicholas church, where Bach regularly performed, to the St. Thomas Church, where Bach was cantor, and to the famous Auerbach’s Keller, described in Goethe’s Faust.
Herbert and I were able to enjoy a beer in the Keller, and Mephisto never showed up.
Here is the St. Nicholas Church. It was in 1989 at this church where students held regular non-violent protests that stirred the East Germans to protest, leading to the fall of the Communist DDR regime.
The St. Thomas Kirche was truly impressive, being a very large church. The original organ no longer exists, though the present organ is quite impressive. I’m sure Jonny would have loved to have his fingers tickle the ivories of that organ.
Bach was originally buried in the Kirchhof (church grounds) of the St. Nicholas church, but was moved to the St. Thomas Church because of the destruction recieved to St. Nicholas church in WWII.
Off to Nürnberg. Much of the city was preserved, including much of the old city walls.
There is much I could say about the city, including the churches, the streets, the statues, etc., all of which were overwhelming, with a mix of the ancient and modern. The most impressive site of all was the castle (Kaiserburg), which was visited by every King of Germany since the early 11th century, including Heinrich IV and Heinrich V, Barbarrosa, etc.
The third photo shows the Turm (tower) that is the symbol of Nürnberg, and well as the well house, where a well 150 ft. deep through solid rock was dug to supply water to the Burg. The fourth photo is the room where the first Reichstag meeting was held for every new Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire. The last was the chapel with a balcony where the king and queen sat, the regular floor where the dukes sat, and then a floor underneath, where the common people sat.
We then went to the Reichspartei grounds of the Nazi era. Unfortunately, we walked around alot, but I just didn’t take enough photos. The most significant was the Zeppelinwiese, which most people should recognize from the large rallies which were held there. I had to have Herbert take my picture standing in the place where Hitler stood 70 years ago.
Lastly, Herbert and I made a mad dash down to the town of Feucht. Not too many people have a town named after them, but we do.
It was truly a beautiful town, very quaint, extremely clean, everybody was polite and courteous, the most perfect place to have named after ones self. Eat your hearts out, dear readers.
I’ll be home this week. Thank you everybody for your e-mails and comments. I don’t respond to many of them, but always enjoy getting them.
End of Year Ramblings
December 31st, 2011The year is over. We are still alive in spite of Obama. Life goes on. The end of the year gives us pause to reflect on where we’ve been and where we’re heading for the year to come.
2011 has been a good year. My surgical practice has slowed down a bit, and I am giving Obama just a little less support than in years past. I have not done as many bicycle rides as I wished. Betsy and I have been able to spend more time together, and that has been most enjoyable. One particular highlight of the year has been our trip to Europe, having Betsy meet Katja und Hannes for the first time, and getting to see Italy. It’s always a treat to touch base with Onkel Herbert. Russ Anderson has been very special this year in providing a real friend to go bicycling with. The elaboration of those trips last year can be found on the various blog posts in feuchtblog.net.
Betsy and I are thinking about next year. I will be going to about four surgical conferences, including the Miami Breast conference with Betsy and Society of Surgical Oncology meeting with Dr. Tate in Orlando, both in March. I’d like to go to the American Society of Breast Surgeons meeting in Phoenix in late April. Betsy and I also plan to go to the American College of Surgeons meeting in Chicago in October. We anticipate a trip to Germany and Switzerland in early June, hopefully where I could do some bicycle riding with Russ and Carsten (and maybe Peter?), as well as seeing Katja and Hannes, Herbert, Hille (Herbert’s sister), Marike (student in Bonn whom we met in Cameroon, Udo Middelmann in Switzerland (Francis Schaeffer’s son-in-law) and our good friends Mike (and Carolyn) who is doing a year teaching Sabbatical in Lausanne, Switzerland. That might be a little too packed of an agenda, but… In November, Betsy and I are seriously planning a trip to Egypt, Jordan and Israel. We’ll do the tour sort of thing. I’ve never been to the Holy Land, but have always wished to go. If you are interested, come along with. We will be going with the Rev. Dr. John (http://www.biblicalisraeltours.com/), who I found after a long internet search.
I continue to ride my bike. Yesterday was enjoyable in taking Patrick for his first long bicycle ride. He did about 8 miles. Not bad for an 8 yo kid on a 20 inch bicycle. It got rather cold at the end, the sun going down about 15 minutes before the end of our ride. Typically, I’ll ride the trainer. It’s one of my bicycles hooked up to a virtual reality trainer (Tacx). I’ll usually have iTunes going. This last year, I’ve been working through the series on Romans by Martyn Lloyd-Jones while training. I am now down to about 97 more 50 minute sermons out of 353 sermons. That’s a lot of sermons on Romans, and tends to be repetitive. You’ll get a review on that series once I’m done with it.
While sitting at my computer, I listen to music. My iTunes has a total of 721 gBytes of music and lectures, etc. One may wonder what I do with so much music. Well, I listen to it. It’s mostly classical, a total of 359 gBytes, or 175 days of constant listening. Making a smart playlist, I started working through everything a little over a year ago. I’m now down to 94 days, or 196 gBytes of classical music left. Right now, I’m listening to a little known piano concerto by Mendelssohn, which is actually quite good and doesn’t deserve obscurity — a trait true of much of classical music.
I continue to read every moment possible. Currently I am working through Gregg Allison’s Historical Theology, and am about 1/2 way through. I am reading Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevski on the Kindle. I have a massive lineup of books remaining on my shelves and in the Kindle store that I must read. I’ll need to quit medicine just to get my reading done. For time with Betsy, we’ll usually watch things like Teaching Company series together, and are currently working on a series about Oceanography. We are becoming adept at speaking about the pelagic vs. neridic realms of the ocean, knowing the difference between plankton and nekton, etc., etc., as well as understanding the various forces that make the ocean a wonderful world. For a lighter note, Betsy and I will watch movies. We have just started the films of Clint Eastwood, a total of about 40 that we’ll be seeing. Reviews for those films will have to wait! We still don’t have television, and I refuse to pay for cable. When we must watch something, we’ll watch it over the internet if it’s available.
I will be turning 58 in 2012. I’m not sure how much longer I will want to continue practicing medicine. It’s a serious love-hate relationship. I love the practice of surgery, but it’s everything else that one needs to put up with. Government has taken complete control of medicine, and turned it into an uncaring prohibitively expensive beast. Desperately needed tort reform is now a long-gone wish. As one pundit commented, “America is no longer governed by the rule of law, but by the rule of lawyers”. Such a statement could not be closer to the truth. Political processes are always preempted by court decisions. Democratic or Republic behavior no longer exists in the USA. We are governed by the tyranny of the courts. It wouldn’t be so bad if lawyers were behaved. Unfortunately, lawyers have devolved into a subhuman species. It’s hard to know what to compare them to, but the cyclops is most fitting. Cyclops have only one eye, are monsters seeking to destroy anything alive that is not one of their own, will act even more intentionally and violently when their one eye is put out, a threat to anything else in existence. That’s the good part about what I have to say about lawyers. Don’t get me going on their bad side.
Those of us that work in the public realm have occasions from time to time with lawyers. Much of this we are not allowed to openly discuss for privacy concerns, and so will discretely tailor my statements. Physicians are advised to avoid a jury trial as much as possible, as juries tend to ignore the facts and are easily swayed by emotion. There is no rule of law in the courtroom. The selection of juries has become a joke. It used to be a trial by your peers or neighbors. Now, it is a trial before the a highly selected group of individuals based on the bias of the judge, people who would rather be anywhere than setting on a jury or people who are so worthless in society they have nothing better in life to do. The instructions to the jury often counter the constitution, which is why I will not set on a jury. I’ve written more on this elsewhere. The prevailing consensus among Joe Public is that justice no longer exists, and that is for the most part true. Why do we do everything to avoid the courts? If our neighbor sues us for using the wrong type of fertilizer that gives him asthma attacks, the costs in court will be prohibitive, it will be unbearable stress, and a flip of the coin will determine which way the judge may lean, even after hours of defending your case. It’s too easy to create a case, as you have little to loose in the process. Lawyers will determine the case based on their merit, which means, if it is possible for the lawyer to make a good profit off of a case. In the end, the plaintiff and defendant lawyers win, and the plaintiff and defendant loose. I’ve seen so many people destroy their lives by taking someone else to court, get lost in a long court trial, and even if they win the trial, much of the money ends up squandered or in the hands of the lawyers. Nobody but the lawyers win. We were taught well as kids to never sue, and for the most part, that remains true. There are three prongs to the solution. 1. Go back to the European court process where the looser pays all court costs. 2. Use Biblical law, which truly punishes offenses to others and demands restitution or death penalty in serious cases. There is no prison term in Biblical law. If you are a violent murderer, you die. If you stole, you repay. If your debt is too great, you become an indentured servant (slave) for 7 years to the person you owe to. Bankruptcy would not be tolerated, and Donald Trump would be picking cotton for the next 30 years. 3. Return to a Christian society that thinks in a Judeo-Christian fashion and holds Christian morality as the highest of all possible goods. Unfortunately, this isn’t going to happen, even if every non-Christian were immediately terminated. So, we tolerate matters, try to keep our nose clean by living morally, and if one must suffer for doing good, they will get their blessing and reward in the end. It is good that for a Christian, this short life is not the totality of existence.
So, I wish you all a happy New Year. Keep looking up, and keep your stick on the ice.
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