Across the Atlantic

I took three years of German back in High School forty years ago. I was never very fluent, and never really had any opportunity to use it except wihen one friend and I went out drinking, and later as a private communication between my wife and me when we didn't want our child to understand us.

I was interested in the German culture not because of the military history, but because of their history of advancement of the physical and social sciences. More recently, my interest in the Roman Empire identified their limits of Western expansion on the European continent as Koln. I had never traveled to Europe, though; there is so much to see in North America alone including exotic Hawaii. Yet I now write this seven miles above the mid-Atlantic. As do so many things, it began with beer.

The Artificer and I were hoisting a few and he mentioned that it had been a long time since he had seen his aunt who lived West of Munich and will be 97 jahren alt. Said I, who has been saving his pennies, 'well if you want a traveling companion, here I am!' So we are cruising at 584 mph at 32000 feet on eine Reise zu Deutschland. I may speak like a hick, but I'll get by and will improve. I will expand my horizons.

And, I will be blissfully absent from work. O Brave New World and great Aluminum Birds!

Oh, and I understand that the Germans know a few things about beer, too.

Tschuss...

(Sent from an Internet-enabled zimmer in Germany 5 days later!!)