Following my own steps

Snow in Marienplatz, Munich, Germany

Munich welcomed me with snow. It was almost freezing overnight but so late in April I did not expect to snow. The white flurries descended on Marienplatz bringing tearing zits on the weathered gothic windows of the city hall. I decided to take a later train to Vienna and follow for a bit my own footsteps in Munich. Footsteps from a life behind, an intermediate life, a life in limbo, a suspended life that many these days experience way worse than we ever had.

Marienplatz, Munich, Germany

And as today, my steps always brought me to Marienplatz, a place that now is way more touristy than I ever remember.

The snow stopped and the sun came out, the cold German sun of spring, somehow like an excuse for the German spirit, precise, cold and distant like the frigid days of a long winter.

Frauenkirche. Munich, Germany

My footsteps ported me to Frauenkirche and Stachus, to the opera house on Maximilianstrasse, to OdeonPlatz and Theatinerkirche, Residenz, Englisher Garten, Franz Jozef Brucke, Maurerkirchestrasse and beyond on a walk that I did almost daily many, many years ago.

Munich, Germany

The Munich “Bahnhof” is in a process of reconstruction, a thing that adds to the ugliness of its surrounding, a quarter still inhabited by migrants selling wares of all sorts, loitering and calling loudly each other in all languages of the world. The hotels around the rail station that I knew so well were converted in “boutique” hotels, probably looking not much better than decades ago but branded for the new cool of the day.

Chinesischer Turm in Englisher Garten, Munich, Germany

Englisher Garten is charming even in a snowy day, even if nobody gathered with beer maas around the Chinesischer Turm.

Pinakothek der Moderne. Munich, Germany

But a newer Pinakothek was a sign of renewal. The two famous Munich art collections, Alte and Neue Pinakothek have a new neighbor, Pinakothek der Moderne that displays works of the German expressionists, as well as lots of contemporary works.

Pinakothek der Moderne. Munich, Germany

The collection is housed in a new spiffy 3-floor building having a UFO at its entrance.

Pinakothek der Moderne. Munich, Germany

To the utmost surprise the basement has an exhibit of Paula Scher, “Time is image” that has many of her works including …all the posters for Shakespeare in the Park, the free-theater summer performances in Central Park in New York.

Pinakothek der Moderne. Munich, Germany

An der Donau

Donauworth, Bavaria, Germany

It seems that Donauworth’s claim to fame came from Maria de Brabant’s beheading in the 13th century. Her husband, Louis of Bavaria suspected an affair and decided to whack her with no proof – Why? Because he could – just to come quickly an “oops” moment and the church to decide that it was a mistake. The rock where the old citadel was built is marked as the place where Maria was beheaded, her tomb now being in the Holy Cross Church, whose history goes back to the 11th century.

Donauworth, Bavaria, Germany

Donauworth sits on what is known in Bavaria as Romantishe Strasse. The name may have been created for marketing purposes but the small municipalities that belong to this collection are charming and a visit to them does not disappoint. Many years ago, in a time that looks like a previous life, I lived in Germany and traveled through these charming towns. Rothenburg ober der Tauber, Quedlinburg, Dinkesbuhl , Nordlingen, Fussen, Augsburg, Bamberg, Wurzburgh are just a few of these attractive places that transport you to the medieval time with their atmosphere.

Vornitz before meeting the Danube in Donauworth, Bavaria, Germany

Located at the confluence of Vorlitz and the Danube, Donauworth is actually a reconstruction. Only the churches were left standing after the war bombardments and the burgmeisters rebuilt the town in the traditional style.

Masters’ Works exhibit, Munich, Germany

I had many times encounters with people that seemed to be pure coincidences. But I always suspected that there may have been other factors that synced beyond the visible of the worlds and forced those encounters to happen. I went in Munich just to meet two good friends and have a beer together. But the encounter we all three had at Meister Werke exhibit in Stachus was unexpected. We entered just to see what’ s there looking for a roof bar just to find ourselves surrounded by large canvases of famous frescos that you can see only if you stretch your neck looking towards lofty ceilings and walls of cathedrals and palaces. The guys who came up with this concept wanted to lower the large frescos to the eye level and without a physical and anatomical effort visitors to be able to admire Michelangelo and Leonardo’s work sitting in front of them. Besides here you have all the time in the world to admire them, not rushed by the throngs of tourists to vacate the place.

Masters’ Works exhibit, Munich, Germany

The exhibit traveled the world, in New York happening 7 years ago at the Oculus. We had a long chat about the works and the cultural connection between these artists, connections that sometimes proved friendly and other times nefarious, with intricate details about their life, work and deeds. The story was told by the founder/owner with whom we started a chat in my struggling German, switching to English and after a while, by a slip of a tongue to realize that everybody spoke Romanian as well, switching to a heartfelt and warm conversation. Thank you, Gabriel for the warm-heartedness you showered upon us!

A “Richard” for our times

In the spectacular production of Berlin’ Schaubuhne at the BAM, Thomas Ostermeier forces us to peek into Richard’ soul. The remarkable director stated in an interview that whatever he does in his plays for sure he will not bore the audience and his “Richard III” is far from boring, keeping the audience on the edge till its final moments.

Richard, played extraordinarily by Lars Eidinger, is in a permanent confession towards the audience. Whispering in an always balancing microphone, Richard shares with the audience his darkest thoughts hidden in his abominable soul. A flashlight attached to the microphone is like piercing into his mind adding to the dramatic character of the confession. His Shakespearean body’s deformities are secondary to the deformities of his atrocious soul displayed nakedly in front of the audience for the entire play. He starts like a mischievous schoolboy plotting against his teachers, engaging the audience and making them part of his deeds; somehow funny, just mischief, playing against the all powerful ones, a man of the people. And little by little the audience buys into it and they laugh and applaud, validating in a way his deeds and with them his path to power. Without knowing, the audience became his base. But in time the mischief becomes a plot and the events play also in his favor. He climbs the ladder towards the throne slandering and scheming against people who may be in his way who do not consider him as a real challenge. He relies on some around him that think that can take advantage of his climb to power and he uses them skillfully. When he gets on the throne he whimsically discards and mocks the ones who helped him. He demands the audience, his base, to mock Buckingham, the main one who helped him to ascend to the throne: “You look like shit. Did you eat pussy today?”. And the audience follows, and Richard asks for more and louder till the entire theater joins in a chorus of mocking.

Richard’s staging in Brooklyn is not accidental. The resemblance is not so blatantly identifiable as in the Julius Cesar at the Public in Central Park but the modified text’s subtleties and the direction are present for the entire play. When needed to make a clear point the actors switch from German to English and address directly the audience: “Everybody sees what he is doing and nobody does anything to stop him.”
In the end, when it became clear that everything is lost, Richard urinates on the stage, actually symbolically on his own base. He knows that he will die the next day in battle being hanged by his leg in the end of the play like a piece of meat in a meat-locker by the same hanging microphone that witnessed his dreadful scheming to ascend to undeserved power.

(See also: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/opinion/sunday/shakespeare-explains-the-2016-election.html )

Oktoberfest

Lowenbrau tent, Oktoberfest, Munich, Germany

Even if you did not know how to get there you just have to follow the parade of costumed people, all dressed in Bavarian traditional clothes. Women in red skirts and tight corseted blouses that were pushing up their bust, in knitted long socks and also knitted pullovers having on their head hats decorated with feathers were walking hand in hand with men dressed in “lederhose”, the short leather pants, checkered shirts and traditional tunic. Starting from the airport you could see some of them in the train that crossed the city and the closer you got into the city the fuller the train became of party-goers and eventually all descended to Hackerburcke and started to walk towards Theresienwiese.

Hacker-Pschorr tent, Oktoberfest, Munich, Germany

Thirty years ago I was walking on the large expanse of grass that is Theresienwiese, the large meadow that hosted for many years the Oktoberfest, the Germany’ beer festival. At the time I could not be in Germany in the fall and I just heard stories about the happening; large tents, larger than anything you may encounter any other times, would cover the meadow and people were drinking beer, lots of beer and singing loudly at unison Bavarian and German songs. Some of the more critical of my German friends were commenting that this is the way Hitler came to power…Germany has a deep beer culture and is the only country that has in effect a purity law dating from 1516 promulgated by Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria, that allows for only hops, barley, water and, later, yeast in the beer. Also I could not live in Munich at the time without learning about the main six beer manufacturers that were emblems for the German beer: Lowenbrau, Hofbrauhaus, Augustinerbrau, Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr and Spaten.

Paulaner Festzelt, Oktoberfest, Munich, Germany

I did not have the chance in so many years to visit Munich in the fall, in spite of several visits in Southern Germany, but finally this year I could stop and drink “ein mass” around a long table with a bunch of Germans. The tents are there, as they always have been, and the atmosphere is electric with all attendees standing and jumping on the benches around the tables with the “mass” in their hand singing enthusiastically all together a mix of German and international songs in an extremely joyful atmosphere under the accords of a large band located on a podium in the middle of the tent. Most of the tables inside are reserved way in advance and the one that are not are totally packed being almost impossible to get a seat, all visitors coming here for staying most of the day.

Chilling with “ein mass”

All tents are surrounded outside by rows of tables where hostesses with a large bunch of beer “mass” in their arms navigate deftly through the crowd and youngsters dressed in Bavarian clothes offer large soft “brezen” from weaved baskets. Outside of the tent area the entire Theresienwiese is covered like a Disneyland with all sorts of games, from ball throwing ranges decorated in American kitsch to the horror train, bumper cars, whirlwind games, huge wheels and high towers that bring the visitors high upon the meadow. Stands are selling long frankfurter that hang out generously off the sandwich bread, nuts and sweets of all kinds and traditional ginger bread hearts to declare your love to your sweetheart. “Bread and circus” was what the Romans were offering millenniums ago and the offer is still valid in the same joyful atmosphere at Oktoberfest.

Bavaria statue overlooking Theresienwiese, Munich, Germany

Toni Erdmann

I don’t remember writing about a movie for a while but the German comedy by Maren Ade deserved to be the darling of the last year Cannes Festival. It made such an impact that, if I understood correctly, Hollywood is planning a remake of the movie. The movie touched a painful chord, the dehumanization of people working for large and high demanding corporations, impersonal monster companies that treat people just like bodies that have to perform. The movie is shot in Bucharest, a perfect setting in a country where the “multi-national companies”, as they call there the corporations, make the law facing a series of corrupt governments and muscle flexing policies of Brussels or Berlin.  Ines, a consultant for a large global marketing consulting firm, does not smile the entire movie because her life is so focused on the job and screwed up chasing an elusive career, in meeting with boring executives, living alone in impersonal hotel rooms or apartments, incapable of having sex, with no time for herself while accompanying  boring diplomats’ wives to the “one of the best malls in Europe where no Romanian affords to buy anything”. Ines’ life so well resembles the life of a Manhattan employee in high demanding job, living in luxury apartments but with no life of their own, except going to bar at night, so well portrait also in “margin call”. They work just to be thrown out as a rotten tooth when the company does not need them anymore or they get burned out. However in the movie, the relentless pursue of her father, Toni Erdmann, eventually soften her, breaking her insane bubble, realizing her conundrum and decides to quit just to get hired by the competition.

Of course, watching the movie from the New York’s perspective, is hard to avoid thinking of the American Republican politics that try as much as possible to disposes the middle class, lowering the taxes for the rich and eliminating a well fought medical insurance. The spineless Republicans, fully responsible for the conundrum of the current Administration, in bed with large corporate donors who hate even the idea of portable medical insurance, are the main architects of blocking all the measures that would empower the middle class in America, a country where the taxes that you pay are buying exclusively more planes and bombs to kill people around the world.

Die Himmel uber Berlin…

Berlin, Germany

I am not one of the fallen angels but I felt so much for this sky landing in Berlin, so dearly remembered from the Wim Wenders movie translated into English as “Wings of Desire”. I looked towards Berlin from the sky over a city that last time when I visited it was divided and I remembered standing two blocks away from the wall and trying to figure out myself, what many Germans tried for generations, how to grow wings and fly over the infamous wall toward the much desired freedom. On the road in front of me the Stasi patrols on fast motorbikes were zipping to and fro trying to deflect people like me who were thinking about escaping.

Merkel

“Ms. Merkel, we have lots of refugees at the border”
“From Siria? Let them in”
“No, there are Germans. They want out”

The Sunday elections in Germany spelled out what for many months most of us born in Europe were expecting: the electoral sign of the demise of the only European leader who was able to lead and rule Europe in the recent years. Because in spite of her major flaw in the migrant crisis Angela Merkel stands out in Europe as a real leader, a person that fought for a unified Europe even if according to her detractors this fight was more about the German’s interests control of Europe. Her stature is even more imposing when compared with its counterparts, a French President who would be more appropriate as a cheese supermarket manager, his English colleague who wants to have as little as possible with Continental Europe or the other European leaders who are either bland and insignificant or are perfect copies of the old Communist apparatchiks we were used with in Eastern Europe, fearful of losing their jobs and speaking only in slogans in what we used to call in Romania the “wood tongue:”. However Merkel was always different, in spite of being accused of ex-Communist links or as being a good friend of Putin, she was a leader whose staunch approach was able to keep somehow glued the EU, a marriage of loose interests with no love whatsoever.
But the migrant crisis changed everything and with it came tumbling down the foundation of her statue. Long hidden under the rug by the controlled German media, the migrant “problem” became a real migrant “crisis” funneled mainly by her irrational and irresponsible attitude of inviting all migrants to come to Germany. So besides the Syrians who came as war refugees an entire horde of Africans, South Asians and Afghans decided to risk their life and savings to follow the invitations of “Muti”, that never thought in her German organized mind what it means to have a real MultiKulti on your hands and refusing to accept that people are different, culturally, socially and even intellectually. The communists and now the post-communist of various flavors were always zesting of mixing people and create the masonic ideal of a diversified society exemplifying the success of the United States but ignoring the 250 years of “melting pot” making as well as the fact that no white CEO would live on the same street with an African poor Muslim anywhere in the States. The money would keep them worlds apart.
For many Europeans who already considered Merkel to be too bossy, her request to invite people and after that to force other countries to take them in was the last straw. The opposition started first by the Eastern European countries where people lived for 50 years under regimes that forced words in their mouths and now they refused to accept this anymore, and followed by the Scandinavians, the Brits and in the end the French. A process that left Merkel not only alone in Europe but left with few supporters in Germany with many in her party and coalition sister parties deserting her position. The upcoming success of Pegida and AFD is no “new” news for the Europeans who knew that right wing is very healthy in spite of years of communism or out-casting. So Merkel’s acts not only that created a mess that would be hardly manageable in the ordered Germany, with one more million unemployed and most of them unemployable, but also gave a good pretext for the rise of these groups that otherwise stayed silent in their corners drinking German beer. It’s sad how a apparently innocuous gesture, gracious at it may have looked to be, brought so much dissatisfaction to the Germans.
Of course, with thousands of people at the border and a haunting history, Angela had to do something and the right way to do it would have been to accept the already moving migrants in small chunks in Germany. But Europe never acted like fully grown ups. When the iron curtain fell in 1989, the sense we, the Eastern European, got talking with people in the west was that they looked like a coddled group of people blessed by history and protected by the Americans forces that forgot their role and acted only by some kind of inherited rights that the entire world should know to respect and accept. Handling conflict in the fledgling union and around its borders or the protection of their own borders was never a concern, like no bad thing would ever happen to them. Europe signed the convention of the refugees but they never created camps, outside or inside their border, to screen the migrants like the Americans were doing for more than 50 years. And as usually when something major happens everybody is taken by surprise and nobody had any clue what to do and how to handle the crisis so the old reflex went into effect and the Germans  started to censor the media on anything that involved migrants, only one example being the Cologne New Year mass molestation. It was an American paper that wrote first about the events that triggered the media coverage and the fallout outrage that followed.
Out of options and humiliated Merkel bent over in front of the loathed dictatorial Sultan taking a deal everybody hates that would bring more aggravation politically for her in Germany and in Europe. Luckily she was helped by the always dismissed East Europeans, this time Macedonians, who took upon themselves to solve the problem and close the migration route, a thing the politically-correct-left-wing-West-Europeans would never have done.
In the end Merkel would leave the political arena, a good and capable leader who was not wise enough to keep her mouth shut when she had to. Unfortunately what she unleashed may stay with Europe for a while and we know how it looks; we had another similar wave in Europe just about 80 years ago.

Munich, Germany

Hofbrauhaus Band. Munich

Somehow we never made it to Germany to have a long shooting session. Maybe because I have been living there for quite a while and possible because we ended up many times on layovers in German cities from other shoots. But we finally put together a long delayed demo clip with the footage we shot during numerous short visits and we posted an album of frames from the short shoot in Munich, unfortunately curtailed by dim daylight of January.

Munich, Germany

Rathaus in Marien Platz Munich

Munich, twenty six after. I lived here toward the end of the Cold War when an escape from behind the Iron Curtain was guaranteeing a safe passage to the world of the free. The communism was less dictatorial than it was stupid, a prison type utopia developed by sick minds who were looking how to enslave their subjects obliged to hail their nonexistent freedom. A system of non-believers in the society’s values and rulers.
I lived in Munich waiting for this passage and enjoying a city that was and still is part of the engine of this great country.
I found Munich very much the same as I left it. Newer and fresher, way more cosmopolitan and maybe less conservative but still classy and very neat. Hard working and tidy, the German love order and here is the key to the amazing success of the totally defeated nation of the Second World War that leads Europe nowadays. Few old things remained in Munich after the bombardments and what was built in a rush after the war was ugly and very utilitarian but even those buildings were modernized and cleaned up and the center of the city looks today like a jewel taken from a gilded case. I met my very dear friends with whom I shared great moments there and they told me more about their life in Germany about which I knew just bits and pieces, I found the story very comforting, the same story of a comfortable life similar with the one I heard living there years ago. They think like all Europeans that life has to be equitable for all, all with their insurance, with some money at the retirement, all enjoying a safe even maybe not so affluent life. They were content and very appreciative at the entire system over all, understanding also the needs of a flexible job market, a process that was initiated years ago in Germany and is swiping the entire continent. For them and the Europeans in general, America is still as remote in understanding as it was 50 years ago. The amazing earning opportunities are perceived as shadowed by the lack of personal life that in Europe still exist in spite of the intense work schedule and commute time. The lack of medical insurance and the the prevalence of guns are issues that are completely inconceivable to most Europeans. But what I felt the most is that the Germany I knew, flexible and refreshed after these years, is the same as the one I lived in, the same Germany of a secure life and stability that confer to the European model a viability even today in spite of the sirens singing its demise. Of course the European social model is perceived with caution especially when the Germans have to pour money in countries that are obviously bankrupt first in mentality more than in finance.

Hofbrauhaus, Munich

Munich pedestrian area was decorated for winter holidays, all buildings being covered in lights and a skating ring being very alive in Staccus Square. The churches and all buildings around were looking sparkling new and Hofbrauhaus was bustling with people. Marien Platz had its best Christmas tree in years right near the Rathaus Building and people dressed elegantly were promenading the exclusive Maximilien Strasse  going to the Opera to see Traviatta.
Munich was same as I left it 25 years ago. Maybe I just woke up after a long sleep…

Germany: Bavarian Castles

Neuschwanstein Castle

We posted a picture album from the shooting we did in Southern part of Bavaria, Germany. We shot around the world renown castles, Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein, which used to be residencies of the Bavarian kings. For more information please check out our blog posting.

The Bavarian Kings’ Castles, Germany

Hohenschwangau Castle, Germany

It is a good advise never to visit the same place twice. Especially when you want to do it after 25 years following a period when the tourism exploded like never before. I visited the castles from Southern part of Bavaria when I lived in Germany. It was before the fall of the Berlin Wall in a time when even the tourists looked like travelers. At that time you could drive all the way up to the castles, park, buy a ticket at the entrance and go inside for a relatively long visit. But nowadays the village at the base of the castles changed so much, with large parking places that barely could accommodate the number of cars and buses. Walking out of your parking place you see a huge line in the village and realize after a while that is a hour long wait to buy entrance tickets from a new ticket office, the only place in town that sells them. No more tickets at the castles’ entrance. In line everybody speaks anything but German with a consistent share of Americans coming only to the major European visiting spots and a huge share of Chinese, speaking loudly, who look to be all over. We bought a combination ticket for the two castles and started to walk to Hochenscwangau, the closest one in a drizzle that we hope will stop soon. In the morning when we woke up, the Alps around Obsteig where like wrapped in cotton candy. What we thought first that it was mist proved to be very low clouds. And many of them. It rained all night, a rain that started yesterday right after we finished the hike and it followed us on and off till after we had breakfast in Fernpass and we crossed the border in Germany at Fussen.
Hochenschwangau was the first castle of the Kings of Bavaria. It started as a small tower sometimes in the 14th century and passed through many hands, each one adding a style characteristic. In the end it came to be the residence of Ludvig the First, King of Bavaria who lived here with his family and about 50 servants for a long time. It is still owned by the same family of Bavarian Dukes who collects the entry fees but maintains the castle. The castle is interesting but for sure does not have the most inspired style of decoration inside, however its exterior, the entrance and the gardens are exquisite and ask for some exploring.

Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany

Neuschwanstein Castle is a completely different story. Located at about 30 minutes walk from Hochenscwangau is a remarkable romantic construction representing maybe the most iconic image of a castle in the world. Buses and carriages can bring you up to the castle but the wait, especially on rain, is probably around 1 hour so I decided to walk up the access road. The rain that we hoped to taper off actually became more intense, a very German rain that make its cities sometimes dour and boring. The road was full of walkers, many Chinese who were talking loud that I thought I am heading not to the castle but to Chonquing. Both castles can be visited only on guided tours that start every 5 minutes the entire day and the timing is extremely precise.
Ludvig II of Bavaria, the grandson of Ludvig I, a young romantic king wanted to build a several castles in the style of the medieval times about which he read a lot. Inspired by the German legends and being a friend of Richard Wagner he started the building of the castle in 1868 using the vast amount of money from his grandfather. He was able to build a large part of the project till 1886 when he was deposed by the Parliament because he overdrew the accounts of the state. In order to remove him from the throne the Parliament declared him insane and somehow he was found drown in a lake three days latter together with his shrink doctor. What happens remained a mystery, because a legend is built easier on mysteries than on dour facts. The palace was opened as a museum several months after his death and is owned by the land of Bavaria.
The rain did not stop so we left the castle walking quickly downhill and drove till a village named Lahn in Austria where we had a great dinner, driving further to Innsbruck in even more rain.

Rhein Falls-Schafhausen-Zurich

Rhein Falls, Singen, Germany

The morning did not look so great but way better than the previous because it was not raining. The Rhein Falls were already flooded with school kids in day trips. The falls are no so large but the path going down into them were so well built that were bringing you to the water level that was almost falling on you. Finally the sun started to peek out from the clouds and we spend way more time than we planned there, b ut we shied away of taking the boat and getting soaked in the middle of the river.

We left to Schaffhausen, that is extremely closed and we enjoyed a visit in a charming jewel of a city that looks more German than Swiss. Schaffhausen was the only town in Switzerland that was bombed, and even twice, in WW2 by the Allies who confused it with German territory being so close to the border.

Schafhausen, Switzerland

The center has so many old buildings that most of them have oriel bay window, highly decorated, some of them astounding. The three squares have in the middle fountains with statues, one of them having Wilhelm Tell, the legendary hero of Switzerland.

We could not stay longer, I spite of the beauty of the place because we wanted to spend some time in Zurich, located luckily at 50 km.

Zurich

The first thing we did in Zurich was to find a parking place, that we found out that may cost as much as the car rental for a day if you leave it longer. Limmat river crosses the city and flows in lake Zurich. All the main things to see are in a very narrow perimeter of the old city so we started to stroll the pedestrian area. The main churches, Fraumunster and Grossmunster have stained glass windows by Chagal, respectively Giacometti. Cabaret Voltaire, the place where DADA movement started is still in existence but as a small exhibition place and located very close to Kunsthaus, the main art museum that has an impressive modern collection, where Giacometti and Munch have a remarkable presence. I strolled also to the new ex-working district that sports a new spirit, young and creative, where the museum of design is located. Punk guys with spiked collars were lying on the sidewalks have drinks guarded by their dogs.

After about 4 hours of walk we took the car and drove to the lake’s shore trying to find a restaurant but to no avail so we returned in the city and ate in the pedestrian area.

The Hilton Apart hotel, booked at the airport for convenience, received us with confusing rules. No Internet was available except in the business lounge and the parking was free only for three hours, and latter you had to pay an astronomical sum, that latter proved to be less than advertising. After I filled up the tank and paid for parking we went to bed just to wake up four hours latter to bring my family to the airport. They were flying through Vienna on Austrian Airlines on miles and my flight was direct on Swiss three hours latter. So I returned and had my breakfast, read a book, left to the airport, dropped the car and cleared all security and barely made the flight in time.

In the plane I spoke with some girls coming to NYC from Greece and the discussion obviously came to the current situation in the country. Similar with the discussion I had with a Portuguese guy in a previous flight from Bucharest, the girls were very apprehensive about the future and considered that the entire scenario is actually already written in Berlin and Paris and Greece has only to follow orders. The lack of jobs is prevalent, the insecurity about the current jobs being combined with the fled of multinational corporations. The sense of lack of independence of the past proud countries in Europe is prevalent everywhere you go and the conspiracy theories abound regarding the way these countries are controlled by the big finance. Similar with Romania where the feeling is that the country is run by thugs, dressed as politicians, in Greece the situation is similar and nobody is resigning or is found responsible for the present situation. I wished the to enjoy New York and they promised to do because, as they said, probably will be the last trip outside of the country we will do for a long time….

Copenhagen to Frankfurt

Wind Mills

The flight was departing to Frankfurt at 10 am, so we walked up at 6:30, packed and left to the train station, 10 minutes walk away from the hotel. We did not board the train before we stopped for a to-go breakfast at Andersen Bakery in Tivoli that had great cakes but average espresso, if you have to judge by Italian standards. The train got us in 15 minutes to the new and beautifully designed Copenhagen airport and reluctantly we left this great city.

We landed in Frankfurt where we had a 5 hour layover to New York so we got an RT ticket to go into the city. For E14.50 you get a RT ticket for a group of 5 people, (E9.50 one adult RT). Quite a deal! And the trains runs every 15 German minutes and it takes 15 minutes to reach Frankfurt Hauptbanhof, the main train station. From the front of the station it starts KaiserStrasse, the main pedestrian street that goes through the financial district with the glass skyscrapers of the German banks headquarters that got the nickname of Mainhattan. We continued to Kaiser Place and further down all the way to the Dom, the walk taking less than an hour. We visited the Dom and the Old Square with its old houses and we rushed back to the train station to get to the airport. S-Bahn 8 and 9 bring you to the Flughafen in 15 minutes with only three stops.