Im Terrorhaus

Not living in Europe, it's easy to become detached from history. There just isn't a lot of it readily apparent in daily life. No experiences like stepping out of a modern subway (T-Bana) station into the 800-year old Gamla Stan (Old Town) in Stockholm, and buying some snacks from a 7-Eleven inside a medieval building.

Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche

In Germany, and Eastern Europe as well, there is also the lingering sadness of more recent inhumanity. In many towns and cities in this part of the world, there just aren't that many buildings which survived the war. It sometimes seems that each city has its own House of Terror, to commemorate so many victims. Walls with bullet holes, or worse.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Gedenkstätte Sachsenhausen

I'm not able to properly describe the experience of visiting a concentration camp. Certainly, compared to other people, I don't have as deeply emotional or visceral a connection to the events which occurred in places such as these, but there's no mistaking that chilling feeling, of emptiness, and the presence of human suffering. Multiply that by the realization that this was a relatively small camp, and that there were so many others. On top of this, add the atrocities and violence committed by all parties, throughout the world, in the course of waging war. Then consider that even today, there are those who deny such things happened, or even celebrate them.

Gedenkstätte Sachsenhausen

After the war, Communism moved in to continue the oppression.

Marx-Engels Platz

Strictly from a philosophical perspective, the basic tenets of Marxism are well-intentioned, and appropriate for their time. Considering human nature, they quickly become impractical, and easily corruptible.

You are now entering Democratic Berlin

When it takes authoritarian rule, paranoia, secret police, heavily defended walls, and Warsaw Pact troops to keep the populace in the system, then the evil of Communism becomes clear, and Eastern Europe is the worse for it.

Berliner Fernsehturm

Happy Australia Day!

Having met a number of Aussies in the last several weeks, both here at home and abroad, and speaking with others who have been there, I have to say Oz is now at the top of my travel wishlist. That means Ireland and Peru drop down a notch. If only it weren't so far away... I'll just have to break up the long-haul flight with stops in Hawai'i and other Antipodean destinations.

Dem Deutchen Volke

It's been a long time since the 1990 Ontario High School German Contest. Looking back, it's astonishing how well we were taught, and how much we had learned in only two years. It was a unique time, heady days filled with words like die Mauer and Wiedervereinigung. In retrospect, much more optimistic than today.

One of the reasons that I chose to study German was because my grandfather had taken a doctorate at the university in Darmstadt, many decades ago. One of the reasons I did not take OAC (Year 13) German was that everyone else in the class would actually have been to Germany at some point. That discrepancy has finally been corrected.

Reconstructed Reichstag

The stories told in history class about "democratic" Berlin and free Berlin were not ancient and forgotten ones. Even within my recent memory, walking along certain of these streets would have been difficult, if not impossible. It's been 17 years of rebuilding, with much to show for it, yet still so much to repair.

East Side Gallery

Broken Through

Former path of the Berlin Wall

There is a sense of sadness, of the gravity of history. Yet also some leftover optimism, amid current economic and social concerns. The deserted Olympic Stadium embodies some of this feeling, as the site of both the infamous 1936 Summer Games, and the happier 2006 World Cup.

Olympiastadion

Embraer 190

Finally got to experience the new E90. A pretty good experience, much better than my previous trip on the E75, probably because this time, the Personal TV system was operational!

80 hours of video, 50 hours of audio, all on-demand!

With an extra layer of software to go through, the touch-screen controls are sluggish, and take some getting used to. Certainly not as responsive as a VCR or DVD player, and I dread to think what the control panel will be like after a couple years of fingering. I've heard that it's actually running Linux inside, so perhaps it won't need rebooting as frequently as the system on the Airbus.

This makes up for not having cable TV. The long and boring Toronto-Dallas CRJ flights are a thing of the past. Even a 17 or 20 hour flight to Hong Kong or Australia in economy class is suddenly more palatable.

Footprints (after 2006)

14 countries (6%)

Asterisk: Mexico - just a quick walk around the block

Create your own visited countries map

Im Flughafen, Rauchen ist nicht verboten

Stepping out of the gate and into the Frankfurt (am Main) airport, the first breath you take is a harsh reminder that this is now Europe. The smell of cigarette smoke is pervasive, and follows you into every nook and cranny, even those which are nominally labelled non-smoking zones.

Between the A and B wings of Terminal 1 (Lufthansa), they also have a long tunnel with flashing lights and strange music and sound effects, similar to the one in O'Hare Terminal 1. Of course, here the sound system for the spacey music is by Grundig.