The Last Chapter

Home!! It feels wonderful to be home. I realized some very important things on this trip. - I really like my life. I missed Gary, my friends, my practice and my life in Ventura much more than I ever thought I would. I realized that I really don't want to live anywhere else. I realized that I like the abundance we have in this country in so many areas and not just the obvious ones like opportunity, education and general freedoms, but in superficial ways too. I like that there is a whole row in the grocery store devoted to crackers and that there are many, many choices (even if I only eat 2 kinds) as opposed to maybe 5 varieties in Germany. Maybe that is not something I should like, but I do. So I come home with a deeper appreciation of all that I have and that is worth more than anything money can buy. Thank you readers for taking this trip with me. I hope that you too gained something beneficial from it.

Frankfurt

The trip to Frankfurt was not the easiest. It required changing trains in Wurtzburg which meant getting heavy luggage on and off of trains and down stairs, under tracks and then up stairs on another track. Men were very helpful and grabbed my luggage and carried it up for me. It was very nice and a first for me in Germany. Again, I found people much warmer and more helpful than on previsious visits. Anyway, I got into Frankfurt and went to dinner with some colleagues. The next day was meetings but they got over fairly early, so another counselor and I went walking around Frankfurt. Frankfurt isn't really a city one usually tries to visit. It doesn't have the charm of so many other cities in Germany. However, it has become a hub of the United Europe and it has become cosmopolitan. It is very multi-ethnic (a third of its 650,000 residents carry foreign passports. There is a very beautiful and lively market square that is fun to visit. Unfortunately, I was there on Sunday, so every store (and there were many)was closed. But, at first glance one would not know anything was closed. The streets and squares were filled with people out walking. It was nice. It must be really crowded on other days. Besides lots of boutiques and department stores there are churches, museums and a beautiful opera house. There is an interesting red light district. There are a number of 5 story towers filled with prostitutes. You walk along and the prostitutes sit in windows and show off their wares. I have been to a number of these over the years, so I didn't pay the $30 to walk through. It is an interesting experience and if I hadn't seen this sight before, I would have walked the towers. Another thing that is lovely in so many of these German cities is the walk along the river. So we walked over the river on a pedistrian bridge and then along the river. Again it was fairly crowded. People here get out and walk - maybe that is why they are not fat. With their diets of pork, gravy, potatoes and lots of pastry I think they would be tubby if not for the walking. Anyway, it was a lovely way to spend my last day in Germany.