Cheap Gas

I've been hearing a lot in the American news lately about the surge in gas prices. The prices have gone up in Germany, too:

Before you think that is cheap, those prices are per liter, not per gallon. What this means in "American" is this:

One liter is close to a quart, and there are four quarts in a gallon:  1.69 x 4 = 6.76 Euros a gallon
= 8.84 dollars a gallon...and that's the cheap gas.

It was the same in Turkey:

There, your regular gas is 3.85 Turkish Lira a liter, which is about $2.15, times that by 4, and a gallon of gas is about $8.60. I know it's different in the U.S., because in most places you really need a car to get around, but it makes $4 a gallon seem not nearly as bad.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Last Saturday the bells of all the churches in downtown Frankfurt were ringing, and it was my birthday. Coincidence?

Well, yes. The "Pealing of the Bells" takes place only a few times a year, right before a religious celebration. In this case, it was the day before Easter.  Frankfurt Walking Tours described the 50 bells as ringing "in harmony"...I don't know if I would say it was particularly harmonious, but being downtown for it was an event.

The bells were louder in the Roemerplatz, but I liked the view better from the Eisener Steg.