Santa's New Ride

Everything feels like Christmas here in Germany, even taking the train. I wish I would have been at the Frankfurt main train station yesterday morning to see this:

Deutsche Bahn says, "Reindeer were yesterday"...Santa's taking the ICE train now.

Schönes Wochenende

Last week we were off for "ski week".  I don't ski, but I did travel to a fabulous location where there was some snow (more on that later!).  I didn't leave right away, though.  The Saturday before I left, I decided to get on a train and just ride. The Germans have just the thing for that; it's called the "Schönes Wochenende Ticket": on Saturday or Sunday up to five people can ride anywhere on the regional trains for just 40 Euro.  The regional trains are slower than the ICE trains, so it's perfect for just sitting and staring out the window...which is what I did on the way to Koblenz.

The train took about two hours to get there from Frankfurt, and the train followed the Rhein...I was able to see many of the castles I saw on the Rhein River cruise.  Once I arrived, I made my way to the Deutsches Eck, where the Rhein and Mosul rivers meet.  There Kaiser Wilhelm II had a massive monument made to honor his namesake, Kaiser Wilhelm I.   

 

The Kaiser was knocked off his pedestal during WWII. When he was returned to the top of the monument in 1993, a memorial was erected behind him:

The memorial is dedicated to those who suffered from the partition of the country; June 17, 1953 was the date of uprisings in East Germany, and November 9, 1989 was the day the Wall came down. It seemed to me to be an odd place for that memorial, but then I thought better of it...Germans have a thoughtful sense of history--perhaps they feel they have to counterbalance this massive memorial's show of might with some mitgefühl, or maybe it serves as a warning of what that might could lead to when left unchecked.