Back to Germany

We returned to where we started, circumnavigating the Baltic, in the afternoon on the 27th. The kids were excited to see us and we gave them some small gifts we had picked up along the way, then the next day was V's birthday, we picked up an apple cake at the bakery and gave her some birthday presents from our trip, then late in the day DR and I went to Hamburg to spend the night and I saw him off at the airport, for his flight back to the US, this morning.

In Copenhagen, Denmark

... more soon ...

In Stockholm, Sweden

... more soon ...

In Helsinki, Finland

We took an early morning ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki and walked around town for the afternoon (and ate a lot of small fish for lunch). Then back to the harbor and we are currently on an overnight ferry to Stockholm.

In Tallinn, Estonia

We took a bus this morning from Riga to Tallinn. Tallinn is a much friendlier feeling city then Riga. It has a very nice old town. We walked around town, ate a late lunch at an African restaurant, then supper at "The Hansa" restaurant. While there I saw several people that I have met in the last few years at professional meetings file into the restaurant. Apparently they are having a meeting in Tallinn this weekend. We got out unnoticed except perhaps by one person that I saw last year in Cairo and they stared at me for a moment.

In Riga, Latvia

We walked around Vilnius' old town some more this morning, including a self declared breakaway republic across a stream, then went back to the bus station and took a bus to Riga. We arrived here over an hour early. The driver kept passing trucks and forcing oncoming cars off the lane while doing it. The weather got cooler and turned to rain along the way. After arriving in Riga the first thing we did was get some tickets for tomorrow to Tallin, but most of the routes were sold out and we ended up getting a bus that leaves at 8am, so we won't have as much time here in Riga. We walked around the old town a bit before it got dark but we were constantly bugged by beggars everywhere we turned. If I get up early and the rain has stopped, I might try to head back for a bit early in the morning.

(PS - The keyboard I'm using at the moment also has Cyrillic (Russian) letters on it.)

In Vilnius, Lithuania

... hard to write, touchscreen kiosk, all is fine.

I will update this post some more, I couldn't write much at the time and am running out of time again. One thing I want to mention is that we spotted several Georgia flags in Vilnius next to Lithuanian flags, like cars flying one of each through town, in an apparent show of solidarity with Georgia against Russia.

In Szczecin, Poland

DR and I traveled down to Luebeck this morning. We had an hour before our next connection so we walked around the old town for a bit and got some lunch. Then took a train all the way to the border with Poland. We checked into the hotel, figured out how to get to the airport in the morning (train), bought the train tickets to the airport, got some supper (sort of Polish kebabs) and are now at an internet cafe in a mall.

DR has arrived, Baltic trip begins

My brother, DR, arrived in a flight to Germany yesterday, our first visitor from the US. We picked him up at the Hamburg airport (and along the way were stopped by the train police). He rested at our apartment yesterday, but today we will begin a trip northeast and hope to get to Poland by nightfall. For about a year now we have been off and on planning to attempt a trip around the Baltic and now it has finally arrived, just in time for a much needed vacation for me from work for a week. I'll try to keep this updated on our progress and how it goes.

More bike practice

(sorry a series of empty posts "placekeepers" for now, will update as soon as I can)

Finally, Visas for the family

Birthday

The Rat Reappeared.

I woke up around 4am and it was clear again so I went down to the lake to look for some more meteors, to the same spot where I saw the rat last time. As I waited something small was moving next to the water toward me and stopped just a foot away. I could make out it was the rat again coming from the opposite direction (i.e. the direction it was heading for during the rain shower). I moved my hand and it took off back where it came from; so I suspect there is a nest in that direction. Then I saw a very bright meteor heading toward the sunrise just before I left.

Perseids

It turns out that the meteors I've been seeing lately (in my Weather post and during our camping trip) are the Perseids. A few nights ago the clouds cleared off just after midnight so I woke everybody up to go see them (the peak of activity is on the 12th). When I asked V if she wanted to go all I got was a weak "... no ...". T actually got up and got his coat and shoes on, but then after his mind had woke up some more he asked where we were going. I said to see the meteors. He looked at me funny then said he didn't really want to go. So I told him he could go back to sleep. He was relieved. M was more into it. She popped up and got ready. We walked a short ways to a lake where the trees screened out the town lights and the sky was clear in the right direction. Along the way I got to point out the north star to her, which she has been asking about and wanted to see. While we waited we saw several big bright meteors and M got to make some wishes. Then the clouds started coming back so we went back home, around 2:30am.

Belt broke and a rat appeared

This weekend not much of anything happened. We lazed around the apartment and just relaxed for a change. The big news was my belt broke. I have had it for 12 years and wore it almost every day. It has gone with me on trips to the South Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East and survived all of that, but it finally just wore out, so I guess I will have to get another one for the next 12 years (till 2020). Also, I went to the lakeside to read my book and it started raining heavily. Suddenly a rat scurried down the bank beside me heading for the water. It paused, then jumped in and swam toward me. I could almost have reached out and touched it when it seemed to sense me and did a 180 and disappeared in the grass in the other direction.

Shots Fired!

A night a few weeks ago there was a bang, bang, bang, ... of fire works outside. As a joke I told Vanessa, quick get the kids in the tub, it's a drive by! In retrospect, here in Germany is a huge change from where we first lived in Maryland. We were inside the beltway just outside of DC (New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring), and in fact we did occasionally hear gunfire at night. On the weekends there was an almost constant sound of police and ambulance sirens going back and forth. In the paper I would read about growing gang problems and armed robberies all around us. It is much nicer here.

Overnight Camping

This is a bit out of time order, but a couple weeks ago we went for a weekend overnight camping trip. We walked to a park area next to the big lake (Grosser Ploener See). Here is a shot of a rest break part way.



The kids were wore out by the hike. Here is almost all the way to the campsite.



Yes, T insisted on bringing his giant stuffed tiger 'Hobbes'.

We got there just before sunset. There was a beach where the kids got to play in the water.



We set up camp on the beach.



and hiked back the next morning.

International Political Hypocracy

The abundant hypocrisy from around the world is painfully apparent in the current Georgia-Russia conflict. Russia itself has had a breakaway province conflict that has raged for years in the Caucuses, Chechnya, which happens to border Georgia. Russia has fought bloodily to keep control of Chechnya and deny them independence while asserting now South Ossetia´s independence. The latest reports are that Georgia has withdrawn its troops and asked for a cease fire, but Russia is continuing to bomb targets in Georgia, outside of S. Ossetia, even in the capital of Tbilisi, has blockaded oil and wheat in Georgian sea ports and even sunk a Georgia navy ship (note that Georgia is outgunned by the Russian military by 100 to 1). The EU and NATO have tried to mediate, but since the EU has expansion interests in the Caucuses and NATO´s mission is essentially to counterbalance and control Russia (with it's own expansion interest in the former Soviet states), is it any wonder that Russia is not swayed by their arguments. Then the Bush administration has laughably said that Russia should respect the sovereignty of Georgia and not act unilaterally with militarily invasion. Has Bush forgot about his administrations actions in Iraq? What about recognizing Kosovo? Where was the outcry from Bush when Israel bombed Lebanon? When it comes down to it, Bush has squandered his credibility and intervention should come from a country or international organization without obvious mixed motives. The Ukraine may be a shining light in this growing morass. A surprise move from the Ukraine is their statement that they may bar the Russian Black Sea fleet from returning to its port in the Crimea (Ukraine). The Ukraine has had its own political struggle with breakaway provinces (Crimea, albeit less so than Georgia and Russia) and has already suffered punitive actions from Moscow with oil supplies and attempted assassinations. It's a long shot against horrible odds, but perhaps the former Soviet Republics can stand together and pressure Moscow to rein itself in.

(Disclaimer - In general I am all for self determination and minority independence, what I don´t like here is the apparent land grab by a bully Russia for essentially an additional Russian province from Georgia.)

Russia invades Georgia

I just read on the BBC and CNN websites that Russian tanks, with fighter jet air cover, are invading the S. Ossetia province of Georgia, and that Georgia has shot down two Russian fighter planes, reports of heavy fighting and mass refugee exodus. Russia and Gerogia appear to be at war.

The S. Ossetia province, with a large Russian minority population, has been in conflict with Georgia for many years. In the last couple days the Georgian military had launched an offensive to bring the province under its control and Russia announced it would defend the breakaway province. This may have some parallels and political connections with the international recognition of the breakaway Kosovo province (from Serbia) by many other countries against Russia's (and Serbia's) wishes.

Bike work

Saturday and Sunday it was working on the bikes and practicing riding them. I've had a flat on my back tire for a few weeks now and miss being able to ride it so I finally patched the tube with a kit. I did this with T and showed him how to take the tube out and find the leak with soapy water. We also blinged T's bike some more by adding a rear view mirror to the handle bar that his uncle D got him.



Then T, M and I went to a nearby parking lot for M to practice riding.



After some practice we went on a short bike trip on a nice, level, uncrowded trail next to one of the lakes. M did really well and is learning to bike fast (only her second real day learning). The kids went swimming for a while at the far end of the trip then we biked back. There were several tip overs and restarts for M, but she did very well, and only once almost rode off the bank into the lake, but she stopped the bike in time. The next day we went back for more practice, but V also came along and rode on her new bike as well.



When everyone gets up to speed I would like to do some family biking trips together.

Weather

Well, the little rat lied. In an earlier post I mentioned the German equivalent of groundhog day. Based on that day, we were supposed to get seven weeks of cloudy, rainy weather. However, it has been unusually warm and sunny here for the most part. This weekend the weather changed as a cold front came through and we got some heavy rain, but it has already burned off and now the wind blows almost constantly, but has trouble making up its mind what direction to go in. It is still raining in space however. In the last week I have seen several meteorites at night and just a little while ago, just after 2 am local, I saw three bright ones, one right after another, apparently originating somewhere between Cassiopeia (which looks like a hawk to me) and the Pleiades (seven sisters). We were told this was one of the rainiest places in Europe, but this spring was very warm and sunny too. V and I keep wondering if we accidentally relocated to a German colony in southern California (only without the smog), but the north star is too high in the sky for that latitude, so we must be in Germany.