Catching Up

Our little girl turned 10 years old last week. We spent the afternoon with our friends and Papa Ray and Grammie at Gaudipark, the huge indoor playground we visited earlier this year. Then it was back home for "green goopy dinner" (pasta with chicken and pesto sauce) and a homemade yellow cake with lemon frosting. Our gift to Claire is a trip to Monet's garden; we'll be embarking on our adventure to Paris next Sunday.

We accomplished lots more hiking around Jena with Ray and Marilyn and were able to show them some orchids and our beautiful scenery. They left Friday morning and headed to Bad Wildungen for a few days before flying back to the U.S. They discovered a castle there that had been in the possesion of the Wildung's around 1600. Pretty cool.

We made a visit to Buchenvald Concentration Camp. It was horrific to say the least. The ovens are still in place, as well as the barbed wire, clock tower, and torture cells. The most poignant thing to me was a 2 x 25 ft. display of buttons taken from the prisoner's clothing and showcased in the museum of their personal effects. This picture is the wording on the gates to the camp and translate as "to each his own". It was read by the prisoners from inside the camp, which I thought was interesting. Even though I recognize that we are generations removed from the Holocaust, it's hard to have respect for a culture that allowed such atrocities to occur. The trip was made all the more creepy by the "black suits" who were cruising around to prepare the camp for President Obama's visit two days later.

We made a trip to the neighboring town of Helmsdorf to visit Wildung Street, the only one in existence in Germany as far as we can tell. We strolled the two blocks and snapped a few pictures. One of the residents was giving us a more-than-once-over, but laughed when I told her that our name was Wildung.

And here's my man yesterday near the finish line after he walked 100 km in 19 hours in the Saale Horizontale, a yearly trek here in Jena for the physically-fit and mentally-impaired. He is recovering nicely, but is hobbling around today and sporting many blisters over most of the surface of both of his feet.

We're beginning our countdown; 38 days to home. I can hear the English words flowing and smell the hamburgers grilling. And I hear there's a Starbuck's Grande Hazelnut Latte awaiting my landing in Chicago.