Sunday May 16th----

In defense of any typos I will say that a German keyboard is slightly different from an American one. For one thing the positions of the Y and Z are reversed. Also several of the special characters are in different places. There are also three letters that we do not have--ö ä ü

OK, enough excuses!

Our plan today was to go to the Baltic Sea, but after checking the forecast, the weather looked better at the North Sea. On the way we stopped in the town of Jever (pronounced Yee-ver). It is a charming town (not sure if there are too many German towns that aren't), but it is especially so. The architecture is strongly influenced by the Netherlands and most of the buildings look more Dutch than German. One thing I have noticed is that so far the cities I have seen have quite a few fountains and/or statutes. (I had to hunt for the / it is above the 7). This town had one based on legends of the town. It is round with several metal figures in it. At first glance I thought it was based on Alice in Wonderland. There is the woman patron of the town, Maria, who refused to let a neighboring baron take over the town. There was a singer who was from Jever and was reknowned as the best singer in all of Germany. Also two witches in a round boat---they would try to distract the local sailors from making their catches, a horse who saved his master when he fell into the sea during a dense fog....and a large rabbit. When people of the town drank too much and ran their carts off the road, or turned them over, or fell off their horses, etc their excuse was that a large rabbit had suddenlly appeared and caused the accident.

Sounds plausible to me....you really have to watch out for those bunnies.......

There was another fountain that was a tall round cylinder, with different eyeglasses on it.

After lunch we headed for the sea. The day was sunny, but very windy and quite cold. I have noticed that when it is sunny many Germans sit outside at restaurants, no matter what the temperature. We stopped at two different locations. One was a pier and the other a beach. There were more people at the beach than I expected. There were many "standkorbs" along the beach. These are a roofed beach chair. They looked to be made of wood, and were basically a box with a bench and a triangular roof. Think of a young child´s drawing of a house. They are about two or three feet deep, and wide enough for two people (maybe three small people). There are two drawers below the seat that can be pulled out so you can stretch out your legs. Several people were sitting in their standkoorbs, wrapped in a blanket. I think it is considered very healthy to enjoy the sun and fresh salt air.........never mind the temperature or windspeed! There were also a few people kite surfing on the sea. They certainly had enough wind to give them a good ride. Once we saw a kite catch a wind burst and raise the surfer a good 10 feet into the air, then drop him right into the sea. We also saw a man wading in the sea, collecting mussels.

I have to comment on the German tendency to follow the rules. On the way back we came to a train crossing where the red lights were flashing. There was no arm to drop. Heidi stopped, along with the cars coming from the opposite direction. We waited and waited...no train. Finally about two minutes later, here comes the train. I asked Heidi why she didn´t just go ahead when she didn´t see a train coming. Her response was that the light was flashing to stop. I told her that I don´t think I know anyone in America who would have waited that long. I noticed the same thing at a crosswalk. People stop when it says "don´t walk" (or the German equivalent), even when there is no oncoming car in sightI mentioned it and made reference to the train stop. She said there were often signs reminding people to not cross on red because they are setting an example for children.

When we went to City Hall on Saturday we parked in a parking garage. I noticed that at least 95% of the people used the stairs, no matter what their age. I also see many people of all ages riding bicycles.

Heidi works about five miles from her house and she usually rides her bicycle to work--it takes about 40 minutes. On days that the weather is too bad either her husband drops her off at the train station, or she rides her bicycle to the station. So far every morning she has ridden her bicycle to a nearby bakery to get fresh rolls for breakfast.

A note on gas prices here. When Heidi bought gas she paid 1.38 Euro´(1.75 dollars) per liter. There are approximately four liters in a gallon, so that is a cost of 7 dollars per gallon. That is for super unleaded, although often regular and super are the same price. Most of the stations I´ve seen charge around 1.44 Euro per liter, so when she saw 1.38 she whipped right in. Also people here fill up their tanks and then pay