Germany, the land of 10,000 breweries

We rode to Germany in our private tour coach on our way to Heidelberg. The trip took us past Mannheim Germany where my oldest was stationed before deployment in the FIRST Gulf War. At least then, we knew to quit while we were ahead. I had intended to collect hat pins and buy an Alpine hat to put them on, so by now I had pins from London , Amsterdam and Bacharach Germany, but no hat. We stopped for lunch at the home of the worlds LARGEST Coo Coo clock with life sized characters on it. The proprietor was waiting for us with a tray of wine glasses somewhat larger than communion cups. He was saying "Come to me for your fresh wine sample" in pretty good English. The shop was jammed with clocks and wooden statues that the proprietor carved himself. He preferred you not take pictures of his clocks but I got a few of his work in progress before he told me that. He had for sale the exact green Loden (wool) caps I wanted. You get the hat, then a serious pin for what you consider your home and a feather tassel or boars hair brush to start out your hat. Then you start adding the pins of places you have visited. By now I have about 20 to 25 pins including a couple I still had from 1968. The folks on the bus always wanted to see what new pins I had added from day to day. When you walk with your tour guide he holds up an umbrella or something we can spot to keep track of where we are supposed to be. From then on the Guide said watch for Mr. Doren's hat. I had to be careful not to wander off and get the whole tour group lost. The Coo Coo clock store was right in the middle of the Black Forrest which is the historic home of the Coo Coo clock Industry. I have one that my mother sent me in about 1969. In seeing the current prices for clocks I discovered that "I"M RICH!!!!!! I only wish I hadn't let the cats knock all the Humel figures off the mantel and break. So onward to Heidelberg, the H'berg castle and the Lion statue.

Amsterdam aint for sissies.....

Ok, since my son mentioned the windmills of Holland and Amsterdam, I will mention a few experiences we had in Amsterdam. They have canal tour boats that have been constructed to hold the most people while still fitting through and under the tiny bridges over the canals. An engineer stood by the canal and said the "boot" can only be 3.6 meters wide and 2.9 meters tall with a draft of only 0.6 meters while holding 30 fat American tourists. More important, while my son was out tilting windmills, My first wife and I (together) took a walking tour of the red light district after dark on a Saturday night. Things were really hoppin. The bistros are allowed by law to sell (without a prescription) two ounces of marijuana to any of their patrons. You could hit 5 of six pubs on a pub crawl weekend and wind up with a pretty decent stash. You can smell the aroma wafting out of the pubs as you walk by. Other stores sell any variety of MaryJane seeds for the Mr. Greenjeans crowd. One of which was advertising "help wanted" My wife was tempted but no one was there to take her application. I bet you have to be bi or tri-lingual. Bi-lingual that is. Down the side streets where the girls work, they each stand in a floor to ceiling window advertising what they have to offer. (I was always was a visual learner) If a potential client showed some interest, she would open a door and commence negotiations. They try to look like statues until they spot some interest. I was able to get a couple of them to smile. You MUST not take their picture even though it is very tempting. We felt pretty safe with a tour group of 20 or so people. In the morning, as we left on the bus, I asked the driver if we could stop down the street because there was a girl I wanted to say good bye to. After about a one, two, three beat everyone of the bus ROARED!!!! I believe Sandy was embarrassed. So On to Germany....

THE MONEYCHANGER IS BaaaackkkKKKK!

I and my first wife just got back from the Grand Tour of Continental Europe and the United Kingdom. It was in celebration of our 40th anniversary and coincidentally her birthday. We toasted her birthday at a sidewalk cafe in London, followed by a walk along the River Thames to the allegedly SMALLEST pub in London called the Dove. (look it up). Not long after, we encountered a very LARGE friendly dog. While petting the dog, the owner came looking for her. In talking with the owner, he finally said "Are you on Holiday?" "We don't see many tourists around here." At that point I thought to myself, We are SURELY lost!. I suppose our Midwest USA English accent gave us away. George Patton once said "England and the United States are two countries separated by a common language."

Anyway, to the heart of this theme, I once posted of my experience in Japan of exchanging money for profit. After exchanging dollars for pounds and pounds for Euros, I am wondering if a guy could hang around airports and find arriving and departing passengers that needed a quick exchange to tip local cab drivers or sluff off unwanted foreign currency.. Except that there are franchised cash exchange kiosks in the airport that would take a dim view of independent entrepreneurs, there is no reason it wouldn't work. More about other legs of the journey later. COMING SOON TO A BLOG NEAR YOU---Amsterdam's free enterprise system in the primary commodities of Marijuana, Mary Jane seeds, and Mary Jane the legal unionized Prostitute. TTFN and Cheerio!

The Highway didn't kill me.........

When I was five years old, my family bought a motel in Idaho Springs Colorado. We ran it as an extended family that included my Aunt and uncle, Granny Doris and Uncle Harry and, of course my mom and dad. Idaho Springs was a transient town for traveling tourists. A stop over about an hour west of Denver before the interstate system was invented. The motel business boomed in the summer and was nearly dead in the winter. Instead of motels they were called cabin camps or motor courts. The ski industry had not taken hold and the only two ski areas were Loveland Basin and Berthod pass. US highway 6 and Highway 40 came together through Idaho Springs and then split again west of town going eventually to S.F Ca. and LA Ca.

My adventures in independent living probably began here. I was allowed to cross the 6 and 40 highway by myself, being sure to look both ways for cars and Semi trucks. There were two businesses across the street I liked to spend time at. A curio shop and a used trike and bike business that Ole Roy owned. The Curio store had rock candy that i bought sometimes to fool people with. I got money selling shiny rocks to tourists in our own curio store.

The rocks I sold came from the mill tailings of an abandoned gold mill across the creek from our motel. The water was too swift to wade across but there was a bridge up river . One could find hunks of lead , fools gold, mica and other sparkly rocks that tourists would buy and I would get the money. I was allowed to go there by myself and never once fell down a mine shaft. http://www.historicargotours.com/


I wasn't allowed to walk up town by myself but bigger kids took me to the town theater on Saturdays. Once I had a steel ball bearing someone gave me and I had it in my mouth at the theater. I swallowed it and it scared me so I called granny Doris at home. She said not to worry about it if I was breathing ok and to go back and finish the movie. When I got home, Granny said to sit on my sister's baby potty until the marble came out, which it eventually did in a day or two, so I got my marble back.

In 1949-50 you got deposit money back for soda and beer bottles. My Great Uncle Harry taught me how to go around behind bars and stores to find the bottles and where to take them to get the two or three cents for their return. I thought he was just doing me a favor by going along, but he insisted on his half of the take each time we went.

One winter I was down playing by the river that had iced over a little. I had on a snow suit like the one in "the Christmas Story" and I was out standing on the ice when I broke through into the water. Fortunately I was able to crawl out and the lady from the trailer right near took me in and got the wet clothes off and blistered my butt real good, saying she would tell my mother if I did it again.

In 1950 My dad got recalled into the Army to go to Korea so we sold the motel and moved back to South Dakota when he went overseas. Shortly there after the Interstate system was born and the bypass above Idaho Springs all but killed the motel business there. The guy that bought our Motel eventually had two separate propane gas explosions that leveled most of the motel. Oddly both occurred when the units were empty.